Hiring a Personal Assistant: Success Tips for Filmmakers!

You have worked hard and now you find yourself at a point where you need help. The success you will have in hiring a personal assistant can be dependant on how well you prepare your office or home for the new help. Here are a few tips to get you started in the right direction.

• Do NOT abbreviate in your correspondence. If you are a journalist, then you know this all too well already, however this can hinder the communication process. Instead of focusing on the task at hand, you will leave your assistant trying to decipher you code.
  
• Color code your different departments or files if you are small business. This not only increases productivity but helps with maintaining organization.
  
• Provide a locked safe for your private documents. This assures you that you maintain your privacy. This also helps keep everyone friend.
  
• Install private security and surveillance equipment. This eliminates any disputes if you have a feeling that something is not on the up and up. Create a private code to your home or facility and do not give this to your assistant. This will prevent the assistant from entering your facility without prior consent. If you are in a position that your assistant will need access, then create a separate code for them. The security system will create a time and date log of who entered and exited the facility, as well as create a video archive. An affordable solution is www.x10.com, (800) 675-3044.
  
• Make it mandatory that everyone that works with you, sign a non-disclosure and non-compete agreement. These can be made effective for decades. Take advantage of it and protect your company and your creativity. These documents can be found for free by conducting a search of the internet.
  
• Do NOT share your contact or client list information with your personal assistant. Regardless of whether or not the non-disclosure or non-compete agreement in place. This can safe you a lot of heartache in the end, not to mention legal fees for taking them to court to recover your losses. Information that you should consider privileged are your clients, investors, contractors, etc.
  
• Let it be known from the beginning that they will agree to arbitration should any conflicts arise in the future. Arbitration will keep you out of court, save you time, and save you legal fees. Make them sign an agreement holding them to this and that they will be responsible for any fees incurred.
  
• NEVER make private or business calls from your personal assistant's phone. Unless it is an emergency this is not a wise move. Cell phones store outgoing numbers. If you choose to do this, you may as well be handing over your contact list to them. You stand the chance of the assistant calling them without your permission.
  
• Make sure you hire them on as an independent contractor. This makes them responsible for their own taxes and saves you additional costs. If the assistant does not work out for you, keep in mind it is easier to let a contractor go than it is to let go of an employee. In the contractor agreement make sure you stipulate that it is a "at will contract" and it can be cancelled at any time for violating any of your standards and guidelines. Be sure you include all of the little details of what the contract includes. This could be mileage, fringe benefits, observed holidays, religious holidays, residuals, overrides, commissions, guests at work and at work events. The more you commit to black and white the less room there is for disputes. You may even want to go as far as stipulating what is NOT included, such as travel, childcare, clothing, hotel, meals.
  
• Spend the time to create a standards and guidelines guide. Five or six pages is appropriate, it does not need to be lengthy to be effective. Include in your guide a daily productivity list. This should include a list of daily tasks that you expect to be completed.
  
• In addition to your daily check list, create a "to do box" for your assistant. You may choose to use email instead of a physical box. This creates a paperless office and keeps the paper trail down and the costs that it incurs. An additional benefit to this is that email creates an electronic date and time stamp of when the list was sent. It is harder to say that it was not received and eliminates excuses.
  
• If you travel a lot for business and have children, you may want to let them know that a portion of their duties would be assisting with the children's needs.
• If you find that you area having a difficult time finding an assistant that likes working with kids, you may want to search for an au pair.
  Au Pairs are an affordable live in nanny. They can be hired for approximately six dollars per hour. Often times the au pair speaks a foreign language and can assist your children with learning a different language. If you travel a lot, like filmmakers do, then this may be the best thing for you. Your children can travel internationally with you and the au pair can tutor them. More information on au pairs can be located at www.aupaircare.com and their contact number is (800) 428-7247.