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Rise of the Virtual Assistant

3 Steps to Help You Get Started with Virtual Assistants

9/14/2021 | Sam Kabert, Success with Swag(ger)

A couple weeks ago I had a guest on my podcast, “Clone Yourself” and she said the words, “The Rise of the VA." Those words really landed for me.

The truth is, if at this point you aren’t working with VA's then you’re missing the boat! It’s perfectly okay, I understand it. Trust me, I was there for years. 

I spent the majority of my early career knowing that virtual assistants could help me, yet I couldn’t figure out exactly what to do next.

At this point, we’ve all been forced to learn what it’s like to collaborate with our internal staff due to the lockdowns of 2020. One of the biggest hurdles in working with VA's at first is losing the benefit of being able to speak face to face with your team. This is another thing that I totally get as well. For being a millennial I’m pretty old school. I really do prefer a phone call over a text and would highly prefer to work with someone in person rather than in a virtual meeting.

If there’s one thing 2020 taught us in terms of teamwork with an internal staff, it’s how to run your company remotely. So, what better time than now to take the plunge and embrace “The Rise of the VA”.

Step 1: Figure Out What You Need to Outsource

This is easier than it may seem, but don’t overlook this step because you think you already know exactly what you want to take off your plate.

Keep in mind that virtual assistants are exactly that - someone who supports you in your business, virtually (meaning they can’t take out your trash and pick up your dry cleaning).

I recommend tracking what you do on a daily basis for a week or even 2 weeks straight (worksheet to help is linked here). By the end of that time, you’ll know exactly where you spend your time and you can even snag these worksheets (linked here) to help you prioritize tasks and projects to take off your plate.

Step 2: Choosing Your Project

I have a philosophy of choosing objective tasks before subjective tasks for your virtual assistant freelancers and assigning tiny tasks that will lead to big projects.

An objective task is something that is done correctly or incorrectly, whereas a subjective task leaves room for interpretation. You’re setting yourself, and your new team member, up for success by choosing objective tasks first.

Next, you’ll want to take a bite-sized piece of a project to introduce your freelancer to your work environment. You’ll use this as a way to get to know their work style and see how (and if) it fits into your current structure. As you progress, you’ll give more and more to your VA until finally they are trained to complete the full project.

Step 3: Document it Before Scaling

I know what you’ll be thinking as soon as you solidify your first few projects with your VA's - you’re going to want to be scaling and giving them more and more (heck, everyone does)! It almost becomes addicting to get things off your plate.

However, rather than putting the pedal to the metal you want to gently tap the brakes and start documenting the process in the form of an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). To truly scale your business so that it’s a well-oiled machine and doesn’t require you to work within the business, you’ll need to have an efficient and effective infrastructure and you do this by asking your VA's to document what they’ve learned in the form of an SOP. The key is you ask them to build out the SOP as they are learning it. 

These are just 3 quick steps to help you take the leap and embrace the “Rise of the VA”. Obviously, there’s way more to it, but my hope with this post is that if you’ve been sitting on the sidelines this might give you that friendly kick in the pants to get started so you can spend more time doing things in your business that you actually enjoy, while also reclaiming time in your life to embrace your passions outside of w-o-r-k.

If this resonates with you at all and you haven’t checked out my Clone Yourself Podcast, be sure to give that a listen to get more tactical tips to building and scaling your business with a VA team.

To The Rise of the VA,
Sam


Sam Kabert is the creative director of SwagWorx and the creator and co-host of the podcast “WhatUp Silicon Valley!” A risk taker who embraces permanent beta, Sam is leading the transformation of his family-run office supplies business into a promotional products powerhouse. Sam can be reached at Sam@SwagWorx.com.
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