How to hire a virtual assistant (without wasting three weeks)

Most people who hire a virtual assistant do it twice. The first one does not work out, they conclude that VAs are not for them, and a year later they try again with a better brief and it goes fine.

The difference is almost never the person. It is that the first hire was asked to "help with admin" and the second was asked to do eleven specific things.

Work out what you are actually delegating

Before writing a job post, spend one week keeping a list of every task you do that made you think *someone else could do this*. Not a theoretical list — an actual one, written as it happens.

At the end of the week you will have something like:

• Chasing three invoices that are overdue
• Rescheduling two meetings
• Formatting and uploading last month's expenses
• Replying to the same five customer questions
• Finding a plumber and booking them

That list is your job post. It is specific, it is real, and a candidate reading it knows immediately whether they can do it.

The version that fails is "looking for a VA to help with general admin and other duties as required." Everybody applies. Nobody is right.

Decide what you will not delegate yet

A new assistant cannot start with your inbox and your bank access on day one, and asking them to is how both sides end up uncomfortable.

Start with tasks that are:

• Repeatable — they happen weekly, so the time you spend explaining pays back
• Low-blast-radius — a mistake is annoying, not expensive
• Checkable — you can tell from the result whether it was done right

Scheduling, data entry, research, formatting, first-line customer replies from a template. All good first tasks. Anything involving money leaving your account, or speaking to your biggest client unsupervised, is a month-three task.

What it costs

Rates vary enormously by location and specialism, and anyone quoting you a single number is selling something. What is consistent is the shape:

• General admin and scheduling is the lowest band
• Bookkeeping, CRM administration, or anything requiring a specific tool is meaningfully higher
• Executive assistance — judgement, discretion, acting on your behalf — is higher again

The expensive mistake is hiring at the bottom of the range for a job that is actually in the top one. You will get someone who cannot do it, through no fault of theirs, and you will lose the month.

If a task needs judgement about your business, you are not hiring admin support. Price it accordingly or do not delegate it yet.

Write the post so the right people apply

Three things do most of the work:

1. The actual tasks, as a list, from the exercise above.
2. The hours and the overlap you need. "20 hours a week, with at least four hours overlapping 9am–5pm UK time" tells a candidate in Manila whether to apply. "Flexible hours" does not, and you will both find out after the interview.
3. The pay. A range is fine. No range means the strongest candidates — who have options — skip it.

If you want someone who will stay, say what the first ninety days look like. People accept lower pay for a role that obviously grows and leave a better-paid one that obviously does not.

Test with a paid task, not a longer interview

Interviews measure how well someone interviews. For this kind of work that is close to irrelevant.

Instead, shortlist three or four people and pay each of them for two hours of real work. Give them a genuine task from your list — not a puzzle, not a hypothetical — with the instructions you would normally give.

What you learn in two hours:

• Did they ask a clarifying question before starting, or guess?
• Did they tell you when something was ambiguous, or quietly pick one?
• Did it arrive when they said it would?
• Did they do the thing you asked, or the thing they assumed you meant?

That last one predicts almost everything. Pay for the time regardless of the outcome; it is a few hours of someone's work and you are the one who asked for it.

The first month

The hire does not fail in month six. It fails in week two, when you are busy, they are blocked, and neither of you says so.

Three things prevent it:

• Write down how you do a task once, while you explain it. A short document or a screen recording. You will reuse it for every future hire.
• Agree how questions get asked. A VA who does not know whether to interrupt you will sit stuck for a day rather than risk it.
• Have a scheduled check-in in the first fortnight. Not performance management — just a standing slot where "this bit is unclear" is a normal thing to say.

The honest version

A virtual assistant is not a way to have less work. It is a way to trade your time for someone else's, plus the overhead of explaining, checking and managing. The trade is usually worth it. It is not free, and expecting it to be is why the first attempt so often fails.

If you have the list from week one and you are ready to write the post, post a job and be specific about the tasks. If you would rather look at who is available first, you can browse candidates by what they actually do.