You have started your business and you are finding yourself faced with people advising you to ‘get a virtual assistant’. I personally don’t think you should, and here is my why. If you have not worked in your business conducting all the day to day functions, how will you determine what you love, hate, need assistance in doing or simply don’t have the time to do yourself.
Whilst having a virtual assistant on your team is a great asset. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend bringing one on board at the start of your business.
In my years in business as a virtual assistant, on many occasions I have been hired by business owners/entrepreneurs in the making, wanting me to manage various tasks from administration, social media, blogs, websites and newsletter, as they have anticipated increase volume in workload. Even though they aren’t at that stage yet. Or it may be that they have a new product or services launching and anticipate a high volume level of work for them and their virtual assistant. Whilst I do truly wish their dream came to fruition, sadly it’s rarely been the case. As a result I have seen them have to admit they don’t have the funds or the work requirements for a virtual assistant, at this point in time.
My recommendation is to allow the work to flow in, and the demand levels increase so you can 1) learn how your business operates, and 2) clearly identify what functions would be best outsourced so you can utilise your time more effectively and efficiently in your business.
In saying the above, please note that if you don’t have the skill base or the capabilities/time to learn new programs, then of course outsource these functions to an expert. If you have the time to learn, then take the time to learn! (You’ll feel empowered conquering them.)
A virtual assistant, if available for your business, is generally ready to come on board and start immediately. You are better to get to the point in your business where you are ready to off load a higher volumes of work or the work you don’t want to be doing because you have more than enough work and the finances to fund having a virtual assistant on your team.
If you are at the point in your business where you are ready to outsource, and want to know more about what types of things you can outsource, then please sign up here for my free opt-in which is a starting guide on what to outsource.
This is a great article to get you thinking and planning for using a VA.
I personally have got a VA pretty much from the beginning because there are some tasks that just make me tear my hair out and that's not the energy I want to bring to my coaching. But it was small jobs here and there at a low hourly rate.
I agree that it's best to get clear on how you do things and to ideally have done the task yourself before posting.
Thanks for your lovely comment Louise. I agree definitely you don't need to be doing any hair pulling tasks (smart move to outsource). Anne