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November 25, 2019

5 Questions Every Small Business Entrepreneur Should Ask Before Hiring A Virtual Assistant

As an entrepreneur, you may have reached that point in your small business where you are thinking you need some help. There just aren’t enough hours in the day for you to check and respond to emails, field phone calls, create social media posts, create email blasts, manage your calendar, research topics, manage day to day operations, and on and on.

There are many advantages to having someone who can assist with tasks that feel overwhelming so you can focus on the more important, revenue generating activities of your business. And working with a virtual professional can help you focus on GROWING your business and help you leverage your time better.

Before you jump in feet first and start the scouting process to find a Virtual Assistant (VA), there are some things to carefully consider.

Here are 5 questions you should ask and answer before hiring a Virtual Assistant or a Virtual Professional.

1. Do You Know What You Need?

Take some time to decide what tasks would be most beneficial to have someone else do. Make a list of the job duties you don’t like or don’t have time for as well as any tools or programs needed to complete the tasks.  As you create your job post, this list will help you refine the duties to help you find the right person for the job.

Are the tasks suitable for one type of assistant or should you hire more than one person? It may be that you need a part-time administrative assistant as well as a part-time social media manager, bookkeeper, blogger or customer service specialist depending on the tasks and duties you need to have done. Many businesses start out small and hire someone for 5-10 hours per week until their business grows and they need more help in various areas.

 

2. Are You Looking for a Certain Personality?

You will be working closely with a virtual assistant, so it’s important to find someone who gets you. Are you a Type A driven personality who works better with similar personality types? Are you more laid back and work better with someone who is too? Do you procrastinate too often and could use a no-nonsense person to help keep you on track? Do you run a faith-based business and want someone who shares your Christian values?

Knowing your personality type and what type of person you are looking for in a virtual assistant who will complement that is essential.  If this is important to you, you may consider having the applicants submit their scores to a personality assessment test.

 

3. How Will You Work With Your Virtual Assistant?

You will have the most success working with a VA when roles and communication are laid out clearly. There are a lot of project management resources out there like Slack, Asana and Trello to help with task tracking, communication, and project management. Or you may choose to keep it simple with daily or weekly check-ins by email or Zoom calls, sharing via Google Suite or DropBox folders. Decide up front how you will work best to ensure efficiency for you both in work and communication. But remember that communication is key and that no one will be able to read your mind or do a good job if they are not taught, show and directed early on especially.

 

4. What Skills Do You Need in a Virtual Assistant?

Having a list of tasks to delegate is a solid foundation when you are ready to hire a virtual assistant. Keep in mind, though, that hopefully this will be an individual who can grow with you and your business to form a great long-term working relationship. Think about what kind of skills you want a virtual assistant to have and what would bring you the most value as your business grows over the next two or three years.  If you are unsure, try searching the internet for Virtual Assistant (or whatever role you need) job duties to get an idea of what others are hiring these assistants to do and what skills may be needed.

 

5. Will They be Dealing with any Private or Sensitive Information?

If you need someone to help with parts of your business that include sensitive or private information to you or to your clients, you should consider not only checking references but also doing a background check or requesting a Trust Badge from a service such as SafetyPin Technologies. In today’s remote economy, it is important to do the extra work up front to reduce the chances of someone having access to sensitive information or business assets that turns out to be less than trustworthy. It is wise to get to know the person before allowing them full access to your business. Start small and allow them to prove themselves. The extra work up front may save valuable time and headaches in the future.

  

And when you are ready to hire, HireMyMom can help you find a great Virtual Assistant or Professional.  We believe Moms make great virtual employees or contractors.

FACT: Over 5.4 million mothers put their careers on hold to stay home with children*. That adds up to a lot of talented women with experience, education, skills and the motivation to find flexible work that can be done from their home office. (*Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

What are the benefits of hiring remote employees or contractors from HireMyMom?

  • Save time.
  • Save money.
  • Save on office space and office equipment.
  • Save Your SANITY!
  • We do NOT take any commissions from You or our Job Seekers!
  • You will have more time to focus on your clients and improve your business.
  • Your project or job is posted to our entire pool of talented work from home candidates saving you valuable time.
  • You save money by not paying high salaries and benefits for traditional employees.
  • You interview, evaluate and decide which candidate is best suited for your business (or you may choose our Small Business Concierge program and allow us to do it all for you).
  • We provide the candidates. You provide the work. We get out of the way.
  • We’ve been around since 2007, and as moms and entrepreneurs ourselves, we are committed to helping small businesses, entrepreneurs and moms find mutual success!

FIND A TALENTED VIRTUAL ASSISTANT

 

What Types of Professionals Can You Hire?

Here are some of the more common job types posted with us:

  • virtual assistants / administrative assistants,
  • blogger / writers / editors,
  • social media marketers,
  • marketing / public relations / advertising,
  • legal & real estate assistants,
  • researchers,
  • graphic designers,
  • accounting / bookkeeping,
  • web designers,
  • customer service reps,
  • sales,
  • e-commerce specialists,
  • human resources, and more!

