#127 How to Hire a VA with Teri Clanton

 Hey girl, hey! Welcome to the Unapologetically Unstoppable podcast. And today we've got a director of operations with you with us. Her name is Teri and I'm so excited for her to be here because she's going to teach us something really cool about hiring. She is a certified director of operations with over 20 years of admin experience.

And she has a unique skillset that will empower you to focus on doing the work you love. And making a bigger impact, which I think is what we're all here to do is make a huge impact on just not only us, but also in the lives of your clients without burning out. Wellness Business Services, her company that she's a founder of, provides full suite operations, which includes strategic planning, strategy sessions, hiring, team management, launch or project management, business analytics with data and tech systems set up and optimization.

You literally sound like a genie. I love it. Yes. All things operations. That's my world. So I love it. Yeah, so me and Terry met because we are both certified directors of operations and she's a strong believer and I'm, I'm obsessed. Awesome. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Yes. So tell me about how you have come to know Jesus and started walking with him versus just like, Knowing Jesus.

Yeah. So I grew up in church my entire life. And when I was about 12 years old, a friend and I were actually in the tree in her front yard and she just kind of matter of factly said to me, so why don't you get saved? And so I was like, well, I don't know. Why don't I get saved? And so I did, we prayed together and As an introvert, it was hard for me to tell my parents stuff.

So she suggested that I leave a note on their bed, which I did. I told them I wanted to get baptized. And so my mom took me into the pastor's office. We had a conversation. He wanted to make sure, you know, I really understood what I was doing. And I, that I really, I had accepted Jesus as my savior. And so soon after that, I got baptized.

I love that for him. It's like a little challenging. Yeah. Sometimes we need that. Yes, absolutely. I too am like a hardcore introvert. I don't think that you will believe me, but I, I, I need my, this is my office. It's my cave. I'm like, don't come in my cave. This is my space. I love you, but I need to recharge.

Okay. By myself. Yes. Don't touch me. Awesome. So what is that one moment that empowered you to be unapologetic about your faith? This has been a process for me, and I think it's something that I'm still growing in and learning to be more bold and look for more opportunities to share about Jesus. But I think it still shows up in my character and how I conduct my business and just even day to day life.

Yeah, for sure. When you took the test of what your spiritual gift was and you got giving, were you surprised by that? Somewhat and somewhat not because that's been my heart for a long time. When I was actually 16 years old, I remember exactly where I was when I was thinking about my future. We were, I was in my mom's minivan driving down the street that we lived on.

And I just asked God, so what am I going to do with my life? And he said, not in an audible voice, but just kind of in my spirit, you know, the answer was serve me. So. That's really my purpose, but that can show up in a lot of different ways. And I think giving is part of that giving of my time, giving of money or encouragement.

Yeah. So the gift of giving the spiritual gift of giving through Romans is. Which you said, it's not just money, it's time, it's opportunities, maybe you're giving your listening ear, it's, it's more than just financial, which I think that some people think that it's just money. It's not just money. It's like giving your whole self in whatever ways you can give.

So yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So that was interesting. I haven't taken a spiritual gifts test in a while. So it was neat to see something recent, a recent result. Yeah. I think they also like, it's almost like the anti agram we all have a little bit of everything in us, but one is like more prominent. So speaking of anagram, do you know your number?

I don't, I've actually never taken the test. I should I probably the one that is like servant oriented and service oriented. I forget which number that is, but I don't know if there is one that's like, well, I'm thinking there was, but I either two or nine. Yeah. But it's all about like, why you do what you do.

That's, that's the key thing with Enneagram. Yeah. I did take the Colby a and I don't know all of the numbers, but the first one was I'm a high fact finder. So I was like, yeah, no, no surprise there in operations and admin background. No surprise. So I, yeah. But seriously so let's get into the teach. Tell me about three, three things about hiring somebody, hiring a VA, what that looks like overseas, not overseas, all the deets.

Give me the tea girl. All right. Let's go. So first of all, in case you're not familiar with. The term VA or virtual assistant. Let's quickly define what that is. So it is a self employed contractor that works remotely to serve your business, regardless of whether you have a brick and mortar in person business or you operate online only.

