What is a VA and why do I need one?

A Virtual Assistant (VA) (or sometimes called a digital assistant) is someone who provides online support to entrepreneurs. They provide all sorts of services from simple administrative work, managing emails and agendas, organizing meetings and events to setting up and managing newsletters and content for social media and websites.

There a various types of VA’s which can roughly be divided into:

• Technicians (coding, tech support, maintenance, solving technical issues, research, analytics)
• Wordsmiths (copy writers, email marketing, social media)
• Social Butterflies (FB group support, customer support, social media post creation, email marketing, face of your business)
• Behind the scenes admins(automations and systems, spreadsheet, Google Docs, Dropbox, schedule systems)
• Designers (make everything beautiful, on Brand, Canva, Pinterest, sees if things look good)

However, there are many hybrid VA’s who have their own special box of tricks.

The benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant

The benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant for small business entrepreneurs can be many:

Cost-effectiveness

Hiring a virtual assistant can be more affordable than hiring an in-house employee, as it eliminates the need for office space, equipment, and benefits. Plus you can earn more money by only doing the higher paying tasks your work requires you to do. Clients get the benefit of paying for productive time only! You don’t have to pay for an employee, but you get all the benefits of a professional with experience and expertise.

Time-saving

Delegating tasks to a virtual assistant frees up time for business owners to focus on other important aspects of their business, such as generating new leads and building relationships with clients.Different time zone often means tasks are finished while you sleep!

Flexibility

Virtual assistants can work from anywhere, at any time, which allows for greater flexibility in meeting the needs of a business. They can also be hired on a part-time or full-time basis, depending on the business’s needs. VA’s don’t just do one job, but a whole range of jobs. This gives them insights into various aspects of your business. That way, they can be a great source for feedback and spotting things you might have missed, so you can keep on improving your business.

Focus

A good VA is a figure-outer and problem solver. They know how to find things, learn new skills quickly and how to motivate themselves. This way, you can focus on plotting the broad outlines of your company and the tasks you are good at. This can lead to increased productivity and ultimately, a more successful business. Plus: you will have more time left to spend with your family or on achieving your other goals in life.

Who doesn’t want to save time & money?

Can you imagine the value of having a figure-outer VA on your team? If you even just get 10 hours with a person like that, it can be life changing. Hiring one will not only leave you less stressed, more prepared for the tasks of your core business and generally more confident, but it will also save you time & money. 

Hiring a VA is an affordable service from someone who you can connect with and who is invested in making your business better. They provide the support that business owners need to succeed, without the added stress of doing it all themselves.

Unraveling slowly but surely

The signs were there for a long time, but I had trouble listening to my own body and gut feelings. I had contemplated quitting when I was about 9 months into the job. I continued to consider the pros and cons and questioned my motivations and stamina. You see, I had a strong (and very wrong) inner critic who thought I was just weak and needed to try a little longer. I had short periods where I felt better, but the general unease and gripping anxiety stayed and continued to grow. Slowly, but very surely things spiraled out of control and by the end of spring I was no longer able to work. To be honest, I wasn’t able to do much of anything. Things needed to change, and drastically so.

Caring too much

How did I end up burned out? That was a question I kept asking myself during my process of healing. As I took the time to slow down and really listen to myself, gradually I came to see there were many ‘little’ things that turned into big things. To start with, my work was mentally taxing. In our society it is often difficult to talk about the use of non-human animals. There is a lot of resistance and sometimes anger towards the idea that we shouldn’t harm anyone when there is no need. There is a lot of misinformation about living vegan. It is no secret this constant ‘explaining’ can make an activist weary and worn out pretty quickly. You need a tough shield, but many activists are intensely caring people. I am no different. So I cared too much and it was very hard to watch the world continue to harm animals. I had no way of regulating all these feelings and oddly enough no help or support from within the organization. We were all so busy working ‘for the animals’ that we often forgot to care for our fellow humans.

