10 Questions to Ask When Hiring a VA

Deciding to bring a VA into your wedding business can be both exciting and scary. Maybe you’ve been so used to doing this business thing on your own that you’re unnerved at the thought of someone else taking over certain processes.

Or perhaps you’ve just been building a team without any sort of clear process, and you’re ready to make sure you’re asking the right questions during the discovery call to ensure you have all information necessary to decide if the VA will be a good fit.

There are plenty of varying reasons why you want to hire a VA for your wedding business, but there are 10 important questions to make sure you ask when in the hiring process that are the same across the board.

Things to Get Clear on During the Discovery Call

The discovery call will likely be the one determining step of whether you decide to move forward with the VA or not, or vice versa. Because of this, it’s important that you’re both clear on different aspects of each others’ businesses and work preferences and also whether or not your personalities align.

So, here are 10 questions to make sure you ask:

1. How do you respond to criticism?

You want to make sure that your VA will respond well to constructive criticism and feedback that you give during your relationship.

2. Do you prefer to stick to a clear outline of instructions, or are you okay with taking hold of the reins when needed or handling a task that you see needs to be done?

Now, this question is subject to your personal preferences of what you look for in a VA. If you would like better to give directions and have tasks done that way, this question will help you determine that quality in a VA. If you would like a VA that is open and willing to handle mistakes or improvements as they recognize them without needing to be told, this question will help you determine that quality in a VA also.

3. What is your schedule like?

This should go without saying, but it’s important to make sure that your schedules align and that they’ll be available when you need them.

4. What time zone are you in?

You both need to know what time zone the other is in to better understand schedules. Perhaps you also prefer a VA who is in the same time zone as you (which is totally fine!).

5. What type of work are you best at?

An important factor to building a great relationship with your VA(s) is making sure that the work you’re giving to them is work that they’re good at and enjoy doing.

6. What type of work do you prefer not to do?

Same as with above, it’s important that everyone is happy. If you find that you’ve connected with a great VA and 90% of the work they love doing but the other 10% they don’t, it’s up to you to decide if you would rather pass that person up and find someone who will do 100%. Your other option is to hire another VA who thrives on doing that other 10% of work.

7. If I asked you to perform a task that you later realized you were unsure how to do, what would your first move be?

This all goes back to how independent you’d like your VA to be. Perhaps you would prefer if they tried to do their own research on how to complete this task, or perhaps you would like if they asked you first so that there’s not much room for error.

8. What is your preferred method(s) of communication?

This could be a big one, depending on if you love sending voice messages via Voxer at all times of day but the VA prefers email and checks their inbox at specific times of day. Make sure your preferred methods of communication align.

9. What does your billing process look like?

Some VAs prefer to track their time using a time-tracking system and then send an invoice at the end of the month based on the amount of hours worked. Others prefer to take into consideration the scope of work you need done and then produce a package price that will stay consistent and be billed at the beginning of each month. Be sure you’re clear on and are okay with the VAs billing process.

On this same topic, you should also ask what their rates or packages look like so you can decide if this will work with your budget.

10. How soon are you able to start work?

Of course, the VA should know when you’re wanting them to start work, as you should make sure they’re able to start when you want them to. Or it could be a matter of pushing the date back if you find a VA you really like.

We think these are 10 of the most important questions to ask a VA while on your discovery call together. If you need more help with the scaling and hiring process, check out this blog post. Do you have more that you’d like to see on this post? Feel free to DM us on Instagram!