You don't need a Virtual Assistant

If you are working too many hours in your business or you are looking to grow, getting a virtual assistant may seem like the logical next step. That’s what a lot of the business advice online says to do, right? But I’m going to say something controversial (especially as someone who has grown a VA business!): you may not need a virtual assistant. I didn’t hire a team member until I was over a year into my business. I made investments in training and coaching first, before I hired someone to help support me and my clients. Not sure if a VA is the right step for you and your business? Watch the video below!

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Do I need a virtual assistant?

If you have been a business owner in the online space for pretty much any length of time, you'll see that common advice out there to help you run your business more smoothly and help you grow your business is to get a virtual assistant.

Now, for some people this is very legitimate advice and it is the next thing that you need to grow your business. But, not everyone needs a virtual assistant - at least not right now.

So do you need a virtual assistant in your business? Let's find out. Having worked as a virtual assistant, here are some things that I come across.

First of all, if you are so overwhelmed in your business that you're not going to be able to effectively hand off tasks or give someone else the things that they need to take a task over from you, this is not the right time.

Right now it is going to be a waste of money for you, because if you're working with someone where you get a certain number of hours per month and those hours expire at the end of the month and you are not able to give them enough work to fill those hours, you're wasting money.

It's going to be very challenging for that person to effectively help you in your business if they're not able to get the things they need to do their work and if they're not able to support you effectively because you're just too busy and overwhelmed.

If you are not at the point in your business where you have a to-do list and you know what your next steps are and what the things are that you're working towards and if you don't have some foundational systems set up, you may not be ready for a virtual assistant.

What kind of VA do I need?

There are some great virtual assistants out there and they can help you put some systems and standard operating procedures in place, but not all of them do that.

Some of them are more people who take over tasks from you that you don't have time to do, like administrative tasks, email management, calendar management, etc. So if you don't have some sort of system in place for how you like those things run and what the tasks are you would want them to take over, you're not ready. It's going to be a challenge for them to work with you and it's going to be a challenge for you to work with them.

The most important thing is to figure out your systems and processes. You also need to figure out what you actually need, what you want to hand off, the things you don't enjoy doing or the things that you're not good at, and what you actually feel comfortable handing off. Some people may really want someone to take over their email inbox, because they just can't stand looking at it anymore. For others that might be too intimate and they don't feel comfortable with it. And that's okay.

If you don't have those things figured out yet, take some time before you look at hiring a virtual assistant. If you don't know what you need, you may hire the wrong type of help. You may think that you need an administrative assistant, but maybe what you actually need is a VA who focuses on social media or tech or email marketing.

If you don't know what the thing is that you need in your business right now or that you want to accomplish in your business right now, you may end up hiring someone who's great but is not going to move you in the right direction. And you may need a different type of person in your business altogether - maybe you need a coach to help you figure out some of these things first before you bring on a new team member. Maybe you need someone who is going to help you set things up but is not necessarily going to work with you long term. So think about what the skills or expertise are that you need right now and make sure that you're bringing the right person into your business.

You may not need help right now at all

If your business is running effectively with just you, that's fine! But when I say "effectively", I mean:

• You're not working a crazy number of hours

• You're not completely stressed out, overworked, and overwhelmed

• You're serving your clients effectively

• You're bringing in an amount of income that you're happy with for now

If you can answer yes to all of these, maybe you don't need another team member or your first team member right now.

Don't let the internet experts out there tell you that you have to have additional team members if you don't want to and your business is running in a way that you're happy with right now.

Make sure that you're ready and it's something that you really want to do when you do bring in someone, because that's just going to make it so much easier and it means that it's going to be a much more effective investment for you and your business.

If you have questions about whether your business needs a virtual assistant, some other type of support, or any help at all right now, let me know down in the comments or feel free to reach out.