How to Hire a VA
How to hire a VA in four moves. Scope the role, source well, run a paid trial and onboard with process. Plus when a VA is not the right hire.
10/28/20262 min read
Where do you find a good VA
Referrals from other founders are the strongest source because the work history comes with the person. Job boards give you volume, so screen harder there. Communities for Philippine VAs are worth the time, which is where much of the global VA talent now works.
How do you test a VA before committing
Pay for a two to three hour trial task pulled from the real role. Judge three things. Did they follow the instructions, did they ask good questions, and did they hit the deadline. A strong trial beats any interview answer.
Checklist before you hire
One page role description with weekly outputs
A paid trial task with a deadline
A process document for the first task
One channel for daily communication
A 30 day review booked in advance
When is a VA not the right hire
When the job is running your marketing, you are not hiring a task, you are hiring a system. One person cannot run ads, content, email, social and reporting to a consistent standard. That system job is what the Dominate package was built for. It gives you 160 hours a month of managed marketing, split between content marketing and inbound with reporting, run by Domination Plot's omnichannel team from the Philippines.
FAQ
Should a VA be full time from day one. Start part time around the trial, then scale hours as the process documents grow.
Can one VA handle my marketing. One VA can execute pieces of it, which is different from running the whole channel mix with reporting.
How long does hiring a VA take. With a defined role and a paid trial, two to three weeks is realistic.
Ready for the system instead of the task list. Get the Dominate package at dominationplot.com.
Hiring a VA comes down to four moves. Define one role with clear weekly outputs, source from a proven talent pool, test with a short paid trial, and onboard with documented processes. Most VA hires fail at the first move because the role was never defined. Here is each move in order.
What should a VA actually do for you
List every task you repeat weekly and mark the ones that follow a process. Those are VA tasks. Judgment calls about your offer, your pricing and your clients stay with you. Content work belongs on the list, since OpenAI reports content creation is among the fastest growing workplace tasks (OpenAI, How ChatGPT adoption broadened in early 2026, 11 May 2026).
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