When Nikolay Piriankov began searching for a virtual assistant, he was focused on making sure he could find someone that had defined strengths that he could use to his companies advantage. When he met his current VA, Gurjit, he had no idea the level of expertise he would soon bring to the table. Learn more about Nikolay's experiences in hiring an incredibly valuable virtual assistant for his team in our interview with him below:
What were you struggling with in your business that led you to begin working with a virtual assistant?
Initially we started looking for a virtual assistant to help out with tasks like calendar management, managing expenses and basic market research - and we thought if we found the right person we could delegate more work to them based on their strengths. So we started our search for a VA thinking we’d like to work with someone who did only about 10-12 hours per week.
Tell us a little bit about what you have delegated and how you work together?
We went through two VA's before I hired Gurjit. I interviewed a bunch of people and he really stood out. As he is studying computer science, soon we found we could delegate to him a lot more than just basic tasks and now, Gurjit is involved in web development, email template creation, working with data in Salesforce, working with reports, pricing and researching our mystery shopping our competitors.
How has working with a virtual assistant supported your business, and you personally?
Gurjit has worked with us for about three years now and he has integrated with the entire team, helping me as well as some of my other colleagues. By visiting us, about once a year, we also ensure he feels as a part of our team.
What differences have you noticed in your business since you began working with a virtual assistant?
We realized that working with people who are remote is a viable option which can deliver better value than hiring locally. The hiring process is slow and the number of people that need to be screened may be far more than in a local hiring process, but it is rewarding if you hire the right person. Since we hired Gurjit our attitude toward hiring remotely and even working remotely has changed and now we also have a technology and marketing team in Bulgaria, thanks to the example he set.
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs seeking virtual assistants?
Take your time when hiring, make sure the work you give your VA helps you, but also give them as much intellectually stimulating work as possible. My initial gut feeling was to delegate on tasks I did not enjoy, often those that were monotonous and boring. I quickly found that I could delegate some of this work to our VA, as long as he (or she) also felt that a large part of their other work was rewarding or stimulating. When I realized this and we started investing into our VA, by training them and integrating them into our business, this is when we started getting much better results out of working together.
Want to learn more about Nikolay and his business? Visit his website here.
Looking to hire your own virtual assistant? Start here!
Nikolay Piriankov is the co-owner of Taylor & Hart (formerly Rare Pink), expertly crafted custom jewelry. You can keep up with Nikolay and his business via Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram!
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