You can miss out on making the best use of your virtual assistant if you don’t take the time to get to know him or her. Just like in college, it is probably best to ask your VA what their major was in college. This gives you an idea of their mindset and where they would be more effective. I recently did the same with my own Va. It turns out that she is a graduate of a computer major. She can program and is knowledgeable in software. This changes my approach a little. Obviously, I won’t be assigning difficult Accounting tasks. However, she will probably be very useful in technology-related tasks. Arbitrage?
Of course, over time, it would be best to learn as much about your VA, especially if he or she is your only “employee”. In my experience, there is nothing more demotivating than working for somebody who doesn’t truly know you or care to know you. A friend once told me that it doesn’t matter how nice you are to your employees. The fact that you are the boss automatically make you an asshole. I tend to agree. All I propose is that you be mindful of what degree of an asshole you are. So, get to know your VA so that you are a better judge of what and how you should assign things. I don’t expect knowledge of debits, credits, general ledgers, and accounts from a computer major. Similarly, I don’t expect knowledge of loops, conditionals, switches, modules, or local and global variables from an Accounting major. As they say, a poor carpenter blames his tools.
Shaine 