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You've been in business for a while and it has been going well. But, there are those moments when you feel exhausted, overwhelmed and need a moment to exhale. My question to you is simple: "Have you considered hiring a Virtual Assistant?" 

In previous posts, I shared about who a VA is and the reasons why you should hire one. If those didn't drive the point home, here is more.

I contacted a few of my friends who've either worked as a VA or with one. Here are their tips and valuable experiences that will give you an even greater appreciation for the value that Virtual Assistants bring to any business. Feel free to share your thoughts or experiences in the comments below.

Christine Bennet-Clark

I have a ‘regular’ VA that I call on when I need help with specific tasks. Here are 8 tips from my short time working with VAs:

1. Start by knowing what you want a VA for.
2. If you ask for referrals or recommendations from friends or colleagues go the extra step and interview them to see if they’re a good match for you and your business needs.
3. Find out what the VA is good at, preferably at the expert level, but also find out what they’re not good at and even more important what they don’t want or like to do.
4. Ask them to complete a small task in the area you want help with.
5. Don’t expect your VA to do everything. Hire VAs who already have the expertise you need.
6. Think about your VAs as ‘fractional’ team members. Find different VAs with expertise in the areas you need help in.
7. Hire on a project basis, or even better performance-based, not hourly.
8. Working with a VA you’re aligned with is a huge benefit. You save money and free up your time to work on the higher-value tasks that make you money.

I hope you find these tips helpful in your own VA adventure.

Cecilie Aslaksen

As a small business owner, not only do you have to micromanage every little detail in your business, but most of the time you also have family and friends that would like some of your attention.

Hiring a VA can help you find room for family and friends, by helping you out with just about any task in your business that can be done online and remotely. My suggestion would be to outsource those tasks you do not like to do yourself, whether it’s answering emails, doing the accounting, creating newsletters or writing blog posts.

If you think a VA is too expensive, remember that time, not money is the major bottleneck of any business. So if you can focus on the things you love to do in the time you have available, and that will bring in the money - like creating or promoting your business - then the cost of the VA will repay itself over and over again.

Tishia (Tish) Lee

As a solopreneur, you are constantly hustling to get things done. You wear so many hats that it's hard to keep track of them all. You're the CEO, the marketing manager, the salesperson, the customer service representative, and more. It's a lot to handle, and sometimes you feel like you're running on empty.

Here's where a virtual assistant can be a game-changer for your business (and you)! A virtual assistant can help with everything from social media marketing to customer service and so much more. Once you start delegating tasks, not only will you take back your time to do more of what you love, you’ll be able to breathe a sigh of relief that things are getting taken care of.

A virtual assistant is more than just someone to offload tasks too, though. The “perfect” VA for you and your biz is a valuable asset. When you have someone on your team who is passionate about helping you grow and who is invested in your business success, it makes all the difference.

So, if you’re looking for a cost-effective way to take your business to the next level (and breathe a sigh of relief that you don’t have to do everything on your own anymore), hiring a virtual assistant is definitely worth considering. 

Emjae Williams

If you had to choose between -

• spending precious hours working on a project that you didn't really understand or
• working on that one thing you're passionate about...

...which would you choose?

The latter, right?

But the fact is, as an entrepreneur you’re often stuck doing tasks that aren’t in your wheelhouse. Creating social media posts, managing booking systems, handling customer service… If only you could take that off your plate and focus on what you do best.

That’s where a specialist virtual assistant comes in handy. Specialist VAs have extensive experience in a specific area - one that takes significantly more time and effort for you to complete. Time and effort that would be better spent focusing on other aspects of your business.

I worked with a number of solopreneurs who all had the same goals - to grow their businesses and increase their income without sacrificing more precious hours of sleep. I was able to completely take over digital marketing for one of my clients which gave her more time to work on projects she couldn’t previously take on. She was able to execute 2 workshops, add new products to her line, and add additional staff to her team all within a year.

It might not seem like it, but having that extra time and creative energy to focus on other aspects of your business, makes it possible for you to accomplish so much more. And you can breathe easy knowing that you’re working with someone who has the skills you need to take care of your business!

Karen Robinson

My experience as a business owner with a VA is priceless. Benefits may seem obvious, but my mind has been truly blown by how much my stress has been reduced with having two full-time VAs on my team.

One of them is my direct assistant and her focus is often on troubleshooting, fixing what is wrong, and product development (she helps with both physical and digital products from design to uploading on various platforms).

My other VA focuses on our social media channels and our affiliate marketing. Both VAs work on graphic designs for all aspects of our business including our membership sites, email marketing, social media, blog posts, podcasting, etc.

