How to manage your VA

You may be a business owner or a CEO of a large organization. You have the skills and abilities to run an enterprise. You have the confidence to take your business to the next level. Most of all, you have passion and commitment to succeed. You think you know it all. You think you can do it all.

But you can’t.

You won’t.

And you don’t have to.

If you were to make an accounting of your day-to-day activities, how would it look like?

Mine would look like this:

Total Hours in One Day = 24

Less: Duties and Responsibilities:

1.       Sleep= 5

2.       Family = 4

3.       Commute =  3

4.       Eat = 2

5.       Gym = 1

6.       Others =  1

Total hours = 16

Net hours for work = 8

Eight hours of work is average for most people. For a business owner it is not enough to get things done according to schedule.

Honestly, I’d like to get in more sleep. But I don’t want to compromise time with my family because that’s why I work. I wish I could do something about traffic but I’m as powerless as every car owner or commuter. I value my health so I need to eat on time and exercise on daily basis. Being healthy and fit has allowed me to manage the stresses at work.  “Others” is a contingency for unexpected events such as family reunions, errands and of course, I still have to practice good hygiene.

Ideally, I’d like to manage my daily schedule like this:

Total hours in a day = 24

Less: Duties and Responsibilities:

1.       Sleep = 6

2.       Family  = 6

3.       Commute = 3

4.       Eat = 2

5.       Others = 2

6.       Gym = 1

Total hours = 20

Net hours for work = 4

If I had more time to sleep and spend time with my family, I’d be happier, healthier and less stressed. While I am young and able, I want to learn new skills and develop new interests. I’ve always been interested in cooking and Brazilian Jujitsu. But to allocate time to these activities would leave me with only four hours for work.

Would this be enough to get things done and keep my business moving in the right direction?

The answer is “Yes”!

Four hours per day means 20 to 28 work hours per week. Tim Ferris became a multimillionaire working only four hours per week!

Managing your life with a VA

Tim Ferris claims he used to work 14 hours per day. He wasn’t happy and felt he wasn’t getting rewarded for all the work he had put in. So he decided to go on a two-week Sabbatical to Europe and delegated work to his VAs.

Ferris realized that by outsourcing services to his virtual assistants, he could get better results because:

  1. Time and energy are focused on the essential tasks
  2. Business cost is lower
  3. More work is done on time
  4. Payments to creditors and suppliers were regularly updated

Ferris adopted this “Four Hour Work Week” approach and used his spare time to study other interests such as nutrition and kung fu. Ferris even became a kick-boxing champion in China.

Unless you are as talented and confident like Tim Ferris, you should start your shortened weekly work schedule to 20 to 28 hours.

Organize your workload according to priority.

Then hire a Virtual Assistant.

A VA is a contracted person who works online. A VA can be a paid on a fixed rate per hour or per project completed.  On a fixed hourly rate, a VA can average between $7 to $10 per hour. Compare that to an office based assistant whose hourly rate starts at $20 per hour. VAs from remote locations like the Philippines and India average $7 per hour.

The quality of work could be the same or even better than Australian VA’s. You still have to subject candidates to regular pre-qualifying protocols of interviews and testing.

Once you’ve selected your Virtual Assistant, start the engagement by delegating the following services:Scheduling

  • Scheduling
  • Calendar management
  • Follow-up calls
  • Limited correspondence
  • Data entry
  • Accounts payable
  • Research
  • Social media management
  • Travel and transport accommodations
  • Personal assistant services

The first thing you will notice upon hiring a VA is the availability of time. Your challenge is to efficiently manage each additional unit of time and make every working day more productive.

The second thing you will notice upon hiring a Virtual Assistant is that you can breathe more often!