Time for you to concentrate
on the bigger picture
Taking time out of your busy schedule to handover tasks to a new Assistant can seem daunting. Perhaps delegating work looked easy and you’ve tried it in the past, but in practice it was an arduous and incomprehensive process. If the feeling of being overwhelmed by your workload or not working as efficiently as you believe you can, all sounds too familiar, then a Virtual Assistant (VA) will take away a lot of stress and pressure, freeing up more time and ‘head space’ for you to concentrate on the bigger picture and tasks of high value to you and your business.
Understandably the thought of surrendering over some control and how you go about transferring and entrusting tasks to someone, no matter how experienced they are, can be discouraging. Where do you start, what do you handover, and how do you go about this process, pain free, without adding extra work to your already never ending to do list?
I can show you how handing over work can be straight forward and even provide a means to allow you to discover a greater understanding of how you work, how you divide up your time and how you determine what’s really important to you. This will emphasize your needs, where a VA can you save you time and where they can add value to your ambition, drive and company growth. A good VA can assist with breaking down and selecting tasks to delegate and recommend how to implement systems and processes to support you, but if you spend just a little time and thought over the transition of delegating at the very beginning, it can save you time in the long run. Quite simply this is how in five easy steps:
Step 1: Preparation
This is the ground work for handover to help focus on your short and long term goals.
Preparation: Keep a diary
Before approaching a VA, consider keeping a work diary (and or personal) for a week or two, (basically a length of time which you believe is enough to capture a representative working period). Again a good VA will work with you to help you determine what you want to delegate, how best to go about communicating task status and an overall idea of how you make the transition, to achieve best value. More than likely you will have a number of day to day tasks that need to be kept on top of, but think also in regards to your long term ambitions and interests.
Maybe you are writing a book, taking on a physical challenge, developing a new product or plans for future business growth. Currently you are unable to pursue these passions every day or even on a regular basis because you are constrained by time and other business matters, but once you have someone supporting you, you’ll have new windows of opportunity, so consider long term goals too. Your VA can be integrated from the beginning of these goals, and work with you through the development and final ambition. Aim for the bigger picture.
Things to consider when keeping your diary:
Block out time
This may be family time, time to yourself, time you commute; meetings, tasks, appointments that occur on a regular basis i.e. hourly, weekly or daily.
Consider your productivity, when is the best time of day you work, when are you most proactive and vice versa, when are you drained and not particularly motivated; when are you happy to be/ not to be contacted; what work/tasks do you enjoy/ not enjoy; is there anything you procrastinate over or are not particularly good at and what do you want to do more/less of.
Nature of tasks
What tasks exactly does your day consist of and which are vital to ensuring the efficiency of your business or how you function overall. Include in your diary as much as you can on the nature of your work. I’ve included just a handful of examples below.
- Managing email inbox, responding to personal email/customers, mailing lists;
- Regular/ad hoc admin, updating databases, expenses, filing, invoicing, processing orders, transcripts;
- Formatting documents; presentations, marketing material;
- Diary management; scheduling meetings, liaison w/ customers, clients;
- Travel; booking flights, arranging visas, devising trip itineraries;
- Managing social media and website;
- Research.
Just a snippet of what you may delegate to your VA can also be read here and even more ideas here!
Task attributes
Now you understand what needs doing, consider with each task or project:
- duration and frequency;
- level of priority;
- response time, is anything time sensitive;
- time scale and deadlines;
- can the task be delegated and if so, when? Can it be immediate or does it require a detailed handover or training? If the latter is needed, what are your expectations of this;
- are there tasks which you currently outsource and if so, are they something which you can include for your VA;
- are there large projects which can be broken down into smaller chunks?
Preparation: Document a “Handover Bible”
This is something which a VA can start documenting for you, but it is super useful to hand over something at the start. This is the sharing of information with your VA. Together with keeping a diary, detail as much information as possible that could assist in completing tasks quicker and more conveniently, eliminating a lot of back and forth with initial questions. For example, if you are looking to book travel through your VA; provide passport details, seating preferences, airline loyalty details, regular routing, visa updates. Other information may include relevant points of contact, day to day username and passwords, company logos, pantones and branding guidelines. Is there any history which your VA should be aware of and will heighten their supporting role to you?
Include existing processes so you both know the systems that are/ are not in place. It’s about equipping your VA with as much knowledge as possible from the get go. Some information may be divulged as you develop your relationship and trust.
This is the kind of preparation which will pay for itself over and over again, whether it be if you change assistant, or bring on a new person to the team.
Step 2: Selecting and on boarding a VA
Now you know the nature of your tasks and the detail involved, this will help you decide on the type of VA you are after and align your needs with their expertise and personnel. Obviously everyone has their own preferences to how and why they go about choosing their VA, and it can vary from being about a specific skill, background or experience to personality or simply budget driven (per hour, by project, monthly retainer) and lastly their availability or even location. For the latter, remember that a VA does not exist only in cyber space or via the means of technological communication, they are a real person, and if once in a while or when it suits you, you want to meet in person, state this from the start, and make it part of your search criteria. You may also want to include confidentiality agreements and consider a contract with notice periods just so you both start on the ‘same page’ in regards to expectations.
Step 3: The transition
This is where you invest the most amount of time with your VA, but for the long term benefits. Now you have your VA, how do you start transitioning work and making them a part of your business and aspirations? Everything from this stage should be carried out with as much detail, regularity and consistency as possible, and once you get to know one another, work flow and understanding becomes second nature.
Things to consider:
- How and when do you intend on keeping in touch with your VA? Best and worse times for you. Think about scheduling regular phone catch ups, messaging, email and even meeting in person. Collaboration with real time chat devices, for example Campfire and Skype.
- Sharing Platforms and Compatibility. How do you want to share information, such as documents and large files? A few examples include; Dropbox, Google Drive, Hightail. Is your VA set up to be compatible with your systems?
- Sharing of username and passwords, your inbox and calendar. Client biographies to read?
- The bigger picture. Let your VA know what your expectations are, this can include sharing business objectives and the direction you are heading, what’s your drive and aspiration and where do you see your VA among this?
Start copying your VA into emails and screen share or remote log in (TeamViewer) to show systems and workings. Which tasks do you want to tackle first, what’s priority? There may be tasks that will take more time and even a little training, if so when do you want to tackle these?
Step 4: Trial run
A trial run helps you establish the number of hours and amount of support you need and indeed if you feel you can work with your VA.
If you have managed to compile a diary and background information on the assistance you think you need and want, a good VA can estimate their level of support from here. Designate a trial period, i.e. a month, to identify the amount of work and time your VA is taking on, and from there decide how flexible this is, or if you wish to make a fixed retainer for the work.
Step 5: Feedback and review
As with employees who work in house, VA’s should also be provided with your feedback. Consider not only this from your point of view but ask your VA how and when would they like to receive feedback. Try not to postpone feedback, there will always be other business going on in the background and there’s never a ‘quiet period’ but feedback is gold – both ways!
With time and as you and your VA build trust, handover becomes comfortable, quicker, and more rewarding as you understand each other’s way of working and thinking and it becomes second nature. Your success, is their success and you are working towards the same goal.
