By Gayle Buske, President and CEO, Team Double-Click®

In today’s economy small businesses are looking for new and innovative ways to cut costs yet still maintain their day to day business activities.

Many small businesses, self-employed individuals, and even large corporations are turning to a virtual office assistant to stay on top of administrative tasks while eliminating the need to fund a full-time staff. As USA Today wrote, “The savings come from being able to concentrate efforts on building the business instead of balancing the checkbook and typing envelopes.”

Your time and money are worth more when you are able to concentrate on what you do best and leave the rest to an assistant.

What exactly is a virtual office assistant?
Virtual Assistants (VAs) are independent entrepreneurs providing professional administrative, creative, managerial, technical, business office and/or personal support services. Virtual assistants use the most advanced means of communication, and the newest and most efficient and time-saving office products and work delivery, regardless of geographic boundaries. Virtual Assistants work from their own offices, on a contractual basis, and abide by an established Code of Ethics requiring integrity, honesty and due diligence.

About the author:
Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click® and VirtualAssistingUSA. As the head of a virtual staffing agency with over 57,000 virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through virtual outsourcing. Virtual Assistants across the globe look to Ms. Buske and her organizations for guidance, mentoring and motivation.

Team Double-Click®, the country’s foremost staffing agency for trained Virtual Assistants – Matching Top Virtual Workers with Top Companies! Visit www.teamdoubleclick.com or phone 888.827.9129 for a variety of full-service virtual staffing options.

VirtualAssistingUSA provides Virtual Assistants a place to upload their profile, advertise their services and get access to affordable training, marketing and billing assistance for their business. VirtualAssistingUSA gives small business owners direct access to our database of tens of thousands of virtual assistants – without the ongoing agency fees and gives them access to talent that is not available through other venues. Visit www.virtualassistingusa.com for more information.

As I look around my office I have to wonder how I’m going to complete my task list today. In my efforts to cut costs to try and combat the economy that also means I have more work to do and less time to do it.

I used to hire my marketing done and had someone to assist me with things like answering phones and responding to emails. On a personal note I hired a service twice a month to do the heavy house keeping (since I work from home this was a nice luxury) and I hired a high school student to walk my dogs each evening. As the economy began to decline, however, all that changed. The first thing I did was cancel my dog walker. I need the exercise anyway. Next I cancelled the cleaning service. Like I said, it was a luxury and I decided I could do without it so I cut costs.

That started my journey on cutting costs but I soon learned it wasn’t enough. Next I had to get rid of my secretary. I began taking on my own marketing and PR tasks and I became my own project manager.

It didn’t take long before my business, my home and my health began to suffer as a result! There are only 24 hours in a day and one person just can’t do it all. That’s when I sat down and created a plan. Below are a few simple things that I did and that you can do too in order to cut costs and still get it all done!

Prioritize
Decide what makes you the most money and what only you can do. If your business will only grow when you’re out networking and talking to clients then you absolutely MUST do these things!! Maybe it would be nice to have some extra flyers or a cool PowerPoint presentation on hand but those things can probably wait. Unless you’re really efficient and skilled at doing those things you’ll probably end up spending tons of time trying to make them look good. In the meantime you aren’t out doing the things you know will bring in more money for your business.

Use the right tools
There are a lot of simple, free tools available that you can use to get organized. Below are just a few that I highly recommend

Online Meeting Software – www.dimdim.com Need to schedule more time with potential clients but no time or money for travel? Dimdim is a free web conferencing software that allows you to deliver synchronized live presentations and share voice and video over the internet. Expand your network globally and meet with your clients at no cost to you!

Note Taking Software – www.jott.com Do you have post it notes and note pads all over your desk? Jott is a talk to text application that allows you to call a number, speak your notes or messages and have them automatically sent to the right people via email, text or web updates. This can save a ton of time, help keep you organized and is absolutely free!

Project Management – www.project2manage.com Project2Manage is a free project management solution that allows you to keep projects organized, assign tasks, post messages and manage to-do lists. It’s easy to use, free and an absolute must have for any virtual office!

Ask for Help
This is the hardest for me to do. I don’t like admitting when I can’t do something. I don’t like admitting I’m not superwoman. The reality is, however, that if I want to accomplish the thousands of tasks I’ve set out for myself then I need some assistance. To be perfectly honest, there are some things that I shouldn’t be doing at all. Some things I’m just not good at and if I insist on doing them myself then they won’t get done well and in many cases they won’t get done at all.

Hiring a good virtual assistant is one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to get the help you need and still come in under budget. A virtual assistant will allow you to hire an expert in graphic design, marketing, sales or general assistance and keep you on track with your deadlines.

If your multi-tasking has gotten out of control then it’s time to take action. Prioritize, get the right tools in place and hire a virtual assistant to save you money and get things done.

About the author:
Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click® and VirtualAssistingUSA. As the head of a virtual staffing agency with over 57,000 virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through virtual outsourcing. Virtual Assistants across the globe look to Ms. Buske and her organizations for guidance, mentoring and motivation.

