Nov
03
Inspiring Suggestions On Employing Freelancers To Create Your Workforce
As part of your career as a virtual assistant, you will inevitably have to gather a team together. A team increases your business possibilities and opportunities. However, you will need a lot more than just your intuition to manage all these people. Balancing a variety of individuals with different areas of expertise and personalities can be more than simply a challenge…
Putting the Pieces Together
Make a fairly detailed list. Who is the most adept at a certain job? There are several ways you can do this. You might be looking for somebody as an article writer, for example. You can use that same person for all your article needs across all projects, if they have the right qualifications. Or you could attribute a certain VA to specialized areas that you work with, for example if you have a VA who is skilled at finances, allocate him or her to the appropriate client, while somebody who might be good at web design can work with clients who are looking for business development in that area.
Always set out the work evenly so that all deadlines are adhered to. Even with one other person, burnout can come quick. Take a good stock of how many people you might need to cover everything.
Getting your Mind Right
What’s this all about? This will determine how you end up managing everybody. Don’t be tempted to micromanage, this is not the answer. That is just a fancy and roundabout way of doing all the work yourself. It is exhausting and not cost effective. You’ll have to let your team of professionals operate on their own with minimal guidance ONCE you are comfortable with their skills.
You already know that each person will have a different way of working. The important thing is that they can deliver for you. You can give each person a probationary period to evaluate their work. That’s another reason to implement your team approach while the overflow is light. It’s not right to test them when the pressure is on in this way.
Project Tracking
Get yourself a good project management system, to keep on top of the subcontractors and each task as well. You can have them upload their work at various stages so you can see how they are doing and report to your client. All required documents can be uploaded to the project area.
A system such as this is ideal if there are any questions, if you need to put more information in place or need to engage in team discussions. There are several different solutions here. Basecamp is a system that allows you to create client lists, post projects and add users. Each virtual assistant contractor can have their own username and password for the system and limited access to only their projects.
A similar system is SharePoint. It’s very similar to the other, but this one was created by Microsoft. Clients get access to some sites within the main area. When they do so, they can see the work as it progresses and send any questions that they might have either directly to you or to the virtual assistant subcontractor.
As part of project management, you need to be able to track your team. If you want to rest easy, you need to know who is doing what and whether they are on time.