What I’ve Learned from Hiring my Own Personal Assistant

Oct 7

Need to hire a personal assistant? Follow these tips for a smooth process.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Middle (@hirethemiddle)

I built a business on saving people time by encouraging them to hire a part-time personal assistant. I knew a PA could be super helpful because I was one for so many years, but I didn’t fully realize just how life-changing working with a PA could be until I hired my own. Practice what you preach, right? I wish I had hired a PA sooner. I wish I hadn’t let myself get past my breaking point trying to manage it all. I know sometimes just the idea of getting started with a personal assistant feels overwhelming, so I hope these tips will help make it a little easier to get going.

Get started even if you don’t feel 100% ready.

Getting a meeting on my calendar before I felt fully prepared forced me to organize my thoughts and stop procrastinating. There will always be reasons you tell yourself it can wait, or you don’t really need the help yet, or you’ll do it when [insert finite goal]. Trust me, if you are thinking about needing a personal assistant, you already need one. You just have to dive in.

Make it easy to start.

Before I hired anyone, I kept a running list of all the tasks I could delegate, as they came up. That way, when we got started, I wasn’t scrambling to remember every little thing they could handle— and the more defined the scope of work, the more clearly you can discuss direct experience during interviews.

Take it one step further if you are hiring a PA for business support and create simple SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures): basically, a handbook own how to get things in your business done. This will provide clear, documented instructions for your PA to refer to. Yes, it’s a bit of upfront legwork, but it makes it so your PA doesn’t need to ask every little question once you get started.

Consider your unique needs.

When I moved from LA to NYC, managing clients and candidates in both time zones was difficult without working 14 hour days. I realized that even though I was based in New York, I needed to work with an LA-based assistant to help me manage west coast hours so I wouldn’t be stretched too thin. Take this example and apply it to your life— the right fit for your schedule, life, or business matters.

Let go of the small stuff.

This was a tough one for me! I’m Type-A and a bit of a control freak, and my assistant doesn’t do things exactly the way I would. I’ve learned that’s ok! She gets the job done consistently, reliably, and appropriately, even if she isn’t doing it in the exact same way I may have. And if she has a typo in 1 of 200 emails— I’ll live, and my business will go on.