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Hiring a Personal Assistant - The Mr Green Experience (24)

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Recently I went on a month long holiday in Indonesia. Instead of relaxing, enjoying the sun and detoxing from work, all I was doing was stressing about work & personal tasks that I was falling behind on.

For years I had been thinking about hiring a personal assistant, but this trip was the tipping point. The day I arrived home I posted an ad looking for PA on Linkedin.

This thread is to share my experience with you guys, so when you come round to hiring one this journal might make your experience a lot easier!

Phase 1: Creating a PA Task List.

One of the reasons it took me so long to pull the trigger on hiring a PA was because I never believed I had enough work to keep them occupied. But once I started making a list, and kept adding to it everyday for a few weeks, it stacked up BIG time.

Disclaimer: I use the term "PA" because it's the most recognizable. But the role I came with is a lot more involved than a typical PA role. It's more of a cross between a PA & EA..."Director of Everything That Mr Green Needs Done" is spot on.

Anyway....

I broke the role into 3 main groups. Business admin, personal admin and business development.

Business admin:

• - Invoicing
• - Sending and following up payments
• - Help arrange business trips, meetings, and events
• - Monitor, organize and prioritize emails
• - Organize my calendar, remind me tasks
• - Carry out background research and present findings

Personal admin:

• - Run errands (post office, store pick ups, etc)
• - Manage cleaners, and utility staff
• - Plan holidays
• - Gift hunting/buying
• - Groceries

Business development:

• - Manage small website projects
• - Copywriting
• - Social media management (research, post and update company FB pages)
• - SEO management (manage staff and reports)
• - PPC management (manage staff and reports)

That should keep them busy for a while!

Phase 2: Find your PA!

This is the fun part...I'll get on to that soon.

I've always found Linkedin pretty useless until now. This is where you will be posting your job.

My first step was fleshing out my linkedin account. Since no serious PA will go for a job for someone who has a profile photo from their highschool prom, and a very empty profile. My account still needs work, but it was enough.

Now it's time to set up your job posting which will cost around $160 USD.

I put together a template based on my listing for you guys:

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Hello there!

Who are you? Where are you based? What do you? What does your company do?

In high level terms describe the role e.g looking for a righthand man/woman to simplfy your life and be your gatekeeper. Someone to micromanage you?

What kind of person are you looking for? Keep this description more personality based e.g, pro-active, independent, a good communicator.

The types of roles:

Business admin:
- Invoicing
- Sending and following up payments
- Help arrange business trips, meetings, and events
- Monitor, organize and prioritize emails
- Organize my calendar, remind me tasks
- Carry out background research and present findings

Personal admin:
- Run errands (post office, store pick ups, etc)
- Manage cleaners, and utility staff
- Plan holidays
- Gift hunting/buying
- Groceries

Business development:
- Manage small website projects
- Copywriting
- Social media management (research, post and update company FB pages)
- SEO management (manage staff and reports)
- PPC management (manage staff and reports)

Experience needed?

Education?

Work?

Language?

What you offer.

Flexible hours?

Flexible location?

Salary?

Any particular notes: Where should they be based? Any particulars you want them to add in their CVs?

After 8 days I received over 180 applicants. HOLY FRACK! I'm pretty sure this was due to the flexibilty of hours and location, as well as the decent pay...and obviously my amazing copy writing

I was blown away here, I had an insane range of interesting and overqualified candidates...I had PHD graduates in Siberian Shaminisn, ex-EAs of hugely successfully businessmen, lawyers, suregons, even the ex Assitant of Nato's Weapons Management Director, the works!

My next task was to cut the 180 applicant list to 20. Things I looked for were; did they attach a CV? Did they have relevant experience? Did they have a solid education? Did they jump around jobs?

Phase 3: The Quiz.

There was no way I was going to host 20 interviews. So I built a quiz that I sent to my top 20 picks.

I structured the quiz around actual tasks I needed done. I made sure that I included things that would trip people up if they didnt pay attention. As well as questions that wouldn't make sense to most people unless they researched certain terms. I made the quiz 5 questions (it took some candidates a couple of hours to complete), something that was long enough to scare off lazy people, but not too long that people would feel like I'm taking advantage.

I used docs.google.com/forms/ to create the quiz.

At the top of the quiz I wrote "*Please also explain your rationale and thought process for each answer." This is very important to see how your PA processes things.

Here are some of the questions I used:

1. I receive hundreds of emails every week. It takes a lot of time going through all of them. Many of them I don't need to respond to or even read. Some I need to respond to urgently. What do you suggest to make my inbox more efficient?
   
2. We are looking to hire a photographer to take a "hero shot" for a New Zealand luxury lodge. Please suggest 3-5 photographers.
   
3. I would like groceries to be managed by my PA. 70% of what I buy is the same every week. The other 30% changes week by week. I need to be able to add and remove things as easily as possible. How would you go about managing this task?
   
4. I travel to New Zealand every year for a few weeks. Using a Dutch cell carrier can get expensive quickly. What would you recommend?
   
5. I often host meetings in Amsterdam for colleagues who have flown in from overseas. I would like to find a cafe/restaurant that is ideal for a meeting, but not too fancy or corporate. Please suggest 3.

