HOW TO KNOW WHEN IT’S TIME TO HIRE YOUR FIRST VIRTUAL ASSISTANT

When I hired my first virtual assistant I doubled my income from the previous year. Not to say that this was the only factor in my income boost, but it was a BIG reason.

With my virtual assistant’s support I was able to hand over the administrative tasks that were sucking up TONS of my time and focus on the parts of my business that drove me forward and earned money.

That being said, hiring my first virtual assistant wasn’t an easy decision. First I had to get over some of the barriers that were standing in my way of taking the leap.

I can’t afford a virtual assistant…

Although it can be hard to know exactly when to hire a virtual assistant, I can tell you that it’s probably sooner than you think.

One reason it can be hard to know when to hire a virtual assistant is because you might be stuck thinking you don’t have the money to pay an assistant. This was my mindset for the first few years of my business. And I paid for it, literally…in the form of lost hours and lost money.

It wasn’t until I was able to transition my mindset from “I can’t afford a virtual assistant” to, “a virtual assistant is an investment that will help me increase my income” that I was able to make real strides forward in my business.

For example, before I hired a VA I was stuck making 5K in my business (or less) every month. I just couldn’t seem to get past the 5K mark and it was super frustrating, especially because I felt like I “should be making more by now.”

After I hired my first VA, my income started to increase. I had my first 7K month, which was super exciting. Then my first 10K month. Then I made 10K for 3 solid months in a row - woohoo I was on a roll! Then 12K, then 15K and THEN a 21K month - now that was a celebration!

None of this would have been possible without my virtual assistant because I would have still been spending my time on administrative tasks.

But what tasks should I give a virtual assistant?

Another reason why hiring a virtual assistant can be hard is because you might not know what tasks to give them. You’re so accustomed to doing everything yourself that it’s difficult to imagine anyone else being able to do what you do.

For this reason, I don’t recommend deciding one day that it’s time to hire a virtual assistant and then trying to crank out a list of tasks on the spot.

What I recommend instead is that you keep a running list on your desk for a couple weeks. Check in throughout each work day and ask yourself, “is this something a virtual assistant could do?” If the answer is YES, then add the task to your list.

By the end of two weeks, you should have a solid list of tasks that you can hand over to a virtual assistant and dedicate your time to tasks that will move your business forward.

Once you have your virtual assistant tasks, then it’s time to find your virtual assistant!

But where?

One place that I recently discovered is called Cloud Peeps. It’s a website similar to Fiverr or Freelancer, but I like it better because Cloud Peeps carefully screens their “peeps” so you can feel confident in finding a quality virtual assistant for the job.

Here are your next steps:

1. Shift your mindset from “I can’t afford a virtual assistant” to “hiring the right virtual assistant will allow me to propel my business forward.”

2. Then, once you get the mindset part down, it’s time to create your list of virtual assistant tasks.

3. Once your list is ready, head on over to Cloud Peeps, post a job description and start interviewing your candidates!