How To Be a Winner When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

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Be a Winner When Hiring a Virtual AssistantI started working with a new Virtual Assistant (VA) this month, and three steps in the process may help you get ready to hand off some of your work, too – whether you hire a virtual assistant or employee.

I won’t lie – there is time involved in prepping to work with a VA. But a little prep time helps  forestall two common reasons why hiring a virtual assistant fails for the business owner.

The two most common reasons hiring a virtual assistant fails for the business owner are:
  1. A lack of preparation by the business owner.
  2. Being unclear on what you want the VA to accomplish.

The time you put into preparation will pay off in a smooth working relationship.

Here are the three things I did as soon as we agreed to work together:
  1. Created an email address for her using my domain (i.e. Cindy@ YourCSO.com)
  2. Made her an admin on my Facebook page
  3. Gave her limited access (yes, you can limit this!) to my Paypal account
Here is why each is important:
  1. When Cindy sends out an email for me, she’s not using her personal email, which would not be recognized by my clients; it is clear to the recipient that she is with my company.
  2. Now I can have Cindy go in and do some routine updates and make changes to my Facebook page.
  3. Cindy can go in and create ‘buy’ buttons to add to my webpage, and process returns for me – without having access to the rest of my Paypal account. What a relief! I didn’t know you could do this until Cindy told me it was possible.
Not sure how to set up 1,2, and 3? Here are the quick directions:
  1. Log into your domain host, click on ’email’, and add a new account. Pretty simple, and takes 5 minutes. If you have a host like Bluehost*, you can call their 24/7 phone support and they can walk you through it. P.S. This also gives you the ability to cancel the account if you change VA’s.
  2. You should already be an admin on your own Facebook page, and will see ‘Settings’ as a tab on the top left of the page. Once in “Settings’, click “Page Roles’, then ‘Add Another Person’. You can choose how much control to give the new user by which ‘Role’ you assign them. Also a 5 minute task.
  3. You must have a Paypal Business account to do this – but you probably do if you are selling using Paypal. This one is not as intuitive, and I ended up calling Paypal for help – so it took 15 minutes, instead of 5. They do have live person support, which I appreciate. Basically, what you need to authorize for a third party to create ‘buy’ buttons for you is ‘API Access’, which is under ‘Tools’ in their menu. Or just call Paypal and let them walk you through it.

By the way, even if you are not ready to hire, you may want to set up some email accounts you can hand off later when you do hire, like support@yourdomainname or accounting@yourdomainname. That way you can train your customers & vendors now to use specific email addresses & not have to re-train them later not to send all email to your inbox.

My next post will cover some other important steps to take when hiring a virtual assistant or employee for your small business.

*Full disclosure: Bluehost is my domain host, and I do make an affiliate commission if you become a Bluehost customer after using my link.

Filed Under: Delegation, entrepreneurial mindset, System Development, time management, working with a virtual assistant

The 15-Minute Social Media Audit Everyone Can Do

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Woman using laptopHas managing all your social media accounts become a burden? Are you even sure you remember all the accounts you have set up? What kind of harm could a dormant account be doing to your brand? Do you have goals for your social media presence? Are you measuring your success?

A social media audit is a great task to delegate, and the good folks at Buffer have put together a super simple template for you to create a social media audit right now, alongside lots of resources on further ideas to test. This walks you (or whomever you delegate this task to) through a step-by-step checklist that will help you:

  1. Locate and document all your social media profiles, official and unofficial
  2. Check for completion of all details on these profiles and for consistency in imagery and message
  3. Follow up on your goals and compare performance today to performance one and two years ago

Heres the link to the full article, including the free template: http://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-audit

Either delegate this 15 minute task by forwarding this link to your VA or an employee now, or look at your calendar and schedule it now for sometime in the next week so this gets done.

Filed Under: business management, Delegation Tagged With:

Small Business Systems Development

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Labelling with pictures help with small business system developmentDon’t you love systems where you get other people to do the work for you? Whatever the setting, that makes for effective delegation. I’m always impressed when I see well executed examples. Let me share one with you.

