by Francis
(March 19, 2013)
The biggest financial outsourcing risk is when you lose your virtual assistant. If for whatever reason your VA leaves you, you will lose money in one way or another.
Let me explain.
If you hire a VA and a few days later the working relationship does not work out, you lose money.
Why?
Hiring the right way takes time. Time is money.
You could have done something else with your business in that time.
So, it makes sense to invest time into hiring one right person. Then keep that person, hopefully, for a long term.
If you have worked together with a virtual or personal assistant for many years and the cooperation has been great and then for some reason your virtual assistant leaves you, you also lose money.
Why?
You invested time and money to train your virtual assistant.
Some of his paid work time has been for training purposes exclusively. When the virtual assistant leaves you, you risk losing the money you invested into his training.
How to Prevent These Financial Outsourcing Risks
In the first case, do your best to establish a good working relationship.
One of the most important tactics to do that is to have good business ethics. This will make sure both sides of the cooperation are happy and will keep the relationship going.
In the second case, sometimes you cannot avoid that a virtual assistant leaves you.
For example, his life situation might have changed. He might have found a completely new job direction and that is not your fault.
Or, after some time, the communication has deteriorated.
That is within your power to keep in track.
However, to minimize financial losses from training in one virtual assistant, it makes sense to keep notes of how and what your virtual assistant has learned to work with you.
When you hire the next assistant, you will know on which skills to focus on.
Even better, ask your virtual assistant to write down the lessons he has learned as he learns them.
Even if this takes time. This will build a manual for you as well as for any potential, additional or replacing virtual assistant.
You have to be aware that the time invested in to your virtual assistant’s training is priceless.
Comments for Financial Outsourcing Risks
| Aug 27, 2014 | if it’s not meant to be.. And there are employers who don’t mind firing VA’s… I think it depends on the personality as well and how the employer will handle the things between him/her and the VA. If things are not working between you and the VA, no matter how hard it would be for you, you just have to let that person go. |
| Aug 30, 2014 | OK if there is a total personality mismatch I can only agree if there is an extremely low compatibility between employer and VA. I most cases though, this can be worked out with God communication skills. And that is the kind of effort both sides often fail to invest. On the employer’s end, it’s because choosing from a pool of applicants seems faster. It can be, but many underestimate how much time the screening process can take. On the Va’s side, I believe it’s mostly the need for the work and the money that drives them to try something else than to fight for what they got. In total, investing in making it work can be beneficial to both sides. More than most people would expect. |
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