The 12-Step Guide to Hiring a Virtual Assistant

If you’re running a business today, chances are you’ve felt the pressure of trying to do it all: managing clients, tracking finances, sending invoices, posting on social media, and responding to emails — all while trying to focus on your big-picture goals. For entrepreneurs and small business owners, it can feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day.

That’s why hiring a virtual assistant (VA) has become one of the smartest moves modern entrepreneurs can make. Whether you’re a solo founder, a startup team, or even a growing company, a VA allows you to delegate routine tasks, reclaim your time, and focus on scaling.

At myVA360, we’ve seen how transformative virtual assistants can be for businesses across industries. In fact, many of our clients’ case studies highlight how they were able to double productivity and free up 20+ hours a week just by hiring the right VA.

This guide walks you through the 12 essential steps to hiring a virtual assistant — so you can avoid common mistakes, set clear expectations, and build a long-lasting, successful working relationship.

Why Hire a Virtual Assistant in the First Place?

Hiring a VA isn’t just about outsourcing repetitive work. It’s about creating space for growth.

• Time freedom: Imagine reclaiming 10–15 hours a week currently wasted on administrative work.

• Scalability: A VA helps you build systems that prepare you for hiring full-time staff later.

• Focus on strengths: Delegate tasks outside your expertise, so you can do more of what you’re best at.

• Better client experience: With a VA handling operations, you can dedicate more time to serving customers.

• Stress reduction: Less juggling, fewer mistakes, and more clarity in your daily workflow.

📌 Related reading: How to Hire the Right Virtual Assistant — a step-by-step roadmap to making the smartest hire.

Should You Hire a Virtual Assistant Now?

Ask yourself:

• Am I working longer hours than I’d like, often late into the night?

• Is my inbox a constant source of stress and distraction?

• Do I spend more time on repetitive admin than on strategy or sales?

• Has my growth plateaued because I’m stuck in the day-to-day grind?

If the answer is yes to two or more of these, it’s time to seriously consider hiring a VA.

On the other hand, if you’re still in the very early stages of your business with limited income, you may choose to wait until you’ve established consistent revenue. The key is to balance affordability with the value of your time.

💡 Pro tip: If you charge $100/hour for your services but spend 10 hours weekly on tasks you could delegate to someone at $15/hour, you’re effectively losing $850 each week.

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant

Before you jump in, it’s important to know how to hire a virtual assistant. Taking the proper steps will ensure you find someone who is ideal for your company.

Step 1: Define Your Needs Clearly

Before you begin your search for the right virtual assistant, the most important step is understanding exactly what you need help with. Without clarity, it’s easy to hire the wrong person or feel disappointed later.

Start by identifying the daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that consume your time but don’t necessarily require your direct involvement. These are typically repetitive, time-consuming, or non-core activities that hinder your ability to focus on strategy and growth.

Common tasks entrepreneurs delegate include:

• Calendar and scheduling management – booking appointments, confirming meetings, and sending reminders.

• Inbox management – sorting emails, flagging important messages, and drafting responses to routine inquiries.

• Bookkeeping and invoicing – tracking expenses, generating invoices, reconciling accounts.

• Research and data entry – gathering information, building contact lists, preparing reports.

• Social media support – scheduling posts, light engagement, monitoring comments.

• Customer service – responding to client questions, processing orders, handling follow-ups.

But don’t stop at the basics. Depending on your business model, you may need specialized support, such as:

• Graphic design (for branding, marketing materials, or social media visuals)

• Content writing (blogs, newsletters, website copy)

• Lead generation (prospecting, LinkedIn outreach, CRM management)

• E-commerce support (product listings, inventory updates, order tracking)

👉 Pro Tip: Conduct a task audit for at least one week. Write down every activity you perform, no matter how small. At the end of the week, review the list and ask yourself:

• Does this task require my expertise?

• Is it something I enjoy doing?

• Does it directly generate revenue?

If the answer to any of these is “no,” it’s a strong candidate for delegation to a VA.

By defining your needs early, you’ll not only make it easier to find the right person, but you’ll also maximize your ROI. A clearly defined role helps your VA get off to a strong start, reduces confusion, and ensures you see immediate value.

Step 2: Set a Realistic Budget

To determine how many tasks you can afford to assign, you’ll need to know how much a virtual assistant will cost. Unfortunately, there’s no clear answer — it depends on a multitude of factors, including the type of services, how many years of experience the VA has, and whether you hire from within the U.S. or abroad. As a result, you can expect to pay anywhere from $3 to $75 an hour.