FIND YOUR NEXT VIRTUAL PROFESSIONAL NOW!

If you need help with hiring, try our Small Business VIP Concierge service and we can do all the hard work for you!

 

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November 12, 2019

7 Reasons Why Moms Make The Best Remote Workers For Small Businesses

Running your own business can be very rewarding but it can lead to you doing absolutely everything in order to run it effectively. This is where bringing on part-time employees or contractors can be very beneficial. Knowing what you do well and then outsourcing or hiring team members to do other things gives you the opportunity to focus on your strengths AND grow your business. 

So why do MOMS make the best workers for small businesses…..

💪🏼Because there’s probably no one more motivated to make a remote work opportunity work like a mom.

💪🏼Moms deeply desire freedom and flexibility in order to be more present for their kids and family.

💪🏼Having remote work is a huge blessing for moms, and therefore, we believe they go ABOVE and BEYOND to do a great job to make sure they can continue working from home. 

💪🏼Moms typically have been working in their careers for some time, unlike students who are just starting out.

💪🏼Moms possess life skills that a small business can benefit from such as……

 

Time Management

From household chores to diaper changes, from homework help to getting dinner on the table – Moms sure do a lot! Time Management becomes an essential skill for Moms and something they have no choice but to quickly learn in order to keep up with the demands of family, kids and running a household. 

This skill becomes highly beneficial to your business. Moms have no time to waste and that means a reliable and dedicated worker you and your business. Moms know how to use their time wisely.

 

Organizational Skills

A Mom quickly becomes the organizer in the family. From vacations to birthday parties, Moms are really good at planning and executing.

They are also great with rolling with the punches and can be quite flexible when things fall out of line. They are great at coming up with a new plan that keeps everyone happy. Moms know they must be organized to get all the things done! This is why Moms are great Virtual Assistants especially for Small Business Owners like yourself. We have a great article about how VA’s can help you grow your business here.

 

People Management

From tantrum-throwing two-year-olds to grumpy teenagers, Moms have to deal with many personality types and different levels of maturity.

Strong listening skills, empathy, and conflict resolution go hand in hand with people management. This makes a Mom a really great candidate for your business’s customer service. Moms can handle customer complaints at all levels of your marketing funnel and offer win-win resolutions for all. 

 

Negotiating Skills

Children quickly learn from a young age how to get what they want and can get quite creative about it too! This is where the power of Moms negotiation skills can really come in handy. Moms become experts in compromising and trading.

Because Moms are good at negotiating, they can make a great addition to your company’s Sales Team. 

 

Problem Solving Super-Heroes

Some problems are completely predictable while others can come as a complete surprise. Moms deal with new problems each and every day and it’s amazing how they can still stay calm, cool, and collected throughout the solution process.

This makes Moms ideal candidates for small service businesses that are focused on “solving problems” for their customers. 

 

Master Multi-Taskers

Moms always have more than one project on the go … literally! They are great at handling a phone call while prepping dinner and helping their child with his/her science project all at the same time.

In the workplace, this often translates to being on the phone with a customer while typing in the customer’s account info and facilitating their transaction from start to finish. Moms are great at multi-tasking and getting things done efficiently and effectively. 

 

Now that you’ve learned about the benefits of hiring a Mom, where can you find one? Right here at HireMyMom of course!

Click here to post your job to our talented pool of Mom Professionals.

Or let our HR Specialists do all the hard work for you! Check out our VIP Concierge service. 

It only takes a few minutes to create an account with us, post a job, and then wait for the resumes to come in. We have some pretty amazing Moms on this site ready to work with you.

You can see what other Small Business owners have had to say about HireMyMom here. 

 

 

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October 28, 2019

3 Important Reasons Small Business Entrepreneurs Should Avoid Mega Job Sites

As a small business entrepreneur, you no doubt have been faced with the demands running a business requires. There is always a to-do list a mile long from tracking expenses, updating your website, email marketing and creating social media content with just not enough hours in the day to tackle it all. 

Maybe you have reached that pivotal point in your business where you can begin to set aside a budget and outsource the tasks you either don’t have time to do, don’t have the skill set to do (and don’t desire to learn) and/or don’t enjoy doing so you can focus on more important tasks like revenue generating activities. It’s an exciting step to reach in your business but it can also be a scary and overwhelming one. 

Now that you are ready to spend your valuable time looking for and interviewing potential candidates who are qualified and a good fit for the mission of your business, it’s tempting to turn to mega job sites like Freelancer and Upwork as they can seem like a logical place to start but they aren’t always the best option for small business entrepreneurs and here are 3 important reasons to think about:

 

  1. Overseas Workers

Many of the freelancers and subcontractors you find on mega job sites live outside the U.S. and while you may find their rates to be cheaper than a U.S. based worker there are important factors to consider such as:

  • Language and Culture Barriers. If you are looking for someone to respond to or create emails, social media comments and blog writing, you could be spending more time proofing and rewriting content than actually creating it yourself. Hiring someone to create content on your behalf should have a good understanding of how to represent your brand voice and business. Language and culture barriers can make finding a qualified candidate well versed in U.S. business culture difficult.