Team Double-Click®, the country’s foremost staffing agency for trained Virtual Assistants – Matching Top Virtual Workers with Top Companies! Visit www.teamdoubleclick.com or phone 888.827.9129 for a variety of full-service virtual staffing options.

VirtualAssistingUSA provides Virtual Assistants a place to upload their profile, advertise their services and get access to affordable training, marketing and billing assistance for their business. VirtualAssistingUSA gives small business owners direct access to our database of tens of thousands of virtual assistants – without the ongoing agency fees and gives them access to talent that is not available through other venues. Visit www.virtualassistingusa.com for more information

For years the big guys have known how to cut costs and have known about business process outsourcing or BPO. Now, even small businesses can take advantage of what is essentially business process outsourcing. Virtual assistants are BPO for small businesses! The big guys have been talking about and doing business process outsourcing to save money and grow even bigger for nearly three decades. Isn’t it time your small business gained the same advantages of business process outsourcing by utilizing virtual assistants to their fullest potential?

According to Wikipedia, Business Process Outsourcing is “a form of outsourcing which involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business function to a third-party service provider”. That is exactly what virtual assistants and virtual staffing agencies do for the small and/or home-based business. Virtual staffing agencies, like Team Double-Click®, work with the client to assess their staff needs, and match the right virtual assistant(s) for the job(s).

Virtual staffing agencies have access to thousands of virtual assistants, which have been interviewed, skills-tested, and trained. From this pool of quality-tested virtual assistants, a virtual staffing agency can place as many or as few virtual assistants with the client as needed. This allows a small business owner to simultaneously obtain help in areas such as reception duties, online marketing, customer service, and accounting without hiring full-time employees for each position. The company pays only for the time used by each virtual assistant.

This allows small businesses all of the benefits of having an employee (or many employees) without having to hire actual employees, which come with added expenses like health care, worker’s compensation, sick time, maternity leave, FICA, Social Security, and vacation time. Hiring virtual assistants through a virtual staffing agency allows the business to avoid all of these extras and simply focus on the tasks that need to be done to grow the business.

Many small businesses are utilizing virtual staffing agencies and virtual assistants very strategically in order to grow their businesses while simultaneously saving thousands of dollars a year. As the business’ tasks grow beyond what the owner can reasonably manage themselves, the small business owner often brings on a single virtual assistant to answer phones or perform minor customer service tasks. As growth continues, the owner may bring on a virtual assistant to assist with research or even internet marketing. This pattern repeats with other strategic positions as the business gains more and more clients. The result is a full-fledged virtual staff without the overhead of a bricks-and-mortar staff or a bricks-and-mortar office.

Virtual staffing agencies can also help the small business become a much larger business. The virtual staffing agency acts as an outsourced human resources department for the small business. They don’t charge for their time managing the virtual assistants, nor do they charge for interviewing, testing, or matching those same virtual assistants to the business client. Rather, their profit is earned from the ongoing work performed by the virtual assistant. So all the small business owner need do is work with his or her representative at the virtual staffing agency to determine which positions they need to have filled and the virtual staffing agency goes to work locating the right candidate and making that match. This allows the business owner to focus all of his or her attention on growing the business.

Through the services of virtual staffing agencies, it is entirely possible for a small business to grow into a much larger company, even in tough economic times. In fact, in these tough economic times, virtual staffing agencies have access to even better talent than ever before due to mass layoffs by the big guys.

So why not save your company a significant amount of money and grow your business at the same time by hiring a virtual staffing agency to staff your business? Why not spit in the eye of recession and show the big guys that growth really is possible in this economy?

About the author:
Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click® and VirtualAssistingUSA. As the head of a virtual staffing agency with over 57,000 virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through virtual outsourcing. Virtual Assistants across the globe look to Ms. Buske and her organizations for guidance, mentoring and motivation.

Team Double-Click®, the country’s foremost staffing agency for trained Virtual Assistants – Matching Top Virtual Workers with Top Companies! Visit www.teamdoubleclick.com or phone 888.827.9129 for a variety of full-service virtual staffing options.

VirtualAssistingUSA provides Virtual Assistants a place to upload their profile, advertise their services and get access to affordable training, marketing and billing assistance for their business. VirtualAssistingUSA gives small business owners direct access to our database of tens of thousands of virtual assistants – without the ongoing agency fees and gives them access to talent that is not available through other venues. Visit www.virtualassistingusa.com for more information

You may not have the financial resources to hire a full-time administrative assistant, receptionist, or marketing assistant to join your staff, but that doesn’t mean growing your business is out of the question. Read on to learn how to grow your business this year utilizing Team Double-Click® pay-only-for-what-you-use virtual assistants.

Hiring a full-time assistant to join your staff may not be in the plan this year, but growing your business should be on your must-do list for 2009.

