Top 10 Signs It's Time to Hire a Virtual Assistant
Running a business can be overwhelming, I get it!
Too many times I’ve seen managers get completely bogged down in administrative tasks that take away their focus from their core business activities and distracting them from the all-important growth and strategic planning.
This often leads to burn out and frustration, having a direct impact on a business owners’ quality of life, and it doesn’t need to be that way.
Business management and administration doesn’t have to be the pain of your existence.
That’s where a Virtual Assistant or an Online Business Manager comes in.
Overcoming the daily struggle of administrative overload
For a small or medium sized business owner, administrative tasks can pile up really quickly, especially when you are trying to do everything.
Managing emails, scheduling appointments, bookkeeping, maintain customer and stakeholder relationships, manage day to day operations and somehow find time to focus on growing the business.
It all gets too much.
One thing I always encourage business owners and managers to do, is sit and take stock of where they are spending their time.
Draft up a table and assess what areas of your business are getting what percentage of your time. This will help you to get a sense of where your focus is sitting and enables you to determine where you want your focus to be.
So, what are the red flags and what are the signs you should hire a Virtual Assistant to help get you and your business to where you envision it?
Sign #1 - You're drowning in emails
Did you know that on average, a business owner can spend up to 3 hours a day (and sometimes more on emails alone?!
3 HOURS!
Now imagine what other things you could be doing within in your business during those 3 hours.
A Virtual Assistant who has a solid grasp on your priorities can easily review your emails, categorise them and prioritise, even setting up time blocks in your calendar with the emails that you need to focus on.
This strategy is one of our favourites and the proof has been in the pudding, as we watch business owners who embrace this system increase their productivity tenfold.
Email management is a critical service albeit one of the most basic - it's also the most effective.
Sign #2 - You're calendar is out of control - or non existent
As your business starts grow and you start to build a team,
you start to require a lot of meetings and to be more deliberate with your time.
Meetings with customers, suppliers, team members and relevant stakeholders.
How do you prioritise these meetings?
How do you remember when these meetings need to be held?
Virtual Assistants have the skills to set these up for you and automate the reoccurring ones, setting you up reminders so you are always meeting your commitments to your stakeholders.
But a calendar is so much more than just a way to track meetings, a Virtual Assistant can help you utilise your calendar to its full potential helping you stay on top of all your commitments, not just your meetings.
Time blocking is an awesome way for you to stay on track with your work.
Blocking out time in your diary to work through certain projects, tasks or review or write papers is an excellent discipline I recommend every busy business professional makes use of.
Sign #3 - You’re missing deadlines
Are you finding you’re missing deadlines, letting projects fall through the cracks?
Nothing is more frustrating to a manager than missed deadlines! It becomes overwhelming especially when multiple deadlines are missed, and the to do list starts to stack up.
A virtual assistant can assist with time blocking in your calendar for critical work to be done, keeping you on track and accountable for what needs to be done and when.
Virtual assistants are pros at utilising awesome programmes such as Microsoft Planner, Trello, Click Up and Monday.com (among many others) to plan out projects, milestones, keeping their fingers on the pulse, prioritising your workload and making sure you hit the deadlines that need to be met.
Sign #4 - You have no time for strategic thinking
Being bogged down in the weeds and too focused on the nitty gritty of your operations results in the trade off on your strategic planning and growth strategies.
As a business leader, your focus should be on planning for the future and growing your business, building relationships and nurturing your long-term goals.
Having a virtual assistant or an online business manager freeing up your time to focus on the strategic side of your business is making an investment into the future of your business and your team.
Sign #5 - You're constantly playing catch up
Busy business leaders, entrepreneurs and start up companies often try to take on everything!
You might start the day with good intentions, but as your inbox starts to pile up, meetings run over and unexpected challenges arise, you’ll start to feel like your falling behind, resulting in long days and weekend work.
