Virtual Assistant Checklist

Selecting Virtual Assistant

• Try several virtual assistants at the same time.
• Come up with a few basic tasks that will give you a good idea of their skill level.
• Use tasks that require several skills.
• Take the top candidates and give them a second, more difficult, project.
• Settle on whomever you prefer to work with.

Key Skills of Your Virtual Assistant

• Good spoken and written English.
• Proactive.
• Quick learner.
• Well-organized.

Training Your Virtual Assistant

• Have her/him go through some online video training that fits your project.
• Keep your training resources organized.
• Keep a document with links to everything you have asked your assistant to read as part of training.
• Create a list of how to do tricky things step by step.
• Have her/him create documentation of processes and the steps to do various things.

Managing Your Virtual Assistant

• Set task duration expectations.
• Make sure to give enough background information to work effectively.
• Make sure you have some type of low priority task to work on if she/he run out of things to do.
• Make sure that something isn't taking a lot longer than you expect.
• Create a regular timesheet.
• Create screen casts.
• Set up screen sharing so you can take a peek at what your assistant is working on.