Want to know the top five business-growth tasks you should be focusing on to keep your business moving forward? We asked our most successful clients what they were doing to grow their businesses right now. Here are their top picks:

1. Cold calling

How do new clients and customers find you? If yours is like many companies, cold calling is a must to reach more and more people and more business. You have target markets and geographic regions which are preferred. But do you have the time (or the desire) to sit down and cold call all of those prospects in order to make the sales?

While we can’t speak for independent virtual assistants or other staffing agency’s virtual assistants, Team Double-Click’s virtual assistants are sent through a very thorough cold calling course. The cold calling course teaches them how to successfully get past gate keepers, how to effectively present products and services to the prospect, and how to gain the best advantage when it comes to making a sale.

Why not pass that icky cold calling task and your list of prospects on to a virtual assistant and watch your business grow?

2. Lead follow up

Your company’s quick follow up (or lack of) to new, inbound leads gives potential clients a glimpse into what working with your company will look like. Additionally, if you don’t follow up fast enough, experts agree that the potential client will quickly move on to someone who either answers their call on the first try or calls back quickly. Missed lead follow up results in lost sales. Period.

Make sure there is always time for quick lead follow up. If you don’t have time to personally follow up with leads, have your virtual assistant follow up for you. It’s quite simple to create a list of common FAQs to pass along to your virtual assistant so she can answer any question that comes along. It’s equally easy to educate your virtual assistant on your company’s product and service offerings so he or she can seamlessly follow up with and reel in new clients for you.

3. Social networking

These days, social networking on sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and others is all the rage. And with good reason. They’re helping businesses connect with new prospects and new clients.

However, it’s hard to find the time to sit down in front of the computer long enough and consistently enough to get maximum value from the hundreds of social networking sites out there. With social networking, consistency is key. Your virtual assistant can efficiently and consistently use these social networking sites to drive new business your way.

4. Internet marketing

It goes without saying that if your business is on the internet in any manner, getting your internet marketing done and done well is a must. And again, consistency is the key to making internet marketing a success.

Again, while we can’t speak for independent virtual assistants or other staffing agency’s virtual assistants, Team Double-Click’s virtual assistants are sent through a very thorough internet marketing course. The course teaches them internet marketing trends, terms and principles, web analytics, affiliate marketing, search marketing, blogging, social media, email marketing, and digitally enhanced productivity strategies.

These virtual assistants can unleash those internet marketing talents on marketing your business on the internet and bringing new clients your way.

5. Customer service/reception

First impressions are often made when a client calls your company. Do your phones roll to voice mail? Or worse still, do they go nowhere when you’re out of the office? In economy like this, you can’t afford to miss an incoming phone call from either a current client or a prospective client.

Make sure your phones are always answered, your current customers taken care of, and potential clients get their questions answered and are shown how to become a new client by having a virtual assistant answer the phones for you. You gain instant “bigger company status” by not answering the phones yourself. And what’s more, if you are out of the office, your customers and potential customers still receive the assistance they need. Since virtual assistants only “clock in” when they’re performing your tasks, you don’t pay for unproductive standby time.

Talented virtual assistants are available for either ongoing work through Team Double-Click® or direct placement through our new Direct Placement Virtual Assistant Program. With ongoing work through Team Double-Click® you receive all of the benefits of working through an agency, such as ongoing virtual assistant coaching, we do the hiring and firing, we do the billing and payables, etc. With our new Direct Placement Virtual Assistant Program, for just a $495 one-time fee, we’ll expertly match you with one of our screened and trained virtual assistants and then you’re free to work directly together. Most clients enjoy savings of more than 50% without the ongoing agency fees, etc.

About the author:
Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click® and VirtualAssistingUSA. As the head of a virtual staffing agency with over 57,000 virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through virtual outsourcing. Virtual Assistants across the globe look to Ms. Buske and her organizations for guidance, mentoring and motivation

What can our virtuals do?

General:

• Enter your leads into your CRM (contact relationship management) program.
• Set/cancel/confirm appointments.
• Work with Excel spreadsheets to organize your leads and other data
• Work with MS Word to create mail merges and process mailings.
• Answer incoming calls
• Return phone calls on your behalf
• Type and send letters or contracts
• Make travel arrangements for you.
• Call for quotes for other services. (Any other services: rental cars, moving vans, tailoring, etc. hatever you may need at the time)
• Order services on your behalf
• Write business and task procedures for your business
• Write business manuals for your business
• Screen and answer the your emails
• Prepare newsletters for your clients
• Plan events or meetings
• Arrange and put together teleclasses, seminars or teleseminars
• Proof read your written materials
• Transcribe his or her meetings or speeches.
• Order books and CDs
• Schedule personal tasks such as car maintenance, vacation plans
• Personal concierge services such as ordering groceries, gifts, holiday gifts, birthday cards, etc.
• Arrange cook outs or meetings
• Mail outs such as postcards or letters for marketing purposes
• Preparation of manuals
• Record outgoing phone messages
• Record inbound call answering messages
• Post flyers on message boards
• Maintain Website & Updates (personal and other websites; Craig list)
• Check Voice Mail; Return calls
• Photos (edit and list on websites)
• Research
• Managing Your Virtual

No successful business owner can afford to micro-manage. If you need to micro-manage, you should find someone to sit right next to you in your office. If you can refrain from micro-managing and allow your admin to think and do on her own, you’ll have no problems managing her from a distance. Through proper candidate selection, proper training, clear and concise instructions, and the daily reporting mentioned earlier, there should be no serious problems.

