SBS VA Solutions

Why We Struggle to Outsource and How to Fix This

Delegating for business owners does not come easy, and that is perfectly understandable. Firstly, the problem may be that there may appear to be no one trustworthy enough to delegate to or secondly that a business owner feels that it may be an extra expense that should not be considered, but the cost of not delegating tasks that you are currently handling on your own is far higher than paying someone to assist you with them. Let me explain why.

Delegation = more time = more time for you to make money in your business

It’s honestly as simple as that! When you own a business, you are everything to everyone, including in your business. That means you are the finance person, marketing person, the skill, the client liaison, and the admin person. As much as I feel entrepreneurs are heroes in their own right, one cannot be expected to manage the entire business on your own, PLUS be successful PLUS retain your sanity.

What is the solution?

Hiring a Virtual Assistant of course. But why not hire an employee in your small business? In my opinion, it is hardly worth it. If you are concerned about costs, taking on a full-time employee that you are 100% responsible for, will no doubt be an extremely stressful take-on, especially during the uncertain and turbulent times that we currently face. You do not want the additional hassle of having to accommodate for a Personal Assistant in an office situation (which you may not even have at the moment), all the expenses that come with an office set up (i.e. Laptop, Printer, WIFI, etc.), not to mention a full salary and the fact that you need to oversee her every move to make sure that your work is being taken care of at all times.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant does not entail any of the aforementioned needs of a full-time Personal Assistant, because a Virtual Assistant is completely independent. She works from her own location, she already has a full setup at her own cost and does not expect to be paid a salary, only for the services and hours that she works for you. Here are some other major benefits:

  • You are not responsible for any employee benefits (i.e., maternity leave, annual leave, sick, leave, bonuses, increases, or anything else affiliated with a full-time employee)
  • There is absolutely no need to micro-manage a VA (a good one that is), because all the tasks she performs for you are time-tracked and come off the monthly retainer you have already purchased at the beginning of the month
  • You have a Virtual Assistant who can handle the entire administrative/organizational function for you, while you get to decide which tasks you want to focus on, while your Virtual Assistant takes care of the rest.

It’s time to regroup and refocus

If you had to make a list of all the income-generating tasks that you need to focus on daily, such as:

  • Marketing
  • Sales
  • Client relationship management
  • Project management
  • Service/product specialty
  • Strategy
  • Business planning

Then make a list of all the admin tasks you are also responsible for too, such as:

  • Document creating, formatting, and proofreading
  • Setting up of meetings/administering of communications for meetings
  • Sending out of meeting action points
  • Invoicing
  • Dealing with a severely flooded email inbox
  • Following up with clients
  • Coordinating your team
  • This list is endless

Then make a list of what is most important to you in your personal life, such as:

    • Health
    • Gym and fitness
    • Your family
    • Your self-care
    • Your self-development and learning

As you can see from the examples above, this is a lot to take on on your own, this may be why you feel so frustrated and overwhelmed all the time. Neither is it productive or healthy. The last thing that a business owner needs is burn-out. Suffering from burn out renders you almost completely unable to function for a good couple of weeks and is something you really need to avoid. Wouldn’t it be better to hand some of these tasks over to someone who is a complete admin specialist? Besides the obvious benefits, you get to delegate the tasks you truly a) don’t have the time for and b) really don’t want to do. And a Virtual Assistant is exactly who you can entrust these tasks with.

Are you ready to outsource?

I am here for you. Should you wish to find out more about how I can help you in your business, feel free to book a call with me here.