At What Point Should You Grow Your Team?...

Question: What do you do when you’re asked to do something but you don’t know how to do one part of it? If I don’t know how to do something and what I’ve done in the past is I’ve turned down the job and I’d rather not do that if I can do 80 percent of it. What’s the best way of filling in the gaps when you need them fast? How do you find other great virtual assistants?

Answer: That’s a great question! What I’ve done in my business in the past , if there were things that I didn’t know how to do and I was asked to do them right away, I would say “yes” to everything and then I would figure it out once I said yes. That wasn’t always the most stress-free way to do things!

What I would do now is:

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Growing Your Virtual Assistance Team...

If you are a savvy virtual assistant looking to grow your team to be able to fulfill more of your client’s needs (and to service more clients!) you may have wondered what steps you should take.

When growing a team, the first thing to think about is what you will delegate.  Determining this is probably going to be your first challenge.  You’ll need to sit down and figure out what is going to be the easiest stuff to send to an assistant so that you don’t spend a lot of time managing it or having to review all work that was completed.

The first thing to do is to think about all of your current clients and whose work is the easiest for you to delegate.  What I have found in the past is that it is good to begin with the recurring tasks.  Those which you need to manage or do every day, week or month for your clients which you can easily put an assistant on.  This will help you to focus on the larger aspects of projects and not the easier, recurring tasks that need to be done.

Another thing that is helpful in deciding what to delegate is to look at the things you are doing for clients or in your own business which are things you don’t like to do.  By ridding yourself of the things you dislike doing in your business, you will then make room for the things you do like to do which will make you more valuable to your clients.  If you are only doing that which you love, you will naturally be better at it which means your results will be better and your clients will be happier.

Once you’ve made a list of the things you know you would like to delegate, its then time to make up a list of the skills you will need someone to have to complete those tasks.  Think about all aspects of the task and the software or specific programs you use to complete the tasks.  Make that list and create a secondary list of personal qualities you would like that person to have.

Building a team isn’t just about outsourcing your work but also building a safety net for your business.  If you are sick or you want to take vacation, you’ll need someone to cover for you.  Especially as your business grows.  You want to make sure this team member is reliable and trustworthy.  The thing is, you don’t want your client to feel nervous about outsourcing work to you and allowing you to manage something and then not have you there at times when you want to vacation or have personal issues to deal with.

In order to prepare for your quest for a team, think about this aspect as well.  Make a list of the things that you would need that person or persons to know should you become ill or take a vacation.  When you are putting together your ideal assistant profile, make sure to include these skills and personal qualities as well.  This way, you’ll be sure to find the absolute best person for your business.

Once you’ve done all of the things below, you should be well on your way to creating an ideal team member profile.  This process shouldn’t be taken lightly and a lot of thought should be given to the type of person that you need inside of your business.

Lastly, before building a team, get clear on your arrangement with them.  Do you want them to sign a non-compete?  Do they need to have a confidentiality agreement on file?  Think about the things you want to do with each team member you bring on and create a checklist.

Having an agreement in place is key. You want to protect your biggest asset which, for us in the service industry, is our clients.  You also want to protect your own ideas and products to make sure that they too aren’t going to be compromised should you run into a not-so-great team member.  I always get my team members to sign a confidentiality agreement and a non-compete agreement.

Please let me know if you have other questions surrounding the expansion of your team and moving to a more well-rounded virtual assistance business.