Is It Time To Bring On A Virtual Assistant?

Bringing a virtual assistant into your business can feel like a big step.  For managers and entrepreneurs used to handling day-to-day operations by themselves, it can be difficult to know when it is the right time to outsource tasks. 

And yet, it is proven that outsourcing to a virtual assistant brings relief, lowered stress, and renewed energy. With the support of a virtual assistant, business owners see productivity increase and more efficient, streamlined processes take hold. 

That’s because the tempo of the daily to-do is relentless.  It can make business owners feel overworked and overwhelmed, burnt-out, and mentally exhausted. 

So…  there is never a wrong time to engage a virtual assistant to take some tasks off your plate, and the ideal time to do so is before things get out of hand!

Truth is, the best time to engage a virtual assistant is often before you realize you need one. 

Hint: You need one now!

Virtual assistants can help your business from day one. They can help build systems and document them as they develop. They can help establish procedural-related to-do list items like making/receiving phone calls, appointment scheduling, and calendar management. Virtual assistants can manage email accounts and social media engagements, handle bookkeeping and invoicing, conduct research, and facilitate customer relations. 

Because virtual assistants are utility players, they can often fill gaps and create safety nets so that nothing slips through the cracks.

Virtual Assistants Give You Your Time Back

Business owners and solopreneurs know that time is their most valuable resource. When you try to do all the things, all the time, all by yourself, you quickly realize that time is precious, finite, and often feels insufficient. The hours in each day, the days in each week, all feel like sand running through your fingers. 

A virtual assistant can handle the tasks that steal your time so you can redistribute your energy to the things that add value to your business. Delegating administrative tasks, social media management, and database maintenance to a virtual assistant will save you hours each day. 

Additionally, a virtual assistant costs a fraction of the rate you would pay yourself or a full-time employee. So outsourcing to a virtual assistant saves you time and money, the two things every small business desperately needs.

Bringing on a virtual assistant when your company is in its startup days is ideal but not always possible. If things with your business are “fine” but not “great,” or “functional” but not “optimal,” it is likely time to find a virtual assistant. 

There are some clear signs that now is the time to engage a virtual assistant:

1. YOU ARE SPENDING MORE TIME IN YOUR BUSINESS THAN ON YOUR BUSINESS

Once your business is established and operational, many tasks need to be done daily to keep the business running. Many of these tasks are administrative in nature: answering calls, responding to emails, creating spreadsheets, designing graphics in Canva, posting on social media and managing comments, writing blog content, formatting newsletters, bookkeeping entries, etc. 

These tasks are critical and important to the viability of every small business, but they do not directly generate any revenue. Scheduling internal meetings and documenting systems, managing CRM entries, and organizing documents is time intensive! Those things help keep your business organized, but they don’t help your business grow.

How time-intensive? Before the pandemic shut down in 2020, Harvard conducted a study that revealed how much time CEOs spent on email alone each day. At the time, it was surprising that nearly 24% of a CEO’s time was spent reading, responding, and managing their inbox. And yet, that percentage has likely increased dramatically with the number of businesses now existing remotely. You might not realize just how many hours each day you spend inside your inbox.

If you were to run the numbers and analyze your day-to-day schedule, you’d discover you are spending too much time on tasks that are maintenance-focused as opposed to growth-focused… and your energies are needed elsewhere.

It was your passion and innovation that led to your business’s creation – and it will be your continued creative endeavors and sales generation that will ensure its success.

The majority of your time should be spent on pursuits that add value. 

That includes honing leadership skills, establishing core values, planning and executing business strategy, and networking to expose your business to a larger audience of potential clients and customers. But data indicates that small businesses currently spend an average of 120 working days per year on administrative tasks, equating to a nearly 5% decrease in productivity.

If you struggle to focus on your business’s vision because of all the administrative tasks pulling on your time, it is time to engage a virtual assistant. Adding a virtual assistant to your team can return time and productivity to your business.

2. YOU’RE STRUGGLING TO MEET DEADLINES

Consistently meeting deadlines is critical as a small business establishes its reputation. 

Delivering services on-time and meeting supply chain deadlines are the tell-tale signs of a dependable and reliable company. If you deliver, your customers will have confidence in you and will more readily refer your business to their networks.

How will you ensure there is enough time to handle operational tasks to the best of your team’s ability if you are primarily responding to emails flooding your inbox or working on uploading daily content to your social media platforms?

When deadlines slip or are missed entirely, it can be a sign of poor time management or inadequate use of resources. If you’re struggling to meet all your deadlines and deliver on expectations in a timely manner, it is time to engage with a virtual assistant.

Why? Virtual assistants tend to be terrific problem solvers. They can identify where your delivery problems are and set up reminder  systems and triggers, so everything flows as expected. They can also streamline project management by finding and eliminating the gaps that hold up delivery timelines.

By empowering a virtual assistant with a seemingly simple task like flagging key and essential emails that could prevent delays, your team can head off a problem with delivery before it affects your clients. Likewise, a virtual assistant can be charged with monitoring comments and feedback on social media channels, so potential leads don’t get missed and customer frustrations are quickly addressed and rectified.

