Hi everyone. I’m Paula from Beyond the Maze. Today I’m going to be talking to you about how to know when you need a VA. Many business owners get to a point where you’re not really sure whether you need help or not. So I wanted to chat with you today to help you know if you need a virtual assistant or not.  

Basically, when you’re feeling overwhelmed in your business, you need to be looking for an area where you can get that help. Even sort of before you get to that point. So I generally say when I’m talking to different business owners and they’re like, oh, I don’t think I’m quite ready for a VA yet. I’ll say to them, when do you think you might be ready for a VA? They’re like, oh, maybe in a few months or maybe next year? Not really sure. And I’m like, well, now is the time to get a VA. The reason I say that is because generally when you get to that point of going, oh, I need a VA now. You’re in this state of overwhelm and things are getting, you know, mistakes are possibly being made in your business. Leads a being missed, and things aren’t necessarily getting done properly because you’ve got yourself into this state of overwhelm. Where you finally go, oh, I really need somebody to help me with this. And then you don’t have time to train them either. Because you’ve got yourself into that state of overwhelm and overload, really. So it comes down to going. Yes, I need someone. I’m going to need someone in a few months time. So let’s start talking to a VA now and then when you’re not so overwhelmed.  

First of all, it’s going to avoid you getting overwhelmed. And secondly, you’ve got the time to be able to then work with the VA. To start handing things over slowly. And that’s the beauty of a VA, right? You don’t have to hire someone and get them in your business for like a minimum of 10 hours a week or full-time or whatever. Cause someone who might come to you and say, I only want one day a week or two days a week. And it’s hard to find those people who only want one day a week. They usually want two or three days a week. You might not have enough work for two or three days a week, which is exactly where a VA comes into play because you could use us. We’ve got clients that use us for four hours a month. So it’s one hour a week, roughly, and then they know that that amount of time is taken away from them. It might be just checking emails or answering their phone or something like that. But that time is taken away for them so they can go and focus on other parts of their business.  

Honestly, offloading those four hours a month is probably going to give you eight hours a month back. Because you’re not getting tied up and you’re probably not doing it in four hours a month. You’re probably doing eight or 12 hours a month because if it’s emails, for example, you might be taking longer in your emails. You might be going through things a lot more, you know, yourself, if you’re the business owner and somebody gets you as the business owner on the phone. Generally, they’ll talk to you longer than if someone on reception who can give you the same information, but because you’re the business owner, they try and get more information out of you. So things like that.  

That’s when, you know, when you’re really starting to just think about it and you’re starting to look at the business. When you start doing some planning for the business as well. You’re planning out the business and you’re like, right. I want to get from here to here in the next 90 days or the next six months. How am I going to get there? Okay. I’m going to need to get some help. So just have a conversation with a VA and see if it’s something they can help you with.  

Generally, if an experienced VA like myself, like our team are, then we can go, no, we can’t help you. Or you’re not ready for a VA yet. Let’s go away and sort things out to here and then come back to us. We are very experienced to be able to do that. To know if a business is ready for a VA yet. And if not, we can help you get there. We have many clients that come to us for pure projects and setting things up. And once we’ve done that project for them, then we can fall into that normal day-to-day VA role for you. So if you are really not sure when to set up when to start using a VA, sorry. Then book in a time with us and have a chat to see where you are in your business, where you want to go and your business and when is a good time to put a VA in place.  

So I’m Paula and I’m from Beyond the Maze and we are based here in Brisbane, Queensland. We have a team of both Australian and offshore VA’s and we can help you with your VA needs or just know when you need a VA. So if you’d like to book in a call with us, click on the link below and book one in, and we can have a free conversation about when you need a VA. Bye for now. 

Paula Burgess - Keynote Speaker QLD Australia

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paula Burgess is the founder and director of Beyond the Maze, a virtual assistant, coach, author, keynote speaker, mum of a special needs child and a Brisbane based girl who loves fast cars!

She also provides courses and membership to support other business owners working around children with special needs.