How to Hire a Personal Assistant

Your business is growing, and it's becoming more difficult to attend to paperwork, set up meetings and return every phone call. It may be time for you to hire a personal assistant, but before you hire anyone, consider the following suggestions.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

1. Devise a job description for your personal assistant. This description should be detailed and clearly state your needs. Include all the daily tasks that consume your time without producing any immediate return.

2. Place a classified ad in the "Help Wanted" section of your newspaper. Require that each candidate send a resume with a cover letter to a P.O. box. Study the resumes for related experience as well as the quality of the resume itself. Consider it your personal assistant's first assignment.

3. Pull from unexpected candidate pools. Consider the applicants based on their work experience, but don't immediately reject college students, retirees or recent grads. College students or recent grads may be suitable if their education relates to the work you do. Retirees may bring an invaluable life experience and maturity to the role.

4. Schedule an interview. The first interview is your opportunity to evaluate the candidate's personality, to see how he or she thinks and reacts. You can discover if the resume accurately represents the person.

5. Trim the list of candidates for a second interview. Consider having a partner, co-worker or employee sit in to provide objective feedback. Be prepared to discuss salary, hours and benefits in more detail.

6. Once you're ready to offer someone the job, evaluate the candidate's computer skills. In today's marketplace, the ability to navigate certain computer software programs and the Internet may be essential to your success. Make sure the candidate meets your standards.

7. Make the offer for a trial period. Hiring a personal assistant is much like starting a new relationship. Until you start working together daily, you won't know if your styles mesh. Consider hiring your new personal assistant for a three-month probationary period.