And that can look like a lot of different services. A lot can be lumped under the term VA. It started off as an admin. You know, kind of focus. But there are some people that are web designers and graphic designers and all sorts of different service providers that will call themselves a VA. So let's talk about how to hire a VA.

First, you need to do a deep dive on what you need. So you want to look at the skills of the person that you are wanting to hire, the aptitudes or talents that they have. How much time you have to train, because that will make a difference in whether you hire someone that's more entry level or somebody that's an expert, that's going to take less time to train.

Next, you want to look at culture fit. So even if you are a solopreneur, you still have a company culture and a lot of people don't think about that, but it is often derived from your personality and your values. And it shows up in how you serve clients, your marketing style, and even the team members that you hire.

So you want to make sure that this person is a fit culturally with you, and then the team that you are building. So after you do this kind of assessment you want to write out a job description. So even though this is a self employed contractor that you're hiring, you still need a job description. And you want it to be really detailed.

Because you want to make sure that you get a great fit. And oftentimes I have seen in like Facebook groups, people will put out two, three paragraphs, very short. And it does not cover everything that is needed to ensure that you get a great fit. So you're doing yourself a favor and you're doing the person you're hiring a favor when you take the time to do this, right?

So what should be in it? First of all, you want to include the pay. And I know in some states in the U. S. typically when you're hiring, they don't include that, but you will do yourself a great favor and even the person you're hiring, if you include that, because it will tell the people that are not willing to work for how much you can afford.

So you can give just a pay range that's fine. I even think the opposite, right? So if I know that I'm a new VA and you're saying that you're going to pay me 45 an hour, I'm going to be like, Oh, I can't, I can't meet that 45 an hour expectation. You know what I mean? I think it's both sides. It is. And it also can encourage someone that is looking for room for growth to know, okay, this company has got a healthy budget and there's probably going to be some room for growth within this company.

Some room for me to advance for some room for me to learn some new skills. So there it's. That way, too, but absolutely agree with you. So you don't want to hire somebody. And then in 3 to 6 months, turn around and have to be hiring again because the person that you hired was not really interested in how much you can pay.

So something to keep in mind. So after you include the pay, put in there who they're going to report to. So are they going to report to you, the CEO? Are they going to report to your operations manager or whoever? Okay. And that's something that's often overlooked. How many hours does this person need to work per month or per week?

So in the U. S. You can't hire a unicorn VA that does all the things because Somebody in that meaning that somebody that works as many hours as a full time employee would, or that does all the things that a full time employee would, there are fines, hefty fines for having a contractor operate like an employee without being classified as such.

So keep that in mind and hire for. Really what you need your top priorities, then include the company description and values. Who do you serve? What do you do as a company? What are your company values? Because that is going to attract the right person. And it just gives some foundational information about the company.

And what this person is going to be jumping into to help with. I think that's so important, especially when sometimes I work with like, like I'll work with like multi six figure businesses, but I also work with some brand new entrepreneurs and they don't have, they don't have their value statement. They don't have any of those business statements yet.

And I try and remind them why they're so important. It's not just for you, the solopreneur, it's for growth. It's for expansion. It's for people to know who you are, how you serve. And even if you put that on your website, they might be more apt to work with you because of maybe your faith or the exact opposite.

Like, I'm sure I'm repelling a lot of people saying that I am a faith forward entrepreneur, but that's okay with me because Jesus still loves them. You know what I mean? Yeah. And that way you're ensuring you're working with the people that fit with you. Absolutely. Yes. So that's very important. Then put in there the type of person that you're looking for, strengths and values.

Like we mentioned you can even include, include a short blurb about you, the CEO. Like your short version of your bio include some information about your team, if you have one, do you have 20 people on your team? Do you have two people on your team? That just gives some understanding of what this person is walking into and who they're going to be interacting with and working with.

Then you want to include a detailed description of the job duties, obviously, but the key here is to tie these job duties to KRAs or Key Results Areas, and so that means that under the umbrella of the company's goals, how is this person helping the company achieve those goals. So you want to write out what does success look like in this role in 90 days after that person is hired.

So, and that is something that definitely I rarely see on a job description. I don't think I've ever seen one of those. So the next, let's put in there how you want applicants to respond to this job posting. Do you want them to fill out an application? Do you want them to email their resume to you? So, since VAs are self employed, some of them kind of recoil or even see it as a red flag when you ask them to send their resume to you.

