115 - Business Benefits of A Virtual Assistant with Barbara Turley

Barbara Turley, The Founder and CEO of Virtual Hub, is on a mission is to eradicate “small business overwhelm” by simplifying the offshore outsourcing process and facilitating cost-effective business scalability. She and her team make this happen every day at The Virtual Hub. Her business was started by accident and exploded in the space of 12 months to become one of the leading companies that recruits, trains and manages virtual assistants in the digital marketing and social media space for businesses who need to free up time and energy so they can go to the next level.

Top Takeaways: Business Benefits of A Virtual Assistant with Barbara Turley

Eradicate small business overwhelm with virtual help
Free up time and energy to take your business to the next level
Business struggles when you are doing things you shouldn’t be doing – trying to do everything yourself
Many can’t grow their business because they don’t have time or money to accomplish goals
People underestimate how much time and effort it takes to get delegating right
How do you hire a virtual assistant for only a couple of hours a week? – often we have much more work than originally thought – I can do it in two hours but it takes a new person 4 hours – remember there is more than one skill set in some of the tasks
Need a solid process to hand over to a virtual assistant to be effective
Find the “right” expert for the job and be clear on expectations and follow-thru
Virtual Assistant is a broad term – be realistic about your needs and communicate them –
No time to create the processes and training to turn the business over to someone else? Must break that mindset
Slow down to speed up – build a scalable business that works without you one day
Systems run your business, people run your systems (Systems must be strong)
Create a clear process – get granular on every step – prompt a V.A. to do each step so they understand expectations; something they can check the boxes – then follow up
Detailed processes with nowhere to hide – take time out to build the processes
The more time and energy you put in your “system machine” the more cost-effective employees you can put into it
Delegate down to the lowest compensated person qualified to do the job
Mindset – business is a marathon not a sprint – focus on the processes and operational development and infrastructure for long-term impact– play for the long game and not the short game
Processes are constantly changing and adapting – they need to evolve over time
Build your systems so no one has to rely on Trust
Communication and team connectivity does not require everyone in the same room –
Email is NOT a project management system or team communication tool – need to have a project system, chat system and bring the team together regularly for a touchpoint on how things are going
Key take away – it doesn’t matter what business you’re in if you put processes in place you should try using Virtual Assistants