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Okay, Sophia Noreen, let's dig into this. I can't wait to tell them all about how we got here.
Sophia Noreen: Welcome to the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen and I took an Etsy startup and launched it in big-box retailers within 12 months. As a creative with an entrepreneurial drive, I left my full-time career in healthcare to find better harmony between career, family, and self-care. We believe you can have it all. Yes, you can launch and run a successful, scalable business while maintaining harmony in all aspects of your life. We believe, we can learn from each other and draw on many experiences to create the best life possible. During each episode, we will share proven life hacks that will keep you on top and striving every day.
There should be no hesitation. Make a plan. Take action. We are here for you.
Sophia Noreen: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another fantastic episode of the Boss It Podcast. If you are new to the channel or you are new to the podcast, my name is Sophia Noreen, and I am going to be your host. And today we are going to be chatting about why you should be hiring a virtual assistant, if you are going into business, or you are already in business. And I would talk about three reasons why this is extremely important and then, at the end, I'm going to give you a bonus tip on how I work efficiently and effectively with my virtual assistants so, stay tuned until the end. And if you are new to the channel, make sure you hit the subscribe and bell, and if you're listening to us on the podcast, go ahead and hit follow or subscribe so, you guys never miss an episode. We drop a new episode every week to help you and give you tips and tricks to keep you motivated while you are on your business journey. Okay, so, let's get right into it.
Why should you be hiring a virtual assistant? Well, the very first tip is all about the art of delegation. Now, I am running a business called Also Sophia, which was very fortunate to land in a big retailer within very, very few years. We basically landed in Walmart within 24 months of launching and during a pandemic so, I must say that we are very, very happy and grateful for the opportunity, but because I still work a part-time and now, full-time job, and Also Sophia is actually my side hustle, I had to hire people to help me with the business. Now, I work also in a non-profit and I am running a pretty big organization now, I have a ton of team members, I would say about 37 members that work with me and we have to delegate tasks off all the time. So, the reason why tip number one is so important is because as your business grows, as you scale your business, as you add more team members to your business, you will need to know how to delegate accordingly. And the art of delegation is such a great topic in itself, but I'm going to give that as the first tip, even if you're a solopreneur and you are just starting your business, learning how to delegate early will help you tremendously. And so, without getting too much into the art of delegation, you are going to learn so much more about yourself when you have to communicate with somebody else about their roles, their expectations, and starting early. Even if you hire a VA for three hours a week, you will be able to test out how you effectively and efficiently communicate what you want from your virtual assistant. So, starting that early will strengthen you not only as a business leader, but also as the leader of the business, and that, you'll be leading a team of people. And so, start early with the whole art of delegation. You could even practice to your friends and family how you delegate to somebody so they know exactly what to expect, and they also know what you are expecting. So, it goes both ways, they should understand what to expect from you, and you should know what to expect from them. And everybody should be on the same level and have clear communication so, there is no confusion when it comes to the goals of what your project is. So that's my first tip.
The second tip is why you should hire a VA so you can get rid of all of your virtual repetitive tasks. I don't know about you, but I am very, very impatient and unfortunately, that could be seen as a not such a great trait, but for me, I'm a creative so if I'm doing a task that's repetitive, I get extremely bored very quickly and it zaps my creative energy. And I know that's my zone of genius, being creative, creating in the business, being the visionary, pushing things forward, starting things, and making them move fast. And if I have to do a repetitive task too many times and there is no variety in that task, then I need to give it away. So I actually think many leaders in business, many of the people who aspire to be business owners, may be in a similar boat, where doing a repetitive task is actually extremely draining, so if you can identify one or two repetitive tasks that you're doing on a regular basis or routinely throughout the week, you need to put those tasks aside and say, I'm going to put a Standard Operating Practice together. So an SOP, a Standard Operating Practice is basically a list of processes that you go through to complete the task. And I want you to delegate that out to your VA and I tell you, it would make a world of difference. Not only will you be able to clearly, specifically, and with confidence provide your virtual assistant with the material that they need to complete with steps, you'll be learning how to delegate which goes back to our first point, how do you delegate that SOP, that tasks, that repetitive tasks out to your VA, not only are you learning how to delegate clearly and how to set the expectations clearly, you are also getting rid of a task that doesn't really require your level of genius. You are moving your business forward. If you continuously have to post on Instagram or you have to continuously write email copy, or you continuously have to package your items up, that's a repetitive task, you can package that out, parcel that out, and give that to somebody else to do, you do not need to do that. So, that's tip number two.
Tip number three is your virtual assistant will keep the momentum going. Your virtual assistant is going to be expecting you to be available for them. You can tell them what to do to help you in your business. Pretty much what I'm trying to say is, do you have a built-in accountability partner? Hiring a VA, even for a few hours a week, you have to be ready to tell them what to do for you in your business versus about your business for a few weeks and then realizing you haven't done anything for it and then it becomes just something that you thought about in the past. Having a virtual assistant will keep you accountable and perhaps will even keep your momentum going higher pace than you had even expected.
