Part of the being a member of the wonderful community at AssistU means paying things forward.  Remarkably, the ability to pay things forward includes offering an internship to a newer VA or even a seasoned VA who wants experience in a new area.  Not only does this help the other VA acquire new skills an experiences, it can help me get more done in my practice.  It’s totally a win-win.

I have been fortunate enough to be an intern for two amazing people, Larissa Parks in 2011 and Anastacia Brice in 2012.  I learned something new from each of them and the relationship and acquired skills benefited my clients and my practice in many ways.  Currently I am working with my very first intern on various things that she wanted to experience and learn.  We finish together in November, and I am looking forward to offering another internship right after the first of the year.  I am going to be searching for a VA who wants experience being an assistant to another VA… and with the intention of finding someone who might just want to stay on as my VA!

Now, hosting an internship is work.  Honestly, if a VA does it right (in my opinion) it is as much or more work as doing the tasks that are delegated myself.  It is meant to be a learning experience and to make it rewarding, time goes in on the host’s part to do just that.  However, I think that it is so much more than that in multiple ways.

  • I get the experience of delegating, which makes me a better VA to my clients when they are struggling with delegation.
  • I grow in a new relationship, which is eye-opening and rewarding in its own way.
  • We collaborate, which brings more to each thing I accomplish than I could ever bring to the table on my own.
  • I get to help someone else learn something new while growing at the same time. There are actually more reasons, but these are four important ones.
  • Our community grows stronger with these types of experiences.

With my CPVA status there are a number of new things I need to track and manage for certification.  In addition, I really want to begin doing some things with my business that I have not had time to manage in the past… like creating stand-alone products and engaging more on my blog and in social media.

Sound confusing? After all, as a VA myself I do these things for my clients every day.  Exactly!  I need a VA to help me with my day-to-day business stuff that I can’t get to because I’m always so busy helping my clients.  Sound familiar?

I want to take you on my journey of posting my new internship and beginning the process of finding my own VA in hopes that it may help you understand what a VA can do for you and the best way to figure out then delegate those tasks. So today is part one of a series on finding a VA.

Step 1 on my path? Meet with my business coach, talk over the opportunity, expectations, volume of work, delegatability, and the approach I will take for posting the internship.

Have you been thinking about getting your own VA?  I would love to hear about your concerns here so I can address them in the weeks to come.