Finding the Right PA: 5 key qualities to look for

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Business development is ultimately what we’re all working towards, whether it’s expanding the business or developing our services and products. However as your business grows, it also leads to more tasks, which often require an extra set of hands.

Hiring a Personal Assistant (PA) who understands your needs could make a great difference to your business operations. As long as you are able to communicate effectively and work together, there are a whole host of benefits you can enjoy:

Increased efficiency
A good PA is an expert in research and finding solutions. Rather than doing everything yourself, a personal assistant can help you run errands, answer the phone, find a good laundry company near your area, contact clients, manage your daily schedule and so much more.

Increased flexibility
You will no longer have to sacrifice the ability to carry out the vital tasks to maintain a productive business or life. A PA will lend you a helping hand and free up your time, thus creating enough time for you to attend to the key areas of your business and personal life and finally attain that work-life balance.

More for less
You don’t have to buy your assistant the equipment that she needs to start working. Given the main aim of any business is to maximise profits, updating your assistant’s technology every few months can be quite a drain, but with the right PA, you’ll get the work done without the worry of providing work space, equipment, supplies, visas, health insurance, etc.

Greater productivity
By having an extra set of hands to take care of those time intensive tasks for you, you’ll be able to get more things done.

So with all this in mind, what is it that makes a good PA and how do you go about finding one? Well, your proposed PA needs to have:

1. Excellent communication skills
Clear, concise communication is a must. Top quality personal assistants should be good at writing and speaking as they’ll be constantly communicating with you and your clients. They should be able to confidently express themselves and discuss the details of any project, as well as answer any questions clients may ask. They also need to make sure they are able to ask you the right questions so that they can get the job done.

2. Resourcefulness
You want to hire a person who keeps on top of what’s moving and changing in your industry, as well as the world of technology. You shouldn’t expect your PA to know everything, but they should be willing to dig around and do the research in order to get the information, without being prompted. If you keep getting questions sent over to you, then it really isn’t helping your efficiency.

3. Good organizational skills and attention to detail
A good PA listens attentively to all of your instructions and pays attention to the details. Once they start working for several clients or on several projects for you, the PA will need to keep the projects and your files organised. This helps to avoid confusion and potentially expensive or time-depleting mistakes. You should expect them to keep a record of their task list and everything that they accomplish on a daily basis – most will easily record their hours for you.

4. Initiative
You want to work with someone who is free to make choices that align with your values and goals, rather than having you to make all the decisions for them. Astute assistants find ways to prevent problems from happening, and when problems come their way, they take the first step to solve them. In fact, the right personal assistant sees problems not as burdens but as a path to professional growth. They will make sure to handle your tasks positively and minimize the chances of making unnecessary mistakes.

5. Knowledge about the business
The assistant should be a highly skilled professional who understand your business niche. They understand how important it is to deliver the highest standards, maintain an impressive reputation, keep the business afloat, and they prioritise client satisfaction. They don’t have to be an expert in your industry, but they should know enough to enable them to support you properly.

So once you know what you want, take the next step to get what you want. All of our PA’s are skilled and experienced and proud to show the attributes listed above, if you would like to know more then please contact us and let us help you – we have a team of great PA’s on standby waiting to support you.