And with Team Double-Click?, we do all of the screening, selection, and preliminary training so you and your virtual can hit the ground running. We don’t stop there, however. Each admin is assigned a Team Double-Click? manager who monitors her progress and communication with you. We step in when needed to correct mistakes and get you and the virtual back on the right track. And this doesn’t cost you a dime.

Team Double-Click? provides virtual assistance for small and home-based businesses. Visit Team Double-Click?s Web site at http://www.teamdoubleclick.com or click on the banner:

Why is that though? It?s human nature to cut the ?extras? when business is rough. Marketing is usually out the window first because the bills are typically huge. Followed shortly by staff members that may be dead weight or not as good as they should be. And quite often, especially for small businesses, the owners decide there?s a lot more they can pick up and work on; things that the assistant used to do. There are a couple of great lessons here. There?s downsizing and there?s taking yourself out of the market.

Let?s first explore the idea of cutting off your marketing efforts in this down market. If you chuck your marketing, doesn?t that just cut off your nose to spite your face? A down market is precisely when you need marketing. If not for your marketing efforts, how will those few buyers in the market know about you when they?re ready? Maybe it?s time to look at some old fashioned guerrilla marketing tactics and free marketing. Yes, I said free. Of course we all need to spend some marketing dollars from time to time but what happened to all of the great free opportunities out there? Let?s explore some of them.

Article submissions. One of the greatest things about the ?net is that you can almost instantly become the expert in your market/community/area by writing and submitting articles. A quick search on the ?net will unearth dozens upon dozens of places to post your articles. Of course, that?s what I?m doing right here ? writing an article which my virtual assistant will post to as many free article submission sites as she can find. What does this do? It positions me as an expert. It sends links back to our company web site (thus increasing search engine rankings). It tells people we exist. It drives traffic (and hopefully customers) to our web site. It keeps our marketing alive and fresh. AND ? it doesn?t cost any more than my time to write the article and my virtual assistant?s time to post. Cheap!
Blogging. Wow, what a beautiful thing blogging is. Similarly to article submissions, blogging gives you a voice, makes you an expert, sends links back to your web site, and allows you to engage in conversations with potential customers. Another quick search on the ?net will unveil a hoard of free blogging sites.

Partnerships. In a down market, aligning yourself with complementary companies that can funnel business your way becomes paramount. Do me a favor; sit down and think of the products and services that compliment your business. Don?t look for specific companies just yet. Look for the kinds of products and services. Maybe they?re roofers (who may know that someone really needs to sell), maybe plumbers (who may also know who needs to sell or someone looking to buy), lenders, banks, and so on. Once you have this list together, find all of the companies who fit each category. In other words, find all of the plumbers in the area, all of the roofers, etc. Once you?ve got that list together, call them up and see how you can work together. Can they send referrals to you if you send referrals to them? Which of the plumbers can send you the most referrals? Then start setting up partnerships with these folks.

Co-Advertising. Are there complementary companies (such as the ones you found while seeking partnerships) whom you can work with to create and implement advertising pieces? Advertise both of your services in the same ad and cut advertising costs?

Teleseminars. Check your contacts both locally and nationally ? if you can be creative enough about your presentation topic, you can come up with dozens of things to discuss that others would like to hear about. Solicit your contacts for speaking engagements on teleseminars and plug your wares while you?re there. If you can?t get onto someone else?s teleseminar, do your own. They?re very inexpensive to produce (check out www.freeconferencecall.com) and you can invite your market area to the teleseminar to share some great bit of information. You?ll be the first person they turn to when they?re ready to buy. Try a teleseminar on ?improving the curb appeal of your home to get it sold more quickly? and I?ll bet you?ll have local sellers flocking to listen to you talk. Try ?getting the biggest bang for your buck in a buyer?s market? and the buyers will be knocking down your doors. Be sure to grab their contact information so you can use them as leads!
Radio and TV. Even local real estate companies and agents can position themselves as experts in their field with the local media. Send them your press releases, your articles, your information. Keep working to land a spot or two on the local news and you gain immediate credibility and recognition in your market.

Podcasts. Podcasts can work similarly to teleseminars in that you can solicit to be a guest on others? podcasts. However, you can also put up your own podcasts. Again, cheap, easy, and great lead generators. Check out www.talkshoe.com, which is a great, free podcasting site. Share similar information and think about topics similar to those we discussed for teleseminars.
These are just a few ideas for free (or almost) marketing that you can do even during a good market. But especially in times like these, you can focus on free and cheap marketing tactics without spiting your face. Be creative and I?ll bet you can think of dozens of others.

