What I Wish I Knew Before Hiring My First VA
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Episode Summary:
In this episode, I’m sharing my top, super practical tips for hiring your first VA so you can start building the support you need as your business grows. This is everything I wish someone had told me—because feeling truly supported changes everything. I want to show you what is POSSIBLE for you in feeling supported. So supported in your business that you can work a 3-day work week and make $300k a year.
Over the past eight years, I’ve learned so much about building a team, both in my own business and by helping dozens of clients hire and manage theirs. You deserve amazing support—so you can make a ton of money AND have a light, peaceful life along the way. ❤️
Topics:
The importance of team for sustainable, heart centered growth
Overcoming the fear of hiring
Common mistakes to be mindful of when hiring
Best practices for hiring & onboarding
Clear communication & leadership
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Anna (00:06):
Welcome to the Heart-Centered Entrepreneur podcast. I want you to be rich. Yes, I want abundant financial success for your business, but I don't just care about your business making money. I care about you too. I want you to be rich and happiness in the impact you make in your relationships and in how you give back. I'm Anna. I built my six figure business as a side hustle while I was pregnant with my daughter in 2016. Now I've helped dozens of women do the same. I'm here to help you build a profitable, heart-centered fully book business with the latest tips on sales and visibility with proven mindset hacks and sneak peeks behind the scenes with what's working right now in the online space and in my business, ready to make more money with heart. Let's go.
Anna (00:49):
I wanna talk about building your team today. The heart centered way and how it is the number one thing that's going to buy you time, right? Sales is the number one thing that's going to make you money. But then all of us as heart-centered women, we don't just want the money, we want the dream life, right? We don't want to overwork, we want time with our family, we want time home. And this team thing is such an important hack. Like we can't have one without the other. We need the sales to grow and then we need the team. We need the systems. We need the stability to be able to sustain and enjoy ourselves and work in our zone of genius. And I would say almost all of my clients oscillate between seasons of getting visible, needing to acquire clients, selling, launching new programs. And then, okay, how do I, with all this new success, how do I maintain it?
Anna (01:40):
Right? How do I still love my life? And that's something I feel like I'm such a master at. It's why I've been in business for almost 10 years now because I really have been able to master both sales and team building. And I feel like it's something I don't talk as much about. But I think it's so important. 'cause I know many of you already have some amount of success and are in a place where you need to grow your team. But also for those of you, even if you're not ready for team, I think it's such an important conversation because a lot of times we hold ourselves back from fully booking out or signing clients 'cause we're like subconsciously nervous to overbook, right? Or we're nervous to like take on all this work that will take us away from our family when that's why we made our business in the first place.
Anna (02:20):
So just wanted to share like some of my reflections and my journey with team over the past 10 years. Basically, I'm sitting in my car right now, <laugh>, waiting for kid pickup time. And I just was thinking about how this has been such, it's just such a blessing to me. I just hired another team member. So now I have my amazing OBM and now I have two VAs and I have a personal assistant on the personal side and then I also have my bookkeeper and accountant. And I just feel, you know, and then personally I have my nanny. Like it's a lot of people, right? But it really doesn't feel like a lot. And here's what I wanna say to you. The right team isn't gonna feel like a lot of team. And if right now you have team members or you have VA or you have support and it's not feeling supportive, I just wanna say it doesn't have to be that way, right?
Anna (03:11):
It shouldn't be that way. And it might be their fault. It might be your fault. We don't know. Like I, one of the biggest things that help my intermediate and advanced entrepreneur clients on is cleaning up their side of the fence. And it's something I really pride myself in is really helping my clients get so good at being managers and leaders and being able to have hard conversations and ask for what they want directly and giving their team feedback in a loving way. And all this team stuff I feel like does not get talked about as much, but it's such an important skill, right? But I definitely started off <laugh> on not the best foot with team stuff. And I think it's to be expected. None of my clients that have, you know, multi-six figure businesses and supportive teams right now, none of them have had an easy path is is what I've seen too.
Anna (03:57):
Team stuff. Because we have, again, like people are complicated and tricky. And I think sometimes like we get into entrepreneurship because we are good at what we do and we kind of like control and we kind of like perfection and introducing other humans into our work and into our delivery and into the backend of our business can be so vulnerable and so messy. But the reason we do it is, here's why. It's the only thing that lets me have a three day work week. There's be no way for me to have a three day work week as an entrepreneur if I didn't have team. Like no way. There's no way. There's no way I even feel like I could've even made it to a six figure business, let alone a multi-six figure business without team, right? I don't think I would've made it there because energetically having the team there makes me feel secure to make more sales.
