- Not knowing what to outsource
When we are working so much, our list is a mile long and half of the time we are riding that ‘daily grind’ just to get through the day.
A lot of the time, as business owners, we will just do any and every task possible, because it’s quicker to ‘do it ourselves’
But what if i tell you, it’s NOT quicker to do it yourself?
What if you have had to do that task, 20 times this month already and it was something that you could have taught someone else to do it?
Let’s say that task was uploading a creditors invoice (a phone bill) account into your bookkeeping software (Xero or Quickbooks), it would look a little something like this:
-open mail
-open xero
-select pay bill
-enter in all information
-save transaction
That’s it…. But what if you had to do that 5 times a day, 10 times a day or 20 times a day….? You would possibly hire a bookkeeper right?
That’s when you know you are ready to hire a low cost VA to help you with your business.
This is one task that you should NOT be working on and is a great start to delegate your NON-CEO duties to someone else
- Delegating the wrong task’s
There can be many different factors that change a circumstance of delegating the wrong task to someone else and that could be lack of communication and expectations.
Using the example above, we have just hired a bookkeeper and they have been working for you for quite some time now.
You have built up a great relationship and they are very trustworthy to you and your business.
As the time passes you are starting to realise how valuable a virtual assistant is to you and your company and you are wanting to get more ‘value’ out of your virtual assistant to help you build your company up.
So, now you want them to work on your SEO accounts, (search engines optimisation) – for those who don’t know what that is, it’s a way to drive traffic to your website.
Your bookkeeper has received your instructions and has now started to research what that is.
There are many different reasons why they didnt say no to you:
-Didn’t want to say no and appear disloyal
-Didn’t want to appear to let you down
-Wanted to build more hours for more wage
But there is a problem with all of that… You are giving someone access to another task that is NOT right for them.
You don’t ask a mechanic to come to your house and replace the hot water system… NO! You hire a plumber
You don’t go the the green grocer and order a fax machine (ok, I am showing my age right now – who uses a fax machine anymore…!)
By hiring a virtual assistant, its best to keep them for that task or similar to build out. Generally they are fantastic at that particular job, although they might be amazing, you also need to be realistic too.
- Hiring from all different platforms with no consistency
Personally I have hired from here, there, everywhere… And it served me well, until it didn’t.
If you are hiring a low cost virtual assistant, there are many different factors that you need to consider.
-Exchange rates
-Time zones
-Language barriers
-Pay rates
-Different ways to submit a job position
And of course, this list could go on!
I found once you have found a certain platform that you like to use, for example
Upwork.com
Fiverr.com
These two were definitely my prefered platforms that I used when I first started and they served me really well.
I do highly recommend these two platforms if you are also hiring from many different platforms. They are consistent and the fee’s and you are only going between the two platforms.
- Paying too much in fees and wages
This one gets me going… In my life I am always looking for a deal but I also pay what is worthy as well!
There have been many times when I have been ripped off by a virtual assistant:
-they are meant to working full time and they are not available during the day
-Working for someone else whilst meant to be working for me
-They submit a price over valued due to me not knowing the industry
-not knowing the fees that are required for each payment
-exchange rates that change on a daily basis
Unfortunately, we all have to go through something like this, we don’t know it all and it’s best for you to do as much research as possible before hiring a virtual assistant.
Understand the wages, fees and taxes that are available for each transaction.
- Not allowing baby steps and diving straight in
This last step is crucial and could implode your experience hiring a virtual assistant. Let’s go back to hiring a bookkeeper to help with your business.
If you are anything like me you want to give all of you bookkeeping duties away and NEVER see them again!
But unfortunately its best to do one thing at a time, until you virtual assistant learns first than diving in with overwhelm. Because you will too become overwhelmed and this will not be a great experience for the both of you.
My biggest suggestion is to create a list of what you want your brand new virtual assistant is to do:
Bookkeeping
-enter in accounts
-process accounts
-bank reconcile
-Creating invoices
-creating quotes
-following up quotes
-following up invoices
Just to name a few.
As you can appreciate, that list is very full and it would be a lot of pressure for you teaching them and them learning how to do it perfectly.
So let’s break this down, how would you hire a VA to do all of this without costing you a fortune in wages, your time and effort?
-Hire them for 5 or 10 hours per week for 1 month
-Build up KPI reports on how they are going and decide if they are a great fit for you. If they aren’t, then let them go.
If they are great, then let’s keep going!
They have passed your vigorous training and you are supper happy with the workload that they have taken from you, they are now ready for more.
For the next month, increasing their hours by 25%-40% will help then learn more all the while provide less pressure for the both of you.
By doing this way, you know that your virtual assistant will not be:
-under worked
-you are utilising their hours
-less stress for you to teach them
-you may not need to hire them 40 hours per week as 30 hours is enough, which is saving you 10 hours of wages each week
If you want more help to hire a virtual assistant, go to:
www.theplanner.com.au
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