How To Hire Your First Virtual Assistant

Divide potential team members into two personality types: creatives who generate ideas and change things last-minute, and organizers who make plans and schedules. Creatives should hire organizers to handle administration and keep them on track.

Eben explains that organizers wake up making plans and lists, want to stick to schedules, while creatives like brainstorming and last-minute changes. He recommends creatives hire organizers not just for admin work but to help maintain focus.

Write job ads in a friendly, candid, personal tone explaining exactly what you want and don't want, rather than listing formal skills and qualifications.

Eben gives specific examples like 'wanted super organized person to help me organize my business' or 'wanted organizational genius to work in a fun environment' instead of formal qualification lists.

Ask candidates to write personal messages answering specific questions instead of submitting resumes, which immediately disqualifies 50-70% of unqualified applicants.

Eben explains that asking questions like years of administrative experience and Microsoft Office skill level, plus requiring personal messages, filters out most candidates who just send resumes or say 'resume attached' without following directions.

A-players are as interested in questioning you and learning about your business as you are in questioning them, while B and C players are just looking for any job.

Eben states that A-players view opportunities as stair steps in their business career and are very picky, while lower performers just want employment and are less selective.

Enter into email dialogue with best candidates and observe response patterns - A-players respond quickly and professionally, while lower performers reveal disqualifying information.

Eben notes that A-players get back quickly with professional answers and maintain relationships with ex-bosses, while B and C players avoid discussing work history because they were often let go for poor performance.

Delegate repetitive, frequent tasks first like customer service, refunds, tracking and reporting by creating standard operating procedures (SOPs), not through storytelling.

Eben provides specific examples of creating Microsoft Word or Google Docs with different customer types, problems, and exact response scripts plus action steps, rather than just telling stories about how to handle situations.

Your objective with delegation is to free up maximum time for products and marketing - delegate everything else so you can focus solely on these revenue-generating activities.

Eben emphasizes that as business grows, entrepreneurs should only work on products, marketing, and distribution, not handle administrative tasks or other busy work that assistants can manage.

Hire local assistants for personal shopping, errands, and mail handling to free up even more time for high-value business activities.

Eben calls this one of his best life investments, noting that even 2-4 hours per week of assistance can free you up for 2-4 hours of product creation or marketing campaigns that make huge differences.

Ideally, you should either be doing super high-value money-making activities or relaxing - people making 6 and 7 figure incomes don't waste time on low-value tasks.

Eben explains this as the ideal state where successful entrepreneurs either work on high-value activities or relax (laying on beach, hanging with family), noting that high earners focus on money-making activities in their work time.