Anna (04:44):
'Cause I'm like, oh yeah, I'm bringing on more clients but I know I'm gonna have the support to handle it, right? So I just think it's it so imperative. I would say like one of my biggest tips for team is making sure you start small, start small. I started off with like a ton of part-time contractors, like eight people. I don't know what I was thinking when I really should have just started off with one main va. Like at the beginning. You just need one person to do multiple things and ideally you're delegating and starting to save yourself time on what you're already doing. One of the biggest mistakes I made when I started hiring is I would hire people and then have them start working on projects that were on like my backlog to-do list, which is fine, but they weren't really important things.
Anna (05:27):
They weren't things making me money and they weren't things saving me time. What, what, I dunno what I was thinking, right? And so that's my encouragement for you is to make sure when you're hiring team is to make sure that they are actually doing things to make you money and or taking things literally off your plate, the busy work, the things that you are doing so that you can free your time to be able to serve clients and make money, right? I don't feel like that can be said enough. Literally, almost all of my clients, I had some form of conversation with this around them. So looking at what's currently on your plate, scheduling social media, like even though you could do it, it's another thing in your brain, it's another thing you know on your plate that you're managing and juggling. I do a thing where I tell my team members when I'm hiring them right away, like, okay, in our first two weeks I'm gonna be, I kind of like do it like a paid trial for most of my team members.
Anna (06:20):
I've done this with everyone, but for many of them I'm like, okay, you know first of all, make sure you interview several people. Okay, I did not do this starting out, but I do this whether I'm hiring a therapist, whether I'm hiring a team member. You know, it can be easy to just hire the person right in front of you. The whole adage like hire slow, fire fast could not be more true. And it's hard because usually when you're hiring team, you don't have a lot of excess time. Like you're short on time, that's why you're hiring the team. But the last thing you wanna do is rush the process. And so the first step is doing a job description, just writing out, this is what I'm looking for, this is what I need. Even if it's not perfect and it's okay for you to put something out there and for the role to evolve over time too, right?
Anna (07:00):
But getting clear on like, ooh, this is what I'm thinking as far as hours, right? And then interviewing people. I love interviewing a big batch of people, even if it's like a little 10 minute interview, right? I love having an application on a Google form. That way it's easy for me to see, you know, they have the job description and then I'm just asking some key questions so I know kind of what to expect. And then from there, interviewing people. There's a lot of VA job boards that can be helpful that you can post on. And then interviewing people, doing the 10 minute chats, maybe you do like five or six of those. And then from there, I like to pick one person and say, yeah, you won. Great job. Can we do like a two week working trial where I pay you and we work together and then we see if we like each other, like once we're actually working together.
Anna (07:46):
And I found that works so good for both parties. I've done that with several people and then been like, you know, one of us decides like, okay, this is, and it's really not taking any of this personal, right? I think the first time you sign a client it can feel so intense just because it's the first, same thing with hiring team. All of that is gonna feel so intense, right? Which it should. Like we're dealing with real people and we wanna make sure we're respectful of each other. But I just wanna say like permission. If it feels intense, it could just be because it's new, right? So I like from there doing two weeks and I give them like this little pep talk. Actually it's on a Google doc where I say like, by the way, I give you lots of feedback. That's not because I'm upset with you.
Anna (08:22):
That's just, that's just like the way we do it around here. We do a lot of open and direct communication and discussion. One of the biggest mistakes I see my clients making with team is they get like eight months in and then they realize like, oh, I haven't even been, you know, they're upset with their VA because of X, Y, Z, but they're not really even communicating to their VA clearly what they want and need, right? That does not set team up for success. It's very frustrating, right? To be working for someone that's not being clear about what they wanna need. And so we do this in two ways. Number one, having a really clear way to assign tasks, right? Like Asana, like Basecamp where you're saying, I'd like X done on X date, right? For most VAs it's not their job to figure out our business strategy.
Anna (09:06):
That's what we work with a coach for, right? It's our job to we our, we don't need to put the pressure on our VA to like rescue our business, right? We just need to be able to say like, Hey, here's this thing, can you do it by this date? Here's the instructions, right? You don't have to go ham on an SOP, just give some simple instructions. I need it done by this date. Right? And then it's really easy to see if team is performing or not when you're actually clear, right? But so often I'll talk to my team members and they're like, oh, my team isn't getting stuff done. I'm like, okay, where did you assign the task? Oh I, I mentioned it in Voxer, right? Okay. Did you give them a deadline? No, I did not give them a deadline. We need to have this in writing somewhere.
