Virtual assistants are increasingly being utilized by businesses, as a way to improve efficiency, streamline operations, and grow faster. Being that VAs are remote workers, oftentimes living in an entirely different country, how do you work effectively with one?
1. Choose a system for communication and project management. There are many free apps that you can use to communicate and manage projects/tasks with your VA. Asana, Monday, or Notion are some good ones to look into. I am using Google Chat at the moment and it has been great. We are able to use the Google ecosystem, Docs, Drive, Calendar, Gmail, and Meet for virtual calls. With Chat, communication is through a messenger chat and virtual call utilizing Meet. Within the Chat app, we can create Spaces, and think of workspaces for specific topics. For example, create a space dedicated to my blog, within this space we would only discuss tasks or projects related to the blog. I can also create and assign tasks needed to be done. Tasks created in the spaces also automatically show up on team member calendars.
2. How do you monitor the work that your VA does or doesn’t do? If you want to monitor the work activity of your VA, then you’d want to use software such as Screenshot Monitor. It will periodically take screenshots of your VA’s screen at random intervals throughout the day. It can also track which apps are being run as well as how much time is being spent on each one.
3. How about effectively training VAs to perform various computer tasks? The best way is to show them! On the video that is, they can watch and reference. Using free software such as Loom, you’re able to record your PC screen while performing tasks and recording audio of yourself explaining the entire process. For real estate agent work, I’ve created videos for my VAs to run comps, edit videos, CRM management, and lead generation.
4. How do you share access with your VA to social media accounts, websites, or other apps they may need to perform tasks for you? You can use software like LastPass, which allows you to share access to all of those without revealing your password. Note that with some software your VA may need to use a VPN to change their IP address to gain entry.
5. Compensation, your VA isn’t working for free. So how do you pay your VA? You can use electronic payment services like Paypal or Western Union. However the most affordable that I’ve found is Wise Transfer services.
With the right tools and systems in place, it is quite easy to work effectively with your VA. Thanks for reading, if you should have any further questions about this topic or anything else real estate-related, please reach out!