Do I need a Virtual Assistant?
How to tell if you need a virtual Assistant
& the three Steps To Help You Get There!
Many people ask me, “Tracy, do I need a virtual assistant?” There are a few ways to answer this and a few ways to tell if you need one, but the same story comes to my mind every time I think about this question.
So here it is -
As much as I love this business and the work I’m blessed to do, I don’t love, want, or value it more than my amazing husband and my marriage!
We’ve been busy. I know, we all say that, and we all go through these seasons. There’s no way to find words to express accurately enough just how busy we’ve been without sounding incredibly dramatic. You get it, I know you do! So, with busyness, we tend to dig our heels in, roll up our sleeves, and get to work, right? That’s what I did… for about three months in a row. I was leaving my office overly exhausted and mentally drained late each evening. I didn’t have it in me to even visit with my family or inquire what had transpired in their day. I was replying to texts from friends days late… IF I replied at all!
My normal routine had become working at least one day each weekend and the other day… yeah, the work was going on in my head about what needed to get done, how it was going to get done, and no matter what I was doing or who I was with, I wasn’t present at all if I’m being honest.
Not only is that rude and disrespectful, but it’s a relationship killer.
Fast forward to the moment of truth - the eye opener - the heartbreaker:
It was past midnight, and I had been asleep for a couple of hours, when my husband came to bed. I’m not sure why it even woke me up; I never wake up. But as he lay down beside me, he said softly, “Tracy, I miss you.” He rolled over to go to sleep. Tears poured. In the midst of exhaustion and carrying a weight I was not meant to nor capable of carrying, I lay there as tears soaked my pillow. I finally had to get up and leave the bedroom - I wasn’t ready to face it all.
Entrepreneurship is the proverbial roller coaster with more ups and downs than any amusement park ride has to offer. We purchase our ticket and excitedly climb aboard with expectations of greatness and exhilaration! We read the articles, write down our “whys,” make our goals, chart a course of action, and drop our noses to the grindstone. Before we really know what is happening, we’re spending long hours in the office doing all. the. things. Our friends and family times are a distant memory and we’re embracing the “just one more thing” mindset while we mindlessly let all the things we love slip away.
This is not the dream. This wasn’t the plan. Look back - I guarantee this was not in your list of goals!
Along with relationship challenges, what about the quality of our work? When we’re overwhelmed and trying to handle everything ourselves, we make mistakes! Usually, they aren’t big, life-shattering mistakes, but they add up, and the more we push and struggle and insist, “I’ve got this,” the more consequences we face. Client care declines quickly, which as we know is a very slippery slope. If changes aren’t made, there goes our referrals and business name.
Friend, all of this leads to burnout! When you’re getting up in the morning tired and drained after a sleepless night and find yourself trudging through each day to get to the end to repeat again tomorrow, something is wrong! This was your passion, remember? This is the thing that made your heart leap with excitement as you planned, strategized, and dreamed!
The truth is, we can’t do it alone… and we weren’t meant to!
So what’s a goal-getting, dream-chasing, passionate entrepreneur to do?
Step One: Assessment
Let’s all stop, take a deep breath, and assess the situation with two simple questions:
What do you love to do? What was the passion deep inside that caused you to jump out of the boat and finally start your business?
What things are keeping you from doing what you love to do
Brainstorm time!
Grab a pen and paper or one of the thousand note-taking apps out there and jot down the following:
What do you HATE to do?
Think a minute… what do you find yourself putting off until the end of the day or the end of the week EVERY week?
What things drain your brain the most and destroy productivity for the rest of the day?
What are you not good at?
If your passion, gifts, and talents are creating beauty in the world and coming up with the next big thing, then I’d bet organizing client data, invoices, and answering emails aren’t really your jam!
If you really enjoy a day of running the business, looking at growth projection numbers, planning for the yearly budget, and scaling the company management, then social media marketing is most likely a significant pain point for you!
What is your time worth?
This is a crucial step and I don’t want you to take it lightly. Look at this honestly! You must know and not underestimate your worth and value!
Now, would you pay someone what two hours of your time is worth to do that same task? Sure, you can handle it and have been doing it yourself (just like all the other things!) since day one, but… is this task what makes your business great and will grow it to be what it is intended to be?
Step Two: Make a Plan!
Okay, Entrepreneur, here’s a fact -- you will have to scale back to grow! It’s a fact we all must face, and probably the one I see resisted the most fiercely!
Stop for a second and imagine if you had 2 or 3 hours each day to work in the area of your incredible gifts and talents. This is what everything was about from the beginning, right? No hindrances, no “one more thing and then I’ll do it”, nothing in the back of your mind shouting for your attention while you go and do what you were created to do.
Ahhhh! Just imagine!
Now, you’re back to dreaming and planning. Good! Grab that brainstorming list, and let’s get some of those pesky tasks that you despise and that slaughter your daily productivity, and let’s hand them off to someone far more capable and passionate about handling them with excellence!
Step Three: Invest in yourself and your business by building a team!
Enter Christina!
Executive Assistant Extraordinaire
Master of Social Media Marketing
Trusted Advocate
Hard-core Accountability Partner
Ingenious Integrator
… aka the fantastic woman who has my back every day!
I know, I wasn’t sure either! Could I afford this? Could I hand off EVERYTHING or even one thing? How will she know what to do and do it as well ( or good??) as I can? Will she care as much about my business as I do?
Yes, yes, YES!
I think I say this too often, but it’s just SOOO true: Teamwork REALLY does make the dream work. I know, corny. After hiring a teammate to help me daily in business, I got my life back ~ and that isn’t being over-dramatic! Date nights. Drives through the mountains before we leave the beautiful state of Montana. Golf! Lunches with friends. Days off! - in the middle of the week!! Yes, seriously! Weekends with zero office/work time. I could go on and on, but here’s something you really need to hear: Guess what happened with my business?
WE DOUBLED IN SIZE!
As a matter of fact, after having a VA by my side for close to a year now, we’re very close to doubling again! (And, shhhhh! But we have a secret that we’re hoping to launch in the beginning of 2019 that would not be possible if I was still trying to play the solopreneur game!)
There is no way Rock Solid Assistants would be the amazing, successful business it is without a virtual assistant by my side! So if you are like me, the answer to, “Do I need a virtual assistant?” is YES!
Are you ready to take the plunge??
bring on a teammate to help grow your business & get your time back!
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