Sophia: And I'll share a fun story. My friend, Laura, who's been on the podcast before and she talks a lot about finance, has stated that she has four kids, but she now has a student, a co-op student working with her, and her momentum and her business has actually increased, even though she has four kids, she had a baby boy not too long ago and we are super excited to have her back on the show soon, but wish her well as she's taking care of her new addition there. And I have to say, I'm pretty impressed, even though she has more work to do now as a new mom, and having four boys at home, she has increased her capacity in her business with her virtual assistant, and her virtual assistant is requiring her, to tell her what tasks need to be done every day, so of course, she's going to make gains in her business.
Those three tips alone are why you should hire a virtual assistant and why you shouldn't wait, and it only takes a few hours a week of investment of your time, energy, and money to learn such great transferable skills, like the art of delegation. Being able to seamlessly delegate out Standard Operating Practices, even developing an SOP, which you may not have done before, and then finally getting that momentum in your business, that's priceless, because if you don't have the momentum, then you're losing the capacity of time that's available to now work on your business.
Okay, so you stayed till the end, I'm going to give you my bonus tip on how I efficiently and effectively communicate with my virtual assistants.
I am all about using cloud-based platforms and trying to leave everything in the cloud. My virtual assistants have access to documents, I don't save documents on my desktop unless it's some note that I don't think anybody will need. All my documents are saved in the cloud, we use Google docs and that helps us tremendously.
I'll give you a few examples. We have a to-do list that goes up regularly. And when it comes to communicating in general with everyone, some people are visual communicators, some people are auditory, and some people actually are verbal and they need you to tell them so that goes with auditory, but some people need to read what is being communicated. So even if you have a virtual meeting with your assistant or an in-person meeting with your assistant, always best to write it down, because even though you were in the same meeting, what I heard may have been different from what you heard, and there could be room for miscommunication, so best to put it down in a Google docs and refer back to it, and we have a running to-do list. So every day there are new items that are added to the list, we check-marked them off and it is saved us so much time and energy because I will update the list at night, and then my virtual assistant will look at it in the morning and she'll go ahead and start working on items we even had a chance to touch base, which is very time effective. I also use Google docs to put files, and because of the virtual setting now, file away all of our receipts in the Google drive. Our bookkeeper slash accountant will go ahead and validate and reconcile our QuickBooks, which is where we go ahead and put all of our finances. And instead of having to talk to me, they go ahead and they just go and look in the Google drive, so countless examples of how you should be using those cloud-based services. Technology has made this world so much easier to work with your virtual assistant and that is one of my best tips for you so that when you start working with your virtual assistant, you are not confused on where you should be storing your items and you're not confused on how to communicate with your virtual assistant.
Let's go from the top. We spoke about the art of delegation. we also touched on why you need to set up your Standard Operating Practices. And parcel off many repetitive tasks to your virtual assistant. And finally, we spoke about why a virtual assistant keep the momentum up in your business. And finally, the bonus tip was to use your cloud-based services, ensure that your communication styles matched, and if they don't, or even if they do, it doesn't matter, try to write everything down in Google docs and go ahead and use it as a checklist, go ahead and use a Google drive so you can put your files in. In that way, multiple team members have access to your drive. And again, even if you hire a virtual assistant for a few hours a week, these are good habits to get into the day to keep you organized, so do not take these habits for granted. Start today so that as you add virtual assistance or as you add more hours to your virtual assistant team, you are not struggling to change habits. I had some pretty bad habits in the past of putting everything on my desktop, which is a complete no, no. So again, take it from experience, get it right the first time, and it will be smooth sailing for you.
Again, remember to hit the bell and hit subscribe. And we are going to catch you again next week, same time, same place. And if you have any comments or questions, you can leave them below in the comments. If you're listening to us on a podcast platform, go ahead and you can send us a direct message, or a DM on Instagram at bossitclub, we will link it in the show notes.
And again, guys, remember you can make a plan and take action, and yes, you can have it all. And we'll see you guys again next week. Take care. Bye.
Sophia Noreen: So my fellow bosses, did you enjoy that episode? Now, it's time for you to make a solid plan and take action. But first, remember to subscribe and follow the Boss It Podcast so you receive a notification whenever we drop an episode. Remember to leave us a review on iTunes. Take a screenshot of your review and share it on Instagram as a post or a story, and tag us at @bossitclub. If Instagram is not your thing, no worries. Email your screenshot to [email protected]. As a massive thank you, we will be sending you our top 50 tips for starting and scaling a business. This list is exclusively for podcast reviewers so don't miss out. Now remember bosses, make a plan and take action in all aspects of your life. Yes, you can have it all.