    For example, it may be customary and an understood practice in the U.S. for a client and contractor to have a co-creative working relationship with good communication being a “no brainer” but in other countries, this practice is not well understood resulting in you finding yourself constantly having to follow up with your contractor for status updates. Spending more to hire a high quality U.S. based candidate is well worth it in the long run. 

 

  • Legal and Tax Ramifications. You may not be hiring a part-time or full-time employee but that does not exempt you from legal or tax obligations and when you hire workers from other countries those rules and regulations can become even more complex. 

 

  • Time Zone. Hiring workers that are half a day ahead of you can often work against you. Let’s say you are just getting your day started at 10am and wake up to an email from your contractor who is delivering you the project you asked for but it’s plagued with mistakes and issues but unfortunately your contractor is 12 hours ahead of you and are already offline for the day. Now you have to decide if you are just going to fix it yourself or wait another day for it to be corrected versus working with a U.S. based contractor who can respond much quicker and not delaying your project.

 

  1. Mega Job Sites Take A Percentage Of Earnings

Here’s a recent email we received:

“Hello, I am a freelancer who currently uses Fiverr and UpWork to gain writing gigs. I write website content and articles for businesses. I am tired of paying out 20% per project…..”

As a small business entrepreneur, you may not be aware that mega job sites take a percentage of earnings from the freelancers you hire. For example, if a person’s rate is $20 per hour, they can expect to earn around $16 per hour which means freelancers on mega job sites will actually charge more than they should for their work and skill set in order to help offset the fees that are deducted which means you pay more for the quality work you can expect to receive. 

 

  1. Scammers.

Anyone can create a free profile on mega job sites so quality and legitimacy are not guaranteed. As can be expected on such an open platform with millions of job seekers from all over the world, there is the potential for scams: 

  • Freelancers who do not perform the work themselves (so you are hiring someone based on their credentials and they are in turn outsource it to someone else who is less qualified but still charging you a higher rate. Yes, this happens.)
  • Freelancers who have fake reviews in their profiles and they can actually remove negative feedback as well (yes Feedback Removal is a real thing). 
  • Freelancers who have fake identities and therefore claiming to be of different nationality than they actually are. 

This means you will spend way more time than you need to in order to weed through applicants to verify they are who they say they are and can do the work they claim they can do. 

As a small business entrepreneur, don’t let this process overwhelm you. We have talented North American-based mom professionals ready and qualified to tackle your jobs and projects so you can focus on growing your business. The candidates on HireMyMom pay a small membership fee to receive these job leads so they are more serious job seekers who are willing to invest in themselves which also means you will not get 100s or 1000s of applications from a platform that lets anyone sign up and apply for free. 

At HireMyMom.com we are mom owned and mom run. We are entrepreneurs running our own small business. We understand the needs and challenges of both sides and we aim to create a platform that works perfectly for both. Unlike the mega career sites and platforms, HireMyMom.com focuses strictly on home-based jobs and projects that work perfectly for today’s savvy entrepreneurs and modern small business owners just like you!

Over the past 12+ years, HireMyMom has helped thousands of small businesses find the perfect candidate for their projects while helping place thousands of mom professionals in their dream jobs. We do that by providing a platform that brings the best group of qualified and passionate women together with the best group of successful and growing companies who are looking for highly qualified virtual professionals with skills, experience and expertise. 

 

Why Post Your Jobs Hire My Mom

We all know….. Moms are awesome. Moms are reliable. Moms are dependable. And moms make great virtual employees or contractors.

FACT: Over 5.4 million mothers put their careers on hold to stay home with children*. That adds up to a lot of talented women with experience, education, skills and the motivation to find flexible work that can be done from their home office. (*Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

  • Save time.
  • Save money.
  • Save on office space and office equipment.
  • Save Your SANITY!
  • We do NOT take any commissions from You or our Job Seekers!
  • You will have more time to focus on your clients and improve your business.
  • Your project or job is posted to our entire pool of talented work from home candidates saving you valuable time.
  • You save money by not paying high salaries and benefits for traditional employees.
  • You interview, evaluate and decide which candidate is best suited for your business (or you may choose our Small Business Concierge program and allow us to do it all for you).
  • We provide the candidates. You provide the work. We get out of the way.
  • We’ve been around since 2007, and as moms and entrepreneurs ourselves, we are committed to helping small businesses, entrepreneurs and moms find mutual success!

POST YOUR JOB NOW!

Who are HireMyMom Professionals?

