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Just hire a VA already. Now, if you're a solopreneur or a coach, you've likely heard people say this to you maybe a dozen times, but something's still holding you back. And I get it. I waited five years after first being told I should hire a VA, five years of doing everything myself. Now the thing is, I wasn't ready, and I was also a bit of my own worst enemy when it came to the decision. So how do you know when you are ready? When is that right time? Well, stay with me, because today I'm going to be sharing exactly what I wish I realized sooner when hiring my first VA so you don't have to wait five years like I did, but also so you don't end up in financial trouble by rushing in. So that's coming up, ready to break free from the solopreneur struggle. This is the ease and impact thriving as a solopreneur Podcast. I'm Frankie J a sofa, a mum and an eight year solopreneur myself. Join me as I peel back the layers to a thriving online business without the guru hype or the burnout. I'm going to show you the proven strategies and tools that I use so you can build a sustainable digital business without sacrificing your well being. Let's get you thriving as a solopreneur.
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Welcome to ease and impact thriving as a solopreneur. I'm your host, Frankie j and i just love helping digital entrepreneurs and coaches to create businesses that support their life, not consume it. So if you're new here, be sure to follow or subscribe wherever you're getting this podcast so you never miss an episode of practical advice specifically designed for the solo business journey. Today, we're tackling the topic of how to hire your first virtual assistant, but not just any VA you know the right VA for you at the right time. So why do so many of us resist hiring help, even though we are clearly overwhelmed? For me, I lived with a voice in my head that was, well, I can do it faster myself. Why would I pay someone else to do it? And I live with that voice in my head for years, and yes, sometimes you can do it faster, but really is that where your time and energy should be focused? So a perspective shift that sort of changed things for me is just because I can do something doesn't mean that I should. When you're running your own business, your time isn't just valuable. It is your most precious resource. So every hour that you spend on tasks that don't directly generate revenue or provide you growth in some way, is time that you're not spending on tasks that only you can do. So if you think about it this way, if your hourly rate when working with clients is 50 or $100 an hour, but you're spending 10 hours a week on administrative tasks, then that's potentially, you know, 500 $1,000 that you're losing out on. Now, if you could hire someone to do those tasks for $15 an hour, then I'm not great at maths on the fly, but I'm pretty sure that that works out in your favor.
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But I recognize that that's a hard concept to understand.
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It was, it was for me, and especially if you're not making money in every hour that you're working on your business, because when you're a coach, you have time coaching, and that's your hourly rate. But the all the other stuff you're doing on your business, you don't see a direct payment for like you do when you're working in an office or another job where you're employed.
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It's a matter of realizing that you're in a totally different situation. Now you were getting paid dollars for your time when you were working in a for someone else. Right now you're getting paid dollars for the time you spend with clients, but that time, that cost that you've calculated for time spending with clients is made up of all the background stuff you do as well. But one other thing that was really holding me back was that I wanted to hire local not overseas. So I wanted to support my local economy. But my biggest hurdle was the minimum wage in New Zealand at the time for an adult was about $22 an hour. That's more now, and VAs were earning about 25 to $30 an hour. And in my mind, if I couldn't hire local, well,
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then I wasn't hiring at all.
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I was seeing it so black and white, and I was in a mentorship group that called me out on it, thankfully,
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and pose the question of, Why does it have to be one way or the other? Why couldn't it be you hire overseas, get things to a point where you're generating more revenue, you know what your VA needs to do, and you hand it over to someone local. Well, that started me thinking of like, you're right. Why does it have to be one of the other? Why can't I
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hire a younger person in New Zealand, which is a cheaper minimum wage train them up
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and use that as my VA or why couldn't I hire a friend or a family and work out some kind of situation that worked both for both of us, either pay your goods for services in order to.
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To get myself up and running to a point where then I could hire, literally, someone local to be in my even, even my space. So now, if you're thinking, Yeah, I'm ready, I'm going to hire my first VA, what do I need to know? Well, here are a few things that will help you in that process. So the first is, it doesn't have to be all tasks right away. You do not have to hand over everything all at once. You know, maybe you're just looking for someone to help with some landing pages, or be responsible for publishing your newsletter every week. Maybe it's just an hour a week. Maybe it's five hours a week. You know, toss up between one, what you can afford and what tasks being done by someone else will free you up enough so that you can focus on other areas that you can create impact in your business. The second one is, and this is actually the most crucial, is you need to understand your business and your strategy first. So when most people hire a VA, they make mistake of bringing someone in before they have a clear understanding of their brand, their messaging and the systems they need to to bring it all together. And so what ends up happening is you spend a lot of time either, you know, explaining tasks or redoing landing pages and websites over and over again, or even trying to lean in on someone who only has an understanding of administrative tasks, but you're wanting them to give you strategy. But then the thing is, they don't know your business. So this brings me to what kind of VA you actually need.
