5 signs you need a Virtual Assistant

As a small business owner, you’re probably used to doing everything for your business since you started it up.

After months or years of working by yourself, it can be hard to realise and admit that you can (and need to!) outsource work to an assistant.

Just because you used to be able to do it all, doesn’t mean that you should continue to do it all.

It’s impossible and unrealistic for one person to be capable of doing absolutely everything for their business all the time. There’s no award for being the best at not getting help and doing it all yourself!

Admitting that we need help doesn’t come easily to many of us, let alone being able to recognise the signs that we need help.

This simple list is to help you to figure out if you need a Virtual Assistant.

5 Signs you need a VA

1. Your to do list is constantly growing

…And you never feel on top of it!

Whether it’s a physical to do list in your notebook or bullet journal, in your head, in your notes on your phone, in a to do list app or in a project management software – it doesn’t matter – if your to do list is growing and it’s not getting done, then you need help.

Often business owners get caught up in day to day tasks that require immediate attention, which means that you don’t have time for the important tasks.

Tasks you may need help with:

Engaging with your online community and replying to questions.
Paying invoices on time.
Social media posting and replying to important comments.

2. You spend hours a day on emails.

Email management is generally one of the main reasons that people get a Virtual Assistant for, based on my experience! Sometimes even just opening email can lead to incredible anxiety for business owners.

Checking emails is an important part of business, but it takes time to wade through to find the emails that need to be actioned.

Then, actioning emails takes time – even if you have templates that you can copy and paste for standard replies.

3. You don’t have time to think about the big picture.

You haven’t had time to reflect on your progress and consider how you want to grow your business.

You may even have also lost touch with why you went into business in the first place.

When you hire a Virtual Assistant you’ll have the time to reconnect with your reasons for being in business and consider how to grow your business.

Examples of how you’ve not been able to think big picture:

You don’t remember the last time you reflected on your business successes.
You have a whole lot of knitting and crochet designs that you want to launch but haven’t had time to create or plan them.
You’ve not set goals or targets in a long time.

4. You don’t know how to complete certain tasks.

In the past you may have taught yourself how to do things you didn’t know, because you thought you couldn’t afford to outsource it.

However, what many entrepreneurs find is that they spend hours teaching themselves something that would have taken someone else no time at all. Also, business owners may end up eventually getting the task done, only to find that they’ve done it poorly and really they should have outsourced it! Now that you’re making money, don’t fall into the trap of doing everything yourself.

Example tasks you could outsource instead of learning:

Pinterest pin creation.
Moving your website to Shopify.
Creating landing pages for your offers.
Website management.

5. You’re cancelling personal time or you have no personal time!

This is a great reason to hire someone to support your business and if you only need one reason – this is it.

Creating a business that you love is massively important, but so is spending time doing other things you care about and being with people that you want to be with.

Downtime from work is important for your mental health, creativity and energy. If you work all the time you’ll be mentally and physically drained. Taking time away from work will result in you working more efficiently when you are at work.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant for just one hour a week allows you to have one hour to go for a run, see a friend or simply get away from your laptop! One hour a week can do wonders for your business and your personal life.

Examples of how you might need more personal time:

You don’t remember the last time you exercised.
You don’t get to bed until hours after your ideal bed time.
You’re always tired.
You’ve cancelled meeting up with friends multiple times due to work.
You forget to eat or are eating poorly due to lack of time to meal prep.

What now?

“So, what now? I clearly need a Virtual Assistant! But I don’t think I can afford one!” – I hear you say.

If you have just £100 ($135 USD) to invest in your business each month, then you can afford a Virtual Assistant.

Why £100? That’s equivalent to paying a Virtual Assistant £25 per hour (standard hourly rate in the UK), for four hours a month / 1 hour a week.

If you’re making over £100 in profit a month, then you can hire a Virtual Assistant if you would like to! In one hour a week you can use the time to focus on personal time or use it on strategic and profit making tasks.

Consider hiring a Virtual Assistant for a one month trial to start off with and take it from there.

Next steps...

Read my guest blog post on “How to find and develop a successful working relationship with a VA for your crochet business‘, written for the Crochetpreneur and, watch my Youtube interview with Pam Grice from the Crochetpreneur.

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