They are talented, experienced freelance professionals looking for real work from home jobs in a variety of fields including:

  • virtual assistants / administrative assistants,
  • blogger / writers / editors,
  • social media marketers,
  • marketing / public relations / advertising, 
  • legal & real estate assistants,
  • researchers,
  • graphic designers,
  • accounting / bookkeeping / payroll,
  • web designers,
  • customer service reps / sales,
  • e-commerce specialists,
  • human resources, and more!

POST YOUR JOB NOW!

 

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September 23, 2019

3 Ways A Virtual Assistant Can Help Grow and Scale Your Small Business

When it comes to starting your own business there’s a lot to think about. Although being your own boss can be very rewarding, it also comes with a lot of responsibility which often translates to you wearing ALL of the hats.

In the beginning, this can be manageable however, as your business starts to grow, so do the “growing pains”. There’s only so much time in a day and there’s only one of you!

Bringing someone onto payroll involves training costs, costs for additional office space, furniture, and supplies plus, don’t forget there are government rules and regulations to follow before and after you hire.

This is where having a Virtual Assistant could really come in handy. If you don’t have the funding to grow your company internally, a VA can provide you with the support your business needs at an external level.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A Virtual Assistant is a real person. They are professionals who provide support to your business from a remote aka “virtual” location. They have their own equipment and space to work in. This means a VA could start working for you almost immediately with minimal cost.

What can Virtual Assistants do?

A Virtual Assistant can help in many ways but typically, they take on the mundane tasks, business maintenance, and customer service that company owners are often too busy to keep up with. This includes:

  • Filtering and responding to emails
  • Managing social media
  • Bookkeeping
  • Fielding and making phone calls
  • Appointment booking and tracking
  • Market research
  • And more

3 Ways A Virtual Assistant Can Help Grow and Scale Your Business

Now that you know what a Virtual Assistant is and the common tasks they perform, let’s talk about the many ways they can help your business scale and grow.

There are three stages to any business’s marketing funnel – customer acquisition, customer after care, and customer retention.

A Virtual Assistant can help you scale and grow your business at each level. Here’s how:

  1. Customer Acquisition

    At a lead generation and customer acquisition level, your VA can:

  • Create and manage your social media accounts.
  • Help you stay up to date with sales and promotions and website content.
  • Perform market research and competition tracking.
  • Help plan and organize events you might host to attract new clients.
  • Answer any emails that come in from potential customers and guide them towards booking an appointment with you (service business) or purchasing a product (e-commerce business).
  • Your VA can also help you form alliances with other businesses by reaching out to them on your behalf.

  1. Client follow up and after care

Once a customer has made a purchase, you want to ensure they are happy and this is also the best time to upsell and promote other services and products you have. You can use your VA to:

  • Contact your customer after the purchase or service to make sure they are happy.
  • Reach out for a customer review or testimonial.
  • Offer an upsell or friend referral incentive.

  1. Customer Retention

    A lot of businesses spend most of their time at the acquisition level but, customer retention is important for company sustainability and is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. Your VA can improve your retention rate by:

  • Reaching out to your customers when they are nearing the end of their product supply or coming close to needing service, to encourage purchasing or booking again.
  • Circulate blog posts, new content, newsletters, and more to help keep your existing clients in the loop.
  • Your VA can help spread the news to your existing clients whenever you have a sale or promotion. This will encourage repeat business and/or referrals.
  • You can create a customer appreciation event and have your VA spearhead it from start to finish.

Whether you use your virtual assistant to market your business, handle your books, or manage your emails, they can really help alleviate the stress and workload that so many small business owners face.

Ready to find the perfect VA for you? Here are some important things to consider:

Time Zones: Make sure that if there is a time zone differential, it’s compatible with your schedule and your company’s operating hours.

Languages Spoken: You want to make sure your VA can speak and write fluently in the languages you prefer. At HireMyMom, our site is primarily for N. America so English is the native language of job seekers.

Education, Experience, and Skills: You want to make sure that your VA is qualified for the tasks you need them to do. Graphic Design or Accounting? Customer Service or Ad Creation? It’s important to hire someone who is strong in the areas you need them most. You wouldn’t for example hire a sales and marketing VA to do your bookkeeping and accounting. Carefully screen your VA applicants and keep an open mind. They are there to help you after all. If you find you don’t have time or don’t care to go through the lengthy hiring process, check out the VIP Small Business Concierge package available to hand-select virtual professionals for you.

Tools: You may want to consider providing a useful assistant tool or two to maximize productivity and ensure all the necessary work can be completed on time.