This quiz really made the winning candidates shine through.

Phase 4: The Interviews

I hosted 8 interviews in total.

At the start I gave more of an insight regarding what I do, and the role. I got the most out of the interviews by finding out what people wanted in the future, their goals, their ideal job.

These are some of the points I tried to figure out.

• - Is this something that geniunely interested them.
• - Is it aligned with their goals.
• - Did they have potential to grow into a bigger role.
• - Are they planning to stay in the country.
• - Could I work with them...(personality is key for me)

The more they talked the more insight I got. So a basic tip: Don't go on and on about what you do, and the role. Keep that part short, make the interview about them.

Some interviews went for 20 mins, some went for an hour. One candidate actually brought her husband along to the interview...which gave me an amazing sense of her independence...

After the interviews I let things simmer a few days to figure out the best fit. The good candidates would make sure they sent a follow up email.

In the end I chose a candidate who had a lot of experience running SEO & PPC campaigns for e-commerce sites in UK, as well experience in assitant roles. She is also looking to stay in marketing & advertising. So she was a good fit!

Phase Mr Green: Extra For Experts

You know I didn't go through this process without adding a tasty twist .

Linkedin is good. However, it's limited to those who use Linkedin, and those who are actively hunting for jobs. There are a tonne of people who don't use Linkedin, and a tonne of unhappy employees not actively looking for a change.

Facebook ads...why hello we meet again.

I created a Facebook Ad campaign based on the most engaged demographic to my Linkedin listing. This ended up being 24-36 yr olds in Amsterdam in marketing and/or advertising.

Now since I was looking to target people who weren't actively looking for a new job, I knew I had to take a new exciting approach.

This was my best performing ad:



Was it worth it? HELL yes!

I spent $50 on the campaign. It was shared around a lot. A whooping 5 out of my 8 interviewees came from this ad. As well as my final PA choice!

The Conclusion:

I strongly believe the investment of time and money I put into my "PA" will pay off 10 fold. The time she will save me, and the work she will get through is going to be massive. If you are on the edge of deciding whether to get a PA or not, why not give it a try.

Really the worst that can happen is that you invest some time and a little money to learn that a PA is not quite right for you.

The best case scenario is you have a right hand man/woman that will save you, time, money and stress!

Let me know if you have any questions!

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Awesome ad! Very ingenious.

Did you daypart it? I wonder if you showed the ad during "work hours", if that's a red flag. Could mean they're the type of people who browse fb when they shouldn't be. But then again, if they're unemployed, I guess it's a non-signal.

Also, before committing to the hire, you should run a pre-employment assessment test like Caliper (link). Costs around $400 or so last time I checked. This could be a good filter that could save for much headache down the road in the case of a mis-hire.

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Bookmarked! Thank you !

Would you recommend anyone getting a VA/PA for running campaigns and managing the research of offers? Assuming someone has the work load and money to hire a VA/PA. It's so easy for someone to just steal your successful campaigns in this business but something good to know.

Oh and this...

just lol

Aris

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Regarding running campaigns, personally I would be a lot more relaxed with a PA working along side me, then a VA managing my campaigns on the other side of the world.

It is notoriously hard to find a solo media buyer who has all skills, and will stay loyal. It's a lot more manageable if you get a couple of people to run different parts of the puzzle. To mitigate risk you don't have to give one person the entire set up of your campaigns, you can leave out certain processes.

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I didn't day-part because the targeting was so broad, but you make an interesting point! Will check out Caliper too!

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Sweet!

What would be your take on "split-testing" your PA? I tend to do that with VAs, wonder how it'd impact in-person types of positions.

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Mr. Green,
What's the real reason you targeted women 24-36???

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Lol no.

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What do you mean by split-testing? Giving them the same tasks to start with at the beginning? I guess that's what the quiz was to help achieve. I could be wrong but I think it would be hard to get people in for a 2-3 week trial period. Would love to hear if anyone has experience doing that with a PA.

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How do you pay her?
Is it legal in The Netherlands to just give someone €15/hour without actually hiring them and put them on a payroll?

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I'm hiring her with on a "zero hour" contract.

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But you still need insurance and to pay tax etc right?
When I want to hire someone and they earn €15/hour , I costs me almost €30,- with all the taxes and insurance that I need to pay.

They also get vacation money and even if they are sick you need to pay some.
Translate this Dutch site: https://www.ondernemenmetpersoneel.n...contract-.html

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That's a really fantastic job ad. Not surprised you got great results from it!

Even the slightest hint of humour in a job ad makes it stand out so far it's ridiculous.

I assume the person you eventually hired was not the PhD in Shamanism? I'm sure he/she would have brought a lot of spirit(s) to the role...

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I always thought of PA's like Tony Stark's Pepper but your post made me re-think thing, this could actually be super fun and useful too!!

Brb adding "hire a PA who follows me around and calls me 'boss' all day long" to my bucket list..

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I recently started looking for a PA to fill a similar role as yours and apparently, I've been doing it all wrong! I love the idea of targeting candidates via FB. Genius! Thanks for the share.

