What's the Real Process for an MSP to Hire & Onboard a Virtual Assistant to Buy Back Time?

"How can I actually buy back my time?" It's a question on the mind of nearly every Managed Service Provider (MSP) owner. You've heard about delegating tasks, hiring virtual assistants (VAs), and the promise of a freed-up calendar. But what does that process really look like, especially when working with a specialized service? If you're an MSP founder or manager swamped with tasks like email responses, lead funnel management, meeting setups, and CRM hygiene, you know these are vital but can consume your strategic time.

This article draws insights from part two of a special mini-series on "Buying Back Your Time" featured on the Cyber Confidential podcast. In this episode, host Michael continued to share his firsthand experience of hiring a Virtual Assistant through Randy Rosales's company, Freelance Latin America, detailing the crucial first month of onboarding and SOP development. Let's walk through the actual steps Michael took, combined with expert insights from Randy, to demystify the process for your MSP.

The Core Question: What's the Hiring & Onboarding Journey Like?

Following up on the initial decision-making discussed in part one of the series, Michael embarked on this journey to buy back his time, aiming to fill a role blending executive assistant and business development assistant duties. His experience provides a transparent look at what MSPs can expect during the hiring and critical early onboarding phases.

1. Defining the Role: What Do You Need Them To Do?

The first step, as Michael shared (and touched upon in preliminary stages discussed in part one), was to solidify "a description of the role that I wanted to fill." For him, this included:

• Replying to emails
• Working through the leads funnel
• Setting up meetings
• Cleaning HubSpot (their CRM)

Randy emphasized the foundational elements for any successful hire, whether local or remote: "You need to have a clear job description, clear KPIs, and clear SOPs. Those are the essentials to set this up for success for whatever position you're hiring." Even if you think you need a "standard" VA package, clearly listing the tasks is crucial.

2. Candidate Sourcing & Pre-Screening: The Power of Asynchronous Review

Once the role was defined, Michael received a list of candidates from Freelance Latin America.
"That was the best part about getting the initial candidates was the prescreening video, honestly," Michael noted. The service had candidates answer standard questions for the role in a recorded pre-screening interview.

"Asynchronously, I can do the screening, which I like because then I can do it, you know, like, when I have time in the evening," he added. This ability to review initial interviews on his own schedule was a significant time-saver and efficiency booster. Freelance Latin America shared a specific segment: "Why do you think you're the right fit for this position?" allowing Michael to gauge communication skills and role understanding quickly.

3. The Interview Process: Leaning on Expertise

Michael admitted his own limitations: "I went into this process self-aware that I'm probably terrible at hiring people... I relied a lot on the freelance team." He instructed his account representative, Alvaro, to "just ask the questions that he knew would at least elicit the response and allow the candidates to... present themselves."

After asynchronously screening the first round, Michael created a shortlist. "The freelance team booked the interviews. Bang, bang, bang. We did the interviews."

Randy explained their approach: "We share candidates on a set of three... because we think these are the best fits." While Michael initially wanted to see more, he acknowledged the service's expertise in streamlining choices to prevent overwhelm, a common pitfall when faced with too many options.

During the actual interviews, Michael allowed the service's representative to ask standard questions focusing on previous experience. Towards the end, Michael focused on more personal questions: "why they wanna work for a remote company, what they thought about our company... to gauge whether we would have any chemistry."

4. Making the Selection: Skills, Chemistry, and Learnability

After the interviews, recordings were available for review. Michael, with advice from his account rep, made the choice based on:

• ‍Basic requirements: Did they meet the skill criteria?
• ‍Chemistry: Would they be a good team fit?‍
• Learnability: Crucially, "who I felt could learn as we train them because this was the basic expectation... to achieve success with a new person requires us to write the SOPs and then train them effectively on them."

5. Onboarding with SOPs: The Key to Delegation Success

Both Michael and Randy stressed the importance of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). "You need to have your SOPs developed before hiring someone because you don't rise to the level of the occasion. You fall to the level of your systems," Michael quoted from Dan Martell.

Michael's initial SOP creation process involved:

1.  Recording the task: Using Zoom (or Loom/Vidyard) to make a screen recording of himself doing the work.
2.  VA transcribes/documents: The new team member would watch the video and type out the SOP.

This process evolved with new tools:
"Now I record them in a Google Meet with Gemini recording and automatically writing a transcript... In a Google Doc... we put a prompt... tag the transcript... tag the SOP for writing SOPs Google Doc and then say, 'Gemini, make me a new SOP of this video using the SOP of SOP's Google Doc template.' Gemini writes it... then she watches the video again, and she edits where necessary."

Randy also highlighted Dan Martell's "canned recording method" if SOPs aren't fully developed: "Record yourself doing the work, tell your VA or EA, listen to the recording, and then write down the SOP... And then you make the written SOP into a checklist, and then it's an evolving document."

6. Iteration and Feedback: The First Month

Michael and his new VA, Vanessa, established a weekly review, a key focus of this second part of the podcast series:
"Every Friday at 4 PM, we have been doing a calendar audit... we go through my calendar and say how many client concierge meetings have we been having? ... how many new prospect FTAs... are we having?"

This immediate feedback loop allowed them to see the impact of Vanessa's work (e.g., client concierge outreach leading to more meetings) and to iterate on the process. For instance, an increase in one-on-one client meetings led to a process change to small group calls to manage time more effectively while achieving the same impact.

The Takeaway for MSPs

Hiring a virtual assistant, especially through a specialized service, isn't just about offloading tasks; it's about strategically buying back your time so you can focus on growing your MSP. As Michael's ongoing experience (shared across this podcast series) shows, the process involves:

• ‍Clear definition: Knowing what you want to delegate.‍
• Leveraging expertise: Relying on the hiring service for screening and interview best practices.‍
• Prioritizing learnability and chemistry: Alongside essential skills.‍
• Committing to SOPs: For effective training and consistent results.‍
• Iterative improvement: Regularly reviewing progress and refining processes, especially in the critical early stages.

By understanding these steps, MSPs can approach hiring a VA with more confidence, knowing what to expect and how to set themselves, and their new team member, up for success.