At HireMyMom.com, we’ve had a lot of success matching employers and VA’s. Here’s what some of our happy employers have been saying:

“I have been a great fan of your service for many years. The quality of the people who I have found have been consistently exceptional, and at very affordable prices. I’ve also referred HireMyMom.com to many of my friends and colleagues, and will happily continue to do so.”  Paulette Ensign, Tips Products International

“I was able to grow my company with your service and were now in 5,000 stores. We have five moms with us. Always referring my friends who are business owners and telling them how smart these women are and amazing to work with.”   Chris-Tia Donaldson, Thank God Its Natural

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I submitted my request for a Web Guru to HireMyMom and I have to admit, I was blown away with the response. The quality of the applicants far exceeded my wildest expectations! It is very apparent that each applicant is highly qualified for my project. I am very excited to be working with such talented professionals. I am spreading the word to my business associates. HireMyMom.com is a real wealth of professional talent.”  Teri Hurley, Owner/Operator, Endless Love Travel

Are you ready to take the next step to help grow your business? Click here to post your job and find the perfect VA for you and your company.

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Written by
June 10, 2019

HireMyMom Success Story: Monique Muro

Business: Proof Mango / Los Angeles, CA

Tell us a little about your business and why you started it.

I help online course creators edit their online course-related content (from lesson copy to marketing material), and make sure their online course works (I take care of the tech headaches). I originally started out copy editing and proofreading everything under the sun for online business owners. Then one day, a client gave me his online course to proofread, and I LOVED it. I decided then and there that editing online course content would be a niche service I could provide to the millions of online course creators out there profiting from their knowledge and passion.

What is your top advice for entrepreneurs / small business owners?

Never, ever, ever give up. You’ll go weeks without anything good happening in your business, despite working yourself to the bone – and then one day, something magical will happen. Someone will book a call or DM you about your service. The hard work starts paying off in little wood chips and flakes – meaning, it feels like you’re hammering away at something for so long and FINALLY you make a dent and stuff starts flying everywhere. But only because you didn’t give up. That’s my best advice for anyone growing a business – keep chipping away!

What is your top tip for working with a virtual team?

Take your time hiring. I got a ton of wonderful, qualified virtual assistants in my inbox after putting out a job post on Hire My Mom, but I took my time hiring and put them all through a vetting process that worked out wonderfully. First, I starred the candidates that seemed the most qualified. Next, I reached out to the ones I starred and asked them to complete a personalities test + a short survey. From there, I interviewed the ones I liked the most, and I found a great virtual assistant who is perfect for what Proof Mango needs at the moment. 

What’s your favorite thing about HireMyMom.com?

Oh my goodness, what’s not to love? I started out on Hire My Mom in early 2017 to pick up some contract proofreading/copy editing gigs. I ended up working with extraordinary online business owners who taught me to so much and gave me such great work experience. I’d say my favorite thing at the moment is that when you apply for these gigs, you’re not lumped in with hundreds of other applicants – the applicant pool is just small enough for you to stand out. As a business owner, my favorite thing about Hire My Mom is being able to hire such talented people working remotely from all over the country. The service really attracts great people!

What’s one fun or interesting fact about you?

I am a total online course junkie. I am obsessed with buying online courses on editing and digital marketing – those are probably my two favorite subjects. I can’t get enough, and I am guilty of buying new courses before I’ve finished (or started!) the ones I’ve got! I just love having a ton of information in my arsenal as a business owner. 

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Want to be featured here as one of HireMyMom’s Success Stories?

Mom Professionals, please complete this form our Mom Professionals Success Stories.

If you are a Small Business / Employers, please use this form for Small Business Success Stories!

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March 15, 2019 0 Comments

9 Tools to Help Your Virtual Team Succeed

In our last article, we gave you 10 Key Questions to Ask during the Interview and prior to that we shared 4 Tips on Writing a Great Job Post.

Now that you’ve hopefully found your virtual professional, we wanted to share some tools to that can help you and your team be more efficient, effective and organized. Below you’ll find a variety of tools from time tracking to management to organization to help your team soar to success!

Harvest makes it easy for users to keep track of the time users spend on tasks and projects. It also allows you to spot trends and compares someone’s work hours vs their capacity week over week. Here are four other time tracking options to consider.

Slack– a platform to connect teams with apps, services and resources. From Slack’s website, “When your team needs to kick off a project, hire a new employee, deploy some code, review a sales contract, finalize next year’s budget, measure an A/B test, plan your next office opening, and more, Slack has you covered.”

Loom allows you to connect with your team via videos. You can record yourself, your screen or both. Save time by videoing notes, how-tos, directions, and more without spending valuable time emailing back and forth.

Asana  is a free team management tool that allows you to delegate and organize tasks into projects. You can track the progress of group projects while also displaying individual to-do lists.

Trello is a task management tool that gives you a visual overview of what is being worked on, who is working on it and what’s next to do.

Zoom is a great tool if you are looking for face-to-face meetings, a way to share your screen or conduct online meetings.

DropBox and Google Docs let you share and access files remotely. No more emailing files back and forth, now you can easily edit and share files instantly.

idonethis makes it easy for your team to provide quick daily status updates and helps you run your team more efficiently.

