We all have pieces of our business that we’re not in love with. I mean, you’re a business owner because you’re passionate about the core of your business—whether it’s practicing law, serving customers in a brick and mortar store, designing artwork or something else. But let’s face it: owning a business includes a lot of regular tasks that you don’t love (or aren’t qualified to handle).
In today’s business world, you also need to worry about maintaining an online presence, keeping up with ever-changing tax laws, making sure your clients are happy and myriad other parts of business that you’d rather not think about.
As your business grows, these undesirables become more important than ever, and if you’re like a lot of business owners (myself not included—haha!) you spend more and more energy trying to avoid them. Trust me—denial doesn’t make them go away.
And this is when you start thinking about hiring a virtual assistant.
But is it worth it? Do you have enough work to commit to another member on your team? Here are some reasons why it may be time to hire out some tasks you’d rather not think about.
1. You’re overwhelmed, but you don’t have enough work for an in-house assistant.
One of the best things about using a virtual assistant (aside from taking work off your plate) is that they’re a contract employee. That means you’re not responsible for insurance or for coming up with tasks to keep the assistant busy for 20 hours a week.
Most VAs offer packages that include a set number of hours for the month, and those hours typically carry over to the next month if you don’t use them all. You can also pay for hours as you need them, though usually the hourly fee is a bit higher for that.
2. Your business seems to have stalled because you’re spending too much time doing office work.
As your business grows, you have more clients to communicate with, more office expenses, more invoices to send (and pay), more emails to respond to. More, more, more. And, of course, more income too!
But when you have all that “more” on your to-do list, you end up with less time to do what you started your business to do. Which means your business will stall out because there simply isn’t enough time in the day to get it all done. A VA can take some of that administrative work off your plate so you can focus on doing what you love.
3. You put off doing tasks that need to get done—simply because you don’t want to do them.
Getting the oil changed in the car, having that yearly exam, visiting the dentist. These are things we all put off, right? And when it comes to some of the back-end work in your business, you likely put off tasks there too. When was the last time you sent a nurturing email to your clients? How old is your “latest” blog on your website? If it’s something you don’t want to do or that doesn’t relate directly to the work your clients are paying you for, you likely push that task until “tomorrow.” (How many times do you do that before you give it up?)
4. Your systems aren’t working as they should.
While everyone is their own worst critic, in business we often can’t see the forest through the trees. We’re so involved in what we’re doing that we don’t notice that there’s an easier way. Or maybe we do, but don’t know what to do about it. Stop ignoring what isn’t working. Hiring a VA, especially one that’s experienced in systems, is a great way to get a fresh set of eyes on your business so you can move forward with streamlining and kicking butt.
Of course, hiring a VA isn’t for everyone or every business. But if you’re starting to feel like you’re busting at the seams and are ready to scale up, a VA could be exactly what you need. Start looking around to find one that fits your personality and your needs. I can attest to the fact that you won’t regret it.