VA pricing varies by location, skill set, and experience. Here’s a general range:

• Entry-level (overseas): $3–$10/hour

• Mid-level (specialized skills): $15–$30/hour

• High-level U.S.-based or niche expertise: $40–$75/hour

Factors that influence cost:

• Years of experience

• Specific certifications or tools (e.g., HubSpot, QuickBooks, Canva, Figma)

• Whether you’re hiring independently or through an agency

📌 See our pricing plans for transparent costs and flexible options.

Step 3: Create Training & Onboarding Materials

You can expect an experienced virtual assistant to already know how to carry out the tasks you request. However, you still need to provide training to ensure the VA completes work to your standards and uses the same processes as you. Depending on the task, training can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. Regardless of the circumstances, you will need to design some form of onboarding. It can be in the form of a document that outlines steps (perhaps with screenshots) or a video that shows the procedure. If your original virtual assistant leaves, having this training program will make it easier for a new VA to pick up the work.

Even the best VAs need guidance to align with your standards. Develop:

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Step-by-step written guides

• Screenshots or Loom videos: Visual walkthroughs for processes

• Shared folders: Cloud-based storage (Google Drive, Notion, or Asana) for easy access

This investment pays off long-term, ensuring consistency and a smoother onboarding if you expand your VA team.

Step 4: Choose Where to Hire Your VA

Now we come to an important point: where to find a virtual assistant. You have three main options:

• Freelance platforms (e.g., Upwork, Fiverr): wide talent pool but requires vetting.

• Job boards: offer a good reach but are less structured for contracts and payments.

• Virtual assistant agencies: pre-vetted VAs, guaranteed replacements, and built-in management.

Many business owners prefer agencies like myVA360, since we handle screening, matching, and training — saving you hours of legwork.

Step 5: Write a Job Post

Critical in your search is expressing what you want and how you want it. If you’re using an agency, this could mean requesting particular services. If you’re searching for a hire yourself, however, you will need to write a job post.

The perfect job post will clearly explain what work you need, along with any skills or qualifications the VA should have. This will prevent you from wasting your time on unqualified candidates. It’s also a good idea to throw in some questions. In addition to giving candidates the opportunity to explain their skills, this will enable you to easily verify whether respondents have read the entire job post.

Finally, it’s essential to specify the number of hours you require the VA to work per week or month. Virtual assistants who are already working for several other small business owners or who have other commitments will need to know if they have enough time for your job.

Your job description should include:

• List of tasks and responsibilities

• Skills or qualifications required

• Time commitment (hours per week or month)

• A couple of short questions to filter candidates (e.g., “What project management tools do you use?”)

Clear communication upfront reduces wasted time on unqualified applicants.

Step 6: Conduct Interviews

Never skip the interview stage — it’s your best chance to gauge whether a virtual assistant will be the right fit for your business. Even if you’re hiring through a job site or freelance platform, where communication may be limited, take advantage of whatever options are available. Some platforms allow only text-based exchanges, while others enable arranging a phone call or video chat. Whenever possible, opt for a short video interview, as it reveals much more about a candidate’s communication style, professionalism, and problem-solving abilities.

During the conversation, ask questions that go beyond simple yes-or-no answers. Good examples include:

• “How do you prioritize tasks when everything feels urgent?”

• “Have you worked with tools like Trello, Slack, or Asana?”

• “Can you share an example of handling a challenging client situation?”

These types of questions allow you to see how the candidate thinks, whether they can adapt under pressure, and if they’re comfortable with the tools your team already uses.

💡 Pro tip: Don’t just listen to their answers — pay attention to how they communicate. Are they clear and confident? Do they ask thoughtful questions about your business? Strong communication skills are just as critical as technical ability, especially in a remote working relationship.

Step 7: Create a Short Test

To assess candidates, you may like to develop a test that VAs can complete in 10 minutes or less. Don’t make it much longer than this, as it could come across as if you are looking for free work. The test should allow you to judge relevant skills, attention to detail, and the ability to follow instructions. It should also be related to the work the VA will do for you.

Tests tend to be appropriate for general virtual assistants. For specialist VAs, though, it may be better to see samples of past work. For instance, if the VA will manage your social media accounts, you may like to see profiles the virtual assistant is already managing.

Step 8: Start with a Trial Run

There’s only so much an interview or short test task can reveal. To truly understand if a virtual assistant is the right fit, it’s best to begin with a trial period before committing to a long-term contract. This trial could be as short as one week or as long as 30–60 days, depending on the type and frequency of work required.