A virtual assistant has the power, knowledge and capability to free you from this toxic cycle.
Delegating administrative tasks, like email management data entry and project coordination, you’ll free yourself from administrative overload, giving you the space to focus on your priorities.
Sign #6 - Your biz social media is neglected
Having an active online presence is critical in today’s digital age, especially when it comes to building your brand.
Consistency is the key with social media management, so posting once every couple of months won’t do you any favours!
Many business owners don’t see this as important and push it to the side when overwhelmed by other priorities.
A virtual assistant that specialises in social media management can take over the grinding tasks or content creation, scheduling posts, and engaging with your audience across the platforms that help to keep your brand active and engaged with the community.
Sign #7 - Finances are a mish mash
Managing invoices, processing bills and keep track of quotes and sales can seem like a never-ending stress!
Small business owners, entrepreneurs and start ups can quickly find themselves overwhelmed with these tasks being, leading to second guessing financial records and reports.
Virtual assistants and online business managers have experience in bookkeeping and can easily deal with invoicing, paying bills, tracking expenses and organising receipts to ensure all your expenditure is accounted for.
Online Business Managers can take this a step further, monitoring, prepare reports and commentary so you know exactly where your business is heading and are advised early on any risks and potential mitigations that your business may be face with.
Sign #8 - Customer service is slipping
As the business grows so does the demand for prompt and professional customer service.
Responding to customer enquiries, resolving issues and following up on feedback can quickly chew up a lot of your time especially when other parts of the business need your attention.
Poor customer service can tarnish your reputation leasing to dissatisfied customers, lost business and bad reviews. Providing exceptional customer service is essential for building strong relationships and ensuring customers remain loyal.
Virtual assistants can be the key to keeping your customer service on point as your workload increases. They can handle all forms of customers enquiries and provide prompt and professional responses.
Your virtual assistant can also implement customer service processes and protocols, utilising automation and templates.
Consistent, reliable customer service keeps your clients happy and strengthens your reputation as a brand that cares about its customers.
Sign #9 - You're feeling burnt out and overwhelmed
Running a business is everything but easy!
For business owners, leaders and entrepreneurs, not having enough hours in the day is a common struggle.
From handling daily operations and managing clients, administrative work, the constant pressure to do it all can leave you exhausted and stretched to thin.
Attempting to manage every aspect of your business, working long hours will start to make burn out set in. Burnout effects your energy levels, decision making and overall passion for running a business.
Hiring a virtual assistant is a game changer for restoring your work life balance. Having an assistant supporting your business and no longer being the ‘everything person’ reduces the overwhelming burden of having to do it all.
Sign #10 - You need help but can't afford full time staff
Hiring full time staff is a huge expense and as a small business, start up or a solopreneur, hiring staff just may not be financially viable.
Not only do you need to worry about consistent salaries, ACC levies, KiwiSaver, taxes and the time-consuming process of recruitment, training and onboarding, a virtual assistant provides the ultimate solution.
Virtual assistants and online business managers can be hired part time, for specific projects or for ongoing tasks that don’t require someone in-house.
The best bit – you only pay for hours actually worked! Giving you 100% productivity and efficiency from your virtual team. They have no extra costs and generally don’t need to be provided with any equipment other than a log in for your systems.
Are you resonating with any of these signs?
If you find yourself relating to any of these signs, it’s time you seriously started to consider hiring a virtual assistant.
Running a business doesn’t need to be a constant battle against time and stress!
Virtual assistants are flexible, cost effective and can help you to streamline your processes and operations, freeing you up to focus on the more high-level aspects of your business.
From managing your administrative tasks, to keeping your projects and finances on track, a virtual assistant can be the extra pair of hands that can make the world of difference.
Don’t let burnout or overwhelm get the better of you and slow your progress, invest in support that will help you to achieve success.
Email Nicole for a free no obligation chat to see how her team can help you! delegate@nicolerose.co.nz
