Late in the summer, I shared about JGP’s best kept secret– my assistant, Sarah.  Sarah has been working for me for one full year now, and she has absolutely changed my business. After I hired her, I hesitated to share about her for a while, I think mostly out of fear. I was worried that people wouldn’t understand what and why she was doing in my business.  But her duties have become so clear and grown over the year, and she is one of the largest components of my success now- so I love to share about her! She is a big piece of the success because I am able to dream and move forward in my business because of her and what she does in my business.  The biggest piece for us that I want my clients to understand is that my blog and emails are always from me (unless they say otherwise!) – it is still my voice that you are reading all the time- she does lots of behind the scenes work!  Read here if you are wondering some initial tasks that an assistant can take care of you!

When I made that post, I promised to come back and give some advice on finding an assistant for your small business! So here we go! I was incredibly lucky with finding Sarah because of my previous career! I was a HS teacher for 9 years, and Sarah was one of my sweetest, hardest working students.  I gave the full story in her other post so I am going to spare the details there and instead focus on what you can do if you don’t have someone in mind!

4 Characteristics to look for in an Assistant

1. The biggest characteristic you need to decide about is location. Is it important for your assistant to be local? Because that will change how you look for them! I think in everyone’s mind, the answer would be yes, local is ideal. And I totally get that- there are definitely benefits to Sarah being local to me: She does some bigger mailing tasks for me, we get to get together and check in on things, and she is starting to do a little shooting with me so that she might be able to assist on weddings one day.  That being said, if you are looking for someone to do the tasks mentioned here, which I think are the easiest tasks to begin with for an assistance, they really don’t need to be local to you The internet is so powerful, and you can easily convey jobs/etc that way!
2. You have to find someone who is very trustworthy. Now you may be thinking…if I don’t know them, how do I know?! And I definitely think that is tricky. When you find people to interview and consider, I would definitely ask for both personal and work references, and I would make sure to call those people and talk to them on the phone to see what they can tell you about trustworthiness. Your assistant will likely need access to the back end of many of your accounts, and you just want to make sure it is someone who will take that responsibility carefully!  References, especially job references (that don’t have personal ties) can really help with that.
3. I would look for someone who has experience in an office/personal assistant/secretary- because those are much of the jobs you will need done!  I also would pick someone who is tech-savy and proficient on social media! You want someone who can manage that all well, and who can move through those types of tasks quickly. Someone with only retail experience or restaurant experience might not have some of the background in the areas you are looking for (though they might be fine!).
4. Not necessary, but I would probably look for someone with an interest in creative fields/photography (or in whatever small business area you are in!).  I just think if they are going to spend a few hours working for you each week in your area, them having some interest in the topic will help their engagement and interest! For Sarah, this job has caused her to have quite an interest in photography, which I know is a skill she will be thankful to have for the rest of her life- but she already had a very creatively wired brain, which I knew from being her teacher.
5. The last thing I would look for is someone who has the type of schedule you want for your assistant. What I mean here is that if you run your business in a way that you will have lots of throughout-the-day types of jobs, you want to make sure to hire someone who has that sort of availability with whatever else they are doing. A teacher might not be a good option- because they wouldn’t be able to drop things to work for you.  But if you run your business so that everything can be done in a chunk of time for a full week one evening, you have a lot more flexibility (tip: There is a learning curve with your assistant for when you assign jobs vs when they can get done! Sarah and I are just now getting into a very comfortable spot of when I need to assign things in general to give her enough time to do them- but occasionally if I haven’t planned well, there is still a last minute template/etc to do – but knowing that if I am late and she can’t do it I have to do it helps me get things prepped early!).

So…how do you actually find them, now that you know what to look for? I think you have a few options! For me, I knew I was looking for a person who either didn’t have kids or didn’t have a full time job. That just fit what I needed voice and time wise.  If you are looking for something similar, I would brainstorm first about friend’s kids or older babysitters of your kids that might be able to do this. I think college age or right after would be perfect, but a really mature senior in HS might be able to do this really well. I think you could ask on your business and personal page! There are already young people that are really engaged in your page and your work following you- because they want you to photograph their wedding one day! You might be surprised at how many people would be interested based on that!  You could look into your social circles if not friends- someone from church, someone at the office you work at, a niece or nephew of yours.  If you are willing to look at non-local, there are lots of places online to search for assistants, or you could post in photography groups and maybe someone has one that is looking for more work (and they might already be trained!) or a photographer is looking to go full time and that job would help them to do it!

I think you need to be very specific about what you are looking for, and what you are asking for. I had no idea what it was going to take of Sarah when we started, and it has increased over time. Now, she usually does 4-6 hours of work for me a week- it was less initially. I think winter, if it is your down season, is a GREAT time to start someone because you can take the time to teach them everything before everything gets busy!

Best of luck on your search, friends! One of the photographers that I look up to the most, Katelyn James, really encouraged me to start outsourcing so that I had some ROOM to grow in my business because I was at complete capacity for the time I wanted to give…and it has changed my business and my life.  I am excited to share more about this process- feel free to email me at jill@jillgum.com if you have further questions on the topic of an assistant that I can share advice on!