I’m just back from a lovely weekend retreat with 19 other women. At the conclusion of your stay, you are asked to do two things:

  • make your bed with the linen you will find in the bottom drawer of the dresser in your room
  • deposit your used linen in bins under the staircase

You can see the bins in the photo. Very clear labels instruct you where to deposit your pillow case, fitted sheet, flat sheet and towels. Imagine the time saved in housekeeping by having the linen from 17 rooms stripped, in one place, and pre-sorted. No wasting time sorting it again when it leaves the dryer, either, since all the fitted sheets, for example, will be in the same load. And let’s assume 5 minutes to make a bed – having each retreat participant make their own bed saves the housekeeper an easy hour and a half.

This is especially important because only four (religious) brothers run the retreat house. They have a very small staff that includes a cook, a dishwasher, and housekeeper. They need to run a lean operation, both to keep costs reasonable, and also to allow them time to focus on their priority: their religious life. See how this is starting to relate to your small business?

Effective delegation demands you have a clear and easy-to-follow system in place. Let’s analyze what was done right in this example, so you can apply to your own small business systems development:

  • Tell people what you expect in advance: We were given a short orientation talk the first night of our stay, which included a reminder to make the beds before we left, and the location of the dirty linen receptacles.
  • Use pictures: A picture is worth 1000 words – 1000 words you don’t need to write. In your business, don’t forget the power of videos to capture each step you use to do something on the computer. You can use apps like Jing to easily create a screen capture video.
  • Use the power of many to reduce the work of a few: It did not take much time for each individual to strip and make their bed – but may have saved paying for an extra staff member.
Filed Under: Delegation, System Development, time management Tagged With:

Small Business Hiring Tips: Employee, Contractor, or VA?

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How do I know when I'm ready to hire for my business? Small business hiring tips. Image of post-its .When you start to think about hiring help for your small business, you may ask ‘What is the difference between an employee, independent contractor and a virtual assistant (VA)?’. There are websites that give you a legal and IRS definition, but I want to give you a different perspective: What would help you the most?

First, let’s define the terms.

An employee takes direction from you. You tell them what hours to work , and may even train them. You pay them either hourly or a salary, and are also responsible for payroll taxes and worker’s compensation insurance. If you require them to work from your office, they are most likely an employee.

An independent contractor does work you request, but set their own hours, and use their own tools. You can give them a deadline and work specs, but they decide how to get the work done. They set their own rates and bill you.

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent contractor who does their work for you remotely. I differentiate VA’s because I think of independent contractors as often being hired per project, whereas a VA is usually hired to work on an ongoing basis, typically  in increments of 5 hours a month.

Many solopreneurs start by hiring independent contractors on a project basis, like an accountant or graphic designer. As the business owner’s workload grows, they often hire a VA to take care of repetitive tasks.

Hiring a VA can be more cost-effective than hiring an employee. I remember considering hiring a part-time employee for office help, then finding out that, even though I only wanted someone 2-4 hours/week, the worker’s comp insurance had a hefty minimum and it was non-refundable; even if my one employee quit, I had to pay a year’s premium. It would have been fine if I needed someone for 20 hours a week or more, and knew I would replace that person if they left, but I was ‘testing the waters’, so a VA was a much better choice for me.

The downside is that I had to let go of some tasks I would like done by someone else. I would love for someone else to enter and update my contacts. Easy to direct an onsite employee to do this, but not worth the time it would take for me to scan cards or put them in an envelope and mail them to a VA, with directions. At that point, it is the same effort as me just doing it myself. Luckily social media & automation tools (see my post Keep Your Contacts Up-to-Date Without Ever Entering a Business Card Again) make keeping track of contacts much easier now. And sharing information and files already on your computer is a breeze.

What frustrations have you faced in outsourcing work? I’m working on an e-book to help solopreneurs hire smart, and would love your comments.

Filed Under: business management, Delegation, Getting Stuff Done, time management, working with a virtual assistant Tagged With:

E Myth Book Review [Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work]

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The E Myth Book Review - picture of book coverHere’s the premise: most entrepreneurs work more and more as their business grows, and end up burnt out and out of love with their business. If you can relate (or want to make sure that doesn’t happen to you), this is the book for you.

The E-Myth Revisited is my favorite business book, and the one  I recommend over and over. The subtitle promises “Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It”, and the book delivers answers.