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Now this is an awesome post Mr. Green!

Valuable. Hands on.

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Great post Mr. Green! Would be awesome if you could make follow-up posts after maybe one, three and six months or so from now, to give us insights into what you learned and what you would do different if you started hiring all over again.

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I don't get those corporate sites like Caliper mentioned above https://www.calipercorp.com/products...liper-profile/ --- where you guys see a buy link.

If there was easy pay $400 and buy that test link, they'd made a sale. So much corporate greatness that they forgot to make a sale

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Just food for thought on this lov-e-ly posty by Greenie....

While he did a very creative job of hiring...HR/recruiting is a tiresome long process that to be really done "da best way" requires time, and tbh as marketers or super awesome biz dudes our time is $xxx,xxx/hr AMIRIGHT?

So Va'in the PA hirin' while comes at a cost can offer benefits...and yes for those of you playing along at home...I am not talking out my ass...this is my method and I find it works well for me/biz(s) we run...

My first few hires came from a process similar to Green...and while I had a gem that I hired and dud that didn't work out as well, I wanted a simpler system/process...so contacted a local recruiting company....mind you I am a stupid americana living in a foreign country running a local biz so had hurdles I had to overcome or should i say expectations...as work and work ethics of countries vary eg. while in France they may riot on you if you ask for just 1hr of overtime...in many asian countries getting them to take a day off is the hard part...

The recruiting company became the "layer" I needed to both cut down on time spent hiring...and just a goto for local advice....this is a very valuable asset when you are trying to price out costs of hiring as any good recruiter can give you some very unbiased local pricing for said task/job/position...

Using a recruiter has other bennys as well, it establishes you as a "valid" biz, rather than a 1 man show...kinda like the linkedin...as I had a similar experience to Green as well on one hire prior to the recruiter...one girl brought her brother along to make sure we were legit...having a recruiter makes you see far less family members...

but the biggest aspect of having a recruiting company is 2 key points that make your life as da boss easy peasy...

1) Job posting and prescreening....generally speaking paying for a posting costs money and you can "save" in most cases at the recruiter has better rates with the local job listing(this is offset by the other fees they charge but figured I'd share anyways)

PRESCREENIN' - the amount of time this saves you is huge...some postings have over 100+ applicants ...filtering thru that is time consuming....then after, the filter validating CV's/resumes again major time consuming process...and people fake cv's all the time....and my recruiter calls most recent employer as well(if the applicant allows this)...and extra step but a huge one...as you can really get to the bottom of why they left or overall work ethic...while some former employers may say little ...most will offer a gem or two about the employee like...."Blah...great employee always put the biz first"...it makes ranking the interviewees easier getting feedback like this...

Setting up interviews - again they handle this no need to juggle shit just tell them when your available and they handle it....

Found the perfecto PA with the huge tities and types 100 wpm....loves working....and is single...? Recruiters handle drafting up offer letter..etc again a load off more time for clubbin, golfing, boatin', drinking, fucking...or really any other 'ing you wish to do as you saved time...

I hope you by now see the time saving to you as mr biz dude...(time most valuable asset not money, sooner ye learn dis the better)

2) here is the bit that depending upon the agency(and possibly geo) is like FWB(friend with benefits) ....many agencies can temp these people for you OR hold the contract....

wtf does that mena polar...sounds like bacon bs....

..lets me explainz

Hiring an employee is a risk filled adventure depending upon the geo...state...etc...laws for employees almost always favor the employee and its a biz riskto you ...some places are great, hire and fire at will...(many states as an example have this rule) .... but as an example where i live now...its a very complicated process to let an employee go EVEN during a probationary period, documentation lots of it...hr wise...

what the recruiter can do is provide that "layer" again minimising your biz risk...by holding the contract ...you actually have a contract with the recruiting company which in 99999% of the time favours you and your biz....they handle allthe HR....payroll all that crap...they just invoice you....its just that simple....

yes of course you could just contract to the employee directly but in many geo's there are rules to this....them "working" for the recruiting company then tempin' contracting to you...eliminates this or most of it....(check local labor laws as milage can vary)

costs polar?

well yes you will always pay more...but I find I get a much more qualified applicant, far less of my time is wasted...and in the end this "rarely" doesn't work out better for me and the biz...


Everyones milage will vary on this...I just as always like to give a different view point...as it may help many of you to grow faster by spending more of your time on things that matter more/or your better skilled at...

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hey mr. green did you cloak that facebook ad? it seems like "batman" approves of that position

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Na mate, there were zero issues with approvals.

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Fantastic post, just used this myself and hiring the PA today. Took 20 days for the whole process, but looks like it's going to pay off big time

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Goodluck with the new hire! How many responses did you get?

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Hello, Mr. Green,

Amazing article, lots of useful information!
Maybe you can recommend someone, who has experience in working with cj.com? We started our affiliate program(travel category) almost 2 months ago, but nothing is happening. More info here: https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...-t-work!-HELP!
So we're looking for a manager, who can improve our offers and administrate all the action in cj.com.

If anyone who's interested in it, please contact me by email: vilius@baltictours.com or PM here.

Regards,
Vilius

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