Now my personal opinion, having been a VA, for a couple of years before I switched to operations. I personally don't see this as a big deal. I felt like it was just a easy way to give somebody a full detailed snapshot of my experience, but some VAs. don't want to apply for jobs where companies are asking for that.

So there are other ways to go about it. Yeah, it is. You could be repelling somebody that's a really great candidate. So the better way to go, in my opinion, is to use an application for a couple of reasons. You are going to be able to compare apples to apples this way because you are not going to be swayed by, oh, this person has a really pretty resume.

This person's looks very plain Jane. This person included a picture on their resume. This person didn't. So you are also going to eliminate as much bias as possible in this process. So that's a very healthy thing, because we all have those kind of unintended, you know, biases that are kind of under the surface.

So this will help you really be as fair as possible throughout this process. aNd then lastly, if your job description is less than a page when it's all typed out, just as a general rule of thumb, you probably need to add more detail to it. You probably have missed out on some things. And what the List I have given you of things to include, it's not necessarily a comprehensive list, but they are key components that are important to put in there.

And even some things, like I mentioned, that people tend to overlook and not include. I think it was a really good, like comprehensive list of, okay, if I'm going to hire a VA, I need to know all of these things or have all of these things documented somewhere. In order to find the right person. I think it's really common for people to just like run through VAs.

And to me, that's a red flag of a CEO. I'm like, do they even know what they're doing? Do they have their stuff together? Why are people leaving so often? Absolutely. And actually this kind of segues into a point I was going to make that oftentimes small business owners don't take the time to quantify how much the hiring and training process costs the company.

So if you would track your time on this, at least once. Or, or maybe every few hires, how much time does it take you to write out the job description to post it on job boards, you know, which I can go over a few suggestions there or Facebook groups and all the places you're going to post it. How long does it take you to hire interview rather and then actually offer.

The position to your top candidate and then hire that person, whether you're hiring them or someone, or sorry, excuse me, how long it takes to train that person, whether you're training them or somebody on your team is training them. And then look at how much clients pay you figure that out. What that is in an hourly.

Right and do the math. Okay. It took me 50 hours or whatever it was in order to go through the hiring process and training process. And that cost our company X thousands of dollars. I think it'll be a really eye opening experience. And I think a lot of people, their job would be on the floor if they actually quantified it and it actually will provide even more motivation.

To make sure that you do this process. Well, yes, like you can't like, don't mess this process up because it costs you so much, like as CEOs, right? We're both CEOs, like thinking about taking the time out that I could be serving clients when I'm training somebody. So that way they can do something for me.

And then two months later, they're out the door. I wasted all that time, which could have been either marketing my business or making relationships, one of those things to get more clients in, or even serving my clients well, when it's really just was wasted time at the end of the day, because I picked the wrong candidate because maybe my description wasn't good enough.

Maybe they didn't realize what kind of company I had. I feel like a lot of that stuff could be saved. If you do all that front end work, like you were talking about. Absolutely. So it is very important. And then just obviously, once you've got your job description written out, you need to post it somewhere in order to get the word out.

So you can put it on LinkedIn and Facebook groups. There are groups for VAs. There are groups for people looking for remote opportunities so you can put those in there. And then even on job boards like Zipper, Curder, or Indeed. So those are a few options for you. I feel like you're really, really good at this.

Why did you start your business? So I wanted, I actually wanted to take my administrative background. I have some marketing, a lot of project management experience. And I was going through my own health journey and I wanted to combine my passion for health and wellness that I discovered that I had with all of my professional background.

So I actually, to kind of back up a little bit, I was working for a nonprofit full time. And in my admin association, I had heard about. VAs, and I just kind of tucked that away in my brain and not too long after that, I started working from home part time for an online meal planning company, in addition to my full time job, because I was really underpaid at that full time job, despite great performance.

I was just eventually realized, Hey, I'm capped out here on what they're willing to pay me. And there really is no room for advancement. So why not create my own business where there is no glass ceiling. So yeah, I love that because I feel like I, I will, I feel like I'll never stop talking about this, but like kingdom women, like we need to make lots of money to affect the kingdom.

