This post from guest blogger Ben Baldwin appears in our series for Global Entrepreneurship Week.

There comes a time in every small business when hiring new staff is inevitable. A little known fact by job seekers (and well known fact by those well versed in interviewing) is that this process can be just as uncomfortable for those doing the hiring as it is for those being interviewed.  Here are some sure-fire tips to make sure you have a clear picture of what you’re looking for before you look at the first resume in your stack.

1. What are your job-candidate must haves?

These are your absolute non-negotiables. You would be surprised how many people go into the hiring process without identifying the skills or personality traits that are necessary in the position they are hiring for.  Before you can start looking, you need a clear picture of what it is you’re looking for.

2. Who will this person be interacting with on a regular basis?

Is that beer-slugging, go-with-the-flow guy you know from your baseball team the best person to be interacting with your customers on a regular basis? And is that soft-spoken PR grad the best choice to be in your office doing back end work with the rest of your rowdy team? Keep in mind who your new hire will be interacting with on a regular basis — and make sure they’re a strong fit.

3. Is the job description flexible?

So your new job candidate knocks your socks off, but they don’t quite match the job description you posted.  Do you ignore them for the better-suited candidate, or hire them anyway? That entirely depends on how flexible your job posting is — something you should determine before the hiring process begins.

4. How much time can I devote to training?

Let me emphasize this now: Training a new job candidate takes time…. lots of it.  If someone is a strong fit, the hard skills can be learned, but it will require a larger investment of your time. Don’t forget: Less experience might mean more training time, but it might also mean fewer ingrained bad habits.

5. Will they fit in well with the team dynamic?

Each new hire has the ability to influence your team, and you want to be sure they’re influencing it in the best way possible.  Once you’ve created a strong team dynamic, make sure that your new hires are not only a good fit with the job, but with the company as well. And be honest about your culture, not aspirational.  Are you actually as fun as you think you are, or are you more buttoned-down?

—Ben is the founder of ClearFit, the app that’s fixing hiring. ClearFit is the only online solution that makes it easy for absolutely anyone to find and hire the best person.  Ben has 13+ years experience building hiring tools for the Fortune 500 and small businesses.  He’s also a patent holder & board member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO/YEO).

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@ClearFit
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Enter the virtual assistant, or VA. I caught up with Sophie Zollmann, a Tennessee-based VA who’s been “helping entrepreneurs get out of overwhelm and back to doing what they love most” for 10 years.

Q. What are the most common tasks you do for your clients? Is that common for VAs?
A. The top 3 tasks I do for my clients are project management, email, calendar and social media management and website/blog management. These are common tasks for most VAs. Some VAs specialize in a particular area such as social media while others cover the VA task spectrum. I have a team of VAs working with me to be able to cover as many different tasks as may be needed by my clients and to help as many people as possible.

Q. Is there anything that really doesn’t work as a task to be outsourced to a VA?
A. In general, VAs can do almost anything a client can ask of them. Most VAs will have specific tasks they don’t do for various reasons and therefore don’t offer them. However, it doesn’t mean they cannot be done by another VA willing to do those particular tasks. That’s another way specialization comes into play for some VAs.

Q. What do people not understand about working with a VA?
A. VAs are your partner in business. They’re not just an assistant. They can help you in ways that a regular secretary cannot. One of the biggest advantages of hiring a VA is no overhead. We are independent contractors. You do not have to pay for office equipment, office space or benefits. We take care of all of that. By giving a VA the day-to-day tasks, the business owner can focus on the business itself. That means business growth and higher income potential. Plus, they can have more time for self-care, family and friends.

Q. When it comes to accounting or financial tasks, what do people most often look to VAs for?
A. VAs can set up and maintain a company’s bookkeeping software. We can create reports within that software to help them better manage their money especially the outgoing cash flow part. We can pay their bills, balance their check book, send out invoices to their clients, receive payments, and update their accounts accordingly. We can also manage collections for clients who get behind on their payments. We can research purchases and services they may need to locate the best quality and price before they buy.

Q. What financial tasks do small business owners most overlook, that a VA could help with?
A. Maintaining their books on a regular basis to keep them from a time-crunch situation at tax time each year.

Q. What about you? Do you outsource tasks for your own business?
A. Currently, I outsource the design and maintenance of my website. I also outsource any design changes I make to my Facebook pages as well as logo, business card and stationary design/updates. I have an accountant who handles taxes but I maintain my own books.

For more information about virtual assistants, or Sophie’s business offerings, visit SophieZo.com.

A couple of the more interesting points:

1. Some people say “past performance is no indicator of future success,” but Marc Cenedella of TheLadders.com job board says that past performance is precisely the best indicator. Don’t just look at the job title that a candidate once held. Ask the candidate what they accomplished.
2. Be wary of the references a candidate lists. Of course candidates will only list people who like them. See if you can get a few additional names of references from the reference, and track down an opinion from beyond the candidate’s innermost circle of friends.

See the full video (4 minutes) with Candella.

(This entry originally appeared in an earlier version of the Wave Accounting blog for small business.)