Firing your staff. They?re always the next to go after marketing. Sure, getting rid of dead, useless weight is always a good idea ? even when you?re prospering. But during lean times you need to be sure that you?re getting what you pay for from the help. What disturbs me, however, are comments I?ve heard recently like ?hired help is a luxury we cannot afford right now? and ?well, I?ll just do a little less selling and take over the administrative functions again? and then there?s ?I was an assistant once, I can surely do it again and save a few bucks.? Wrong, wrong, all wrong! I?ll tell you why.

The best place for you during lean times is out in front of clients and making money ? not setting up drip campaigns in the mailing software and directing phone calls. And how can you set up all of those referral partnerships if you?re preparing post cards for mailings?

So do get rid of those who aren?t helping your business ? that?s good advice even in the best of times. But keep those who are producing for you and who are making your job (selling and getting in front of partners) possible.

What about hiring a virtual assistant? Bricks and mortar produces huge wastes just by its nature: you pay for time you don?t use, you spend more on gasoline, as does your assistant, you pay rent (or a mortgage), you heat the place, and you electrify it, and so on. Have you considered going virtual? Believe me, it can be done. We were once a bricks and mortar business in a previous enterprise. But after going virtual, we?d never go back. Think about it: you only pay for what you use, you don?t pay rent, you don?t have to heat the office, you don?t have to provide desks and computers. You save tons! One of our virtual staffing clients, Jo Ellen Nash, recently said, ?Having virtual assistants handle the majority of my administrative paperwork (and me!) has cut over $100,000 from my payroll and given me better skills and talents, better accountability, better organization and better stability in working from two locations, now in Vail, Colorado AND (as of April this year) Naples, Florida!? Check it out ? you can downsize without downsizing how much your company accomplishes. If you need to downsize, do it smartly ? keep the staff that?s working well and replace the others with virtual assistants.

As this down market cycles through and works itself out, please, don?t let your marketing fall to the wayside and don?t downsize what your company accomplishes! Just go about it a little differently.

Team Double-Click? provides virtual assistance for small and home-based businesses. Visit Team Double-Click?s Web site at http://www.teamdoubleclick.com or click on the banner:

What’s really most important when hiring a virtual assistant is doing your due-diligence before you make the hire. Just like anyone else, virtual assistants come with their own personality, life issues, and family situations. Making sure they mesh with what you need are paramount to ensuring smooth sailing after you’ve finally agreed to work with the VA.

Virtual Houdini – The Virtual Assistant Disappearing Act

Yes, it can happen. Back when you worked in the retro bricks-and-mortar world, how often did someone simply not show up for work? They quit, right? Unfortunately this can happen with virtual assistants as well. Perhaps not as often as in the bricks-and-mortar world but it does happen.

Why do virtual assistants quit, disappear, move on? The same reasons they quit, disappear, and move on in the bricks-and-mortar world. Maybe they needed more money. Maybe they became ill and could no longer work. Maybe a better offer came along. Maybe they didn’t like the work.

You can’t entirely avoid the situation itself but there are things you can do to minimize the damage if and when it does. Protecting yourself ahead of time for when it does and realizing that it could happen is your best defense.

Online files. Not only does putting your files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) online facilitate working virtually, but it also protects you if and when a virtual assistant leaves. Simply change the passwords then she’s locked out and you don’t lose any files or have to go hunting them down. Check out www.xdrive.com or speak with your web site administrator about putting your files up via ftp.

Pay withholding. Why not put something in your contract with the virtual assistant that says you reserve the right to withhold pay until work files are returned?
Passwords. As soon as a virtual worker leaves or is let go, remember to change your passwords on everything he or she had access to!

What I Say Versus What I Can Do

Would you hire someone to watch your children just because they say they’re capable of doing so? I didn’t think so. Then why would you hire a virtual assistant (or anyone for that matter) without first finding out what they can do and if they can do what they say they can do? I recommend several steps be taken to test a new virtual assistant contractor before contracting with them. These steps are modeled after our own company’s interviewing process, which has evolved over the years. It’s a lot of work on your part but very worthwhile. If you don’t want to take all of these steps then look for a good virtual staffing agency, like Team Double-Click? who does all of the work for you.

However, be absolutely sure that you send the virtual assistant a 1099 Miscellaneous Income tax form (in lieu of a W2, which employees only receive) each year.

Job posting. In your case you’ll either need to make a posting on a job board, such as CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, or Craig’s List. Or you can search those boards for virtual assistants looking for work.

Typing test. You want to know your new virtual assistant can type …accurately, right? Send him or her to www.typingtest.com and ask for the results back. Look for a high level of accuracy coupled with high speed.

Computer skills test. Again, you want to know your virtual assistant can use Word and Excel. Send her to www.expertrating.com, ask her to take the free Word and Excel (and any others you want to know about) tests and send you the scores.

First interview. Agree on a time and date for the first telephone interview. Then give the potential virtual assistant your number and have her call you. Have your questions ready. Did she show up on time? Did she answer your questions to your satisfaction? Do her skills still fit?