Gerber starts by recognizing the three roles every entrepreneur plays:

  1. The technician, who provides the product or service
  2. The manager, who supplies the order and systems (like scheduling and invoicing)
  3. The entrepreneur, who supplies the vision for the company

You may recognize the problem most entrepreneurs face: staying stuck in the technician role, where you end up working to burnout.

Gerber’s solution: treat your business like a franchise – even if you have no plans to eventually sell or franchise your business. What this does is force you to think about creating a ‘turn-key’ business, i.e. systemizing your business so anyone can follow your processes. That allows you to hire other people to do at least some of your work, freeing you to work in the higher level entrepreneur role your company needs.

Unlike Tim Ferriss in The 4-hour Workweek, Gerber does not give his readers an unrealistic promise that they can do this in 4 hours a week. Gerber also expects that you love what you do (or you did before you hit burnout, and you can again). Gerber does promise, if you follow his advice, that you can reduce the hours you work in your business; avoid burnout; spend less time in the technician and manager roles, and more in the Entrepreneur role. (Or, as I would put it, be the CEO, rather than the secretary, of your business.)

This book gives you a sound foundation to begin this process.

What may be the best part for a busy entrepreneur is that you can read The E-Myth Revisited in a night. Implementation will take longer, of course. If breaking down your processes to figure out what can be systemized does not come naturally to you, it does to me. If you need more help, call me to discuss how I can help support you with telephone or Skype coaching.

Filed Under: business management, Delegation, System Development, time management Tagged With: ,

The 4-Hour Workweek Book Review

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Book cover for The 4-Hour Workweek book reviewWho isn’t enticed with the promise of the 4-hour workweek?  The book has sold more than 1,350,000 copies worldwide [Wikipedia], and has remained on the Amazon Best Seller’s list from the year it was first published. Just for the marketing savvy of the title alone, this book deserves a read.*

And the book does have good points entrepreneurs can implement about outsourcing and automating, making it worth a read. The problem comes from Ferriss’s definition of ‘work’. It’s obvious from any article written about him that he works almost non-stop. As this The New York Times article noted,  Ferriss spends far more than 4 hours per week in blogging, speaking and self-promotion, which Ferriss describes as “evangelizing.”

‘Work’, to Ferriss, is doing something you don’t like to do, solely for the purpose of making money. While it is perfectly reasonable that you would want to minimize the time you spend on disagreeable tasks (and certainly something I train my clients to do), the entrepreneurs I work with like their business, in much the same way Ferriss must like the blogging, speaking and self-promotion he refuses to call ‘work’.

And those regular “mini retirements,” ideally a month off for every two months of work, that Ferriss touts in The 4-Hour Workweek are alluring. But evidently more of a goal than a reality; a 2013 Inc. article reports that Ferriss hadn’t had ‘a proper mini retirement in more than a year now.’ [Inc. April 2013]

What you can take away from The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich is the basic idea of creating some form of passive income to serve as a base for the things you enjoy doing in your business and life, and outsourcing the things you don’t like to do.

On a personal note: His policy on outsourcing felt a bit ‘icky’ to me. Not because there is anything wrong with outsourcing to someone in another country, but because his motivation seemed to be to take advantage of their financial insecurity and pay them a pittance. Reminded me of a WalMart mentality – and that’s not how I want to run my business.  I have outsourced work occasionally (through ODesk, now called Upwork) to other countries, but I paid what I felt was a competitive rate. The majority of my outsourced work now is to a Virtual Assistant in the United States.

Bottom line: Read The 4-Hour Workweek, use it as an inspiration for what you can outsource, and consider what you can do to create passive income as an income base.

* Ferriss used Facebook polls to test title ideas

Filed Under: business management, Delegation, Getting Stuff Done, personal organization, System Development, time management, working with a virtual assistant Tagged With: ,

Incredibly Easy Mind Map Software & App

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I have found a new mind map software which is very easy and intuitive. If you have tried mind map software and given up because it was easier to go back to paper and pencil, you need to look at SimpleMind http://www.simplemind.eu/. Creating a mind map is a great way to organize your ideas quickly, or even describe a process as an easy-to-follow visual.
If you’re not sure what a mind map looks like, there is a picture below, as well as a short video I created to show you just how easy it is to create a mind map using SimpleMind. In the video, I create a mind map to organize my thoughts in preparation for a phone call to my Virtual Assistant.