And don’t forget we offer, our personal “Small Business Concierge Service” which includes:

    • consultation to learn about the position,
    • writing a professional, descriptive and thorough job post,
    • posting the job on our website (once approved by client),
    • reviewing all applicant resumes and cover letters, including a check of LinkedIn to reality check the resume.
    • Scheduling interviews – Reach out to selected candidates, coordinate interview scheduling,
    • Interviews -prep & conduct interviews, record interview notes, save interview recordings, etc. ,
    • Select top candidate(s) to pass along to client, write candidate summaries, upload interview video file(s) to Dropbox, email client with resume, summary and link to video file.
    • Follow up with client, answer questions about candidates, etc.
    • Wrap-up – Send turndown email to candidates interviewed but not selected, etc. along with final notes.

Contact us for details!

 

 

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March 4, 2019 0 Comments

10 Key Questions to Ask During the Interview

In our last article, we gave you 4 Tips on Writing a Great Job Post to help you attract some great candidates for your job.

Next you’ll want to narrow your list of candidates down, and then you’ll want to make sure you ask the right questions to confidently hire the best professional for the job.

Here are some great questions to consider asking potential hires:

  • What interests you about this job?
  • What other virtual jobs have you held and what were your responsibilities?
  • What did you like and dislike about this job(s)?
  • How do you structure your work day?
  • How do you handle disruptions?
  • What do you like and dislike about working virtually?
  • How do your skills and experience fit this job?
  • What makes you think you are the best candidate for this job?
  • What is your top tip for having a successful virtual working relationship?
  • How would you describe yourself in 5 words?

 

If you want to get more in depth, the Book, “Who”, authors Geoff Smart and Randy Street outline a thorough process for hiring “A” players. The process may be overkill for some smaller remote roles but the basics of the process provide a solid foundation for selecting the right candidate. 

The interview questions Smart and Street recommend are easy and conversational. They recommend an initial phone interview asking the following questions:

  1. What are your career goals? 
  2. What are you really good at professionally? 
  3. What are you not good at or interested in doing professionally? 
  4. Who were your last five bosses, and how will they each rate your performance on a 1–10 scale when we talk to them? 

Each of those questions should be followed up with “tell me more”, “how” and/or “what” to dig deeper to gain more insight about the candidate and their performance, work ethic and skill level. Other tools and resources are available on their website. 

 

After you’ve interviewed the candidate make sure to contact at least 3 of her references to see what they have to say about her and her past work.

Once you’ve asked these questions and talked to their references decide which candidate:

  • Has the skills you are looking for or is a quick learner willing to be trained,
  • Is confident, reliable and trustworthy,
  • Is Independent, self-starter, and doesn’t have to be micro-managed,
  • Meets deadlines and stays on task,
  • Is a great communicator both verbally and in writing.

 

Hiring a great remote employee or contractor doesn’t have to be difficult. Putting in a small amount of time up front and being intentional about the process will help you and your hires have a much more productive, satisfying and successful outcome!

And don’t forget we offer, our personal “VIP Concierge Service” which was created for busy entrepreneurs and small business owners, like you, who need to hire help but don’t have the time or desire to go through the time-consuming process.

With our full service Concierge service, our HR Specialists will do it all for you start to finish and present you with the top candidate(s).

 

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February 18, 2019 0 Comments

4 Tips to Writing a Great Job Post

As a business owner, we know that your time is valuable, and you do not want to spend unnecessary time on the hiring process. That’s why we’ve created a strategy to help you attract and hire the best candidates for your needs.

The first thing you need is a great job post.  

A well-written job post will:

  1. Include a brief overview of the job role and responsibilities including an explanation of the tasks the candidate will be doing.
  2. Indicate any specific experience or skills you are looking for.
  3. Give estimated hours needed per week and if applicable, the specific hours of the day the candidate is needed.
  4. Include your company / team values. Give the candidates insight to what’s important to you and your company to make sure they are a good fit for you and your business.

Here is an actual job post we’ve had on HireMyMom: “I’m looking for a VA I can grow my business with long-term. Hours will increase with growth. I need soeone good.”

Not only does the job post have spelling errors but it does not include any real information about what the job entails or what skills the candidate needs.

Aim for clarity with your job postings.

If you want qualified, experienced, knowledgeable applicants, make sure you job posting is clear and thorough. It doesn’t have to be long but make sure the applicants have a clear understanding of what you need.

If you need ideas to get your kick-started, try doing a search for “______ job description” and work from some of the duties and skills you find online. You can then refine it to reflect exactly what you are looking for.

If you would like us to craft the job post for you, contact us or if you would like help with the entire process, we do offer our personal “Small Business Concierge Service” which includes:

    • consultation to learn about the position,
    • writing a professional, descriptive and thorough job post,
    • posting the job on our website (once approved by client),
    • reviewing all applicant resumes and cover letters, including a check of LinkedIn to reality check the resume.
    • Scheduling interviews – Reach out to selected candidates, coordinate interview scheduling,
    • Interviews -prep & conduct interviews, record interview notes, save interview recordings, etc. ,
    • Select top candidate(s) to pass along to client, write candidate summaries, upload interview video file(s) to Dropbox, email client with resume, summary and link to video file.
    • Follow up with client, answer questions about candidates, etc.
    • Wrap-up – Send turndown email to candidates interviewed but not selected, etc. along with final notes.