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There's a huge range out there. On one end, we have general VAs who handle basic administrative tasks like email management, scheduling, data entry, maybe even landing pages. That's, you know, pretty basic with templates that we use nowadays. And these vas, you know, typically charge anywhere from five maybe more 10 now to $15 depending on their location and their experience. On the other hand, you have strategic VAs or online business managers who help with those higher level tasks like content creation, project management, even business strategies. And these people, they typically cost between 20 to $50 an hour. The thing is, the right choice depends entirely on your needs and your budget, but remember, you get what you pay for that $5 per hour. VA may seem like a really great bargain, but then you find yourself spending hours fixing mistakes and re explaining tasks or trying to lean in on someone who doesn't have that business experience that they need from you to guide them. When many hire their first VA, they're drawn to the lowest rates they can find. And I get it. Cost was a factor for me as well, but I quickly learned that paying a bit more for a resource with experience in online business was worth every penny. They understood business context without some extensive explanation, or even picked up on things that I'd missed because they understood how business worked. And that's, you know, saves me countless hours of of time with any kind of back and forth or having to change things. But there is nothing wrong with hiring someone strictly for administrative tasks if you're directing them to complete them, so you just need to make sure that you have the support or the training in place that you understand the marketing strategies, so your VAs time is best spent under your direction. So once you know what type of VA you need, how do you go about finding that right person? Now, personally, I'm a big fan of recommendations, and I always head into business communities I'm a part of to get these so once you have some options, you want to absolutely sit down and always, always have a video call, like just a 20 minute call with them, you'd be surprised how much you can learn or tell about a person from a 20 minute conversation. You know, did they show up on time? Are they prepared with questions about your business. Do they communicate clearly, you know, but beyond these, you know, practical considerations, pay attention to how you feel in the call. Like, do you feel comfortable with this, with this person? Can you imagine trusting them with you know, important aspects of your business, you know, your gut feeling matters, matters more than you think. So pay attention to that during that call as well. Now, once you've found your perfect VA, you know, how do you manage the relationship? First, clarity communication. It's It's key, right? So be really clear about your expectations, your deadlines, your communication preferences. From day one, the more specific you are, the fewer misunderstandings you'll have, and that's another reason why having a face to face call is really important is their communication style might be, you know, face to face or email, but you might prefer to leave voice messages, and then your two communication styles don't match, and then you're going to end up with problems. So make sure that you lay that out what your expectations are and the deadlines on both sides, so that you both mesh together, that it both works for both of you. Second is to use a time tracking tool. So my VA uses clockify, which you know, gives us both a visual into how time is being spent. And this isn't about micromanaging, it's about understanding where you're in.
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Investment is going and identifying opportunities to improve efficiency. So if they're spending a significantly long time on one specific task, maybe that task isn't really right for them to do, but it's about understanding where your time, where their time and your time is best spent in order to make the most out of out of the investment you've put in. Finally, let's talk about the question of contracts. Do you need a formal agreement with your VA? Now, personally, I don't have a signed agreement with my VA, and that works for us. I prefer to keep things quite fluid and build a relationship on trust rather than having legal documents. But that's a decision that you should make based on your own comfort level and your business requirements. So for some people, having a contract provides peace of mind and clarity for both parties. For others, like me, a simple, you know, email outlining expectations works absolutely fine. And again, this comes back to that initial kind of vibe check that you have in that first conversation, that if you feel that you need a contract for security, then that's perfectly valid. So there you have it, lessons learned from hiring a virtual assistant. And remember, the goal isn't just to free up your time, is to free up your mental energy for, you know, work that really lights you up and that moves your business forward. So whether you're ready to hire your you know, first VA tomorrow, or you're just starting to consider it as a possibility. I hope these insights help you make the right decisions for your business at the right time. And if you have any questions about working with VAs or want to share your experiences, then I'd love to hear from you. Just drop your thoughts in the comments below. And as always, thank you so much for listening. And until next time, keep creating that impact with ease.