Work personality. You simply must know if the person you are about to contract is honest, has a high level of integrity, is a team player, and so on. We recommend www.totaltesting.com, where you can ask the potential virtual assistant to take such a test. Now this one costs a few bucks. It’s up to you whether you want to pay for it or require the virtual assistant to pay for it. Just remember – if you ask her to pay for it and you don’t hire her she’s not going to be a happy camper.

Second Interview. The cool thing about Total Testing’s work personality tests is that they give you another set of questions to ask the candidate during a second interview. Have a friend, spouse, or colleague interview this person the second time. Compare notes. How does each of you feel about this person? Will she work out?

Contract. If you’re ready to contract this person it’s time to pull out the non-compete, non-disclosure contract we discussed in the last article. Send it to the virtual assistant for review and signing. Be absolutely sure this is signed before putting him or her to work.
EIN and W9. We also discussed, in the last article, requiring the contractor to obtain a (free) EIN (employer identification number) to further protect you from possible employer/employee claims later on down the road. Now’s the time to ask for this, along with a completed W9 form.
This is the abbreviated version of our process. We throw in a few things like setting up a company email account, and we have a review process, which each virtual assistant goes through. A team of three HR pros discuss each candidate and determine if a contract will be offered. Because we’re a staffing agency, your screening process will look a little different from ours.

Give Me All You Got

Never send a virtual worker a ton of materials (letterheads, envelopes, brochures, etc.). It’s just a safeguard. While it is very rare that someone would leave and not return those materials to you, if they did, how much money would you have tied up in replacing all of those expensive printed materials? It’s just better not to do it in the first place. Send a virtual worker slightly more than what they need to perform the task at hand.

The Five Finger Discount – Identity Theft/Credit Card Number Theft

One of our clients’ biggest concerns has always been identity theft and credit card number theft. In all the years we’ve been staffing virtually, we’ve never seen this happen. It may be that the work personality profile is weeding out the people who might be tempted and our HR department is further ferreting out those who are less-than-desirable, but the other half of it is the contractor mentality of a virtual assistant as opposed to the employee mentality of an …employee!

You can minimize your risk by not giving out your credit card information to a virtual assistant. If you need to give the virtual assistant a credit card number for ordering products or services on your behalf, get a separate card that is used for nothing but items the virtual assistant orders for you. It’s much easier to check over your bill for erroneous charges this way.

Hours Availability

When hiring a virtual assistant, not only do you need to make sure their skills and abilities mesh with you and your business, but you must also be sure the virtual assistant has enough time to take care of your needs. Very simply ask the potential virtual assistant how many other clients she has, how many hours per week she is working, and how many hours she has to devote to you. Does it work with what you need? If not, move on.

The Rate

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never bought something without first knowing what it was going to cost. Important questions to ask before contracting a virtual assistant:

What is the rate per hour?
Are there different rates for different tasks?
If so what are they?
Do you round to the nearest hour or the nearest minute? To the nearest minute is the most desirable.
Is there a start up fee?
If so, how much?
Is there a termination fee?
If so, how much?
Is there a minimum usage?
If so, how much?

Can you work within my budget? In other words, if I can only afford 10 hours per week, what happens when you’ve reached 10 hours? How is that handled?

What are your future plans? How long do you intend to be a virtual assistant? Is this a career for you or a short-term venture for some extra cash?

My philosophy when hiring anyone, virtual assistants included, is to hire slowly and fire quickly. Trust your gut. If you don’t feel that a virtual assistant is working out, let her go immediately and don’t look back. Your gut is probably right. But do take your time hiring. Go through the paces to determine if he or she is the best fit for YOU; it’ll minimize the risk that he or she won’t work out for you later.

Team Double-Click? provides virtual assistance for small and home-based businesses. Visit Team Double-Click?s Web site at http://www.teamdoubleclick.com or click on the banner:

Unfortunately, as the industry grows and as more and more people ?think? they can be virtual assistants; bad apples are bound to pop up. Our company alone has seen an increase from 500 VAs in 2003 to 18,000+ currently and growing at a rate of about 200 per week. So let?s talk about the pitfalls and how you can avoid them and protect yourself.

But, But, But, I Must Be An Employee!

If you?ve only heard one thing about virtual assistants and the benefits of hiring them it is that they are supposed to be independent contractors. I recently read a blog post that claimed that ?eventually companies would be required to bring virtual assistants on as employees rather than independent contractors.? I just had to laugh! How in the world can someone who self-directs how they do the work be considered an employee? And as a business owner you don?t want employees. That?s why you hired or are considering hiring a virtual assistant in the first place. You didn?t want the employee ?I want? and ?I deserve? mentality.

I disagree 100% with the opinion of the blog post that claimed virtual assistants will need to be employees. There?s no need for them to be employees. Here are some of the items that you and I, as consumers, need to do to ensure that we set virtual assistants up so we are NOT ever required to set them up as employees.

