The Web Wrangler

Earlier today, Michelle Goodman at The Anti 9 to 5 Guide put out a call for questions about how to take your business to the next level. In that post, a commenter mentioned that they’d like to hire a virtual assistant, but they don’t know where to start. That seemed to me like a perfect topic for kicking off my new blog.

Hiring a VA isn’t complicated at all. Once you’ve found one you think you might like to work with, you simply contact them and tell them what you need. If you’d like to get to know them better before committing to work with them, you can usually set up an interview, either by e-mail, phone or online chat. If the VA is good at their job, they’ll handle the specifics and tailor the meeting to your needs and level of technological know-how. Use the interview to not only determine the VA’s skills, policies and procedures, but also to gauge as best you can their personality and work ethic, to make sure that they’re a good fit for a potential long-term working relationship.

Once you’ve selected a VA and agreed to hire them, they’ll probably send you a contract or some form of agreement. Like me, many VAs protect their bottom line by requiring some form of payment up front. Your VA should go over all of that with you in the interview. When the time comes to pay the fee, you should receive an invoice and instructions for payment. Just follow the instructions, and you’re home free.

What about taxes? Before I answer that question, I should disclaim loudly that I am in no way a tax expert, so you should double check this information with your tax preparer. That said, a virtual assistant is an independent contractor (the same goes for a web designer, consultant, writer or any other freelancer you might hire) and as such is responsible for managing her own taxes. You don’t need to withhold anything or file anything with the IRS. To my understanding, if you hire a VA to do contract work for your company, she’ll need to submit a W-9 before she begins, and you’ll need to supply her with a 1099 at the end of the year; but if you are an individual hiring a VA for yourself, none of that paperwork is necessary. Just keep track of your invoices and receipts, and you can still write off everything you pay for VA services.

If anybody reading this knows something about taxes and paperwork that I don’t, please feel free to correct me in the comments.