Onboarding them properly
Where most people drop the ball. Looms, tools, the folder system, and the first-week structure I use every time.
This is where most people fail. They hire, then dump. No context, no tools, no structure. Then they wonder why the VA “didn’t work out” after 3 weeks.
Onboarding properly takes about 4 hours of your time in week one. Do it once, do it well, and they stick for years.
The four-part onboarding
Give them context — record one Loom
10 minutes of recording. Worth 100 hours of training over their tenure.
Cover:
- Who I am, how I work, what time zone I’m in
- What the business does and who we serve
- How I like to communicate — written, async-first, Slack for urgent
- What “done” looks like for the role
- The things I care about most (deadlines, brand voice, accuracy)
Save the Loom. Send it to every future hire on day one.
Give them tools — set up access on day one
Don’t make them chase you for logins. Have it all ready before they start.
Admin VA gets: Gmail/Workspace, HubSpot/CRM, Xero, Slack, Notion, password manager, calendar access.
Marketing VA gets: Canva, CapCut, Metricool, Meta Business Suite, Google Drive, Notion, Slack.
Use a password manager (1Password, Bitwarden) and share via vaults — never paste passwords in Slack.
Give them structure — week-one plan
Don’t give them “your job” on day one. Start small.
- Day 1: watch the Loom, set up tools, send back a Loom confirming access works.
- Day 2–3: shadow you. They watch you do 2–3 tasks. You narrate as you go.
- Day 4–5: they do those same 2–3 tasks. You review and feedback at end of day.
- Week 2: they own those tasks. Add 2 more.
- Week 4: 30-minute check-in. What’s working, what’s not, what to add.
Give them feedback — early and often
The first 2 weeks are calibration. Give direct feedback with examples — not vibes.
“The caption was solid. The hook needs to be 6 words max. Like the one we used last Tuesday.”
Don’t bottle it up and dump three weeks of feedback in one call. Small corrections daily, big corrections weekly.
The communication rhythm
- Daily: a one-line Slack “here’s what I’m on today” from them at the start of their day.
- Weekly: 15-minute Friday review. What got done, blockers, next week.
- Monthly: 30-minute “how are you finding this” check-in. Roles drift — keep it tuned.