4 Tell-Tale Signs That It’s Time For You To Hire A Virtual Assistant
I often talk about outsourcing tasks to other business owners and freelancers as it’s something that I have personally benefitted from, but how do you know when it’s the right time to hire a virtual assistant (VA) for your business?
A virtual assistant is someone that can remotely provide support services to your business. I help business owners with technology such as WordPress, MailChimp and data collection to save them time and energy that’s better spent on other tasks, other VAs can help with general administration, diary management, customer service, etc.
Basically, if you have a business task then you’re highly likely to find a virtual assistant that can take care of it for you, but when is the right time to hire a VA for your business?
1. You’re spending too much time on administrative tasks
If you’re cutting your business hours short to take care of bookkeeping and admin, then chances are high that you could benefit from a VAs help. Anything admin based from answering phones, responding to emails, taking care of the books and sending invoices can be taken care of by a virtual assistant.
The thing to remember here is that an admin virtual assistant is going to be trained in these areas, know how to use the relevant software and have the experience with these tasks that you probably don’t. Essentially, they’re going to spend less time getting through the admin and are potentially going to perform things to a much higher standard, making the return on investment more than worth it.
2. You’re feeling stressed and fatigued from running your business
Being a small business owner shouldn’t come at a cost to your health, but all too often it’s easy to end up feeling stressed, exhausted and fed up. Business owner burnout is a very real and serious thing that can leave many people abandoning their dreams and returning to the world of employment.
Sometimes handing over tasks to a virtual assistant isn’t just to free up time to spend on your business and servicing your clients but looking after yourself too. Allocating time for yourself each week to get pampered, attend an exercise class or simply spend time with friends and family is important to get your work life balance working well for you. If you don’t have enough time for yourself or it makes you feel guilty, it’s definitely time to consider hiring a VA.
3. You’re regularly turning down new clients and opportunities
When you get an exciting email in your inbox from your dream client but you have to turn them down because you don’t have the time to work with them, that’s a clear sign that you need the help of a virtual assistant.
It can be difficult, if not impossible, to grow your business if there’s only you taking care of everything. We can’t add more hours to a day, and those books and admin tasks will always need to be done. It makes sense to hire a VA to take care of the tasks anyone can do, to free up your time for the tasks only you can do i.e. fulfilling client services, networking and discovery calls.
4. You’re working in your business rather than on your business
You need to be working on those big ideas, plans and marketing strategies to take your business to the next level. Not taking care of the bigger picture can not only inhibit your growth but could cause you to stagnate and even lose customers to your progressive competitors.
While you can outsource your business development and marketing strategy to someone else, you are your unique selling point and the person that needs to implement the changes, besides, those discovery calls and coffee meetings can take a while to get through.
Hiring a VA gives you back the time you need to spend on making your business dreams come true. The great thing about virtual assistants is that you’re not expected to hire them for x number of hours every week, you can purchase a retainer and use the hours as and when needed. It’s why a virtual assistant can easily become a valued member of your team without the risks and problems that hiring an employee can bring.
Running your own business is no easy task but you can get that much needed help and on your terms by hiring a skilled and experienced virtual assistant. If you can recognise your situation in any of the signs I’ve highlighted above, perhaps it’s time you looked into outsourcing some of your business tasks to a VA?
Important note: If you work with a VA to support you with bookkeeping or financial administration, please ensure that they are qualified to do this and if required registered with HMRC as an Accountancy Service Provider under Anti-Money Laundering Regulations.