W9. When you contract a virtual assistant, always ask that they complete a W9 (tax reporting form) and send it to your company BEFORE he or she begins working. This form will give you the virtual assistant?s social security number or EIN number and information for tax reporting purposes.
EIN a.k.a. Employee Identification Number a.k.a. Federal ID number. As an added line of defense, you should ask every virtual assistant or contractor you hire to obtain an EIN from the government. This number alone shows that they are operating as their own entity and not as an employee of your company. They may be Jane Doe d.b.a. Jane Doe Virtual Assistants but it strengthens the argument that they are not employees but rather entities in and of themselves and will keep you out of hot water with the state?s departments for employee relations. The virtual assistant can obtain an EIN online in about 5 minutes and it?s free.
Contract. Anyone and everyone who hires a virtual assistant must have a contract executed between your company and the VA. The contract should spell out the relationship (that of a contractor and not an employee), the duties (what will she be doing for you and what will you do for her), the rate of pay (what are you going to pay him), where are any arising court battles fought, and so on.
Oh Tax Man!

Because a virtual assistant is set up as an independent contractor, you do not need to withhold state or federal taxes, 401(k), Medicare, FICA, or any other employee-related acronym. As an independent contractor, a business entity of their own, it is up to the virtual assistant to obtain his or her own retirement plan, medical insurance, file quarterly and yearly taxes, etc.

However, be absolutely sure that you send the virtual assistant a 1099 Miscellaneous Income tax form (in lieu of a W2, which employees only receive) each year.

Shhhhh?Don?t Tell!

The last thing you want to happen is for a virtual assistant to walk away with your company?s important information if the relationship turns south. It is absolutely imperative that you have your attorney design a non-compete/non-disclosure agreement and then make sure your virtual assistant signs and returns the agreement before beginning any work for your company.

In my next article, Avoiding Virtual Assistant Performance Pitfalls, we?ll go over the things you need to be aware of and look for in the virtual assistant while hiring ? the non-regulatory things.

About the author:

Note: Please look for another article in this series titled ?Avoiding Virtual Assistant Performance Pitfalls?.

Gayle Buske is the founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click?, the country?s foremost virtual staffing agency. As the head of a virtual staffing agency with over 18,000 virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid clients? growth through virtual outsourcing as well as speak to the ins and outs of the industry. Gayle enjoys spending her free time with her husband, business and life partner, Jim, their daughter Madison, practicing Yoga, reading, off-roading, hiking, flower gardening, and playing with the family?s three dogs and two cats.

Team Double-Click? provides virtual assistance for small and home-based businesses. Visit Team Double-Click?s Web site at http://www.teamdoubleclick.com or click on the banner:

The impact on workers, with gas prices like we’re seeing now, can make working unaffordable. Consider an $8.50 per hour convenience store attendant or fast food worker that must drive a short 20 miles to work and back. With a vehicle that gets even 30 miles per gallon, it costs him or her $3.99 to $4.65 to work. And that doesn’t include a wardrobe, or daycare. If the worker is working 5 days a week, it costs him or her $19.95 – $23.25 for the week. That’s almost 7% of that worker’s pre-tax income in gasoline.

One visitor on an Internet forum says, “Today was a shocker, $41 to fill my Honda Accord. Something’s gotta give somewhere. Unfortunately to make a decent wage I have to drive 50 miles round trip to work and back. Carpooling has not been an option that worked easily for me, but I’m beginning to think I’m going to have to find a way or start discussions about working from home 1 or 2 days a week.”

Another Internet forum poster says, “Honestly the prices of gas already forced me to quit one job due to the distance traveled to go to it.”

This article isn’t meant to be a rant on gas prices. It’s all supply and demand and that’s the beauty of living in America where we enjoy a free enterprise system. The figures and quotes above are meant only for illustration purposes and to show what can happen to workers and their employers when the price of just one commonly-consumed product is jacked up.

So, it becomes unaffordable for workers to work. What does that do to the business owner who hires the workers? If a worker can’t afford to work, he or she might just decide not to work at all, as one person mentioned above. The business owner then has no staff or a reduced staff. The business owner could give the worker a raise to compensate for the higher cost of working. But that would mean passing on higher costs to his clients and so on.

Doesn’t it make more sense then to work and hire virtually? If you omit the need for the worker to commute, you omit the need to increase his or her pay. You omit the worker shortage. By working and hiring virtually, you can now seek workers in any part of the country, without regard to how much that commute is going to cost the worker.

As an added bonus, by hiring a virtual assistant, you now don’t need to raise the price to your customers. And remember, you don’t need to buy your assistant a desk and a computer nor do you need to provide her with heat and electricity. Isn’t that a great way to beat out your competition, by having lower labor costs?

With fuel costs at an all time high, and the trickle down effect this creates, like increased clothing prices, increased food costs, etc. (all of these items are shipped on the back of an 18-wheeler, which also consumes fuel), there’s no better time to look at hiring a virtual assistant. It’s probably even a good time for you to look at how you may be able to work virtually too!