Doing it all

Second, I was running a whole communications department on my own. I only had 3 colleagues who each had their own department and had no idea what I was really doing. I was relying on the help of volunteers who more often than not were unavailable or unqualified. I asked for help, but only when things got really intolerable. Many months had passed where I tried to do it all and not disappoint anyone. The thing is, I have many talents and am an extremely quick learner, but trying to do it all, is what got me in the end. Many months later, as I was starting to heal, I realized I did not need to be able to do it all. What I needed to do was make my life easier and delegate all the tasks I did not want to do or weren’t great at. This freed up so much time and gave me space to prioritize my tasks. By focusing on the tasks I was good at, I got quicker and better results.

Life changing

Healing took a very long time for me. I stayed on for another 6 months to give myself the time to really discover if it was the job or me. In the end I decided the job just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t grow there and the organization couldn’t change the way I thought it needed to. We parted ways, and I had learned a very hard lesson. A lesson I don’t want you to learn the hard way, like I did.

Give yourself a break

I don’t want you to burn out and I am here to tell you you don’t have to. Give yourself a break and find a reliable assistant to take some of the burden. There is no shame in asking for help. Some things in your job may come natural to you and some don’t. You should focus on the first and let someone else take care of the latter.

Whether you are a writer, coach or activist, have you ever thought about how much easier life would be if you had a ‘figure-outer’ virtual assistant on your team? What if you are actually hurting your business by trying to do it all, not to mention your health? What if you are sabotaging your own growth potential? If you even just get 10 hours with a person who wants you to succeed and make your life easier, it is life changing. And all without having to go through a burnout like I did and so many of us who care and are trying to do it all.

I am telling you now, you don’t have to do it alone.

If you want to find out how I can make your life easier, book a free intro call today.

I will tell you why a professional business website is better than Facebook. It is time to start taking your business venture seriously. You need to upgrade your online presence. And you will wonder why you ever let a third party have so much control.

Don’t lose potential customers

Do you think all of your customers are on Facebook? Think again. According to estimates Facebook has lost 1.4 million of its users by the end of 2022. Facebook is not keeping up with other social media platforms and more and more people are turning away from Meta, its mother company. So while you have your free page on Facebook, chances are, many of your customers do not have an account and are thus not able (or even willing) to view your page. Perhaps unknowingly, you are creating a barrier. Potential customers might turn away because they cannot even view your company details. No account? No customers!

Why would you give away so much control to third parties?

Lets say your clients are all on Facebook and business is going great. What happens if Meta decides to completely overhaul its platform? What if you suddenly have to pay for all the features that were once free. Or worse, what happens if the platform gets hacked or stops to exist altogether? It is not unthinkable and a lot of ‘influencers’ and freelancers who use social media platforms as their sole source of income are finding this out the hard way. One glitch in the system can cost you a lot of money. So, why put so much power in the hands of a third party?

Are you a professional? A unified look is essential!

When your business website is a Facebook page, people might not take your business very seriously. It looks unprofessional. The look and feel of the page are managed by Meta and your options for a unified, professional look are limited. People can contact you through messenger, but there is no contact form. Options to direct them to your newsletter or shop are limited. There are few options to showcase your products or services and your ‘website’ is just a random string of posts that you need to monitor.

Yes, social media platforms are great for client engagement, but as an ADDITION TO your website, not as the main hub for your business.

An investment well worth it

Your business is important to you, so you should at least have a personal website that you can always rely on. Yes, your hosting company can have problems, you might have to switch somewhere in the future, but backups on your personal computer are yours and that makes it relatively easy to migrate your whole website in case of troubles with your hosting provider.

With your own website, you have so much freedom with the design of the page. There are tons of low cost (sometimes free) plugins and CTA (call-to-action) features for your website to improve your business. You can add a web shop, a portfolio with beautiful pictures, forms and so much more.

So ditch Facebook or Weebly, WordPress.com or any other third-party platform and start acting like the professional you are. And please, don’t tell me you are still using Gmail as your company email. Don’t!

Need some help to get you going with your own brand new website or new email setup? Book an appointment to see what I can do for you.