And we have to do that in a way that has no glass ceiling. We have to do that in a way that we can make as much money as we can because money is innate and it's the more money we have. The more of what we are, we will do so like yours is giving you'll give more because that's who you are as a person, not because that's just who you are.

People think like, when I have so much more money, I will do the X, Y, and Z. No, do it now be that person now. And then you'll be able to do it even more so when you get lots of money, which is why I'm obsessed with women with no glass ceilings, creating businesses to serve the kingdom well and the way that we were made to do that.

Yes, absolutely. And creating opportunities for other people. All of it. Love it all. That's one of my favorite things is like being able to hire other people knowing that I'm helping their family too. I don't know. I just that's literally one of my favorite things. I wish I just had like a million dollars so I could just hire my friends to do a lot of things.

It would just be great. Yes, that would be awesome. You actually bring up a really good point that I wanted to touch on. Since we're on the Unapologetically Unstoppable podcast, I'm going to give you my unapologetic opinion, if that's okay. Yes, please, please. As it relates to hiring VAs, you can hire a VA for about three to five dollars per hour U.

S. for VAs that are in India and the Philippines and other developing countries. I would caution you highly against doing that because we, if you're listening to this podcast, more than likely you really care about integrity and operating your business with integrity. And in my opinion, when you hire somebody for three to 5 an hour, that's exploitation.

So here's how you can do this differently. And in my opinion, better if a VA is. Asking for that little, offer to pay them more. That is completely counter cultural. But, if you offer to pay them 10 an hour, for example, What I mean, think about it from the VA's perspective, you would be a dream client who wouldn't love someone who is offering to pay more than what you're asking for.

They're going to be more loyal to you and your business. Also, you're going to be able to sleep really well at night, knowing that you are changing their life. The life of their family, and even their community, it will filter out to their community because if they have more money, chances are they're going to spend a little bit more in their community, it's going to help a wide.

Number of people, you are making a massive impact in the life of one person. And that's not to say that you have to like swoop in and be everybody's hero and all of that. But as kingdom entrepreneurs, I think we all are called to make an impact. So my opinion is that just because. Someone lives in a particular country does not mean that they should be making a really low wage.

Just because their cost of living is less doesn't mean that they should be paid a really, really low wage. Because Let's think about it. Let's do a role reversal. If you were applying for a job and you saw that, oh, well, I live, for example, I live in Oklahoma, which is a place that has a very low cost of living compared to other cities.

Like Dallas or LA or New York. Right. And oftentimes I would fall in the absolute bottom tier of pay because of where I live. And then I can see, Hey, if. Somebody was living in New York city was hired for this position. They're going to be making 50, 000 more. That's not a good feeling. So if you wouldn't want to work for three to 5 per hour, then please don't ask someone else to.

So here's what you can do. If you really are new to business and you look at your finances and you really don't have the money to pay. However much it's going to cost you to hire a VA for ongoing services every month. Say you need 20 hours a week and you can't afford that, then essentially split the job, take what you can do and, and delegate the tasks that you really are terrible at that you, or you hate doing.

And as your business grows, you can delegate more and more until that role is completely off your plate. So, and then also, lastly, I will say, if you find yourself being really stingy with money or having money mindset issues, then I would encourage you to meet with a financial coach, a mindset coach, business coach, or even a therapist, if need be.

Because oftentimes when somebody is 5 an hour, it's because they either can't afford it or there are some money mindset issues. Yes, I agree. I agree. I. Agree. I'll just say that, like me and my husband got out of debt probably about six years ago now. And once I went through Dave Ramsey's program, we became financial coaches.

We understand that process of becoming like money, like the thought process behind money. And yeah, money cannot stay in your hand if you're holding onto it and you can't get anymore if you're holding onto it. So as soon as you are able to let it go and give abundantly, you get abundantly, just like cyclical sowing and reaping.

It's like biblical. It's just a thing. Absolutely. Yeah. And go find a coach, go to therapy, go do some healing work. I agree. That's a thing. That's a thing. Yes. Because, you know, sometimes it's people come by naturally they grew up in poverty or they grew up in a household where, you know, money was really, really tight.

