Home / Scaling Your Amazon Business / The Ultimate Guide to Hiring VAs for Your Amazon Business

The Ultimate Guide to Hiring VAs for Your Amazon Business

Scaling Your Amazon Business

Posted on February 10, 2022
by Benedict Dohmen

Running an Amazon FBA business as an Amazon FBA seller is no easy feat. If you’ve only begun to expand, bringing in a new employee or setting up an office may not be the best option. That’s where virtual assistants (VAs) come in.

This post will give you all the information you need to hire a VA. From the benefits of hiring a VA, how to do it, and responsibilities you can assign them—we’ve got it all covered.

What is an Amazon FBA VA?

Virtual assistants are freelancers that you can hire remotely to help you with your Amazon FBA business. You can hire one to work for you on a full-time, part-time, or per-assignment basis.

VAs can perform a wide range of services including data entry, managing ad campaigns, creating marketing material, and answering customer concerns.

What can a virtual assistant do for an Amazon FBA?

While you can certainly train a VA to follow your processes, it’s a good idea to look for someone who already has experience handling an Amazon FBA brand.

If you hire someone with relevant Amazon experience, you’ll only need to train your VA on things that are unique to your business. Typical responsibilities that VAs can take on include:

Setting up, writing, optimizing, and maintaining your product listings
Making sure you have competitive prices
Keeping an eye on your reviews and social media pages
Attending to customer emails and concerns
Monitoring and following up on shipping
Managing marketing campaigns
Product and keyword research

Benefits of hiring an Amazon VA

The benefits of hiring virtual assistants are clear. They can help any Amazon FBA seller save time, manage your Amazon business from anywhere in the world, and improve productivity.

Let’s take a closer look at these benefits.

1. Save time

Most VAs can handle many tasks for you, which will save you hours of doing everything yourself. They’ll also be able to start new projects quickly and efficiently.

2. Manage your business from anywhere

When you hire a virtual assistant, you can manage your business from anywhere. It doesn’t matter if you’re in your office, at home, or taking a vacation somewhere. Since everything can be done remotely, you can stay on top of things as long as you have an internet connection and a device to stay in touch.

3. Improve productivity

If you hire virtual assistants, they can take care of more routine tasks so you can focus on strategy and expanding your Amazon FBA business. By offloading some of the work, your processes can run more smoothly and efficiently.

How to hire a virtual assistant: a step-by-step process

Now that you’re better acquainted with all the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant, you may be seriously considering getting your own Amazon FBA virtual assistant.

This leads us to the question of how to hire virtual assistants and may worry about the process. However, with this guide, we’ve made it simple by outlining how to do it.

How to Hire a VA?

Step 1: Outline what needs to be done

Outline the tasks you need help with. Don’t forget to include recurring and time-consuming activities that you can easily delegate. This will be the basis of your job description and compensation.

At the same time, think of ways that you can easily keep tabs on these responsibilities. You can use shared, templated documents that you can quickly access to monitor progress and see if anything needs your attention.

This is also a good time to think about the kind of skills and experience your VA will need to have to perform these responsibilities.

Step 2: Write a job description

Using the initial list as a basis, write a concise and complete job description. Include an overall description of the job with details on how your VA will be compensated, working schedules, etc.

To avoid an unnecessarily huge number of applications, make your job description as detailed as possible. Highlight what you need and don’t need. You can even set up a questionnaire with Google Forms for easier shortlisting.

Step 3: Advertise your opening

Advertise your opening on job sites for remote workers. Some popular ones are Upwork and Freelancer. You can also look for sites on your own based on your geographical preference (which will affect working hours), budget, and the expertise you need.

Forums and social media groups related to your brand or industry are other great places for your ad.

Step 4: Reach out to qualified candidates

Once applications start trickling in, you’ll want to screen for relevant experience, skills, and other qualifications. Make sure they have reliable internet access and set up an interview schedule. This is also a good time to find out if they’re okay with the working arrangement, compensation, and other details of the job.

Streamline and make the interviewing process easier by making a list of questions you want to ask your candidates. Interviewing will allow you to further assess their competencies and give you an idea of their personalities. This will put you in a better position to choose whom you’d like to work with and who would be an asset to your Amazon business.

Step 5: Evaluate and make an offer

While you may be inclined to hire candidates with personality and decent working experience, remember that the less relevant experience they have, the more training and support you’ll have to give them—so find a good balance.

Once you’ve settled on a candidate, make an offer. It also wouldn’t hurt to shortlist a candidate or two just in case your first choice doesn’t accept the offer.

Things to remember when hiring an Amazon VA

Here are important factors to consider when hiring a VA for your Amazon FBA:

Experience is essential

You’ll want someone who has experience working with Amazon FBA brands. This experience will help them make better decisions when it comes to promotions, traffic, etc. Also, you’ll be able to train them faster and easier since they will have the right background.

Know what you're getting into

Before you start the hiring process, think about what type of person will be able to help you with your Amazon FBA brand.

Will they be able to respond quickly to your Amazon FBA buyer?
Will they be comfortable working remotely?
Do they hate being on the phone or are they chatty and energetic when it comes to new customers?

Do some research on the person you want to hire and make sure you’re on the same page before making an offer.

Get a written agreement

Both parties must understand what’s expected and how the job will be structured to eliminate unpleasant surprises. Have your candidate sign an employment contract and make sure it outlines compensation, benefits, deadlines, and other tasks they’ll be expected to do.

Setting expectations

You’ll want to be as transparent as possible when it comes to expectations. For example, if you need someone who can work 40 hours a week with scheduled breaks, lay those expectations out right away.

Make sure that you outline your schedule as well. For example, you might need someone who can work during the week and weekends while you’re away. On the other hand, you might need someone who can fill in for a few hours each week when you’re busy with other tasks.

You’ll want someone who can easily fit into your schedule and get the job done. Look for someone who also has schedule flexibility and can communicate with you regularly.

Hire based on skill, not price

You need someone who can meet your needs, not someone who is just cheap. While you’ll want to hire someone who won’t break the bank, don’t do so at the expense of skill.

How much should I pay my VA?

VA rates vary based on many factors, such as location, scope of work, and hours. If you’re hiring a remote VA from overseas, expect to pay around $5 an hour. In contrast, a US-based VA typically charges $15 an hour.

How to set up your VA for success?

When you hire a VA, set them up for success. If the person fails or isn’t given the proper help, you’ll both be disappointed. Here are some things that your VA will need:

Training materials

Make sure you have the necessary training materials before your VA starts work. This allows you to train your VA while giving a clear idea of what needs to be done. Training materials can come in many forms, including videos, PDFs, images, and more. This is particularly useful for new VAs as it will give them a running start.

Contact list

You’ll need a contact list to help you get customers. This list can be your existing customers or a group of people you know personally. Either way, having leads will make it easier for you to reach out to the right people for special offers and other promotions.

In addition to a physical list, you’ll want to provide your VA with a list of important emails. This can include customers and other people you coordinate or communicate with frequently.

Have a system in place

Have a system to organize your work and keep tabs on things. You can also sign up for tools and automation software to make the work easier. Some examples of tasks you can automate are sending out emails and scheduling tweets.

Key takeaway

Hiring and onboarding a new member to your Amazon FBA business will take some time and effort, but if you hire the right person, it can make a world of difference to your workload and business.

Want to know your business worth – We offer a free business valuation within 24h, just fill in a couple of information!

Now it is your turn – do you have a question for the Benitago team? Or maybe you want to start a conversation with like-minded individuals? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below!