7 Signs you Might Need a Virtual Assistant
It’s inevitable that you’ll come to a stage in your business journey where you’ll feel like you need some additional support. Workload will become heavier as your business grows, and you’ll find yourself wishing there was two of you (or three!) to help you keep on top of things.
But how do you know when it’s the right time to enlist the support you’ve been considering? And what kind of support do you need?
For business owners in your situation, Virtual Assistants are a great option. Here are 7 signs that you might need a Virtual Assistant to support your business.
- Admin is taking over your life
Admin is unavoidable. Everyone has to do it from time to time, but when you’re running a business, it can start to feel like admin is taking over. There are emails to respond to, leads to generate, paperwork to fill in, team admin to manage. It never ends.
Here’s a little reminder for you, though. You OWN this business. Should you be spending all your time ploughing through admin? Or do you deserve to focus on the parts of your business that will push it to the next level? We think you probably already know the answer.
If admin is becoming a real timewaster in your day-to-day business life, it definitely could be one of the signs that you need a Virtual Assistant. When it comes to admin, VAs cover just about every task you could possibly think of and would be only too happy to take them off your hands. You’ll be left with expertly completed admin and a lot more time on your hands.
- High-impact tasks are always put on the backburner
Another of the signs that you need a Virtual Assistant is that you keep running out of time for high-impact tasks. Sometimes, you’re aware that a high-impact task needs doing, and you’re aware of the positive impact it will have once completed. But it’s going to take you a while – you need a big chunk of time in which you can devote your full focus to it and, let’s face it, when was the last time you had that luxury? Being able to block off large portions of your day to dedicate to high-impact tasks when you’re a business owner is near impossible – there’s always something else that needs doing.
While this comes with the territory, it does mean that occasionally, high-impact tasks are put on the backburner, delaying opportunities for your business to grow.
If this is the case for you, some additional support to take smaller, low-impact tasks off your hands could afford you the time you need to focus on the bigger aspects of your business and those high-impact tasks you’ve been putting off.
3. Your work-life balance is not balanced at all
How often do you leave work on time? Our guess is, not very often at all.
When you’re a business owner, and the work is piled high, you can feel pressured to stay behind and finish it, no matter how much it eats into your evening. If you don’t, you’ll spend the evening dreading all the extra work you’ll have to do tomorrow.
While dedication to your business is a highly desirable quality for any business owner to possess, it can mean that your work-life balance quickly becomes an unhealthy one. Overworking can cause feelings of stress, demotivation and can even have a negative impact on productivity during the working day – the last thing you want when you’re already struggling to complete your to-do list.
Instead, investing in some additional support in the form of a Virtual Assistant means you can delegate any tasks you don’t have time for. Instead of working two extra hours in the evening or arriving in the office while the rest of the world is still asleep, you’ll be able to start and leave on time without adding extra weight to your workload.
4. You’re skipping vital opportunities because you don’t have time for them
Networking event for two hours on Thursday morning? No chance. Business meeting on Friday at 4? Can’t make it. We’ve all been there – sometimes your schedule becomes so tightly packed with things you need to do to keep your business running, you can’t afford to spend time engaging with opportunities that keep your business growing.
While this is understandable, frequently missing out on opportunities for growth really does hold your business back. It’s also another of the signs that you might need a virtual assistant. You’ll miss out on making valuable connections with like-minded business people, and you may even miss out on a few customers – the last thing you want when you’re aiming for bigger and better successes.
Enlisting additional support to take care of tasks like credit control, admin, data entry, or content creation will afford you plenty of time to make the most of every opportunity that comes your way.
5. You don’t have all the skills for all the things
Let’s face it, not many people do. While your skills will be varied and well-practised, it’s impossible to be an expert in every area of your business. For example, you may know how to run a company but may be less well-versed in how to run your company’s social media channels. Why should you have to spend time stretching your skillset to cover multiple aspects of your business when you could be focusing on the area in which you excel the most?
While learning new skills is never a bad thing, it can take time away from other important aspects of your business, especially if there’s someone else who could be using those skills for you.
Virtual Assistants cover a multitude of areas within businesses – there will be one out there who has the exact skills you need to get the job done.
6. Your big ideas remain big ideas
The point of a big idea is to turn it into a big project and turn that into a big result. But when you’re running your own business and are short on time, big ideas tend to stay big ideas. Of course, you’ll think about them a lot. You might make a few notes, scribble out a quick plan, but then something more pressing comes along. The idea gets tucked away into the back of your mind for later, and who knows when later will be?
Big ideas are what will propel your business forwards and potentially change the course of your business journey entirely. As the owner of your business, you deserve to be able to explore these ideas and implement them with time on your side. If you’ve got ideas that have been just ideas for a while, it’s yet another sign that you might need a Virtual Assistant.
Freeing up some of your time with support from a Virtual Assistant could be the push you need to turn your big ideas into even bigger results.
7. You don’t need the hassle of onboarding new in-house staff
You may have considered doing this. It makes sense – you need another pair of hands; why not add another member to your team? But then you remember the added admin, the reading of CVs, the interview process. And once that’s done, there will be employee benefits, holiday pay, new desk and equipment… the more you think about it, the less sense it makes.
If you’ve found yourself going backwards and forwards over this dilemma, a Virtual Assistant may be a more suitable option for your business. While a Virtual Assistant does become an extension of your team and provides all the same benefits an in-house employee would, they come without the hassle.
They’re already qualified, already trained, they only require payment for the time they work, and they don’t need any employee benefits whatsoever. No holiday pay, no professional development days, no pizza lunches, no new equipment. They’re simply there to get the job done.
So there you have it, 7 signs that you might need a Virtual Assistant. How many did you relate to?
If these signs are sounding all too familiar, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We provide Virtual Assistant services in credit control, admin, data entry and content creation and would love to support your business – we’re looking forward to working with you!