What I love is that there is a free app for the iPhone, iPad, and android; and it is as simple as tapping the screen to create the nodes of the mind map. You don’t need to have the desktop version to use the free app, but if you do have the desktop version, you can sync from your iPhone to your desktop and visa versa. You can print your mind maps from your computer to save after you create them, in case you choose not to pay when the 30 days are up.
The desktop version costs about $35 [it’s priced at 24 Euros; I’ve converted the price to US dollars at today’s exchange rate], but they have a free 30 day trial, so check it out. There is a version for both the PC and the Mac.
Filed Under: business management, Delegation, System Development, working with a virtual assistant

Systems: The Glass Slipper For Your Business

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Crystal slipperI love Trader Joe’s. Free samples, an interesting selection of food, reasonable prices, and they treat their employees well – what’s not to like? This is a corporation that has a definite personality, which includes a commitment to charitable giving. If you show you are asking for a non-profit, they are generous at donating a gift bag of their products. But, at least at my local store, you must ask a month in advance, something for which I was not prepared when I asked for a raffle prize for our NAWBO mixer ten days in advance of the mixer date.

If I planned mixers all the time, I would know this and would not have missed out on a great raffle item. But the experience does illustrate two important points about business focus:

  1. When you specialize in a few business areas, rather than try and do everything, you develop expertise in your field, which is what people pay for. You save them time, money, and aggravation because you have done something over and over.
  2. If you know you will have to do something again, create a checklist or timeline to make it easier the next time, i.e. create a system – or find someone else to do it, and have them make the checklist.

No one wants systems; they want what systems give them: Free time, more clients, and a healthy income.  That’s why I am offering this free tele-class again: How to Work Less, Make More, & Love Your Business Again!

If you are a small business owner, professional, or solopreneur who wants to spend more time with the people and activities you love, do right by your clients, and make more money,  join me for this tele-class, during which you will learn:

  • How to stop working 24/7, and enjoy free time again
  • The #1 reason delegation efforts fail – and how to be successful
  • How to attract more clients with consistent follow-through
  • Steps you can take NOW to let go of the tasks you hate (hint: it’s not always hiring a VA or outsourcing)

Date: Wednesday, August 21  Time:  4 pm Pacific time
Location: the comfort of your office Duration: 1 hour

Register at: http://www.yourcso.com/free-class

Filed Under: business management, Delegation, System Development

Streamline Your Blog Maintenance

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Writing a daily blog post is time-consuming! There was one tool I used that definitely made this challenge easier: a simple spreadsheet. Without this tool, I would find myself writing posts without a plan for how the posts related to each other; with the spreadsheet, I was able to create a cohesive theme, and make sure I included a call to action in each post. I explain how it worked in this video:

Filed Under: business management, Delegation, System Development, time management Tagged With: ,

The Top Three Challenges Every Business Owner Faces Are…

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  1. Presentation of marketing planFollow-up
  2. Promotion
  3. Planning

I had to smile when one of my current clients told me these were her problem areas – because she felt other entrepreneurs were totally on top of each of these. I was able to reassure her that EVERY entrepreneur feels they could do better. In fact, from the ‘outside’ she was doing an excellent job with regular email updates on specials and new offerings to her mailing list.

What needed to change was her mindset that she needed to ‘do-it-all’. She has employees, and it was time to discuss what should come off her plate. As CEO, her job is to make sure it gets done, not that she do it all herself. Of those three items, there is only one she cannot substantially hand off: the planning.

When she defines a follow-up sequence (in her case, a mix of printed postcards and email reminders), and what triggers each, an assistant can easily take over running a report monthly and getting the follow-ups done.  And by creating a marketing calendar for the coming year (something we will do in our next session), it will be clear what promotions need to be scheduled – and who should be responsible.

It’s the planning that enables a business owner to offload. The next time you feel overwhelmed, don’t think “I have too much to do to spend time planning.”; your reaction should be “I have too much to do not to spend time planning!”

Filed Under: business management, Delegation, time management
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