A standalone course

Hire & train your own
virtual assistant.

The single highest-leverage hire a local business owner makes is the one that takes the office off your plate. Thirty-one lessons: find, interview, onboard, and hand off, drawn from building and running Inova Local, the first virtual staffing agency dedicated to home services.

Get the course See the Local Business MBA

For eight years I ran a virtual assistant agency that fully managed the daily operations of dozens of local businesses, to the point where the owners became largely absentee. This course is that agency’s playbook, turned around: instead of renting a trained VA, you learn to hire and train your own.

It matters because the office, not the field work, is what keeps owners chained: the phones, the scheduling, the follow-up, the small daily fires. Hand that off well and the business starts to run without you. Hand it off badly and you’ll conclude, wrongly, that delegation doesn’t work. Delegation usually fails long before the new hire does: a useful VA role needs a clear outcome, sensible boundaries, access to context, and an escalation path for the things that should not be guessed.

What you’ll learn

The handoff,
in six steps

01

Decide what goes first.

The priority outline: which office tasks to hand off, in which order, and which to keep for now. Booking, scheduling, customer follow-up, daily admin.

02

Find real candidates.

Where to source VAs who can handle live phones and real customers, what to pay, and the filters that save you from ninety percent of bad hires before an interview.

03

Interview for the job, not the resume.

The scripts and test tasks we used at the agency: live call simulation, written-response tests, and the traits that actually predict success.

04

Onboard with documents, not hope.

The training sequence, the daily-tasks outline, and the standard responses library your VA works from on day one.

05

Manage by checklist and metric.

The daily workflow, the numbers to watch weekly, and how to give feedback across time zones without micromanaging.

06

Become optional.

Escalation rules, decision boundaries, and the trust ladder that ends with your VA running the office and you checking a dashboard.

From the agency years

What owners say when
the office leaves the house

This course is the same system Inova Local used to train hundreds of VAs for real companies. The owners noticed.

“A lot of it came down to delegation. I outsourced my phones/email to [Inova Local]. Pretty sure I have the BEST VA they have to offer. Tracy is an absolute rock star.”

Michael Crist · runs his company in 30 min/week

“I told Jim I was so happy I could cry to see that everything was squared away… You are the first VA we’ve worked with who has managed to get this under control…”

Brittany P. · written to her VA, back from a trip abroad

“If one of my VAs is sick, it takes minutes for someone to take over. Now I can really focus on the big picture.”

Julie Texane Lesage · four offices across four states
A client’s first break in two years
“So [the owner] is taking off for two days next week before the busy season hits and he’s leaving me in charge of everything. … he said he hasn’t had a vacation in two years.”
Stephanie W. · Inova Local assistant, January 2021

See the message, with names hidden →

From the assistants

A role people
want to stay in

Finding a good VA is half the job. Keeping one is the other half. When I thanked the Inova team in October 2020, these were some of the replies.

“Thank you so much @Chris I absolutely love Inova Local!. I’m so happy to be part of this team!!”

Tracy R. · Inova Local assistant

“Thank you Chris!! I love it here, im so glad to be part of the team!!”

Stephanie W. · Inova Local assistant, from the story above
Four replies in the Inova Local team chat, with surnames and photos hidden. Kristina M.: Yes, thank you, Chris. I am so happy to get to be apart of this!!!! Stephanie W.: Thank you Chris!! I love it here, im so glad to be part of the team!! Irene S.: Thank you @Chris. I am happy to be part of this team. Tracy R.: Thank you so much @Chris I absolutely love Inova Local!. I’m so happy to be part of this team!!
The replies in the team chat, October 2020, with surnames and photos hidden.
Inside the course

See it
before you buy it

Inside the Hire and Train Your Own Virtual Assistant course player: the welcome video beside its 31 lessons
The course player: 31 lessons, from role design to ongoing management.
Questions

Asked before buying,
answered plainly

Will you find a VA for me?
No. The course teaches you how to design the role, source candidates, evaluate them, and run the handover yourself.
Which countries should I hire from?
There is no universally best country. Choose based on the role, working hours, language, budget, and the candidate’s evidence. Compensation should be fair for the work and the market.
How do I know what to delegate?
The first module helps you examine recurring work by value, risk, frequency, and required judgement. Delegation begins with role design, not with an online job post.
Does the course cover legal and tax requirements?
It gives operating guidance, not legal, tax, employment, or immigration advice. Get qualified advice for the worker classification, contracts, and rules that apply in both jurisdictions.
Get the course

A standalone course,
complete on its own.

$899

Includes the full hiring strategy document, job post templates, interview scripts, the VA daily-tasks outline, and the training sequence. Bought once, yours forever.

Get Hire & Train Your Own VA

Checkout runs through Podia; the course itself is delivered on Skool. Immediate access.

Questions? Email chris@localbusinessmba.com.