A Business Owners Guide to Virtual Assistants

It’s hard. I know. I try not to be but I am a control freak too.

The term “control freak” has pretty unflattering undertones – but to me it means to be in control of the quality and integrity of the services my business offers.

As a business owner we want our hands in every step, every process, every project, every decision, every… everything, but there are only 24 hours in a day and only so many of which you can work without losing efficiency and adequate sleep.

In order to build a successful business we all need other people to support us and relinquishing control requires recognising a few barriers in your thinking:

1. The persistent feeling that no one can do things better than you
2. The thought that it is faster just to do it yourself
3. The knowledge that no one cares as much about your business as you do
4.  

Let’s tackle these one by one.

No one can do things as well as I can

This is probably true for some things on your to-do list, but you can’t possibly be the best at everything – you can’t have nothing left to learn. Hiring specialists and professionals opens your eyes and broadens your mind to the latest techniques, strategies and technology in the market.

It is faster for me to do it myself

Today, it is definitely quicker if you do it. It just is. But is it really something you want to do, should be doing, or is a valuable use of your skill set in the long term? If the answer to any of these questions is ‘No’ – invest in training someone else and free-up your time to focus on what really matters.

No one cares as much about the business as I

No, your team don’t care as much about your business as you do, but there is value to be found in their objectivity. Focus on fostering an open culture where objective feedback on the product/service can be voiced, acknowledged and worked-on.

So start small – you don’t have to handover the keys right away. Get started by making a list of all the tasks you do within a week. Choose the tasks that:

• Take up at least an hour of your time
• Appear in the bottom third of your to-do list
• Are discrete in nature (e.g can be done autonomously)

Start with these tasks and we promise you’ll be a convert. If you need a little inspiration here are a few examples from my own to-do list.

• Online image creation for social media
• Schedule social media posts
• Gather contact information for email marketing campaign
• Complete market research on similar businesses
• Run google analytics report