Knowing When You Are Ready to Hire a VA

In our growing work-from-home world, the question is not if you need to hire a virtual assistant but when? Everyone, from busy executives to business owners, is taking advantage of the convenient, skilled, relatively inexpensive help available from a professional assistant who works online. Even busy parents and home managers are trying to figure out at what point they can justify adding a virtual assistant to their team.

Stop worrying about internal hiring or external hiring and start assessing your need for a virtual assistant. Here are some tips to help you know it is time to engage a virtual assistant for the future of your business, the benefit of your family, and the return of your sanity.

You consistently make little mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes; it is a sign of being human. Business owners tend to be especially critical of their own performance because it often has broader implications. When you notice consistency in the mistakes you are making, it is time to get a virtual assistant. Each time you send out a client communication without the required attachments or forget to prepare for a meeting, you are putting your business at risk. These mistakes tend to increase when you are overloaded with work and the stress of growing your business.

You spend too much time on repetitive work.

At the beginning of your business, you did all the things from addressing envelopes to watering plants. You developed processes to make your business systematic and replicable. Now, you spend most of your day walking through those repetitive processes because business is good. Those tasks can easily be handed off to a virtual assistant, so you can get back to the truly creative tasks at which you excel.

You need a vacation.

No, a virtual assistant will not step in and run your life while you duck out to some tropical island. But if between virtual schooling, Zoom meetings, and meal preparation, you can’t find a moment to contemplate your next escape, you definitely need a virtual assistant. Start delegating some of those tasks, so you can get to the things you really enjoy. Project work is perfect for a virtual assistant, so engage one to plan your kid’s next birthday party or a get-away for the whole family.

You never catch up on work.

A business owner never seems to have free time. You are always helping a client or dreaming up your next big promotion or adding to your service offerings. In order to have those big ideas, though, you need some brain space. Working early and staying late because you don’t feel caught up on the administrative tasks is robbing you of the creative energy that launched your business. When you reach a point where you never seem to catch up on your work, it is time to hire a virtual assistant.

You can’t remember feeling excited about your business.

Getting bogged down in the weeds of running your business will happen from time to time. Those are the times when something is about to change, the business is growing or pivoting in some way. If you let yourself stay down in the weeds for too long, though, you will lose that feeling of excitement you had when you started your business. When you are not feeling excited about your business, it is time to hire a virtual assistant.

It is never too early in your business development to bring in a professional assistant. A virtual assistant can be an asset to business growth while not stressing your budget or your calendar. Just like an administrative assistant, a virtual assistant can keep you organized and on track with your business goals. Since you work from home, you may need that extra structure in your day a virtual assistant could provide to motivate you to stay focused.

Timing is everything in life. If not now, when?