Contact us for details.

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February 4, 2019 0 Comments

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Virtual Professional

Hiring someone to work for you off-site means you don’t have the luxury of meeting them or training them in person. And because of that, there are some things you should know to help make the working relationship more successful from the start.

Don’t hire by the resume alone

Hiring someone is more than just their experience on a piece of paper. You’ll want to interview over Zoom, Skype or similar tool that allows you to meet them face to face.

Ask how they manage working independently? What other jobs have they had working virtually for someone? What mistakes did they make? What did they learn?  Ask them about their organization skills and how they organize their day? What motivates them? What distracts them? Also be sure to talk to their references to get a feel for how they viewed the quality of their work.

Always ask for references and check them! You’ll want to know what type of employee (or contractor) they were. Were they reliable? Did they do a good job? What areas did they not do so good in? Are they trustworthy? Would they hire them again?

Request a background check through SafetyPin (Digital Trust Badge) especially if they will be dealing with private or sensitive information or have access to any private information.

 

Don’t assume they’ll know how you want it done

Before you hire virtual help, be clear about what you want done, how and when you want it done. The more clear you can be and the more meticulous your instructions, the better opportunity your new hire has of understanding and succeeding at this new role.

Create a Google Doc and add procedures and instructions that can be modified and added to the role develops.  The more implicit your instructions, the better chance you have of someone doing things how you want them done.

 

Don’t neglect to check in

For the first month or two, plan to check in regularly about progress and questions. You should be able to tell pretty quickly if the work is being done correctly. If not, determine what changes need to be made. Set parameters, guidelines and/or deadlines that need to be met.

Set up ways to monitor their progress going forward. You may want them to copy you on emails if they are responding on behalf of your business or send weekly reports of tasks completed so that you can check them initially to make sure the job is being done correctly and has been understood. If applicable, use collaboration tools such as Slack, Basecamp, Asana or Trello so that you can monitor, collaborate and train as needed.

Progress checks and regular communication are the main keys to success once you’ve hired your virtual professional. Follow these tips and your chances of success will skyrocket!

If you are looking for a virtual professional, be sure to check out the awesome talent on HireMyMom.com.

And don’t forget we offer, our personal “Small Business Concierge Service” which includes:

    • consultation to learn about the position,
    • writing a professional, descriptive and thorough job post,
    • posting the job on our website (once approved by client),
    • reviewing all applicant resumes and cover letters, including a check of LinkedIn to reality check the resume.
    • Scheduling interviews – Reach out to selected candidates, coordinate interview scheduling,
    • Interviews -prep & conduct interviews, record interview notes, save interview recordings, etc. ,
    • Select top candidate(s) to pass along to client, write candidate summaries, upload interview video file(s) to Dropbox, email client with resume, summary and link to video file.
    • Follow up with client, answer questions about candidates, etc.
    • Wrap-up – Send turndown email to candidates interviewed but not selected, etc. along with final notes.

Contact us for details!

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January 4, 2019 0 Comments

Top 7 Virtual Jobs for Moms

Work at Home Jobs for Moms

Becoming a mom has a way of changing a woman’s outlook on her career path. I know it did for me. I had just finished my Master’s degree and started my first job when I got pregnant with our daughter. I had zero intentions of being a stay-at-home mom at the time. However, motherhood had a tremendous impact on me. I soon discovered, I wanted nothing to do with leaving my baby every day.

That’s when I began my work-at-home journey. Working from home provides a wonderful opportunity to create a more flexible schedule that many modern moms are looking for.

If that’s what you’ve been looking for, we’ve put together the top seven work at home jobs as well as common tasks associated with them. We’ve also included online training programs to help you enhance your skills in whichever category you are most interested in.

 

Virtual Assistant

The role of a Virtual Assistant (VA) varies quite a bit depending on the needs of each business. Some typical tasks VAs may perform include:

  • Respond to clients and customers by email, phone and online chat,
  • Perform routine administrative duties,
  • Book appointments or schedule travel,
  • Manage projects,
  • Research various topics or industries related to the business,
  • Create and maintain spreadsheets, databases or other documents,
  • Make simple edits or updates to website,
  • Monitor social media and respond to comments and questions,
  • Give feedback from customers and make suggestions for improvement.

The hourly rate for a Virtual Assistant typically ranges from $15-35 per hour. However this can vary depending on difficulty of duties, expertise of the VA and other factors. If you are looking for online training to become a VA, check out the Virtual Savvy’s Training Program or the Free Mama’s Training Program. Both of them have free options.  Find other training options here. 

