Outsourcing Best Practices Before Hiring a Junior Designer or VA for Your Web Design Business
Are you thinking about outsourcing? It’s an exciting step in any entrepreneur’s journey. Before you jump into interviews, I want to share some outsourcing best practices to make sure you hire the best person for your business.
When it comes to hiring a junior designer (JD) or virtual assistant (VA), avoiding common hiring mistakes is crucial for brand and website designers. These mistakes can lead to inefficiencies and misunderstandings. In this blog post, we'll discuss important steps to take before hiring a junior designer or VA.
Key Takeaways:
How to know it’s time to hire
Preparing to hire a team member
How to write a job description
Deciding to Hire
First, think about why this is the best time to outsource. Why do you need to bring someone on your team? You might be in one of these situations, which is a sign you’re ready for outside help:
You’re overwhelmed with tasks: Your to-do list never seems to end, and you’re working late nights or weekends.
Growth has stalled: You can’t take on new clients or projects because you’re maxed out.
You’re spending too much time on low-value work: Admin, emails, or tech issues eat into the time you could spend on strategy or client work.
You’re turning down opportunities: Saying “no” to growth because you lack bandwidth.
Customer or client experience is slipping: Communication delays, missed details, or service gaps are creeping in.
You’re losing passion for your work – Burnout is setting in, and you’re stuck in the weeds instead of doing what you love.
If you resonate with one or more of these statements, it might be time to hire a junior designer or virtual assistant to help you manage your workload.
Junior Designer vs. Virtual Assistant
If you’re trying to decide between hiring a JD or VA, the first thing you should do is review your to-do list. Look at your full list of actions over the next month and break them down into 3 categories:
Love doing: This includes work you really love to complete. It typically includes work that is design or development-related because that’s why you got into this business!
Dislike doing: There are always parts of our jobs we don’t love. That might be making revisions based on client feedback, creating social media posts, going through email, creating moodboards, etc. Once you’re done with this section, I suggest ranking it from somewhat dislike to hate. This will give you a clear view of who you should hire to take these things off your plate.
Cannot Delegate: These include tasks that you might not love, but you also cannot delegate. Usually, this includes discovery/sales calls or client strategy calls. But don’t automatically assume it would include all client calls.
Now that you have your list, do all (or most) of the ‘dislike’ tasks fall within a similar bucket? If so, it should be easy to decide between a junior designer and a Virtual Assistant. You might be able to niche down on the type of VA based on your needs, making it even easier to hire the right person.
Prep for The New Hire
This part will take time and does not need to be done before hiring, but it can help tremendously. The sooner you start, the easier your life will be post-hire.
Time Tracking
Efficient time tracking is essential to monitor project progress and to know where your time is going. Doing this before you hire will help you know how long it takes an expert (you) to complete certain tasks or projects. You’ll then be able to make assumptions on how long a new person would take, so you can plan for that lag.
Use time tracking tools or software (Clockify or Toggl are both great and FREE) that allow you and your new team members to record the time spent on different tasks accurately. This is also a necessity if you will pay your new team member an hourly rate.
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Having clear SOPs is essential for smooth collaboration with a junior designer or VA. These procedures outline step-by-step processes for different tasks, ensuring consistency and smooth workflow.
Start by creating SOPs for every task you plan to delegate to this new person. The rest of your SOPs can come later. Record screenshare videos of you completing processes that you will be delegating and include these in your SOPs.
Remember some people are visual learners, so having a video with written instructions will be extremely helpful. Make sure you let the new team member know they can suggest improvements or add additional notes to the SOPs.
Write Onboarding To-Dos
Determine what you want to cover with the new person on their first day. What will they need to know about you, your business, your clients, and their assigned work? You’ll also need to make sure you have a way to assign them work, give them access to the tools they need, and pay them.
Determine Team Communication
How will they ask you questions or let you know a task is ready for you to review? Do you want them to email you, tag you in your project management tool, or send you a message in Slack? Having a process in place will help make them feel comfortable working in your business.
Regular check-ins and feedback loops are proven outsourcing best practices that keep teams aligned and efficient.
One of the biggest mistakes is assuming that your junior designer or VA can read your mind or instantly understand your preferences and expectations. Proper onboarding is key to their success.
Tips for Writing a Job Posting
To write a job description, you’ll need to know your budget, the skillset or experience needed, availability, activities, and process.
Budget
What is the market rate for the type of person you want? Identify how many hours each month you can afford to hire them.
I recommend determining the budget this way so you find the right person rather than just a person willing to work for the hourly rate you decide. As you expand your profits, the person who has been paid adequately for their skillset will stick around and take on more work, while the person you hire for “cheap” is most likely to leave sooner or not complete the tasks you want in the way you want.
Tasks + Skillset
Now that you know how many hours you can afford to hire for, determine what tasks (i.e. the job description) you’ll ask that they complete. You’re using the time tracking data in the last section to identify how much they could do based on your budget.
As you review applications, remember that it’s very unlikely someone will have every single skill you’re looking for or the experience to back it up. Be patient and willing to train someone who has potential.
Availability
Determine if there is any reason this person needs to work every day or at a specific time of day. Sometimes you can find better people if you have flexibility on when they need to complete the tasks, although this isn’t always possible.
You can put requirements, such as responding to emails within 24 hours, to give your new hire more flexibility.
Process for hiring
Lay out the process you want to use for hiring and create any forms, automation, or databases needed. Then, you’ll be able to use a standard process to find, interview, compare, and hire the right candidate.
Job Posting
List a few places you want to post your finished job description. Here are a few popular spots for web designers:
Facebook Groups
Instagram Story
Slack Groups
Mastermind Communities
Upwork
Follow These Outsourcing Best Practices Before Your Next Hire
Hiring a junior designer or virtual assistant can be a valuable asset for brand and website designers, but it requires careful planning and preparation.
By implementing SOPs, ensuring effective time tracking, optimizing systems, and avoiding assumptions, you can set the stage for a successful working relationship (and save yourself so much time and stress in the long run).
Not sure how to do any of these steps on your own? I’ve got a resource on hiring that is in-depth and contains a job description template for you to use. Download it for free.
FAQs About Outsourcing Best Practices
What should you not outsource?
I don’t recommend outsourcing sales calls, strategy sessions with clients, business planning and strategy, or final approvals. These tasks should remain under the CEO.
What is the main goal of outsourcing?
The main goal of outsourcing is to increase your efficiency and scalability. By delegating tasks, you can focus on revenue-generating activities and build loyal client relationships, while still growing your business.
What kind of work is often outsourced?
This type of work is often outsourced by web designers:
Administrative tasks (email, scheduling, data entry)
Graphic design, copywriting, video editing, content creation.
Social media management, SEO, paid ads, lead generation.
Bookkeeping
But remember, it all depends on what YOU don’t like doing or feel like you can outsource. These are just ideas!
