Why you need a Personal Assistant

1. Give yourself more free time
2. Focus on the creative or money-making
3. If you can afford $150 a month, you can afford a personal assistant

What kind of work can an Assistant do for you?

• [ ] Bookings: flights, restaurants, organise events, appointments, beauty e.g. flight change policy
• [ ] Research: Internet providers, Best bank accounts, local tennis classes, childcare, visa requirements, kids activities, photo album service, laundry pickup, passport renewal process
• [ ] Accounts: airmiles accounts for whole family, second hand clothes listings
• [ ] Purchases: food shopping based on a recipe list, utilities bills gift purchases, ordering and sending birthday cards, refund policies
• [ ] Business: scheduling, website updates, branded swag, accounting, tracking of bills and invoices, customer service

How to find a Personal Assistant

• Local Social Media groups

  • Pro: great for event hosting or local project needs
  • Cons: no third party so you have to be mindful of due diligence and contract correctly to protect both parties

• Agencies

  • Pros: curated so first candidate is usually a fit, great if you have specific needs e.g. languages
  • Cons: a little pricier, 1 month lock in

• Upwork

  • Pros: huge pool of people, upwork manages all the contracting and payments. You can do a trial week.
  • Cons: you need to search and interview quite a few people before you find a fit

  Tips for a great collaboration with a personal assistant

  • 👏 Excellent 👏 pay 👏— Do your research on pay: make sure you are paying a more than fair wage!
  • Communication— choose your primary Communication channel and give guidance for escalations. We use:
    • Trello for project management
    • Slack for ad hoc communication
    • WhatsApp calls for time-sensitive requests
  • Hours— set the number of hours per week you want support (I recommend starting with 5, I've ramped up to 10 now). Also decide if the hours will be spread ad hoc as 15 minute increments, or is it a set hour per day? Is it weekdays only or some work is expected on weekends?
  • Other key tools:
    • Password manager— share your logins and financial information via LastPass or another password manager.
    • Skype— Skype is the best way to make international calls. Your personal assistant can buy credit with your card and it lasts very long.
    • Dedicated email— buy a URL via a website like GoDaddy and get an email for it. Choose a title for your Assistant to use with that email. We use Family Office Manager since the focus is mainly on our family life (as opposed to work life).
  • Key skills:
    • Delegation— remember to give all the key information and indications. Don't be surprised if your Personal Assistant misunderstood because you omitted key information!
    • Patience & training— your personal assistant is a team member, you'll need to train them up. Make sure they have all the information and directives. I recommend having quick planning calls the first weeks to walk through the projects assignes so you get to know eachother and your personal assistant can ask the questions required for a project.
    • Reward and appreciate— say please and thank you a lot. Written communication lacks nuance and tone, overindex on politeness and gratitude. If performance has been amazing, give a bonus !