Why Are You Doing Everything Yourself?
One problem I commonly see with solo entrepreneurs is that their businesses aren’t growing because they are not making the time to do it! This happens because they’re simply trying to do too much by themselves. They are often times so busy running their business that they’re not actually working ON their business.
Owning your own business requires a lot of work, and it seems that when many people leave their jobs to “go solo”, they have the mindset that they must work completely solo as well. What eventually happens is that they attempt to do everything and the love for their work ceases to exist.
When this happened to me a few years ago, I was lucky to learn about virtual assistants (VAs). VAs are freelancers who take care of all the “busy work” for entrepreneurs like us. Since VAs are independent themselves, they work on an as-needed basis from the comfort of their own homes or offices.
To get started, you should keep a log of all your activities during the next week. Then sit down and review which activities are truly ones that only you can do and which are ones that you can delegate to a VA. Some examples of the tasks I delegate to my VAs are responding to customer e-mails and phone calls, scheduling appointments and interviews, managing my e-zine, maintaining my website, and bookkeeping.
Worried you might not have the budget? The good news is that you’re not hiring your VA full time. A VA only charges you for the hours she works. Although VA rates may be more than you would pay for an administrative employee (usually $30-50/hour), you don’t have the added expenses of employee benefits, office space and equipment. You are also hiring someone who has years of experience and loves what they are doing.
Having a VA will immensely free up your time and allow you to focus on the stuff that matters such as marketing and growing your business, developing bold new product ideas and income streams, and servicing your larger clients.
If you’re looking for a committed long-term partner, look for someone who’s graduated from a VA training program such as AssistU or someone in the International Virtual Assistants Association.
Don’t wait until it’s too late! Take action before things like overdue bills, late projects and unreturned phone calls add up. It will be a big relief!
For more articles like this one, visit http://www.AliBrown.com">www.AliBrown.com
© 2010 Ali International
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