How to Make Room in Your Budget for a Virtual Assistant

With the beginning of any entrepreneurial journey, it all ends with you. You started the business; you are the Accountant/Marketing/Customer Service department head plus head of purchasing, sourcing, etc. plus sometimes web designer and so many other hats.

As a business owner, you have to realize that doing this for the long term is inevitably the ultimate way to crash and burn. You also responsibly cannot have the best interest in your business in the long run. 

So what does that mean, hiring help? The choice now becomes one of necessity but also one of what works for your business model.

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant

Whether you are a Freelancer who has more clients and work than hours a day or a service-based business, you need help outsourcing some of the menial tasks that are not in your wheelhouse. You need to decide, do you hire a full-time employee – this person you are responsible for all aspects of deductions, regular monthly income reliance, and benefits – or do you go the Virtual Assistant route.

To be honest, until you hit a place where it makes sense to have a full-time set of hands, going the VA route might be the best first step in outsourcing for some help.

If you decide it is the route for you, here are a few factors to consider:

1. Make an estimate on what you are wanting to spend per month – this will allow you to figure out the max investment you need to make.
2. Depending on what your budget allows – you can start small with tasks that they can assist you with to start saving you some time.
3. Don’t go lower than $15/hour when onboarding your VA. In most cases, you get what you pay for – an average hourly rate for a good VA should be in the $30/hr range. Then you are getting value for your money.
4. If you’re needing a VA like yesterday and your budget isn’t where you want it – make a list of your non-negotiables that you have to budget for in your business and try to start weeding out until you can bring in your VA and they can help you scale your business.

Once you have identified what you need to budget for – the next steps are to figure out how to do the handoff to your VA so that the work gets done, therefore getting off your to-do list!

Thinking of how to share passwords if needed, should you implement a project management software to track everything. These are other things to make sure you are ready so that when you find your perfect VA that it is an easy transition!

At the end of the day,  you need to actually sit down and see what your business needs and what you need. From there you know the type of help to ask for.

What did you do to make room for a VA in your budget? What did you hand off to them to free you up more time to focus on your business? Interested to know in the comments below!