A trial run gives both sides the opportunity to:

• Assess how well you collaborate and communicate.

• Determine whether the VA can adapt to your workflows.

• Identify any areas where additional training or clarification may be necessary.

• Decide if the quality of work meets your expectations.

In short, a trial helps ensure that neither party feels locked in if things don’t work out.

When working through an agency, setting up a trial run is particularly simple. Many agencies, like myVA360, make this step risk-free by offering a free 4-hour trial, allowing you to test the waters with no upfront commitment. If the match isn’t perfect, agencies can quickly reassign you to another VA without you having to start the search process all over again.

If you hire via a freelance platform or job site, however, the process can be more complex. Should the trial not go as planned, you may find yourself back at square one unless you’ve already identified backup candidates. That’s why an agency can save you significant time and stress.

Step 9: Provide Appropriate Access to Your Accounts

To work with you, your virtual assistant may need access to certain accounts, including your website, e-commerce store, and social media profiles. In the case of some accounts, you can enable permissions to allow your VA to carry out certain tasks — this is true for WordPress, Shopify, PayPal, Facebook, and Gmail, among others. You can give your VA secure access to other accounts using a password manager. For instance, LastPass allows you to share passwords with other users.

In addition, you should ask your VA to sign a non-disclosure agreement. This is particularly important if your virtual assistant will be handling sensitive information or if you’re searching for a VA who specifically has expertise in your field and may be working with your competitors.

Step 10: Set Reasonable Expectations

After hiring a virtual assistant, it’s essential to have realistic expectations. There will be a learning curve at the start while the VA adapts to your working style. As time passes, however, you can expect to see improvements until the work you receive is perfect — or close enough.

If, to save money, you hire a VA with little or no experience, expect tasks to take longer and quality to be lower. The top virtual assistants are expensive. In the case you can only afford someone charging a few dollars an hour, you may need to rein in your expectations.

Nonetheless, after a certain amount of time, it’s reasonable to expect your VA to work with minimal guidance. If the work you receive continues to fall short, don’t feel like you need to renew the contract.

Step 11: Adapt Your Approach

Some small business owners hire one VA after another, but nothing seems to work out. In these situations, consider whether there’s something you should change.

First, consider the instructions you’re providing. Is it clear what you want, how you want it done, and in what timeframe? You need to be as specific as possible. Otherwise, even the best virtual assistant will feel lost.

Next, how are you communicating? Over the first week, you’ll likely need to check in often — through messages and maybe the occasional video chat. After this, tone it down. There’s no need to schedule a chat if you have nothing specific to say. Just make sure you do give feedback every time the VA delivers work. If everything looks fine, a simple “thanks” may suffice.

Finally, think about the deadlines you are setting. If they are too tight, your VA may be unable to keep up, which could result in poor-quality work. As a result, the VA may quit to find someone who is less demanding.

Step 12: Increase the Work You Delegate

Once you’ve found a virtual assistant who meets your needs, you may like to start thinking about delegating more tasks. There are likely many more areas you could use help with, such as other tasks that fall outside your expertise or activities that could help you expand your business. When deciding what additional tasks to assign to your VA, consider what will help you meet your long-term goals and identify your areas of weakness.

If you have a generalist VA, it will be easy to delegate more administrative tasks, whereas a specialist VA should be able to take on more tasks within the same specialism. Having said that, don’t let your VA’s skills limit what you choose to delegate — now you know how to hire a VA, finding a second person to add to your team should be simple. This is a far better option than relying on the same person for everything, as it ensures you receive the quality you want and prevents you from overpaying (asking a specialist to carry out administrative tasks can be a waste of money).

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a VA

• Being vague about tasks → leads to misaligned expectations.

• Micromanaging → undermines trust and slows progress.

• Skipping training → creates frustration for both sides.

• Expecting perfection instantly → give them time to adapt.

Final Thoughts: Hiring a VA the Smart Way

Hiring a virtual assistant is one of the best investments you can make as a business owner. By following these 12 steps — from defining your needs to scaling your delegation — you’ll set yourself up for a smooth, productive relationship.

If you’re looking for a done-for-you solution, consider working with myVA360. Instead of spending hours posting jobs, vetting candidates, and worrying about contracts, we handle it all for you.

👉 Schedule your free consultation today and receive 10% off your first month. Discover how the right virtual assistant can free up your time, reduce stress, and accelerate growth.