You’ve made the leap and decided it’s time to hand off some of the tasks within your business. Congratulations! This is a giant step forward in your business success!
But, where exactly are you supposed to start? You may or may not already have a list to pass off (if you’re having trouble letting go, read THIS), but is there something better to start with?
The short answer is YES, but because your business is unique, that starting place will be too. Here’s what we recommend you start with to assess what works best for your specific needs:
First, having some sort of structure for your business. It’s difficult to bring in anyone to help if you don’t have an idea of how you want your business to run in an ideal setting!
We like to start by mapping out your business from a bird’s eye view, something we like to call a MACRO MAP. (You can schedule time with us to have us help you make one for free!) This is not a spot to get super detailed, you’re really looking for the main steps that move a customer along. This may also start giving you an idea where choke-holds might be to hold back progress. If you already have a team it’s also a good place to solidify who should be doing what in the company. With a team, if something with one other person or group is causing constant headaches, delays, etc., this is something else to keep in mind where adding a virtual assistant to support part of that team may be helpful.
Our example is based on a service-
based company, like a landscaper. You move through, there’s a few spots where your apprentice helps with sales and does more with projects, but mostly it’s the owner running everything. Project #1 is probably something smaller, like replacing bushes. Project #3 might be designing a new backyard. Project #2 would be something like the design and full replacement of the backyard landscaping, where both the owner and apprentice might be involved.
After this, some people find it helpful to assign pricing values to each of these large steps. The final sales pitch, the primary service provided, networking, and similar items that generate revenue are probably worth the most to your company. The specialized skills you have, that you’re a master at, are clearly not entry level work and you should price your time accordingly based on the things where it really matters that you are doing the work. One the other side of the coin, following an initial script, sending emails, and necessary but easy, monotonous tasks are not high end business functions and should be priced based on that. If your specialized time is worth more than the entry-level tasks, and you’re still doing those basic items, your business is technically losing money. If an apprentice or other higher end employee is doing basic tasks, you’re not losing as much money, but you still are.
With that, you can then assign items you want to hand off to a virtual assistant. If you still have 
multiple tasks and would rather start with one or two, then go back to what causes the biggest headache or what you like doing the least as the starting point and the VA can grown into the remaining pieces.
At the end of the day, your company can not grow if the most valuable asset (YOU) is bogged down answering questions via email that get asked 10 times a day, which is why developing a partnership with a virtual assistant to start, or continue growing, your team is a great decision.