Hiring an Assitant

A lot of people in their businesses try to cover everything. They think that they can do better job than anybody else. That might be the case but eventually, you get overwhelmed and things come up. You get behind on your work. You can’t keep up. You arrive at a stage where you need someone to pick up the pieces and do the little work that you are not able to catch up on every single day. It keeps you on track.

So, here are few points to consider;

1- Why you should hire an assistant?

The purpose of hiring an assistant is to leverage your time. It allows you to get back more hours to your day. People are running out of time. There are only 24 hours in a day and you have to do what’s most beneficial to you.

What are the things in the business that are bringing you money?

What are some low-end things that you just need to happen?

Find those important items. Talk about them and see how you can delegate them to someone else.

Highest best use of your time

What’s the highest best use of your time? What are you doing throughout the day? You have to know what your time is worth. You have to know if you need somebody on your team to do the work.

If you don’t have an assistant, then you probably are the assistant. You need to find someone who matches your personality and relates to you. Find someone who has a creative mindset.

2- What do you have them do?

Here are a bunch of things that you can consider for your assistant to get some free time.

Track your business: The assistant should know the numbers. He/she should know what’s going on. How many clients you have? How much income you’ve generated? Knowing where your business is going.

Organize your database: That’s probably one of the biggest ones. People have a huge database. They don’t know what’s going on. They don’t know what decisions they are making. They don’t know where they are in the buying process.

If you are in real estate and you have people that you’ve known for years and you don’t know if they are moving or not that’s a bad database.

Just know your clients. Keep the database organized. Manage your marketing: Maybe, you would want someone in your company who does the little stuff. Maybe, they keep up with the social tweets, emails or weekly newsletters. Maybe, they communicate with the other team members. Have an assistant to help you with marketing.

Organize your schedule: I like to have an organize schedule. I like to be consistent. I want things to happen at the same time each day. Have your assistant keep you tight on the schedule.

Managing your business expenses: If you don’t have a full-time accountant in your business, hire an assistant to track your expenses. Just be able to track where your expenses are going. Make sure you spend money on things that matter.

Handling calls and emails: Everyone carries their cellphones around. They try to answer the phone wherever they can. Have an assistant to be able to communicate with the clients on phone and emails can give you enough support.

Keep you on track: It’s so easy to get distracted. Prepare a schedule so that your assistant can follow up with you and keep you on that schedule. The most important thing an assistant can do is to keep you on track.

3- Where do you find them?

There’s a number of job sites to find an assistant for your business. Some of the sites are Indeed, Monster, LinkedIn. These are some great places to hire people. LinkedIn is a professional place to interview people and get resumes. You can also ask for referrals from people in the industry.

Facebook is another big place to expand your team. Maybe, you share an opportunity on your business page and ask people to apply if they’re interested in the position.

4- How to compensate?

Compensation can be a tricky one. You definitely want to know the industry standards in your area. What are people getting compensated for that specific position?

In real estate, every time you close a transaction you get a couple of bucks. You kind of make it win-win for both. It would be ideal if you can add some type of compensation with a bonus structure at the end.

5- How to interview them?

Here come the interview tips to hire an assistant.

I would say that you ask them to email the resume and then, have them call you and leave a voice message. If you have an assistant who can’t communicate with you on the phone that’s probably a big red flag. Just hear them talk to a stranger for the first time.

Next, give them a detailed assignment. I like giving people something to do before I actually hire them. Try out a project. Do something tricky. Consider asking them to record a video. Give them some homework. Try them out.

6- Hire for the job, not the person

Maybe, you meet somebody you like personality wise and you have a good connection. But, maybe that person is not the best candidate for the job. Maybe, you would want to give up few

things personality wise to have the job filled. But, you want someone who is more organized, and punctual.

Find somebody who’s going to fill the position, and then later maybe become friends if you want that. If you ask me, I would definitely fill the position first.

So, these were some great tips for hiring an assistant. Definitely, consider hiring someone that can help you with your business. Hope you enjoyed the tips.