Anna (09:43):
Like, and for me and my team, I almost don't do any chatting, right? For the most part, I'm assigning tasks, I'm just assigning tasks even if it's a question, even if it's not. Same thing with me. I asked my team, if you have a question for me, assign me a task because then I can prioritize it in my other tasks, right? But I'm a big fan of not using Voxer for team unless it's like a one-off. Like I'll Vox like once every three months to say something that maybe feels more sensitive. But for the most part, putting things as tasks, making sure there's a clear date, a clear expectation, and then having a, a way to chat or communicate. I love using Basecamp, honestly, it's my favorite tool to use with my clients using my team. But use the tool that feels best for you.
Anna (10:22):
But having that clear ground for communication and then setting the expectation up front that like there'll be a lot of feedback, right? And setting that from day one. It's almost like the teacher from day one that like keeps really tight rules. I think that's the respected teacher, right? Where it's not like, oh my God, the teacher got mad at me but I'm not sure why. Just like a really calm like oh that wasn't done right and here's the right way to do it. Right? You're not telling them like you are a bad person. You're saying like, oh, that's not the way I would prefer to get it done. Here's the way, and this is the thing with team is like usually it's not even them doing something wrong. We have a preferred way or style. And so we're just teaching team the style. We'd like to get it done.
Anna (11:00):
So we're not saying like, oh how dare you do it that way. We're just like, okay, it makes sense that you wouldn't need no, because I haven't told you now I'm telling you this is the way I want it done. And they're like, oh my God, thank you so much for telling me Now I know how to make you happy, right? We think that being direct is mean, but I really actually, it's so kind then our team never has to guess, right? The last thing we wanna do is like fire a team member six months from now and then them be like, oh my God, why was I fired? I had no idea she was upset with, I had no idea I wasn't being helpful, right? Instead of having that conversation so that we can be in dialogue. And that's why I tell my clients this phrase a lot with team, which is like cleaning up your side of the fence.
Anna (11:37):
And what that means is you doing your part as the manager to make things clear. We can even think about this with client work, right? Like it helps me know as your coach if we need to move someone to a different position on your team or fire someone if we know that you've done everything within your power to make things clear, to give a correction when there was a mistake made, right? Like you really being on top of what you can do to be the very best boss. And then we can see clearly, okay, is this a match or is that not a match? Right? Okay. Those are some of my like just more practical tips that I really wish someone would've told me at the beginning of hiring team. And then I just wanna talk about mindset too around like so often, again, we're hiring team to save us time, but I just wanna say this hard truth, that hiring team does not save you time at first.
Anna (12:27):
Which I know is, like I said, it's so hard because when you hire a team, we're doing it usually when we're in a time pinch. But here's the thing, long-term team is the smartest thing you can do. Again, if you wanna a six year or multi-six year business and you wanna work three days a week or you want flexibility or you just wanna have a business you enjoy, you've gotta hire team, right? And again, it doesn't have to be a big team to start. It could be a VA for two hours a week, right? I think that's what my first VA was. I was like, can you support me two hours a week? And finding someone that would be willing to do that. 'cause I was just like, baby, baby stepping in, right? But the thing is like kind of a different trail, but like starting, but starting soon, right?
Anna (13:04):
I really wish I actually would've hired earlier because I feel like you, it's like the school of hard knocks where you kind of only learn some of those hiring lessons as you're doing it. And if you've made a mistake hiring like you hire the wrong person or maybe you over hire and then you can't afford it and you have to fire people or I just wanna say get back on the horse. So many of my clients have made big hiring mistakes. Maybe they hired an employee before they were ready or an employee did them wrong. Or like so much can discourage us when it comes to team. But I just wanna say get on the horse early and stay on the horse. Doesn't mean you can't scale back sometimes. It doesn't mean you can't rework things, but like really don't give up on the team horse because I feel like it's the number one thing that's gonna get you to grow and scale your business.
Anna (13:45):
Okay? Anyway, back to what I was saying before, which is initially team will not save you time. Don't let that frustrate you. Do not let that frustrate you, right? It is an investment of your time to find the right person to train the right person to do systems. But here's the thing. Even if that person doesn't work out with you long term, now you're a better manager. You have better systems in place, you have better trainings, it's gonna be easier for someone to hop in and fill that role. I did not wanna own that truth when I started hiring. I wanted every person to work out and stay with me forever. And of course I want people to stay with me for as long as possible, but I think sometimes I made like accommodations for team members I shouldn't have because I was really like, I really don't wanna have to do this again.
