Do you do everything
yourself when it comes to running your business? Or are you like me and find it
difficult to delegate to others, at least sometimes? Do you think you don't
have the money to hire help? Well, I'm going to show you how hiring help can
help increase your bottom line dramatically.
Not delegating is one of the major hurdles my private clients seem to struggle
with. They are doing everything themselves and are so busy with the little
administrative things that they have little time to devote to their
"genius" work – developing products and services for their niche and
working directly with their clients. Once they've hired help, either a virtual
assistant or an in-office assistant, and move through the growing pains of
delegating and trusting that the work will get done (and might even get done
faster and better than they could do it themselves), I can always sense a
feeling of freedom and excitement as the space opens up for them to work on the
things that are really creative and inspiring to them, instead of dealing with
invoices or fixing a glitch with their web page. And very soon after, their
business really starts to move forward because they have the time and focus to
dedicate to increasing their product and services line, which, of course,
translates into more profits.
There are many ways that you can work with an assistant. You can hire someone
on an hourly basis, or hire someone on a monthly retainer, which is often less
expensive. You can hire someone for a single project only or you could hire
someone fulltime to work in your office with you. Think about which of these
scenarios might work best for you.
A tip: If you hire someone as an employee, remember to check with your
accountant about filing the appropriate paperwork. The beauty of working with a
freelancer, independent contractor or virtual assistant is that they cover
their own overhead, including any insurance needs.
Here are 10 ways you can use an assistant:
1. submitting your articles to hundreds of submission sites
2. handling registrations for your teleclasses/workshops
3. proofing and formatting your written material
4. creating graphics for your products
5. maintaining your website
6. inputting any necessary updates to your products/services
7. as a sounding board for new ideas
8. responding to your customer/client inquiries
9. bookkeeping
10. packaging and shipping your products
If you can't quite see how an assistant could help you deal with all the
time-suckers in your business, keep a log of your business activities for a
week, including how long each task takes you to complete. Then at the end of
the week, review it and circle all the tasks that an assistant can help you
with (there should be quite a few!). Consider the number of hours those things
have taken you to accomplish, and decide if the $30-$50 an hour for an
assistant would be worth the investment. Statistics tell us that your bottom
line could increase as much as 40% once you hire help – now that's a pretty
good return on investment, isn't it?
And if you still think you can't afford to hire someone, then start asking
around in your network for someone who would be interested in an exchange of
services, or for an intern or apprentice.
If you're ready to start the process of hiring a VA in particular, I recommend
these services:
www.MultipleStreamsTeam.com – VAs particularly well-versed in helping
entrepreneurs who use a multiple streams approach
www.AssistU.com – VA training program
www.IVAA.org – the International Virtual Assistants Association
Or ask your colleagues who are happy with their own VAs to see if any of their
assistants are looking for additional clients.
So before you burn out and lose the passion for owning your own business that
you started off with, hire someone to help you. You'll reach more people with
your message and make more money at the same time. Start small and add hours as
you feel comfortable and for what you find necessary. You'll never regret it
and you'll never go back to being a lone ranger!
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