But virtual assistants are also skilled at more complicated scheduling and project planning. 

Outsourcing delivery problems to a virtual assistant who excels in timeline strategy can help identify what activities or inactivities are causing delays, can help you develop a new, more viable schedule, and can help you create project planning documents that facilitate workflow.

In short, a virtual assistant can help you keep things on track – or get things back on track.

3. YOU’VE DISCOVERED INEFFICIENCIES IN YOUR BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Are multiple team members working on the same projects? Does the left hand of your business not know what the right hand is doing? What would happen if you were suddenly unable to do the things you do each day? Are your processes documented so someone else can keep the business running?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, you have inefficiencies in your business operations, and it is time to engage a virtual assistant.

Many small businesses take off before processes are in place or wind up outgrowing their initial cobbled together structures, creating a chaotic and inefficient operational environment. A business owner who types responses to all email inquiries, posts daily on social media, or manually creates invoices, spends valuable time and energy on systems that could become automated by a virtual assistant. 

Inefficiencies can cost a business as much as 30 percent of its yearly revenue!

Virtual assistants can integrate themselves into existing workflows or collaborate to redesign some operations to help small businesses run more smoothly. They can help set up and automate things like client intake and follow-up forms, scheduling systems, data entry, and project tracking.

Freedom Makers has virtual assistants who create, manage and assist business owners with workflows and operations. Many are trained and experienced on platforms and like:

• Google Suite
• Asana, Process Street, Trello, Clio, Microsoft Planner, etc.
• Zoho
• MailChimp and Constant Contact
• Salesforce
• Streak
• Quickbooks

Virtual assistants can also organize and streamline your existing files and systems. 

Allowing a virtual assistant to use their experience to establish or manage your operations can increase efficiency and benefit everyone involved - even when the virtual assistant isn’t “on the clock.”

4. YOU’RE SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME ON TASKS YOU ARE NOT GOOD AT OR DON’T ENJOY

You started your business with talent and passion. Your area of expertise – be it as a website designer, craftsman, law practitioner, software developer, or florist – is unique to you and dominates your skillset. It is what you care about! 

But without help from a virtual assistant, a software developer must also become a talented bookkeeper, customer relations manager, marketing maverick, and blog writer. 

Many small business owners feel burnt out doing the support tasks and discover they have less time to design websites, create art or develop software.  Eventually, the energy required to innovate and network with passion is depleted.

If you happen to love administrative or technical tasks as much as you love the reason you started your business, you might just be a unicorn!

But if you are spending a lot of your time struggling with recurring tasks AND only doing a mediocre job at them, now is the time to bring on a virtual assistant. 

Virtual assistants free up time by taking care of essential, recurring, and tedious tasks like:

• Email and calendar management
• Planning events or trips
• Creating spreadsheets and documents
• Brainstorming and writing blog posts
• Creating and posting social media and blog graphics
• CRM management and bookkeeping

Virtual assistants are skilled and talented at the exact things you do not enjoy doing. Many specialize in the very areas that tax your passion and eat your time. Virtual assistants are efficient and effective at executing the tasks you choose to delegate! They can quickly improve your day-to-day work-life balance, and you can return your focus to the drivers that encouraged you to create the business in the first place. 

Unburdened by the stress and discomfort slogging away at tasks you don’t like, your passion and energy will undoubtedly return.

5. YOU ARE READY TO SCALE YOUR BUSINESS

Scaling a business involves growing revenues while minimizing costs. Scaling improves your profit margin while increasing efficiency. 

Bringing a virtual assistant into your business can be an essential step as you scale. 

A virtual assistant will increase your capacity while saving you money (compared to doing the work yourself or hiring a traditional full-time or part-time employee). Because virtual assistants are independent, self-employed contractors who file 1099 taxes and provide their own medical insurance, they don’t cost the same financial burden an employee’s salary, benefits, or additional taxes would. 

Virtual assistants work remotely, often from their own home, and are accountable for all expenses they incur. This typically includes their computer equipment and internet service, software subscriptions, and other workplace items. 

Additionally, they already have the skills and training needed to execute their tasks. 

A virtual assistant can alleviate pressure by increasing your team’s capacity. You can outsource onboarding tasks, systems building and documentation, and the more mundane administrative functions while you focus on business development.

IN CONCLUSION 

So… when is the right time to bring on a virtual assistant?

Yesterday.

Consider engaging a virtual assistant as soon as you establish your business, as you set your foundation, as you discover inefficiencies, or are ready to grow or scale. In addition to all the practical hands-on tasks they execute, virtual assistants provide much more than just tactical to-do list tasks for a business. The intangible benefits a virtual assistant offers in the way of reduced stress is nearly impossible-to-quantify. 

It is never too early to delegate specific processes to virtual assistants to free yourself from the exhaustion that comes with executing daily, tedious tasks. With the help of a virtual assistant, you will have more time and energy to reevaluate your priorities, brainstorm, implement new ideas, and focus on your business’s core mission. 

Still not sure where to start? 

Freedom Makers’ task audit can help you precisely determine what a virtual assistant can do for you. By working through the prompts, an impartial assessment can help you see what tasks only you can and should do and which can be done by a talented virtual assistant!