Most business owners face the perennial question of whether to hire employees or continue to DIY as they grow.
But there’s a third choice: You can hire a Virtual Assistant without taking on the expenses of in-house expertise. As you establish and grow your business, sometimes it can feel like you’ve become a victim of your own success. More work is coming in, but you’re still only one person. You often reach the end of a day (or week) exhausted but mystified as to where all those hours went. You’re drowning in client work, long-term projects are piling up and tasks large and small are left unfinished. But it doesn’t have to be this way, and hiring full-time staff isn’t the only answer. A professional Virtual Assistant may be the perfect fit.
If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you jump from task to task and don’t always finish one before starting another. While many get started, your overall productivity will diminish the more you attempt to multi-task, and your work will start to suffer. But you don’t have to let this happen. A VA can take on all kinds of tasks, from answering email, organizing files and sending out e-blasts to balancing that pesky chequebook, helping you decimate your to-do list and get back to doing the work you love.
Why get bogged down in trying to learn a new piece of software or reading a how-to article on how to write a sales page when you can hire an expert who does it every day?
Many VAs specialize in areas such as marketing, accounting, launches, project management and more. The investment in your business will pay off, and you won’t spend time, money and energy completing the project, then wondering if you did it right.
Plus: Having a fresh set of eyes on your projects will help you identify new approaches and ways of doing things you may never have considered.
When you’re a small business owner, your balance sheet is a constant concern. You don’t want to take on the expense of hiring full-time help unless you’re financially prepared to handle the cost, but work is still piling up. Hiring a VA for the hours you need one is your solution. You avoid paying the costs of hiring, training and other employment expenses, and bringing in a VA who specializes in the specific type of work you need done is a strategic investment that will pay off in the long run.
Sometimes it can feel like you’re always working in your business rather than on your business, jumping from one client to the next without having the time to create and implement the policies and procedures you know you need in place.
A VA can help with this, whether you need new client onboarding procedures, proposal templates or suggestions for tools and hacks to improve your team’s internal communication. Policies and procedures are the foundation for any productive, efficient business, and a VA can help you identify which ones you need, then custom build them to work for you.
When you hire staff, you need to rent an office and find a place to put them. But working with a VA means you save here too. Why not take advantage of the increasingly popular trend of remote working?
With all the communication technology available today, your VA will be as easily accessible as if they were sitting down the hall, so you get the best of both worlds – they’re just a Zoom call away, but you avoid the logistical and financial headaches of paying the overhead cost of office space.
Working with a VA will keep your business operating productively, efficiently and cost-effectively. When it’s time to make the decision, follow these steps to find the perfect one for you.
What are some other ways a VA could help benefit your business? Leave a comment below! 🙂
Sandra Booker, Founder of Changemaker Inc. (home to Sidekick COO and The VA Studio) and creator of Scale Society and The Advisory Board, is a mentor, Fractional COO and growth strategist. She specializes in helping overworked, overwhelmed, multi-hatted entrepreneurs become the CEOs of sustainably scalable, and powerfully profitable businesses.
After helping local businesses thrive, and receiving accolades in her community (like the 40 Under 40 award) Sandra turned her attention to the world of online service providers, and her clients include familiar names like Chanti Zak, Tarzan Kay, and Laura Belgray.
In her (efficiently used) spare time, she teaches others how to build and grow their own 6-figure virtual assistant practices and is on a mission to create a million jobs by helping her clients and students scale their businesses.
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