I can do it all!

As a small business owner, you likely started your business for the flexibility and freedoms it offers you. Most importantly you probably do a lot of things because you have the time – or the control when you do them. The problem is if you are spending adequate time on the important aspects of your business you suddenly find there is little time left for the mundane, repetitive tasks. You fall into that trap where you tell yourself if I work hard enough and fast enough, I can get it all done, or that no one can get it done better or faster than I can!

Typically, you find yourself at a bottleneck (self-imposed) that is preventing your business from moving forward. The little voice in your head starts nagging at you that you need to relieve the bottleneck if your business is to prosper. You are also starting to realize this bottleneck has a huge impact on your health and the health of your business. It can become a vicious cycle.

Are you an admin or an executive?

How much of your day do you spend dealing with emails, phone calls, expense reports, invoicing, travel arrangements, scheduling, data entry, client prospecting, and other routine administrative tasks yourself?

If the answer is more than you wish you were or you wish you were focusing your time on the things that grow and drive your business perhaps you really do need to think about a virtual assistant.

Doing so is inherently growth-oriented, the old adage is “time is money” think about what you are spending your time doing and what that translates into when you calculate your hourly rate. If you are spending the majority of your time doing repetitive tasks how do you hope to grow your business? The best and brightest minds in business report that eighty percent of your time should be spent on high-value tasks that will help grow your business.

No rest for the wicked…

Do you regularly work 50 to 80 hours a week in an effort to keep up? Yet, you are still falling behind? Do you regularly work weekends and nights? Do you long for less stress and that illusive work/life balance?

If you answered yes to any of these – there really is little explanation needed as to why you might seriously need to look at some administrative assistance. You probably have figured out reading just this far (or you knew it even before you started reading) that the key to growing your business and having it prosper is devoting your time and energy to those tasks that promote growth – rather than the routine mundane stuff that is getting you nowhere.

I’ll start that project tomorrow…

If you are spending most of your time on daily busy work rather than those great ideas how will you prosper? Don’t put off projects that could dramatically impact your business because you’re overwhelmed by administrative tasks.

What ever happened to that exciting new project or that big idea you were so excited about several months ago? Has that month stretched into a year?

Revenue is flat

It’s a terrible feeling to know that you are missing out on prospective customer because your database for tracking customers isn’t up-to-date.

Data entry is a painstaking task, so many of us “accidentally” keep forgetting to sit down and do it – it’s the chicken or the egg argument – if you spend your time doing the data entry you don’t have time to sell yourself or your business to potential customers. But if you don’t do it – you won’t have prospects to target. Perhaps it’s time to admit you need help!

Make your budget go further!

You likely don’t have as much mundane and routine work as you think – but by outsourcing it you are strategically allocating resources and giving yourself the most important resource for you to grow your business – time! Hiring a virtual assistant beats hiring an in-house administrative assistant when you’re on a small budget, because it is more cost effective!

There’s no (or low) overhead associated with hiring a virtual assistant due to the fact that there’s no need to provide them with employer wage deductions, vacation pay, health insurance, office space, furnishings, or equipment. Those savings alone are incredibly appealing. What’s more, you won’t need to deal with daunting HR paperwork or training and management.

Most small businesses can’t afford to pay the necessary costs associated with hiring an in-house administrative assistant. If you live in a metropolitan area you’ll quickly find that virtual assistants cost significantly less than a regular employee. Plus, it can be very difficult to find an in-house assistant who can afford to work just a few hours a day for you.

What are you waiting for?

So how many of these things have resonated with you?

Instead of asking yourself why you should hire a virtual assistant, perhaps the better question is why haven’t you hired a virtual assistant?”