Anna (14:26):
And I think it comes the same thing with clients, right? We never wanna keep a client just because we're feeling scared to sign a new one, right? We wanna keep a client because we like working with them, right? It's almost like with a boyfriend, right? If we're like, oh I just, I don't wanna go through the process of dating again, so I'm just gonna like stay with this guy. That's not that great, right? Like, no, that's, that's a bad reason, right? So it's just knowing that of course we want our team to stay with us as long as possible, but if you had to rehire, you would be okay because you have that ability within you, you have those skills, you're becoming a better manager, you're having better systems and team trainings, right? So anyway, back to what I was saying is team does not save you time at first.
Anna (15:04):
So being patient with that process, right? Being patient with creating SOPs, being patient with training someone. The other end of that though that I wanted to say is making sure that you also don't give too much grace, right? I'm a big fan of like two weeks and kind of get a gut check. Not that they're gonna be perfect, but of really being able to see like are they a fit, right? And if not, ending things starting with someone new, right? There's a great episode that Brooke Castillo did on firing that was so helpful for me when I started my business 'cause I was so afraid of firing someone and that podcast would really help. So I'll link that one 'cause I can't say it better than she did. But again, like just really re immersing yourself in this, right? Like what does it mean to lead a small digital team?
Anna (15:48):
Even if you have led teams before in your work. I know I did, but I just feel like it's a different ball game in small digital entrepreneurship. Okay, I have so much more to say on this. I might do another podcast, but that's all I wanna say for now. And I would love to hear like what your questions are for me on team, on team or like where are your biggest challenges when it comes to hiring team, when it comes to growing team, when it comes to nurturing team, keeping team, affording team. Like any of those practical questions I would love to hear and I would do, I'm thinking about doing more on team because again, I just feel like it's the biggest thing that helps women sustain six figures. Scale the multi six figures, but also helps you get to your first six figures.
Anna (16:31):
If you are have that blocker of like, oh my God, like what am I gonna do when I sign clients? Like is that gonna over? No, it's not. Because you're gonna have people that support you and it's safe for you to lack of control. Maybe they won't do it as perfect or as good as you, but do what I realized is like, okay, so what my Instagram sometimes has a photo that wouldn't be the photo that I would've picked, right? Or so what? There was a typo, but also I would've made a typo. So what? Like I much rather tolerate those. Yeah, it's annoying, right? But yeah, I would rather make, you know, almost $300,000 a year and being a little bit annoyed than be making $70,000 a year and never putting out a typo or never putting out a picture of me that's a little cringey.
Anna (17:15):
Like, do you hear what I'm saying? Like I think we put things so big in our head instead of like, no, what's non-negotiable? I wanna make a ton of money and I wanna work reduced hours. And in the process I'm willing to be a little uncomfortable as I learn team, just like I learned to be good at visibility, just like I learned to be good at selling, it's safe for me to navigate this. And what I've noticed for so many of my clients that I work with on this is as I help edit some of their emails, like maybe they're doing an onboarding for a new team member and they write the email, then they can keep that email on their system, right? As they're writing the email on getting ready to fire someone. I help them edit it. And now they have that in their system.
Anna (17:55):
And I notice for my clients that have really grown and scaled their businesses, a lot of times they'll share with me an email. I'm like, oh yeah, we already wrote that. Like we already created, like we've already fried this fish. You've already learned how to be direct. You've already like the first always feel so intense. But the more you do it, the easier it gets. And it's just a skill you've gotta master. Okay? Sending you the biggest hug and the affirmation that it's safe for you to find your dream team. It's safe for you to grow and scale your business. It's safe for you to make a ton of money on limited amount of hours. It's safe for you to open yourself to support. It's safe for you to release control. It's safe for you to skyrocket your income as you grow and scale your business, as you allow yourself to be supported by heart center team. I know my team makes the biggest, biggest, biggest, biggest difference for me. I could not do this without them. And it's my biggest prayer that you find the most supportive team for you too. I know you will.
Anna (18:52):
Thanks for hanging out today. Please hit that subscribe button so you can make sure to stay updated anytime a new episode drops. And I would love for you to join me in my free Facebook community. It's called The Heart-Centered Entrepreneur. We discuss the podcast episodes. I regularly go live and do free trainings and you may even meet your newest biz bestie so you can join at https://heartcenteredcommunity.com. It's absolutely free and I cannot wait to see you in there.
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.