Outsourcing To A Virtual Assistant!
Benefits of outsourcing to a virtual assistant and aligning with the right virtual assistant is crucial when it comes to elevating your time and money
One of the most important collaborations you will make as a small business owner is hiring a virtual assistant.
For your business to grow, it is vital that every small business owner has the time and the capacity to focus on tasks that contribute to growth and expansion.
“Delegating specific tasks to a virtual assistant is the solution”.
When is the best time to outsource to a virtual assistant?
In my professional opinion, hiring a virtual assistant at the start up stage of your business is a real positive strategic move. A real practical benefit of outsourcing to a virtual assistant is that you can align with a Virtual assistant who has the skills that you need. For example, setting up your social media accounts with all of your branding.
However, most small business owners are reluctant to invest in hiring a virtual assistant at the onset of setting up their business for financial reasons.
Another ideal stage when choosing to invest in a virtual assistant is when you are considering scaling up your business operations.
Why I hired a virtual assistant during the Business startup stage?
I wanted to set a strong yet flexible foundation within my business so that it could thrive. I just knew right from the start I needed some expert help and time saving assistance. Learning about SEO at that time seemed like torture and that was another reason that I was loving the idea of the benefits of outsourcing to a virtual assistant.
I could do most things for myself. Yet, there were areas in my business that was new for me. For example, bookkeeping set up, monitoring systems set up, and creating complex digialised standard operating systems, just to name a few. I could see the benefits of outsourcing to a virtual assistant to fill in the skills gaps that where clearly identified.
I began with hiring a virtual assistant for just a couple of hours every two weeks, to sense If we were compatible together and to assess the quality of their work.
What was really fantastic with hiring a virtual assistant was the sheer volume of creative ideas that my virtual assistant, blessed me with.
It was during these times of exploring my start up needs that I realised the short- and long-term benefits of creating a small team for the health of my business and in my personal life.
Yet acquiring a virtual assistant was a big process. I had to find someone who aligned with my values, time zone and expertise. The benefits of outsourcing to a virtual assistant was far greater than the work involved in acquiring one.
Types of Virtual Assistants
There are many types of virtual assistants that can be identified within these two categories below:
- General Virtual Assistants
- Specialised Virtual Assistants
A General Virtual Assistant’s tasks may consist of your usual administrative tasks such as, email management, data entry, scheduling appointments, arranging facilities for events, research and scheduling social media content etc.
A general virtual assistant’s overall mission is to assist you in your everyday business operations so that you, the owner can concentrate on the tasks that bring growth to your business.
Specialised Virtual Assistants are people that have specific skill sets such as, automation systems expertise, website design and creation, project management, photography and video creation, including editing, graphic design and so much more.
Some specialised virtual assistants come with skills that can bring growth to your business and even operate your business for you.
So, the real question is, What are your needs?
I needed a specialised virtual assistant who could assist me with setting up my standard operating systems, guide me through the bookkeeping process and show me how to set up great project management systems. This was a game changer and released me from experiencing the stress of working it all out myself. I tend to hire people who can produce whatever I need better than me.
What Are The Benefits Of Outsourcing To A Virtual Assistant
When you finally commit to aligning with your ideal virtual assistant and after the first few weeks of collaborating with them, you will then realise that you wished you had done it sooner.
You and your business can benefit with virtual assistant support in so many ways, for example,
- No need to invest in office space as most virtual assistant’s operate remotely
- The fees for hiring a virtual assistant can be significantly lower than hiring permanent staff that require you to pay for their travel costs, training, national insurance and tax contributions etc as virtual assistants are self-employed, freelance workers which means you only need to pay for the work they do and that’s it.
- You have a pool of global virtual assistants to choose from so you are free to seek out the best and hire the very best virtual assistants. You are not limited to just sourcing local help
- Delegating to a virtual assistant can help you to reduce or even avoid experiencing “Burn Out”
- You get to spend more time operating from within your strengths in a way that can bring you higher value
The Virtual Hub illustrates the benefits of outsourcing to a virtual assistant in their blog “Successful entrepreneurs reasons for outsourcing to a virtual assistant” and I love the way how they guide entrepreneurs to look into the pitfalls of hiring virtual assistants, in order to avoid these types of issues occurring.
How To Work With Your Virtual Assistant
When working with the two different types of virtual assistant’s it is best to adopt a specific approach in order to get the best out of the arrangements.
For example, when working with a general virtual assistant, think about the specific tasks and processes that you are happy to outsource. Please do not forget to show them the way you want things done as you already have the systems in place.
Working with a specialised virtual assistant will need to be approached differently. You are hiring them because they are better than you at what they do so be sure to utilise this wisdom. It is best to give them something that they can own from start to finish, like a project or to deliver a very specific time related outcome so you too can experience the benefits of outsourcing to a virtual assistant.
Your Virtual Assistant Is An Investment
When you really think about how valuable your time is, then you will come to realise that you cannot accomplish everything in your business by yourself. Nor should you want to.
Most of the things that we itemise as an expense are really investments. Hiring a virtual assistant’s is one of those Investments.
What To Outsource To Your Virtual Assistant
Running your business successfully is more about accomplishing the variety of tasks that are required to be completed efficiently and effectively. If we are honest there are some tasks that are not in our skill set and some tasks that are so time consuming it limits our capacity to prioritise effectively.
What should I outsource?
This does not have to be a difficult process. Yet you will need to dedicate a little time to really analyse the following process.
Instructions:
- Get a large piece of paper or use a white board and make a list of all of the tasks that comprises of running your business. Go ahead…list them all
- On another sheet of paper divide your paper into four equal squares
- Place the following headings in each square
- Tasks that I should do
- Tasks that I should not do
- Tasks that you do not want to do
- Tasks that I can’t do
Evaluate:
Once you have completed this activity and have placed the tasks to its specific square, you are now becoming more clearer about how to show up in your business efficiently and productively
Tasks that I should do:
- Go ahead and schedule the time to complete these tasks
Tasks that I should do:
Delegate:
- Tasks that I should not do, Tasks that you do not want to do, Tasks that I can’t do
I hope that from this article that you can see that there are clear times when the benefits of outsourcing to a virtual assistant is essential when looking to start up a business and to scale your business.
If you need help with your outsourcing needs, check out my Virtual Assistance Services and book your discovery call with me.
Look out for my next Blog where I will share useful tips about What to Delegate