What does having VAs mean to me? Peace of mind. I’m now able to focus on my clients and on content creation. Having more time to write and be with clients are my genius areas I want to nurture and develop. Having VAs makes this possible. For business owners, please take excellent care of your VAs. Help them grow with continued training and reward them with bonuses and pay raises when possible. One of the joys of being a business owner is empowering my VAs to have a higher quality of life. Treat them well and they will continue to bless you. 

Julia Roberts

I've been coaching writers since 2014, when I got my Masters in the Science of Creativity. It was such a game changer in my life and writing that I couldn't wait to share it with other writers! I began to create the normal piece-parts of a business - website, emails, products, summits and more - to help me get the word out.

What I found - over and over again - is that I'd begin, guns a'blazing and find myself trapped by a technology question and no one to ask, no one to help me. However much time I'd invested thus far would have been wasted, and I would be depressed.

It ultimately became impossible to proceed without a VA. I was learning. I could do lots of things. But if I didn't have the assurance that there would be help when I needed it, there was no point in starting ambitious projects.

I've had a VA since 2015, and I don't use them much each week, but they are my insurance so that I can finish what I start.

Lou Bortone

Confessions of a Control Freak

My dad used to say, “If you want something done right, you need to do it yourself.”

I must have taken that to heart because, when I became an entrepreneur, I wanted to do everything myself. It didn’t matter that I was working 80 hours a week trying to get my video marketing business off the ground, I was convinced that “hustle” and hard work were the only ways to succeed.

I didn’t trust anyone else to do anything in my business - even the nitty gritty details that could have been handled by a VA. There was no way a VA could do it the way I wanted it done. I was terrible at delegating. I was a classic control freak.

I was nearly at my breaking point when my business coach and mentor finally convinced me to offload some of my admin duties to a trusted and highly recommended virtual assistant.

It was like some kind of miracle. The business clouds parted, the chaos turned to calm and much to my surprise, my business didn’t collapse. In fact, the business improved. I suddenly had more time and less stress.

Once I found the right VA, I kicked myself for not doing it sooner. Of course, the more we worked together, the more I came to trust her, and the more I felt I could delegate.

Today, I have an entire virtual team helping me run the business. My control freak days are over!

Adanna Austin

As a business coach/consultant, my days are filled with supporting 1-on-1 clients, going live with my audience, marketing meetings, and training entrepreneurs to build their businesses. Every day is not the same!

When I first started this journey, I was a one-woman show but I quickly got burnt out and realized I needed support. Not knowing exactly what support I needed I hired anyone who was looking for work. But that was a huge mistake and it costs more than it was worth.

In 2019, my coach helped me to hire the right VA. She challenged me to be very specific about the tasks I needed to accomplish. By doing this, I was able to hire someone who could focus not only on my administrative tasks but my graphics, email marketing, and managing my social media. I realized that there were different types of VAs offering different services. He managed the back end of my business while I focused on the front end.

By 2020, I hired my 2nd VA to help me manage the workload with my clients so we could meet our deadlines and went over and beyond their expectations.

Hiring a VA, or two has allowed me to work 4 days a week instead of 7. I now have dedicated scheduled time for family and self-care and I can take vacations without worrying about if work will be completed and without ghosting my audience. It is the best of both worlds!

Carolyn Shadrach

Bootstrapping can be interpreted in many ways, but for online entrepreneurs, it translates as, “I’m going to do everything myself, even if it takes me months [or sometimes years] to master the skills…”

What can end up happening is that you find yourself juggling all the jobs and doing all the things.

Every bootstrapped business goes through this phase.

The problem is staying in this phase keeps your business STUCK and often leads to burnout.

But before you can figure out WHO the jobs or task can be passed on to - you have to identify WHAT the jobs are.

Try to spend two weeks (or at least five days) tracking your time. Take note of EVERY task you do throughout the day. Armed with this information you’ll start to clearly see where most of your time is spent.

Now, as you consider WHO will be your first, or next hire, there are TWO ways to think about leverage…

1. One way is to hire for the role that gives you back the most time. For example, if you find that you’re spending most of your hours creating social media content or working on your website.
2. Alternatively, you could hire for the role that isn’t necessarily the biggest time suck but it will have the biggest DIRECT impact on revenue.

Whichever way you choose, ask yourself, “What is the potential increase in income that this new hire could provide? And how much of that potential increase am I prepared to invest to fund my first, or next hire?”

Erik K. Johnson

I waited so long, always figuring I couldn't afford a virtual assistant (VA). It should have happened a long time ago. The time I saved was worth thousands.

