7 Signs You Need to Hire a Virtual Assistant

“I want to hire a virtual assistant, but taking the time to train someone would be just one more thing on the list” I said to my husband, and immediately heard the irony. I knew I could use a little more help, but I always talked myself out of actually hiring someone. Why? Because I thought hiring an assistant was for people on the verge of a breakdown or CEOs of large corporations. There was also a little pride in the mix: I thought nobody could do what I do, as well as I can.
“I have time to do everything I NEED to do, and even some of the extras…I just need to stay up a little later”, I told myself. Then I looked a little closer. Yes, I found the time to do everything that was critical to my business running, but I wasn’t implementing the great new ideas I had, I was only learning new skills on a “need to know” basis, and things I decided were lower priority often didn’t get done at all.
Sound familiar? Here are 7 signs you should hire a virtual assistant:
1. You can think of at least two things you do regularly that drain your creative energy. If you’ve been in business for a while, you know which tasks are painful for you and which ones move your business forward that bring you joy to do. Finishing little repetitive tasks you don’t love might be possible, but it steals your time and energy from the things that you know you should be focusing on.
2. You create content and only use it once. Do you have video tutorials that you’ve only shared on YouTube? Hire a VA to put it into IGTV format, create a blog post about it, make a Pinterest infographic and share it with your mailing list!
3. You start tasks and don’t finish them. Going deeper into a small amount of goals makes more impact than spreading yourself thinly over a wide range of things. Your “to-dos” shouldn’t be getting in the way of your seeing your goals through to completion. Love making YouTube videos? Put everything into those videos, and let someone else worry about making them Instagram, TikTok, and website-friendly.
4. There are things you’d LOVE to implement in your business but you’re waiting until you have more time. You never will. Get help so you can spend some time exploring those new ideas.
5. You’re not learning new things. Do you ever feel like you’re stretched so thin that you no longer have time to dedicate to learning new skills? Free up some time so you can take that copywriting course, learn to code, or whatever else you feel like you’d benefit from learning more of.
6. You want your business to grow more quickly. Want to know something that holds a lot of us back when we aren’t sure if we want to hire help (and this was the case for me)? Scarcity mentality. Trying to keep spend as low as possible. Guess what? Another brain and more hands will help you grow your revenue by at least as much as you’re spending! (If you don’t think so, then maybe it’s time to assess whether those tasks are actually necessary!)
7. You have the vision and need help with the implementation. Vision can’t be outsourced (I’ve learned this the hard way!). Did you know Bill Gates used to take one to two weeks per year to sit in a cabin and think? Give yourself the permission and the time to come up with more of the brilliant ideas that have gotten you this far, and stop getting lost in the day-to-day. It’s the difference between growth and stagnation.
I took the leap and hired a virtual assistant. I immediately felt the weight come off my shoulders. Is it time for you to do the same? Here are a few tips to help you choose the right one:
1. Spend a week logging the activities you regularly do. Timing the tasks is helpful as well. At the end of the week, do an honest assessment of which tasks you enjoyed and did well. As you move through the week it will become obvious to you which things you’d delegate if you could. Bonus: write down the things you’d be adding to your tasks if you had more time.
2. Decide if you need someone local. Speaking to customers isn’t something I want to outsource and none of the tasks I will outsource are time-sensitive, so hiring an overseas (less-expensive) VA made sense to me. Other people may want an English-proficient VA on the same time zone that can talk to customers for them.
3. Check on Upwork or other job posting websites for VAs whose skills match what you’re looking for and check the reviews carefully. I needed help primarily with design work, so I looked for someone who had a lot of experience doing graphic design and learning new software programs.
4. Jump in and hire someone. If you spend too long thinking about it you might talk yourself out of it. Start with just a few hours a week so you can decide if it’s a good fit and don’t be afraid to let someone go so you can find a better fit if it’s not working out.
The worst thing that can happen is you waste a little bit of money. The best case is more time, improved clarity, and a huge weight off your shoulders.
