How To Use Upwork for Virtual Assistants

It’s no secret Virtual Assistants have become immensely popular in the past few years. With more and more businesses shifting to remote work, VAs have become an indispensable asset to large companies and solopreneurs alike. Numerous hiring websites and VA agencies were founded specifically to address the growing demand for remote workers, but few continue to be as successful as Upwork.

In this article, you’ll learn why Upwork is the go-to website for clients who want to hire a Virtual Assistant, how the system functions, and what terms and pricing plans this platform offers.

Why Upwork?

Upwork has been the biggest hiring platform for freelancers and remote workers for decades—the recent pandemic has only made the number of users soar.

The fundamentals of finding VAs on Upwork are simple to grasp—you post a job description and a price range and then either invite specific VAs whose skills you find appropriate to apply to your ad. Alternatively, you can turn job post visibility on to enable all interested candidates to submit applications. 

Once you pick the VA you want to hire, you send them a contract that defines the hours, rate, and deadline. The platform has built-in features that enable you to message, video chat, and interview applicants.

Virtual Assistant Skills

Virtual Assistants offer a wide range of services—from SEO to general administrative tasks, VAs have evolved so much they can now cater to the specific needs of your company, be it a startup, a small enterprise, or a large business.

Here are just some of the tasks and responsibilities you can outsource to a VA:

• Bookkeeping and payroll—Accounting, checking and tracking deliverables, chasing down payments, creating forms, reports, and invoices
• Database building, entry, and updates—Adding and updating CRM contacts, creating and managing spreadsheets, removing duplicate entries, handling access control
• Calendar management—Organizing the to-do list, setting up reminders, planning and booking travel arrangements, scheduling meetings and appointments
• Writing and editing—Copywriting, content writing, guest posting, promoting articles, creating email newsletters, writing press releases
• SEO and web marketing strategy development—Analyzing website analytics, performing detailed competitor analysis, executing keyword research, submitting sitemaps, building links, creating landing pages, Google Analytics and traffic report analysis
• Graphic design and photo/video editing—Installing powerpress, designing the website, editing photos and videos, creating logos, banners, infographics, and eBook covers
• Customer service—Checking voicemail, answering calls, categorizing emails, following up with leads, handling customer questions, issues, and complaints

Upwork Virtual Assistant Contract

Upwork asks that you determine upfront the nature of the contract and how you intend to pay the VA. You can choose between:

1. Hourly contract
2. Fixed-price contract

VAs who are paid on an hourly basis work using the Upwork Desktop App which enables you to log in to their Work Diary and check their progress. You will be billed on a weekly basis.

Upwork also enables you to:

• Dispute hours
• Set a weekly limit on billable hours
• Engage manual time billing—it enables your VA to add manual time to their Work Diary and bill you for it, an option mostly used for projects that require offline work

If you opt for the fixed-price contract, you and the VA will determine clear project milestones and associated deadlines. You will pay them by making deposits into an escrow account to be released at the completion of a milestone or the entire project.

Upwork has payment protections in place to ensure both you and the Virtual Assistant you hire are secured.

Billing Methods

Before taking on a VA, you have to prove you can pay them by adding a billing method to your Upwork account. The platform allows you three billing method types:

1. Credit card—Visa, Discover, MasterCard, Diners Club, Diners Club International, American Express, and prepaid cards
2. PayPal—Only verified and linked accounts
3. Bank account

Upwork recommends you add more than one method in case a transaction fails.

Membership Plans

Depending on your business goals and the size of your company, you can choose one of the three subscription plans:

1. Upwork Basic—designed for small companies
2. Upwork Plus—designed for teams
3. Upwork Enterprise—designed for large companies

Consult the following table for more information on the features each plan offers:

The Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant

The reasons to hire a VA are manifold, but mostly come down to two essential commodities—time and money. Virtual Assistants save you both.

The cost of VAs varies depending on several factors, such as their education, experience, skillset, and geographic location. The average salary of Virtual Assistants is equally difficult to pinpoint since it heavily depends on the niche they work in, their industry-specific knowledge, and their country of residence. 

According to ZipRecruiter, U.S.-based VAs annually make $40,000. Since you’re paying Virtual Assistants only for the hours worked, they’re a much more cost-effective option than full-time employees for a wide variety of tasks that don’t require a full 8-hour, 5-day workweek to complete. 

Another argument in favor of Virtual Assistants is that you don’t have to provide office space or expensive equipment, or pay any of the expensive benefits—such as PTO, sick leave, insurance, or even professional tax.

Delegating tasks to a VA saves you a ton of time. They can take care of all the dull, time-consuming everyday functions that cost you so many hours and clutter your schedule. Outsourcing work will free up your schedule and enable you and your team to focus on high-value activities.

Expert Tips for Finding Your Ideal Virtual Assistant

Finding a competent remote worker can be challenging, especially if your search expands globally. Here are some helpful rules of thumb you should stick to when recruiting VAs:

• Document the exact tasks you want to outsource—Regardless of the industry you work in, you should delegate certain functions to a VA. They typically include time-consuming tasks and the ones neither you nor your staff are proficient in.
• Communicate these tasks in the job description—All candidates who read your job post should know the exact duties and daily responsibilities they’ll be expected to perform. You should also include some background information on your organization, as well as a list of any tools or software the candidates have to be proficient in.
• Don’t pick the VA with the lowest hourly rate—Virtual Assistants who bring value to a business know their worth and will charge it accordingly. Applicants who offer services at a below-average rate are almost guaranteed to lack inexperience and only want to make a quick buck for a slapdash job.
• Test every candidate—The test should be representative of the daily tasks you want a VA to perform. It will help you evaluate the individual skills of each candidate and vet underqualified ones, thus significantly increasing your chances of finding a suitable VA.
• Ask for verifiable references—A candidate may embellish their portfolio or have a more experienced friend complete the mock test. The surefire way to determine whether they are as skillful as they appear on paper is to read references and testimonials from their former clients. Not only will they give you an insight into the VA’s competencies but also a glimpse of their personality and work ethic.
• Evaluate a large pool of candidates—The best way to ensure you’ll hire a Virtual Assistant who meets your criteria is to evaluate as many applicants as possible.

Hire Experienced Virtual Assistants Faster, at Any Price Point

Manually reviewing a hundred VA applications is a logistical nightmare. After a while, all the applications start to blur together and look the same to you. This process is also time-consuming and can significantly drain your resources, especially if it becomes prolonged. All the while, your business is suffering—unread emails pile up, phone calls go unanswered, and daily business operations get neglected.

The only failsafe way to make sure you recruit a competent VA fast is to use a hiring funnel. Workello can help you there—we’ve preconfigured everything so you can set up a fully automated hiring funnel in only 3 minutes!

Our funnel automates every phase of the recruitment, from initial stages onward! It gives you a clearly laid out dashboard you can consult to track all candidates and see which recruitment stage they’re in. Testing, interview scheduling, and correspondence are all automated, saving you a ton of time. You can reject bad candidates with good portfolios in a single click.

Sign up for Workello today to test 5 VAs on the house!