Hey Friend!

One question I often get asked is, “How do you know if it is time to hire a virtual assistant?”

I have 3 ways to know for sure if it is time to go from solopreneur to entrepreneur with some help in your business.

My Life Before I Hired a Virtual Assistant

For 6 years, I was a solopreneur. I was a full-time entrepreneur working all the hours, raising two boys, with me doing everything in my business. Knowing what I know now, I was also doing way too much in my business.

I am a huge advocate of simplifying and streamlining. Of getting rid of all the extras that aren’t income or audience-generating results. Or if it is not mission-based, I am not doing it. If it’s not going to help grow the business and glorify God, I am not here for that.

Back then I was confused about what it took to grow a business so I was doing everything. I was trying to grow social media, I had a community, and I was doing all the things on Pinterest and blogging. My time was spent making Instagram stories and testing all the trends. I had all this stuff that I thought I needed to do to be successful.

All by myself I did this while trying to raise two small kids who were in part-time pre-school, one of them was full-time at home. I was trying to keep a home. With a property in the mountains, I have dust and dirt and I need to clean all the time.

The Crossroad

It was so much. The hardest thing to decide was whether it was time to get help or if I should keep saving money by doing this myself. That was the crossroad I was sitting in. I wasn’t making a ton of money as my company was new. It was hard to believe that someone else could do all the things that I was doing. I know – ego and pride alert.

It was hard to trust someone to do things the way I wanted them done and to be able to pay them.

The Change that Led to Hiring a Virtual Assistant

I kept coming up against a brick wall until the day that I remembered doing some math on a sheet of paper. Something had to give. I thought I could save 2 hours a week if I got a virtual assistant. What could I give the virtual assistant in 2 hours that I could train them to do consistently week after week?

Then I wondered how much money could I generate if I had 2 extra hours a week. I projected that I would be able to take one additional coaching client a week. At that time my clients paid $80 per hour. So I could afford two hours of help in my business and walk away with a small profit.

I took the leap and quickly scaled the help that I had in my business from one person to the next year, four people to now having four people on the team along with at any given time, 8-12 interns.

What Happened Once I Hired My First Virtual Assistant

With getting the help, I have been able to become the CEO of growth. We’ve been able to scale this business. I’m able to do the things that I do best which are visionary work, coaching, showing up and doing PR and publicity, and podcast interviews.

I cannot speak highly enough of getting help in your business. The first step is the step that gets you to run the marathon about what it really takes to grow a successful, scalable business. It starts with the decision to get some help probably before you feel financially ready to do it. And trusting someone else with your pride and joy.

I was not that special. People came in and did a way better job than me.

So, how do we know if it is time to hire a virtual assistant?

1. You Are Overworked and You Have No More Hours to Give

This is how you know you have hit that lid because you only have a certain amount of hours to work your business.

I don’t think we should be filling in the gaps in our life around our business hours. We should be filling our business hours in around the gaps of our life. We should be filling into our planners the time with God, the time with our families, and the time with our spouses. What we do at church, with friends, when we do workouts. What does your life look like and what is left for work?

When you keep your priorities and values at the utmost importance, you’re only going to have x amount of hours because you are unwilling to give up your life and your priorities to continue working in your business.

I do this full-time. Now my boys are in full-time school so I have 25 to 30 hours per week to work my business. If I had 40 hours of work to do, it would be time to hire someone at 15 hours per week, which I do, and that person takes those additional hours.

You may find you have 10 hours to work your business, but you have 11-12 hours worth of work to be done. It’s time for you to hire someone to take those extra 2 hours off of your plate.

The best news is you can give them the stuff that you hate to do.

Extra Support for Time Management and What To Do In Your Business

If you have no idea how many hours you’re supposed to be working in your business and what you’re supposed to be doing in your business, you can listen to a few podcast episodes that might help you. Episode 418 and episode 499 are all about scheduling and building a successful schedule. Episode 586 What to Do When You Feel Like Your To-Do List is Taking Over Your Life! Outsourcing 101. How to Get Help in Your Biz ASAP talks about how to get organized in your online business.

2. Your Business is Growing Quickly

Your business will only grow in line with your capacity. As you continue to hit capacity, your business will become stagnant.

What happens sometimes, is that your business starts to grow and you need to grow with your business, getting help and looking at additional team members which can for a long time be just one person (one virtual assistant, intern, helper). That’s going to allow your business to continue growing without hitting that limitation lid.

When your business is growing really fast, a virtual assistant can help you by taking on the day-to-day tasks that will hold you back. You can delegate to the virtual assistant the things you do on a recurring basis like inbox management or editing of a podcast. There are a hundred things you are doing that are mundane and it is so simple to hand someone a Loom video showing them exactly what to do.

That way your virtual assistant can serve your customers and deal with the operation pieces of the company while you focus on growing your business. Like it or not, you, as the CEO are in charge of sales and growth. So you need to have that space and that time for you to be sitting in that seat.

3. You’re Not Great in Certain Areas and You’re Seeing It

We are not good at everything. You may be fantastic at podcasting, but struggle with admin. Or maybe you are amazing at customer service, but you’re struggling with what to post in your Facebook group.

A virtual assistant can help you by filling in the gaps where that is not your biggest strength or skill set.

As a bonus tip, what I always look for when I am hiring somebody, is I hire people who are opposite personality-wise to me. I’m a visionary, a big thinker, an action taker, a leader, super audacious, and a big personality.

I’m looking for people who are organized, thoughtful in their decision-making process, and strong in discernment. They dot their i’s and cross their t’s. They are more skilled at detail work like admin. I’m going to shine at making the company money, they’re going to shine at running the company.

As you start to grow and expand your team, you’re going to be looking for specific types of people to fill specific types of roles. For your first hire, you’re probably going to be looking for that Virtual assistant, an administrative person that can take all the day-to-day tasks off of your plate.

Wrapping It All Up

Knowing it is time to hire a virtual assistant is going to be uncomfortable. But you probably know it is time. If it is time, it is a necessary step. No matter where you are, I believe that you can figure out a way to do the Math when you bring someone in, and what you can do to fill that revenue gap.

As the CEO of growth for your business, you can stop sacrificing your time, and your sanity and you can start delegating.

A few other episodes that may be helpful in this area are episode 340 where I talk about how much you should spend training a new hire and episode 530 where my business manager and I go behind the business to share how I went from a solopreneur to 5 team members with 8-12 interns. We share what is possible for you as you grow and as you scale.

I pray this blesses you. That you would be rooted in Him, be focused on getting into the word, activating your prayer life with the Lord. That He would walk beside you as you are fulfilling this call for your life and business.

That you would find God-sized couraged to continue to show up. To be a vessel for His voice and that your spiritual gifts and your vocational gifts would be amplified and that nothing would come against you. That you would pursue this call and glorify Him through your work.

Amen.

XO,

Stef

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Before you go, be sure to watch the free workshop!

This free workshop is for you if you want to grow an online business in less time.

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RELATED EPISODES:

QUICK TIP: How Much Time Should I Spend Training a New Hire or Virtual Assistant?

Ready to Outsource? The First Tasks I Outsourced in My Business

Behind the Business – OPERATIONS & TEAM – How I Went from a Solopreneur to 5 Team Members and 13 Interns

What to Do When You Feel Like Your To-Do List is Taking Over Your LIfe! Outsourcing 101. How to Get Help in Your Biz, ASAP

OUTSOURCING 101! When to Outsource, How to Delegate, and Can You Actually Afford HELP?

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Online Business for Christian Women with Stefanie Gass