One of the best decisions that you’ll ever make as a business owner is deciding to outsource to a VA and incorporating them into the growth of your company.
Hiring a virtual assistant is a huge step for any entrepreneur. It means giving up some control over your business. But it’s also your first move toward adding more capacity so your business can grow.
If you’re thinking about taking the leap and hiring a VA, there’s a certain mindset you need to grow first.
You get to step back, but not away
When you hire a VA, you’re not completely giving away what you’ve built. You are simply letting go of some pieces. You should always remain in the loop and be a decision-maker. I know you are more than capable of handling these daily tasks; you’ve been able to since the start of your business, but doing it all on your own can start to be draining. You need to focus on the parts of the business that really need your personal touch.
Your business is your baby. Up until now, you’ve done everything yourself. It’s easy to understand why outsourcing tasks is scary. The way to overcome this fear is to focus on the positive. Think about the immediate advantages you’ll receive from outsourcing some aspects of your business. Once you hire a VA, you’ll find that you have more time and energy to devote to your business.
You can also mitigate this fear by being careful about what you hand over. Hire a VA you can trust and only share with them what they need to get the job done.
Outsourcing is an Investment
It’s certainly true that hiring a virtual assistant costs money. How much does it cost? This depends on what you need done. It’s also not a good idea to cut corners. If you pay as little as possible, the saying will hold true, you get what you pay for.
You can mitigate this risk by allocating a budget you can afford. Work out the numbers beforehand and make a budget that doesn’t break the bank. Hiring a virtual assistant, if done right, will earn you greater profits in the future. Remember this is an investment. The main ROI you are going to see right away is where you spend your time. If you can get someone helping you, what can you do in the business that you weren’t able to before that will increase your business income?
One way to adjust your mindset is to think of hiring a VA as buying time. If you are spending more time supporting your business instead of building it, you are not maximizing your efforts. You pay for the VA to take tasks off your hands so that you have time to focus on more important things.
What If You Don’t Want to Be a Manager?
One mindset challenge that many realize is that they don’t want to become managers of other people. Up to this point, you’ve only had to manage yourself and, for some of us, that’s enough of a challenge. But you now have the responsibility of being a leader and manager of someone else doing tasks for your business.
Working with a VA isn’t the same as managing a busy office. As the name suggests, it’s “virtual.” You give the VA tasks to do and check in regularly to see how they’re doing. If you train and onboard them well, they’ll require little management, and the investment you make in training will pay off with the time you gain.
Remember, it is so important to build a strong relationship with the virtual assistant that you hire. VA’s are people too and they tend to stay working with clients they care about and have personal and professional relationship with.
What If Things Go Wrong?
You may have heard horror stories about virtual assistants who caused terrible headaches for other businesses. Especially the first time; hiring a VA isn’t easy and there are many things that can go wrong.
While it’s true that it’s a complex and often difficult process, you can overcome this by being prepared. Carefully consider the tasks you need done, search for the right person, and prepare a good training and onboarding process to get them on track. It also helps to realize that a bad VA experience isn’t a business-ending event but a learning opportunity.
There are so many tasks we can outsourced to a VA and so many things a VA can do for you. It is worth the investment to bring someone on more permanently and build them into your growth plans.
Want to learn how to hire the right VA and get started growing your business without fearing you may make a bad choice? I’m offering a full course to help you avoid the pitfalls and start your first VA relationship on the right foot.