And so that's understandable, but that doesn't mean that you have to stay there, and that you have to continue operating your business with those mindsets because it will it will affect you. I have seen instances where someone hires consistently. At a low rate. And so they have high turnover. They haven't quantified how much that turnover is costing them, and it would have actually cost them less money if they would have just paid a little bit higher normal average rate to begin with.

That's, that sucks. Yeah, that sucks. Ah, makes me like it like really makes my skin kind of crawl when I hear it people like Or, not even that they are hiring at that low wage. That makes me skin crawl, but like, that they're proud that they're only spending three dollars or five dollars. That's the part that I'm like, I would rather not, like I can't even get a meal from McDonald's and you're paying somebody less than that and you're, I can't, I just, yeah, that doesn't feel good to me.

No, it's, it's sad. It shows a lack of respect is really what it comes down to. So when I say exploitation, that's really what's behind it is a lack of character and a lack of respect for another human being. I love you saying that. I mean, I don't love that it's true, but I love that you're, you're saying that.

I think it's important. That's you know, it's respect is one of my values and one of my company values is mutual respect. So what do you think is one thing on your journey to entrepreneurship that has made you unstoppable?

I think, you know, like I had said that it's really a growth journey you know, my faith and even personal growth because. You may have heard that entrepreneurship is the biggest personal growth journey you will ever take and I subscribe and agree to that 100 percent and so I, you know, try to operate my business with integrity and, you know, I'm not perfect by any means, but I do my best and as I continue to grow, then the company grows and as I continue to, you know, adopt A bigger and better mindset and work through internal things, then I'm healthier.

My company is healthier. Yeah. I, I never heard that before, but I do agree. I've done more hard work internally in my five years in the online industry entrepreneurship than I have in my entire life. And I don't think that I would be able to serve people in a big way without doing that work. You know what I mean?

Like I can't help other people if I can't, if I'm not there, you can only take, they say you can only take people as far as you've gone. So I feel like we have to keep going further. Yes. If you want to make a bigger impact, then you've got to continually grow. If you want to continue growing your impact, then you have to continue to grow in order to reach higher and higher.

Levels in your business and you're giving, and you know, the lives you're able to change through the work that you're doing with clients and even in the lives of the team members that you hire. Yes. I agree. So what is your favorite Bible verse? And is it one, so I, I don't really put and why, but. This question is what is your favorite Bible verse and does this lead your life and or business or is this just a favorite Bible verse?

Well, it's hard to pick a favorite, but I really like lamentations three, 22 and 23 in the new American standard version. It says the Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. And as far as the why goes. I think my life and my full testimony really show the faithfulness of a God.

He's always been there, even in the darkest of times, even at times when it felt like he wasn't there, he actually is. And even when I wasn't faithful, he is still faithful. So he really has sustained me, empowered me, inspires me, you know, gives me new ideas. He provides, he has provided over and over and over again.

And it's impacted all areas of my life personally and in business. I love that. Cause like, he is the ultimate strategist. He's the ultimate creator. Like he, if he can create. Like the smallest thing, the atom, like you can literally create so many things. So like going back to him always and being like, show me God, how I'm supposed to do this business.

Like, sometimes I'm like, do I even need a coach? I mean, sometimes like I need like accountability, but. I get all my ideas from God, not from my coach. Really. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's amazing what God can kind of download to us. And when we ask him, you know, Hey, I need help in this particular area in my business, what do I do about this?

Or, Hey, I'm having a tough time with this particular team member. How should I go about this? You know he really is, you know, we call him the great counselor. The Bible calls him that. And he is. You know, yes, I love it. I'm so glad you were able to come on today. Is there any like Do you have that as a freebie?

Like, how can we get in touch with you? Give me all the deets. Yes. You can find me at wellness business services. I do primarily work with the health and wellness industry, but I do help other businesses with some of my services such as hiring. You can also find me on Facebook wellness business services.

I'm on LinkedIn at wellness dash business dash services. And you can actually sign up for my email list. I do have a freebie for you guys. It's a countdown. Checklist for the end of the year, some things that you may not be thinking about that you've either put on the back burner or just not thought about it all.

So that'll help you start: 2024

Of course. All right. Talk soon. All right. Bye. Bye