Ditto everything that Kevin said. But I want to address the merits of a virtual assistant. I had a technology assistant for several years and I hired her for many of the reasons Kevin pointed out. I wanted to focus my energy on writing, speaking, and teaching -- three things that take a lot of time and required me to travel often. But in order to keep the new opportunities coming in, I also needed to make sure that my online presence was top notch and that I was ahead of the curve on all the technology people are using in my field, things I didn t have a lot of time to work on. So I decided to hire someone to both take care of certain functions (updating my website, for example, which is a tedious chore), but also to train me in others so that I would never be in a position where I couldn t do something myself if need be. The person I found happened to live across the country (I m in New York; she s in San Francisco). And since the tasks we were working on didn t require us to be in the same room, it made sense to work together virtually. The virtual arrangement also worked well because I live at home and don t always want someone with me in my apartment. One piece of advice if you do work with a virtual assistant: have clear expectations and communications around when you expect the person to be available. I also found it helpful to have occasional in-person meetings to deepen the relationship.
Virtual or not, when to hire help is one of the hot-button questions for any small company. The temptation, of course, is to do most if not all activities yourself to save money and pour the funds back into growing the business. There are two big problems with trying to do everything yourself:First, the business starts to own you instead of the other way around. It s easy for entrepreneurs to feel severely out of balance, with their families and social relationships relegated to also-ran status. Nothing can cripple a business faster than resentment from the rest of the family -- and of course the risk to your family structure is left unsaid.Second, there is the playing to your strengths question. Frankly, most people aren t particularly good at everything. We all have areas we are passionate about and tend to be better at those. I love to write, so that s not a chore for me; as a result, I do it well. But I hate to do spreadsheets; and as a result, I do them poorly.So, I encourage entrepreneurs to recognize their areas of strength -- i.e., face-to-face sales, customer service, finance, planning. Then make another list of areas you aren t good at, and look for ways to outsource at least a few of those to others who have built businesses around those places where you are weak. Others will do the work better, more efficiently, and you will have more time for your stronger attributes. It may seem wasteful at first, but I can just about guarantee it will pay off both professionally and personally.
that depends, is your website online? and, what would you need a virtual assistant to do for your business? and, what did you intend to pay them?
