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Happy Sunday to all my Side Hustlers!

Today, I have something special for you.

Today, I'm going to show you my step-by-step process for finding world-class virtual assistants for just $3-4 per hour.

I'm talking about highly skilled VAs that can tackle just about every task in your business - from data entry to customer service to operations.

And as a special bonus for Side Hustle Steroid subscribers, I'm also giving away my hiring docs & templates.

These are the exact processes & templates that have been used to hire over 250 virtual assistants over the last 5 years.

I'm telling you, the information in today's newsletter is going to change your life. It's going to:

• Allow you to start outsourcing your boring, repetitive tasks to highly-skilled virtual assistants.
• Free up your time to focus on the parts of your business that you're good at and that you enjoy most.
• Give you more time to spend with friends & family.
• Help you build a truly passive income stream.

But for this to work, you're going to have to step outside your comfort zone.

I know that hiring might be scary. I know that investing $500-$600 per month might be scary. I know that handing over part of your business to someone else might be scary.

But I want you to take a leap of faith and do it anyway.

If you follow the steps I've outlined below, you'll have a virtual assistant within 1-2 weeks and you'll be on your way to building a side hustle that runs without you.

Here's What We're Going to Learn



• How to write an exceptional job post that attracts 30-70 qualified applicants within 2 days
• How to use a test project to quickly identify the top 3-5 applicants
• The 3-step interview process that will make it completely obvious which applicant is the best

Ready to hire a virtual assistant and reclaim your time? Let's dive in!

Step 1: Attract as Many Applicants as Possible

If you want to hire the best virtual assistant you need to cast a wide net.

To do this you need to figure out where the most talented virtual assistants hang out online, then you need to convince them to apply for your job.

Here's what you do:

1. Go to onlinejobs.ph and set up an account.
   
   This is the best job board for hiring virtual assistants.
   
   When you set up your account, make sure you select their Pro Plan for $69/month. It's a little pricey but don't worry, you'll only pay for one month. As soon as you find your VA, you can cancel your paid plan.
   
   
2. Write & post a job description.
   
   For this, I recommend including:
   
3. Background info on your business - what you do, growth goals, and any company values.
4. A clear description of the tasks that the virtual assistant will be responsible for on a daily basis.
5. Other job details like salary, number of work hours per week, policies for sick/vacation time & holiday pay, and any other relevant job perks.
   
   

Remember, you are competing against other employers to hire the most talented virtual assistants so if you want to attract top talentm you need to write an enticing job description.

Pro Tip #1: To see what type of salaries and perks other employers are offering, you can browse through current job listings on onlinejobs.ph. This will help you create a competitive job listing of your own.

Pro Tip #2: To write your job description more quickly you can steal bits and pieces from the best current job listings on onlinejobs.ph or you can try using chat.openai.com to write your job description. If you're not familiar with chat.openai.com, it's a free artificial intelligence program and it will completely blow your mind.

Here is an example of a prompt I entered into chat.openai along with the resulting job description.

2. Narrow Down the Applicant List with a Test Project

Within a couple of days, you should have 30-70 qualified job applicants. Now you need to narrow down the list.

Most people start by sending their applicants a written questionnaire to learn more about their skills and experiences.

But doing that would require you to read 30-70 questionnaires. And all I gotta say about that is...

So instead, we're going to start with a test project. 

The test project should take no more than 15 minutes to complete and it should resemble a task that they will be responsible for if they end up being hired.

The benefits of doing a test project are that:

• It weeds out lazy applicants - typically only about half of the applicants will complete the test project
• It allows you to test their skills and see who is willing to go above and beyond.
• It allows you to test their attention to detail - I usually include a very small detail in the instructions. Something obscure like "email me your test project within 48 hours and write the email subject line in all CAPS"

If you create a good test project, you should be able to immediately identify the top 3-5 applicants.

Here is the test project template that I use. All you have to do is make a few tweaks depending on the type of skills you want to test for.

Pro Tip: You can do longer & complex test projects too but if your test project is going to take longer than 15-20 minutes I would recommend making it a paid test project. Otherwise, you'll end up losing too many good candidates.

3. Identify the Top Applicant

Now it's time to get to know the remaining applicants.

To do this, we're going to follow my 3-Step Interview Process which includes a written questionnaire, an employee profile review, and a video interview.

By the time you're done with these three things, it will be glaringly obvious who the best person for the job is.

The Written Questionnaire
Send each of the remaining applicants a written questionnaire. The purpose of this is to get a better understanding of their skills, professional/personal goals, previous work experience, and English writing skills.

This is also another great opportunity to test their attention to detail by including an obscure detail in the instructions.

I really can't overemphasize how important it is to find a virtual assistant that demonstrates the ability to follow instructions. In fact, it is probably the #1 quality I look for in a virtual assistant.

Here is my written questionnaire template. Tweak it to fit your specific situation and you'll be ready to go.

Review Onlinejobs.ph Profiles
If you navigate back to onlinejobs.ph you'll be able to view each of your applicants' employee profiles. Their profile will include their list of skills, past work experiences, and reviews from any past employers.

Your goal here is to identify red flags. Do they have negative reviews? Are there discrepancies between their profile and their written questionnaire answers? Are there any important skills that they are lacking?

Take note of everything so you can ask them about it during the video interview.

The Video Interview
At this point, you should have a pretty good idea of who you want to hire but you should still do a live video interview with the top remaining applicants.

The video interview allows you to:

1. Make sure they are the person in their profile picture.
2. Make sure their computer and internet speeds are good enough to handle a video call.
3. Test their English speaking skills (note: They might have a strong accent. That is OK. It's much more important that they can understand you and follow your verbal instructions).
4. Address any red flags that you found or concerns that you have.
5. Get to know them on a personal level and determine if you would enjoy working together. I typically ask them about their families, hobbies, interests & goals.

Pro Tip: When you are scheduling the video interviews, keep in mind that the Philippines is 13 hours ahead of the East Coast time zone in the US. If you can, try to find an interview time that does not require them to wake up in the middle of the night.

Here are the questions that I usually ask during live interviews

4. Making the Hire

Now it's time to do a final review of the remaining applicants and decide who you want to hire. Typically the best applicant is pretty clear but if you're having trouble deciding I would recommend that you go with your gut.

I find that gut instincts rarely let me down in these situations.

Once you decide on a winner, you'll want to send them a job offer. Here is my job offer template to help you get started.

You'll also want to let the other applicants know that they did not get the job. If you had applicants who you really liked, I would try to leave the door open to hiring them in the future.

Tell them you'd like their contact information in case you hire again in the future or in case your new hire doesn't end up working out. Most applicants will gladly agree to this.

What's Next?

First, you celebrate because you now have an exceptional virtual assistant and you're well on your way to building a passive income side hustle.

After that, you need to start training your virtual assistant. You need to create systems & processes to ensure that your virtual assistant consistently performs at the highest level.

I'll share my training secrets and my favorite outsourcing tools in next week's Side Hustle Steroids newsletter.

Have a great week ahead!

Eric

P.S. I usually charge a decent chunk of money for the hiring docs & templates that I'm including in this newsletter. If you can do me a favor and not share them with non-subscribers, I'd be grateful.