I Know I Need a Virtual Assistant, But Where Do I Even Start?
If I had a $1 for every time someone asked me that exact question… In fact, it’s one of the things that inspired me to sit down and put together my thoughts into a Workbook as well as start offering Strategy Sessions to business owners.
When it’s time to bring in someone to help support you in your business, it’s important to put some thought and strategy behind who you need to help you and why you need them well before you start to search for that support. Just bringing in anyone who calls themself a Virtual Assistant is not the solution. In fact, it may be more like a bandaid on a bullet wound.
Virtual Assisting is not just a job title, it’s an entire Industry filled with people of varied backgrounds and skill sets. So, the thought of being able to just hire any VA to jump in and handle all of your business tasks is just plain ridiculous. Just because you call someone doctor doesn’t mean they know how to treat every kind of ailment. Just because someone is on a sports team doesn’t mean they know how to play every position. And even if that doctor and that athlete have a bit of experience treating an ailment, or playing a position, I’d rather see them staying where they do their best work.
Along the same lines… One example from my own VA life is that I’m really good at working with Canva. I love creating social media graphics, lead magnets, workbooks, anything Canva related is fun for me! But, if that same client who hired me to create Canva graphics asked me to do their books or spreadsheets I would have to tell them that those tasks are outside of my zone of genius. I would advise that client to find a VA who specializes in those tasks and delegate accordingly. This is when the idea of having a Virtual Support Team begins to come into play.
I encourage business owners to pre-plan and come up with a strategy that suits their unique business needs before they even start looking for possible Virtual Assisting candidates. This is the work that I do with people in Strategy Sessions or the work that people can do independently when the download The Guide to Planning for and Hiring a Virtual Assistant. THIS is the step that many business owners miss and the step that I believe would make the entire process of finding a Virtual Assistant infinitely more successful.
The Workbook includes a very specifically designed strategy complete with comprehensive lists that guide you through a step-by-step process to assess and plan your unique needs and build your own specific strategy so you can begin your search for the right virtual support team and be completely ready to on-board instead of feel unsure and overwhelmed about how to proceed. By the time you reach out to your potential candidates, you will have a clearly outlined plan that will make the process easier and more efficient for everyone.
After you have your plan in place, put your strategy into action and start delegating tasks, you will finally start realizing that feeling of owning your business instead of feeling like your business owns you.
It’s time to start getting real about all the moving parts of your business and about exactly what tasks you should and shouldn’t be doing. It’s time to learn the tools and strategy that will help you plan and prepare to hire virtual support that makes sense for your unique business needs.