 

Social Media Manager

A Social Media Manager works with the business to create engaging content that offers value to its audience and ultimately results in growth in followers as well as increased sales for the company. Some typical duties may include:

  • Create engaging content for social media channels,
  • Create images using Canva, WordSwag, Typorama or similar services,
  • Create ad campaigns for various social media channels,
  • Respond and interact with followers on social media,
  • Build relationships with influencers,
  • Create a content calendar and schedule content to be posted,
  • Share blog posts on social media platforms,
  • Cultivate leads and sales from social media posts.

The average hourly rate for a Social Media Manager ranges from $15-25 per hour. However this can vary depending on level of experience, job duties and other factors. A great training program to help you become more of an expert on social media and stand out to businesses seeking social media help is: The Complete Digital Marketing Course.

 

Copywriter / Writer / Blogger

A Copywriter writes and edit articles, blogs or copy for a variety of purposes such as:

  • Website copy,
  • Marketing materials,
  • Email marketing,
  • Blogs articles for specific audiences or industries,
  • Ghostwriting articles for business owners.

The hourly rate for a Copywriter can range from $20-40 per hour depending on the level of expertise required, the experience of the writer as well as other factors. Here are a couple of online training program if you want to take your writing skills to the next level: Content is King: How to Write Killer Content for the Web or Content Marketing Masterclass – Create Content that Sells.

 

Accountant / Bookkeeper 

With Cloud-based accounting programs available (such as FreshBooks), a virtual bookkeeper or accountant can access the company’s records remotely to perform duties for the company. An accountant or bookkeeper may perform duties such:

  • Record transactions,
  • Balance bank accounts,
  • Prepare and send invoices,
  • Reconcile invoices and bank accounts,
  • Maintain financial records,
    • Produce balance sheets, income statements and other financial documents,
    • Prepare payroll and tax reports.

The average hourly rate for a bookkeeper ranges from $20-25 per hour. However the pay rate can vary depending on tasks asked to perform, experience required and other factors. Check out this training program if you want to learn the basics of bookkeeping: Bookkeeping Course for Stay-at-Home Parents.

 

Business Development Specialist

A Business Development Specialist is someone who identifies and pursues new leads and looks for ways to help the business continually grow. Some typical duties include:

  • Research and make a list of potential industries and specific customers to approach,
  • Prepare marketing and communication materials such as outreach emails,
  • Connect with influencers, bloggers and brands to build relationships,
  • Develop and maintain client relationships,
  • Create and maintain a database of all contacts,
  • Develop and refine growth strategies for the business.

The average hourly rate for a Business Development Specialist is $25-40 per hour. However this can vary depending on difficulty of duties, expertise of candidates and other factors. Check out this online course: Business Development Blueprint – Accelerate Business Growth.

 

Project Manager 

A project manager coordinates and oversees all aspects of a project. Some typical tasks may include:

 

  • Oversee projects and coordinate team members,
  • Manage administrative duties of the project,
  • Monitor project performance and make needed adjustments,
  • Plan and schedule team member meetings,
  • Collaborate and communicate with team members,
  • Make recommendations as necessary for project success.

 

The average hourly rate for a Project Manager is $20-40 per hour. However this can vary depending on the level of difficulty of the project, candidate’s expertise and other factors. This course will teach you the basics of project management:  Beginning Project Management: Project Management Level One

 

Client Service Specialists / Customer Service

A Client Service Specialist (or Customer Service Rep) is the main point of contact for many small businesses. This person represents the company with professionalism and a friendly demeanor. Some businesses also hire Virtual Assistants to fulfill this job role. Some duties of this job may include:

  • Respond to clients and customers via phone, email or online,
  • Learn and be familiar with company, products and services to answer questions well,
  • Follow up with customers to ensure the product or service has met their expectations,
  • Offer friendly, helpful solutions when clients have an issue or problem,
  • Provide feedback from clients to the team and suggest ideas to improve client satisfaction.

The average hourly rate for a Client Service Specialists is $13-18/hour. However this can vary depending on difficulty of duties, expertise required and other factors. You can improve your skills and make yourself more marketable by taking an online course like: Customer Success Manager 101: Foundations to your CSM Career.

Other work-at-home jobs include: WordPress Experts, Facebook Ad Specialists, Researchers, LinkedIn Specialists, Medical Billing, Instagram & Pinterest Specialists, Sales, Graphic Designers, Web Designers, Coordinators, Public Relations, Transcriptionists, Tech Support, and others. If you are looking for training in any of those categories, check out other online courses offered here.

Whether you are creative, organized, detail-oriented or a numbers person, there’s an opportunity for you. Take some time to think about where your gifts, passions and talents are and take the leap to finding the perfect work-at-home job for you!

If you’d like to search the current job postings on HireMyMom.com, click here and see if your dream job is waiting for you!

 

Have questions about working from home? Check out our FAQ or contact us!

 

This article contains affiliate links to courses and resources. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

 

 

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