My email provider needed more functionality. It needed to be more robust. So, I moved from Aweber to Active Campaign. There were nearly 24 automations that needed to be moved. Each series contained an average of 8 emails. The migration required creating 24 new automations, integrating them with my landing pages, and recreating roughly 200 emails.

It was going to take hours and hours of my time. Or … I could use that time attracting new clients and making sales. My coach recommended I use her virtual assistant to do the work. The goal was pretty straightforward. The tasks just needed focused effort.

I reached out to Julia and explained what I needed done. In a few days (and for less than $200), she had everything done that I had been putting off for weeks.

Now, I could exhale. There was no more stressing trying to figure out when I would have time to do it all. Your time is valuable. Spend it in ways that make you money. Do the things that only you can do. Hire a VA to do the other stuff that doesn't require your expertise.

Kelly McCausey

Back in 2006, I transitioned from running my business as a part-time side hustle to making it a full-time venture. One of the best choices I made that year was to hire a Virtual Assistant right away. Many new business owners put off getting help, thinking they're smarter to do everything for themselves until there's more cash flow.

It wasn't always financially fun to pay my VA in the early years, but it was smart to put someone else in charge of customer support and simple routines. The woman I hired was a friend, eager to learn about online marketing and better at fine details than me. It was a match made in entrepreneurial heaven because she's still with me all these years later.

A tip for anyone who wants to keep a good provider: Give them raises. Don't wait for them to ask - but if they do - give them what they want! The longer someone is associated with your business, the more value they can provide in fewer hours. They work smarter, just like we do. Honor that value and pay them well.

Amanda Myers

I’m a relatively new virtual assistant, but I love being able to work from home at flexible times around my photo shoots since I’m also a photographer. I work best early in the morning before most of the world is awake and that’s when I’m most productive. I love to edit photos and make things look pretty.

There are many benefits of having a Virtual Assistant on your team. To me, the most valuable one is having someone to bounce ideas off of. It’s also great to have a second person to look at your products to get a second opinion or see things you might have missed.

You can have a VA do the things you don’t like to do such as accounting, video editing, social media or more so that you can focus on the things you do love to do such as coaching, taking photos, creating products or more.

Cassie Kitzmiller

After fifteen years in the brick-and-mortar world, I started my online business to have MORE time to spend with my young children and growing family. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I was working more hours and using up more mental energy in my “work-at-home” business than I was at my nine-to-five. Something had to change and it had to change fast if I was going to be able to continue expanding my growing coaching business and community while also being the wife and mom I desired to be.

I began to learn that as a business owner I had to stop adding more tasks to my plate and start multiplying my results by focusing on “actions of multiplication.” One of those first acts of multiplication was hiring a VA that could take the content I was creating and multiply it across many channels in less time than it would take me to even do one or two. This one hire freed up so much time on my calendar, mental energy, and helped my business gain visibility I would have missed out trying to do it all myself.

As the author of the new “MULTIPLY” book recently released on Amazon, I speak on how important working together with others is to the growth of your business. Hiring a VA is one way of doing just that and is something I recommend to my coaching clients as early as possible. We truly do go farther together!

Tammy Durden

In my 14 years of business, I have been blessed to work with many virtual assistants. In the past, they have been on my team of subcontractors helping provide services for our clients. I’ve also utilized my team’s services for my own business marketing needs.

Before I was a Business and Marketing Coach, I owned a very small digital marketing agency with a team of virtual assistant/digital marketing professionals. They were very well educated and skilled in all our clients' needs in email marketing, SEO blogging, and social media management.

There is great value in having a virtual assistant. Benefits far outweigh costs and often save you money in the long run.

While I managed my team, I had one who would manage my email marketing. I no longer had to worry about the due date and what content I had to come up with as we had a formula we used and plugged into each one. This saved me a tremendous amount of time, brain space, and cost me very little. She would email me to remind me when the introduction was due, so I did not have to think about it.

The work virtual assistants provided was always professional, on time, and skilled. They saved our clients' work, time, and money. If clients had done this work it would have taken them more than double the time, not to mention the frustration involved. It also means loss of income for the client because if they do it, then they are not doing the revenue-generating work they love during this time.

I would highly recommend a virtual assistant to help you with tasks, technology, and administrative work. As business owners, we need to be focused on the revenue-producing work we love.

Final Thoughts

Get the help you need so you could have more time to do what you really love doing. If you need help figuring out what to delegate to a VA or how to find the right one, send me an email at vamom@caribbeanvaliving.com. You could also check out the Hire a VA Hub for support.