In this week’s training video, I share my thoughts on the popular question ‘When should I hire my first virtual assistant?’ Rather than focus on a specific timeframe in an entrepreneur’s life however, I go into different situations that signal at the possibility that it is time. I also talk about the mindset necessary to embark on the hiring journey and the types of tasks that you might consider outsourcing. Good luck!
Transcript:
Hi there! Laura here from betterbizacademy.com and the Better Biz Academy podcast, where I interview inspiring freelancers and online business owners about how they make it all work.
This week, I am answering a really popular question, but one that’s not so easy to respond to, which is ‘When is it time to hire a VA or virtual assistant?’ If you have never heard of the concept of a virtual assistant before, this is basically someone who is going to help you do things in your business, so you can free up time and energy to do other tasks.
Now what you choose to outsource to a VA will look different for everyone and that’s why it’s so hard to answer this question about when it is time to hire a VA. I can give you some general guidelines. Of course, many people struggle with the concept of paying someone else to do things in their business that the entrepreneur thinks, ‘Well I can do that, so why should I pay someone else or I am sure I can learn to do that.’
The reason for this is because you need to start thinking about digital help in the form of a virtual assistant as an investment rather than as an expense. People who help you do things in your business are freeing up your time so that you can do other things; revenue generating activities, grow and scale the business. There are only so many hours in a day, so if you have filled your schedule with administrative tasks or things that are not really in your zone of genius, you are not going to be able to grow your business past a certain point and that’s where a virtual assistant comes in.
So, if you find yourself missing deadlines, working really long hours and still barely being able to get everything done or spending a lot of your time on tasks that you hate or don’t know how to do, it’s definitely time to hire a virtual assistant. It’s not easy to recognize that you need to give up some of that control over your business. That’s one of the biggest challenges for a lot of entrepreneurs today. More people than ever own their own company and entrepreneurship; especially online blogs and freelancing has grown so much and people are used to doing things for themselves. I mean, I managed my business completely by myself for a year and a half, just figuring out as I went. And then I realized that I can’t do all of this. There is only so many hours in a day and I have hit my limit. That’s when I realized that I needed to hire a virtual assistant and since then I have worked with many VAs on my team, but also when I was brought in on other projects to build out their digital bench and people asked me for VA referrals all the time because I have done so much outsourcing and delegation.
So, it can be a beautiful thing when it works properly, but really the main reason and how you’ll know when it’s time to hire a VA is because you’ve hit your limit. You know there are things in your business that you shouldn’t be doing, but you still are or you’ve got things on your list like; launch a YouTube channel or launch a podcast or have better engagement on social media, but you don’t have the interest or the time to fit those into your schedule. Those may be appropriate things for you to outsource to a virtual assistant.
The answer to when is it time to hire a VA will be different for everyone based on how their business has grown. Someone might need a Virtual Assistant in the first six months of their business, but other people might manage things on their own for a year or two before realizing that they need outside help. The important thing is taking that first step and I have got a free report with 70+ tasks that you can outsource to a VA just to get those creative juices flowing, thinking about what all you can get off your plate and still have handled successfully by someone else.