Congrats — you’ve made the wise decision to prioritize your limited time and outsource setting up your new software!

To save yourself both time and money, here are some things that will help you be prepared for your Virtual Assistant: 

1. For each product or service you’ll offer, have the product information ready to go.

   Product information includes the Title, Description, and Price. Depending on what you offer, you might also need to include information about Variations (e.g., Small/Medium/Large, Session/Workshop, etc.) and Specifications (e.g., weight or dimensions). Email this information to your Virtual Assistant prior to your first call. 
   
   
   Here are some examples of what product information looks like on a website: 
   

    

   Example A:
   

   
   Example B:
   

   
   Example C:
   
   
   

   
   

2. Have at least one picture of each product or service saved to your computer.

   And make sure you know where to find them!
   
   

3. Choose which payment gateway you will connect to your store (e.g., PayPal, Stripe, or Square).
   
   If you don’t already use any of these, your Virtual Assistant may be able to help you choose one. Once you've signed up for a payment gateway, connect it to your bank.

    

4. Decide how you want to set up shipping. 
   

   • Do you want to ship packages from UPS or the U.S. Postal Service? 
   • Do you want to automatically generate shipping rates from these carriers, or do you want to set your own shipping rates? If you’re setting your own rates, know how much your items weigh, including packaging (you can take your product to your local shipping facility and run through scenarios with them)
     
     

5. Find out if you need to charge sales tax.
   

   Your accountant can help you with this.