Top 10 Warning Signs that You’re Not Using Your VA Effectively

You as boss, manager or CEO of your company should be periodically re-assessing the utilization of your virtual assistant. Are you taking advantage of her abilities efficiently to the betterment of your company as a whole? Fortunately, the signs that you may be under-utilizing your VA are fairly simple to recognize.

1. You’re constantly harried.

Track your time for a day or two. If you’re still spending a huge chunk of your time taking care of the peripheral tasks of your business, especially if it’s to the detriment of time used in your specialization, you’re underutilizing your assistant. You’re there to perform in your areas of expertise. She’s there to take care of the rest.

2. You’re using your VA for only about an hour a week.

Most VA providers offer plans starting from/require a minimum of ten hours a month. There’s a reason for that. If you went through all the effort to hire and train an assistant, surely you intended to unload more than a single hour of work a week. Think back to the lists of delegate-able tasks you wrote before you hired your VA. What items have you not yet handed over for her to take care of?

3. You missed your spouse’s birthday.

Oh, dear. Now, you’re in the doghouse. You haven’t handed your calendar over yet? You may be underutilizing your VA! Have her send you weekly reminders of all these must-not-miss occasions. If you prefer not to share all your personal appointments, there are ways around that. Numerous online apps are available that can set up your personal and business appointments in a manner that shares them with your VA, while maintaining privacy for your personal time. There are options; you simply have to make this a priority.

4. Your clients are complaining you haven’t responded to their emails.

Unless your client is your favorite film star, politician or other celebrity, why are you still writing correspondence emails? That’s one of the reasons you hired a VA. Hand it over!

5. You are falling behind on your business plan.

As a business owner, you drew up a list of goals and how you intended to reach them, including a timeline. If you’re not hitting your goals on time, you need to figure out what is causing this delay. Make a list of all extraneous issues that are taking up your time. Now, delegate. What can be delegated? Emails, scheduling, bill paying, making appointments (even your own doctor appointments), travel arrangements, blog writing, SEO, social media, market research, household maintenance and so much more can all be handed over to other people – mainly to your VA, who can do or coordinate almost anything. She’ll write, she’ll call, she’ll research… and while she won’t clean out your gutters, she’ll find someone who will.

6. You didn’t pay your bills on time.

There’s no reason under the sun, or at least no reason at VAI, for you to receive tardy notices on your utilities, memberships, subscriptions or dues. Are you missing incoming email reminders? Do you need your calendar kept up? Toss this at your VA and she’ll have it all done on time, every time.

7. You have no (or insufficient) presence in social media.

Social media is where it’s at in almost every market today. Even to publish an ink-on-paper book, an author needs to establish an online presence to be taken seriously. Social media can oscillate from being an intimidating monster to being a king-sized time sucker, depending on your approach. Give your VA a goal and a time budget and see your name, reputation and client base take off.

8. You’re embarrassed to date your blog posts because they are so rare.

You have an amazing business and nothing about it should embarrass you. Post regularly, on time and proudly with your in-house, virtual writer! VAI has a number of very talented and experience blog writers. If you choose to tell your readers that you have another writer out there, that’s your business, but they never need to know. We write your material in your voice. Many of the biggest names out there do exactly the same thing.

9. Your clients forgot who you are.

If clients were happy with your service but can’t remember who you are, they won’t be repeat customers. We have VAs with extensive experience at keeping your customers in touch, be it by putting together e-newsletters, establishing and updating CRM (Customer Relationship Management) programs and/or through sending holiday cards and referral gifts. It isn’t your specialty, so get it off your mind by throwing it to your VA. She’ll catch it and run.

10. You feel like business expansion is out of your reach.

So let’s say that all the above items are under control. You’re a delegating champ, your virtual assistant is busy, your business is in touch, connected and recognized. Congratulations, but that’s not all there is to it. A business should grow. Growing a business requires its own research in a number of directions, as well as potentially bringing in new staff to your team. A VA can help find these people, from advertising the positions to narrowing down a short list as per your specifications… right up to conducting the preliminary interview. Expansion IS within your reach when you have a great VA.

You already own a successful business, so take the pride you have richly earned and apply it to your future with your VA’s numerous paintbrushes.

Submitted by Aviela