There are a lot of plates to spin and balls to juggle when you run your own business. Marketing, Social Media, Events Management, Finances, Planning, Strategy, Admin, Research and more. Some you will excel at and enjoy, others you will struggle with and detest. So, knowing when to outsource and hand over some of those tightly held reins is important and could be the difference between success and failure.
“Grant me the strength to focus on the things I can do, the courage to outsource the things I cannot do, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Admittedly, it’s not quite the saying we are all familiar with, but hey, it works, doesn’t it?
Let’s begin by defining what a Virtual Assistant or VA is.
In a nutshell, a Virtual Assistant is a skilled, independent professional who provides professional support from a remote location. Everything operates through the internet, hence the word ‘virtual’. Virtual Assistants are NOT just virtual Personal Assistants (PA). Some will be, but others offer entirely different services and skillsets.
Virtual Assistants tend to specialise in one or two areas, reflecting their expertise and experience, and can be a huge asset to any sized business, from a big corporate to a one-man band.
And they are becoming increasingly popular too because they offer a more cost-effective alternative to a full- or even part-time hire. They are also a flexible and accessible extra pair of hands – on demand, anywhere, and quite often, anytime.
10 signs that you need a Virtual Assistant in your life and business
You constantly feel stressed, overworked, and overwhelmed.
When you’re trying to do everything yourself, there’s a compromise. Either you don’t get it all done, which in turn causes you stress and anxiety because you’re falling behind, or you do get it done but not to the right standard, which then impacts the success and efficacy of your actions or efforts. All in all, it’s frustrating and exhausting. You feel like you’re working more but achieving less. Your wellbeing is suffering. You may even be at risk of burnout.
A Virtual Assistant can help relieve some of that pressure, leaving you with less jobs on your ‘to do’ list. Let the Virtual Assistant do the research for that upcoming presentation or write the blog you’ve meaning to publish for weeks, or perhaps create and schedule the content for your social media channels. This will reduce your stress levels. Improve your mental and physical health and put an end to feeling overworked and overwhelmed.
You’re falling down the administrative rabbit hole and can’t get out.
When you run your own business there is so much associated admin that needs to be completed. Things like scheduling meetings, invoicing, bookkeeping, replying to emails and just generally sorting out your inbox. Tedious, low-value, time-consuming tasks, and yet at the same time, essential. They must be done, just not necessarily by you. Time spent on administrative tasks, is time taken away from the tasks that will add value to your business and bring in the income. It’s also time you’ll never get back again.
A Virtual Assistant could do these tasks for you, leaving you to focus on what really counts and bring in the revenue.
Your work-life balance is disappearing before your eyes.
Your family rarely sees you. You’re never present for them. Your friends have forgotten what you look like. And your evenings are slowly but surely becoming an extension of your working day. Your work-life balance is suffering. Your business is taking over your life and the alarm bells are ringing.
Using a Virtual Assistant frees up time and puts structure back into your working day with a proper beginning and a sensible end. Your emails are still being answered, just not by you. You can finally clock off at a reasonable hour in the safe knowledge that everything that needs to be done is being done, well.
Important things are falling through the cracks and you’re dropping balls.
You’ve double booked yourself in your diary. Forgotten to send an invoice. Or missed an important call. Things are falling through the cracks, and that is costing you and your business time and money.
Perhaps you find you are putting things off until tomorrow because you’re too stressed or tired to action them today, but remember, procrastination is the thief of time and serves only to make tomorrow an even more difficult and challenging day. Ultimately, you’ll fall further and further behind. Or worse still. You try and compensate by rushing things through. But there’s a price to pay here too. The tasks very likely won’t get done properly, and you’ll end up doing them again.
So, instead of adding to the strain of the day, why not hand some of these tasks over to a Virtual Assistant. That way you can focus on making sure that the important things get done on time and don’t fall through the cracks ever again.
You can’t afford to hire someone full-time, but you need help.
As a small business owner, it can be hard justifying the expense of hiring an extra set of hands even if you need them, so you soldier on alone at a price – your health and wellbeing, your sanity, your quality of work, and maybe even your business success can all take a hit.
The beauty of hiring a Virtual Assistant is that there is no salary to pay, no employee benefits to provide, no performance reviews to undertake, and no laptop to buy or stationary to supply. It’s support on demand, at a price you can afford. On average, a Virtual Assistant will charge you on average about £30 per hour. The money you save using a Virtual Assistant can then be reinvested into your business to support important growth and drive further revenue.
You don’t have the right skills for all the tasks that need to be done.
Not many of us are skilled at everything we do. Most of us excel at some things, struggle with others, and give an average performance with the rest.
We’re individual and that means we possess different strengths and weaknesses. There is no shame in admitting we can’t do something – the wiseman or woman knows when and where their skillset falls below par, and when it’s time to find someone who has the skills your business needs to thrive.
A Virtual Assistant can bridge the skill gap effortlessly and enable your business to soar to new heights. Knowing what your strengths are and recognising your weaknesses, is an important skill too. So, where that skill is lacking you have two options – you can spend time training, or you can simply outsource to a trusted resource. The latter, however, makes more business sense in both the short-and long-run.
Staying organised is a constant battle or “if only I were an octopus”.
When you run your own business, you are constantly juggling lots of different balls and spinning multiple plates. The more balls and plates, the harder it gets to stay organised. And don’t forget, you still need to balance work with your family and social commitments too.
From scheduling appointments in your calendar, to keeping track of your to-do list, from managing your email inbox, to managing projects, or even doing your online shopping for you, Virtual Assistant are great for putting the organisation back into your life.
You lack the time and energy to drive your business forward.
Another long and busy day is behind you, and yet you don’t feel like you’ve achieved any of your goals. Instead, you simply feel physically and mentally exhausted. You’ve worked long hours but have little to show for your time investment and efforts. You feel like you’re being pulled in a million and one different directions, with a ‘to do’ list that feels like a never-ending story.
The truth is you are a finite resource – you simply can’t do everything. Learn to focus on the things that you’re good at and deliver the best value to your business, save your energy for the things that really matter, and outsource the rest to a Virtual Assistant.
You are always behind on deadlines.
Missing deadlines or constantly asking for extensions can nibble away at your clients' trust, damage your reputation, and may even lead to lost business. You can’t afford to let that happen.
This is where a Virtual Assistant can throw you a vital lifeline and quite literally save you and your business. Having someone to help manage your workload can help ensure that all tasks are completed on time. You can then focus on all the important stuff and never miss a deadline again.
You can't find the right person in your local area.
Recruitment can be a tricky and lengthy process at the best of times, especially when you're searching for someone with specific skills, attributes, or characteristics. And then there is the geographical impact to consider too. Most candidates who will apply for any vacancies will be within a commutable distance from your business. Depending on where you live and what industry sector you work in, this may shrink the talent pool even further.
Hiring a Virtual Assistant on the other hand, opens that talent pool right up, and breaks down any geographical barriers. It’s also a lot cheaper!
So, is it time for you and your business to hire a VA?
We’ve invited Paula Edwards, owner of Advance VA, to share with you how you can go about hiring a virtual assistant, the typical things they can assist you with, what you can expect to pay, and how you can ensure you get the right person for the job and for your business. She’ll also be tackling the typical objections businesses like to put on the table and offering up a whole different perspective that will transform your view on virtual assistants.
The 'Everything you need to know about VAs' online event is taking place on 19 November at 12:00.
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