Woman Small Business Owner: Is Hiring a Virtual Assistant Right for You?

Creating your own virtual team is a crucial step to doubling and tripling the income of your woman-owned business. For example, when I hired my first virtual assistant, Kathy, I quickly doubled my income. (I think I was initially so scared that I wouldn't be able to pay her monthly fee that I gave myself a kick-in-the-pants and created more business!)

After hiring a second virtual assistant, Kristy, the income of my woman-owned business has skyrocketed to as much as $85,250.02 in a single month.

But hiring a virtual assistant will ONLY pay off if the woman business owner uses the assistants' time to help create additional streams of income.

Which means you must be ready to both ask for and receive support. Women entrepreneurs admit that it is difficult to ask for help. But the more comfortable you are asking for and receiving support, the more you are valuing yourself. And the more you value yourself, the more money, time and freedom will begin to show up for you to enjoy!

Hiring a virtual assistant is not a cost; it's an investment in YOU. It's an investment in how much you believe in yourself and in the level of success that you will achieve. This isn't just wishful thinking; it's a fact, proven by women entrepreneurs who have found that adding support is pivotal to the core success strategies of their woman owned business.

Three important tips to help the woman business owner get the most from supporting relationships:

Tip #1: Give your assistant any task that drains your energy. (Yes, even the ones that seem "too small"! I started out by delegating all my email to Kathy. Believe me; it took a huge leap of faith on my part! Now she receives and answers all email that comes through the web site of my woman-owned business. Any questions that Kathy can't answer, she batches up and forwards to me on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

My virtual team handles posting audio mp3 files and transcripts, maintaining shopping cart information, proofing and broadcasting email and newsletters, paying sub-contractors, processing monthly coaching charges, updating the website and more.

Tip #2: Allow your assistant to support the high-touch marketing that is so crucial to the woman small business. I love sending out cards but don't like dealing with stamps, envelopes and address labels. So I signed up for "Send Out Cards." I picked out a few dozen card designs and saved them in my favorites folder.

Now, I simply type the personalized message and recipient's name in an email to my assistant, direct her to choose a card from my favorites, and she takes care of the rest. I now send out more cards than ever before. I feel good about connecting with my clients and I love how easily this important relationship task is accomplished!

Tip #3: Look at your assistants as in investment, not as an expense. If you think that hiring an assistant should be regulated to the expense category of your woman-owned business, then it's too easy to delay hiring. And when you finally do, you will avoid assigning your "expense"-ive assistant many tasks.

Instead, write down the three main activities that YOU will focus on when you're no longer buried under email, newsletter writing, etc. For example: If you had three more hours each week, in which business-building activity would you invest? You could easily offer a new teleseminar series, write an article or accept two more clients. Couldn't you?

What if you had five extra hours a week? What about ten? Are you starting to see how lucrative hiring an assistant for your woman-owned, small business can be? I also hope you're seeing that you can start small, get comfortable with asking for and receiving support, and then move up from there.

I'm clear that my "job" as a woman small business owner is to market, lead teleseminars, coach woman business owner clients and create new streams of income. When I find myself doing a task that is not in my "job description," I send it to my team. The payoff has helped me leapfrog my business and triple my income this year. Now, THAT is a high-payoff investment that I'm glad I made!

Article Source: http://www.dummiesguideto.com

Business coach Kendall SummerHawk, the "Horse Whisperer for Business" delivers savvy ways for entrepreneurs to turn hectic businesses into 6-figure successes. Get her "7 Quick and Simple Tips to Brand, Package and Price for More Money, Time and Freedom" at www.kendallsummerhawk.com.

Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated