At one point or the other at whatever level you are or may have been in your entrepreneurial journey, you would engage the services of a freelancer in person or remotely. I’ve read quite a number of stories of entrepreneurs who’ve been burnt by Virtual Assistants who turned out to be way less than they purported to be.
There’s a shortage of resources for virtual assistants in Nigeria as well as guides to helping business owners find and engage the best. Consider this a step in that direction.
I have worked with a sizable number of clients since 2015 remotely and have come to learn that at the center of failed projects and missed deadlines is CLEAR COMMUNICATION.
Here’s a short list of how to get more results our of your Virtual Assistant/ Freelancer-
- Have a to do list for the entire duration of your project with your VA or put one together before your work begins.
- Break down your list into timelines. This will help track progress in real time. Use a tool like trello for this
- Discuss fees well in advance (hourly/ monthly) and agree on a documented renumeration time table. Many failed projects occurred because of ‘go and get started, we will settle’.
- If you already have a picture of what you want your VA to come up with, show them. Don’t assume they will figure it out. Then you can discuss possibilities and options if needed and agreed. VA/ Entrepreneur relationships get strained when this bit is not addressed. You don’t want a task taking longer than expected because a do-over resulted from the freelance not pulling off what you had in mind.
- Have a definite date of completion for each task. This will keep everyone concerned committed throughout the duration of the project.
- Make sure that you both are happy with your terms. There’s nothing as sad as bad blood within the team on a project.
Working with a Virtual Assistant may well be a vital step you can take to move your business services forward if you cannot at the moment afford full time staff. But you must get your house in order to make things work the way they should.
At geeroute systems we have been offering virtual assistant services around digital marketing and more recently online course development and deployment. I have observed that our best results have been achieved by following the above steps.
Perhaps in the nearest future we’d have our own upwork. Until then…
Have you worked with a freelance or a VA in the recent past? What has your experience been like? Kindly share below.
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