About the author:
Gayle Buske is the founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click?, the country?s foremost virtual staffing agency. As the head of a virtual staffing agency with over 18,000 virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid clients? growth through virtual outsourcing as well as speak to the ins and outs of the industry. Gayle enjoys spending her free time with her husband, business and life partner, Jim, their daughter Madison, Yoga, reading, hiking, flower gardening, and playing with the family?s three dogs and two cats.

“How do I communicate with my virtual assistant?”

A very valid question but also a very easy one to answer. First, you must remember that your professional virtual assistant is a human being, just like you, and just like someone who may sit in the office right next to you. She has feelings, morals, standards, kids, pets, and a life – just like you.

While I can’t speak for other virtual staffing agencies, at Team Double-Click?, we go to great pains to be sure our clients can communicate directly and openly with their virtual assistants. This ability is vitally important to any business relationship and especially that of a businessperson and his or her assistant. Without that communication, there is no exchange of ideas and tasks.

We do monitor communication between our virtual staff and our clients, but this is simply the mechanics of our business model in motion. We monitor these communications to first be sure the communications are there and second so that we can step in if we spot a problem or see something that can be done more efficiently. However, we encourage our clients to get to know their virtual assistants on a personal level as well. As with any relationship, the better you know one another, the better you’ll be able to anticipate one another’s moves, needs, and pet peeves. Now that the “why” is out of the way, we can talk about the “how”.

Of course, there are several options for communicating tasks, assignments, and other matters to your virtual assistant:

E-Mail is a very effective mode of communication when working virtually. It allows you to quickly attach a file and send it to your virtual assistant so that she may make changes, print a letter and mail it, or keep it as a reference. Be sure to talk to our Client Services Rep Denise Schrock or your virtual administrative assistant if you need help attaching and sending files.

Using the telephone to communicate with your virtual assistant, while obvious is quite underutilized and so simple to do. Tired of looking up your virtual assistant’s phone number each time? Simply program her phone number into your office phones and cell phone’s speed dial. One-touch dialing your virtual administrative assistant is a snap and no harder than buzzing a bricks-and-mortar assistant in the next room

Instant messenger is another example of a wonderful technology, which is underutilized when it comes to communicating with virtual assistants. There are several excellent instant messaging programs and they’re so easy to use.

IM programs to check out:

Yahoo: http://messenger.yahoo.com
MSN: http://im.live.com/messenger/im/home/?source=MSNTDLINK
AOL: http://www.aim.com
ICQ: http://www.icq.com

With an instant messaging program you can, with just a couple clicks of the mouse, type messages back and forth with colleagues and your virtual assistant – all in real time. You type, she types, and before you know it, the questions you and she had are all answered and you can move on.

Caution – time wasting opportunity: It’s easy to get hooked into “chatting” with someone on IM, which can soak up a lot of time. IM should be used for quick questions and quick answers, and then back to your tasks. IM was not meant to take the place of the telephone for giving lengthy instructions or holding very involved e-versations.

Snail mail, while very retro, it is sometimes necessary. With so many technologies at our fingertips these days, there’s very little use for snail mail except for the most formal of business communications, marketing mailings, or sending supplies to your virtual assistant.

Faxing your virtual assistant is also a popular means of communicating tasks and lists to your professional virtual assistant. However, if the items you’re intending to send via fax are in electronic (editable) format already – it’s best to send it as a file attachment. That way your virtual assistant doesn’t need to retype everything and spend unnecessary client dollars. Check out eFax at www.efax.com for the latest in electronic faxing – there’s almost no need for a landline fax anymore.

VOIM (voice over instant messenger) is my new favorite communications toy. What VOIM allows you to do is simply pull up your instant messaging program, click your virtual assistant’s name, click the call button, and voila, it rings through the computer to her. Once the connection is established (which only takes a second or two) you can talk with your virtual assistant through the computer – no phone line involved). You can then quickly delegate tasks, give instructions, or ask questions without stopping to look up her phone number, and without typing out a lengthy email. At Team Double-Click?, we’ve begun implementing the Yahoo! VOIM program and with wonderful results. If you’d like to give it a try, go to http://messenger.yahoo.com and download the software – it’s ridiculously easy to use and best of all, it’s free!

Just keep in mind that VOIM will only work with other people who download the newest version of the Yahoo! software and have a microphone and speakers on their computer.

There are many great ways to communicate needs, likes, dislikes, tasks, and training to your virtual assistant. It’s all a matter of personal preference and what you’re most comfortable using. Professional virtual assistants are flexible and will be happy to use whatever mode of communication you prefer. As technology advances even further, well, who knows how we’ll be communicating next year or even next month!

Team Double-Click’s Pricing Reduced!
We had such a great response to our Virtual Assistant Sale these last couple of months that we’ve decided to reduce our pricing for good. Rather than going back to a base rate of $25/hour for general admin, the new rate is $22.50/hour. This includes the services of a TCE or TCRE virtual admin as well. Please contact your rep for details or visit us on the web at www.teamdoubleclick.com.