Many business owners are overwhelmed thinking about interviewing VAs and having to make a decision of who to work with.

The best way to find your ideal VA is via referral. Connect with friends and business relations; ask who works with a Virtual Assistant, what she does for them, and if they’d be ok if you spoke with her to help with your business. And …be specific with your “must have” list when talking with your connections. (see VA Tip #3)

  1. You could find your VA through a professional service that interviews you, creates a list of the tasks you need filled and introduces you Virtual Assistants to talk with who are listed in its database and are considered a possible fit.
  2. Of course, another option for you is to use Social Media – LinkedIn has various Virtual Assistant groups, so does Facebook. Again, you need to be very clear on your requirements.
  3. Twitter, Instagram, Google+ …. You could use them all to find your Virtual Assistant.

Once you know what relationship you wish to have with your Virtual Assistant, that has a huge impact on how you go about looking for one.

If you are in need of someone who will do wonders with simple Word Documents, spreadsheets or PowerPoint presentations, perhaps even easy research, but is strictly task-oriented, you might look at someone in Asia or someone who’s just dipping her toes into the VA world and has limited administrative experience.

If you are looking for someone you’d like to enter into a long-term and collaborative relationship with, you might want to look at a company that trains VAs to work in such hugely beneficial relationships.

When you think about working with a Virtual Assistant, which of the venues resonates most and why?