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Mango&Co

How to hand work to a virtual assistant

Most VAs who fail were set up to fail: handed a login and a vague brief, and left to guess. The fix is not a better person. It is writing the work down so anybody competent could do it, then handing it over one piece at a time.

Find out what your VA would cost

Martyn Butler, founder · Updated 24 September 2026 · 7 minute read

Find out what actually eats your week

Most people guess wrong. For two working days, set an alarm for every 30 minutes, and each time it goes off write down what you are doing and whether you did the same thing last week. Anything that repeats and does not need you personally is a candidate.

Choose the first three

Start with three tasks, and pick them for how easy they are to hand over, not how much you hate them:

  • They happen often: daily or weekly, so your VA gets practice fast.
  • They follow rules you can write down.
  • A mistake is cheap and easy to put right.

Write the procedure

One page per task. Write it for somebody capable who has never seen your business:

  • What it is for, in one sentence: the outcome, not the clicks.
  • When it happens: the trigger, such as a new enquiry, 9am every day, or the first of the month.
  • The steps, numbered, in the order they are done.
  • The rules and the limits: what they may decide, and what they must never do.
  • When to stop and ask you, and how.
  • One or two real examples of the work done well.

Record it as well

A few minutes of screen recording, talking through the task as you do it, catches the things you do without noticing. Keep the written procedure as the source of truth and the recording as the way in.

Test it before you trust it

Have your VA do the task while you watch, or check the first few before they go out. Every question they ask is a gap in the procedure, so fix the page, not just the answer.

Keep them current

Work changes. When it does, change the procedure first and tell your VA what changed. Keep old versions, so you can see what the rule was when something was done.

In the Mango & Co. workspace, procedures live alongside the tasks: your VA reads and signs each one, and signs again when it changes. If your VA ever changes, the procedures stay with you.

Build a rhythm

  • A short update from your VA at the end of each day: done, waiting, needs you.
  • Half an hour a week together, going through what came up.
  • A new task added only when the last one runs without you.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Handing over everything in week one.
  • Explaining a task out loud and never writing it down.
  • Sharing your own password instead of giving them their own login.
  • Answering the same question twice without fixing the procedure.
  • Judging the VA on work that was never written down.

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