How to Find Team Members

Examples

In this lesson, we are going to go over 3 of my favorite sources of team members and
how you can get started with them right now.

There are plenty of options out there for finding viable candidates for your agency.
However, most of them take too long, require too much of an investment, or simply
don’t produce the type of team member that you are looking for.

So how do I find my team members? I find them in three ways. Social media posts, my
“fresh connection” method, and my current network of family and friends.

So let’s work backwards through these. I put my current network of family and friends
last because it is not something that I rely on and it may not be your favorite method of
getting team members. While I am willing to bet that you already know someone that is
skilled in virtual assistant type tasks and would love to start working with your agency, it
can be tricky working with family and friends for the obvious reasons, so only go this
route if you know that you have excellent skills to be able to manage that relationship.

But let’s talk about my favorite way to get team members.

And that is, the “fresh connection” method. This method is something that you can do
anywhere online, but I have found that it works best on Linked In. Linked In is a business
and employment oriented social site that focuses on networking so it is the perfect
place to grow your network and build literally a list of potential team members that you
can contact when you need more help in your agency. On linked in, I have a simple
chat flow that I go through to connect with and start building a relationship with other
VAs. First, my connection message:

“Hi NAME! We are both virtual service providers and have 2 mutual connections. Wow! It
would be great to connect directly. ~Ari”

Adding a message to the connection request helps them know who you are and why
you want to connect and is the basis for growing your network fast.
Next, I’ll want to know a little bit about their business journey:

“Thanks NAME! How are you? I'd love to hear more about how you got into working in
the virtual world when you get the chance! Tell me a little about your journey.”

I also ask about their niche, what type of clients they like to work with, their favorite part
about working as a VA, and a few more. During this time, I also give them answers to all
of these questions about my business so that they can get to know me and what I am
about as well. I love connecting with newer VAs on LinkedIn because it gives me the
chance to help them in their business. We’ve all been there before!

And then there’s the post method.

This method is effective only if you have an immediate need for a new hire. If you are
gathering potential candidates for when you are ready down the road, use the fresh
connection method instead.

It is incredibly simple and straightforward and you can control the settings of who sees
the post as well. Share it with everyone on Linkedin or Facebook or wherever, or just
share it with your network.

*Action Steps*

1) Consider reaching out to your current network of family and friends to find team
members.

2) Use the "fresh connection method" to connect with at least 20 VAs this week!

3) Write your own hiring post to have when you start looking for team members actively.

4) Move on to the next lesson!