Do You Use Your VA As Effectively As You Should?
I came across a podcast recently, thanks to Kelly McCausey’s post about it over at the WAHM Talk Radio blog, that being the outsourcing loving person that I am, sparked a bit of interest in me, so I had to check it out.
Manager Tools is a podcast dedicated to those who, you guessed it, manage others. Kelly talked about her recent delegation epiphany in her post and brought to my attention an archived show about making the most out of working with your assistants.
Since I had a few minutes to spare today I thought I’d have a listen and see what it was all about. I just finished listening to the show and even though it discusses using admin assistants in more of a corporate structure, a lot of the topic applies to any type of assistant and is worth a listen to anyone who uses or is planning to use a VA.
As an online business owner outsourcing your work to a VA, if you head into that relationship unsure of what you want from it, you won’t get out of that relationship what you hoped to. Neither will your assistant. You also must be willing to delegate tasks; even those that you may not want to get rid of but are not producing money for you. An example of this is email.
Here are a few quick tips to help you to get the most out of your relationship with your VA.
- Take the time to plan before hiring a VA. Sit down and take an inventory of everything you do in your business, from checking email and networking to bookkeeping and site maintenance and everything in between.
- Determine what things you can pass on to a VA that will allow you to do your job more effectively. If checking and replying to customer emails is something that is taking a big chunk of your time daily it’s something you should be passing on so that you can focus on things like marketing to grow your business.
- Give your VA the tools necessary to complete the tasks in the beginning. Don’t hire someone and just give them the software or resources necessary to complete their job as they go. This wastes a lot of time that you could be spending on other things.
If you can’t delegate your tasks then you are going to have a difficult time using your VA to his or her potential. The responsibility of getting the most from your VA does not lie completely with the VA. The majority of their effectiveness lies with you as the business owner to plan and prepare what it is you need from them.
You can also pick up more outsourcing tips here
Manager Tools is a podcast dedicated to those who, you guessed it, manage others. Kelly talked about her recent delegation epiphany in her post and brought to my attention an archived show about making the most out of working with your assistants.
Since I had a few minutes to spare today I thought I’d have a listen and see what it was all about. I just finished listening to the show and even though it discusses using admin assistants in more of a corporate structure, a lot of the topic applies to any type of assistant and is worth a listen to anyone who uses or is planning to use a VA.
As an online business owner outsourcing your work to a VA, if you head into that relationship unsure of what you want from it, you won’t get out of that relationship what you hoped to. Neither will your assistant. You also must be willing to delegate tasks; even those that you may not want to get rid of but are not producing money for you. An example of this is email.
Here are a few quick tips to help you to get the most out of your relationship with your VA.
- Take the time to plan before hiring a VA. Sit down and take an inventory of everything you do in your business, from checking email and networking to bookkeeping and site maintenance and everything in between.
- Determine what things you can pass on to a VA that will allow you to do your job more effectively. If checking and replying to customer emails is something that is taking a big chunk of your time daily it’s something you should be passing on so that you can focus on things like marketing to grow your business.
- Give your VA the tools necessary to complete the tasks in the beginning. Don’t hire someone and just give them the software or resources necessary to complete their job as they go. This wastes a lot of time that you could be spending on other things.
If you can’t delegate your tasks then you are going to have a difficult time using your VA to his or her potential. The responsibility of getting the most from your VA does not lie completely with the VA. The majority of their effectiveness lies with you as the business owner to plan and prepare what it is you need from them.
You can also pick up more outsourcing tips here
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