5 reasons you shouldn’t hire a VA
You may think me mad for pointing out reasons you ought not hire a VA but all will become clear. Virtual assistants love what they do, and they want to bring something fantastic to the table. In order to do this, the circumstances have to be right. As we always point out, it’s a 2-way street and the working relationship needs to be a harmonious one for both parties to work effectively together.
Hiring a VA will save you time and help your business grow – just 2 reasons among many you should consider hiring one.
But let’s look at some of the reasons you shouldn’t hire a virtual assistant.
You don’t know what you need help with
Your business is growing, and you can’t manage everything alone. You know you need help, but you don’t know what with.
Of course, there’s a way round this and we can help you identify what tasks to delegate and which areas you’d be best focussing on, however it’s your responsibility to figure out just what you need. You don’t want to end up with a VA with the wrong expertise for your needs or having to do the same tasks over and over because you’re unclear on what outcome you want. You also want to ensure that you’re asking us to take care of the things that will make the biggest impact for you – whether that’s freeing the time to do bigger ticket things, or reducing your stress.
If you don’t know what to delegate, we recommend starting by downloading our delegation checklist here.
You want a ‘Jack/Jane of all trades’
Are you looking for a unicorn? Are your expectations realistic? If you’ve never worked with a VA before you may be under the impression we’re capable of doing absolutely anything and everything that you ask of us. Whilst most VAs are multi-skilled and have experience in different industries and environments, this doesn’t mean they’re there as a ‘Jack or Jane of all trades’ or that they want to be.
5 Things you may not know about working with a VA
Many VAs have a specific niche in which they work, that could range from social media, to copywriting, to general admin, and beyond. If you’re expecting a VA to write your Facebook Ads, do your invoicing, plan your kid’s birthday party, and create your graphics, you may be able to find someone that offers all of these things but the chances are that doing all of these tasks doesn’t necessarily float their boat. A VA who enjoys bookkeeping may detest creating graphics or doing social media, for example.
If you need support with a wide range of tasks, it’s important to identify what you need help with within specific skillsets and take advantage of having access to a team of VAs if the tasks vary in nature.
VAs who support their clients thought a team of associates means that you get access to a wider range of expertise through a single contact, and that every one of the associates you work with, loves what they do and are experts in their field.
This way, you can have your cake and eat it too!
You’re just too busy
Obviously, you need to delegate if you’re finding yourself unbearably busy but working with a VA will require you to prioritise time in your schedule to communicate with them. You’ll need to explain what you need and if you don’t have time to delegate or communicate, you simply won’t get the results you’re looking for. This could result in lost hours you’ve not used, delays in projects, tasks not completed exactly how you want them etc.
With all of our retained clients, we like to have a weekly check in call, this helps clear any questions we have and helps us help our clients to identify things that we can help with.
But if you don’t want to allocate reasonable time in which to work with your VA, it’s unlikely to work to your advantage hiring one.
You can’t let go
A VA works with you, not for you and this distinction is hugely important. It’s vital that you respect the fact your VA is running their own business, with multiple clients, and that they’re the rockstars of organisation.
If you watch everything they are doing, and monitor it minute by minute or if every task you delegate is ‘urgent’ and has a deadline of ‘as soon as possible’ and you’re checking in every five minutes to see if the task has been done yet, then you’re not going to foster a great relationship with a VA.
We appreciate it can be hard to ‘let go’ of tasks and that you’re putting your trust in someone to do things to your standards, and that’s why we’re huge advocates of regular communication. Once that mutual respect and trust has built, you’ll ask yourself how you ever managed without a VA!
5 Things you need to do before hiring a VA
You don’t have the budget
Hiring a VA is an investment and will add value to your business. That being said, you need to take your budget into consideration. VAs dedicate their time and energy to your business, but in order to make an impact, they need the time. We only take on clients for a minimum of ten hours per month for a reason – any less and it’s really hard for us to make a difference. We want to get to know you and your business, come up with ideas, innovations and efficiencies for you, but it almost impossible do to this if you’re not able to allocate a budget for the support.
The beauty of working with many VAs is that they will take your budget into consideration. It may be a one-off project or a retainer, but usually, there will be a solution to suit both businesses. Plus, a VA will often save you money by taking those time-consuming tasks off your hands, freeing up your time to work on more revenue generating tasks. A VA can also help grow your sales, so bear that in mind when making your decision.
We recommend you take our quiz to find out what type of support you need to help you to create the business you want and download our ’30 ways to use a VA’ guide here.
If you feel ready to hire a VA, get in touch here