The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
A. I Was Overwhelmed by Scheduling
Once I started getting overwhelmed by scheduling meetings/calls and emails, I decided it was time to hire my virtual assistant. She’s been a huge help and costs me $600 a month for full time work. –Eric Siu, Single Grain
A. I Was Angry at my Work
A few years ago, I felt a flash of tightness in my chest from anger as I was sitting down to do work I really didn’t want to do. That was a wake-up call that I needed to delegate more tasks and focus on work that I actually enjoyed doing. The best part is that the assistant I hired was thrilled to be doing this type of work, so it was a huge win-win for both of us. –Pete Kennedy, Main Street ROI
A. I Was Bogged in Repetition
I knew I needed a VA when I found myself doing a lot of repetitive tasks on a daily basis. I’ve worked with a number of VA’s over the years and I found the relationship most beneficial when I could outsource time consuming, yet simple, repetitive tasks. You want to avoid spending too much time explaining or reviewing projects so that you can maximize the time savings of having a VA in the first place. – Nicolas Gremion, Free-eBooks.net
A. My Personal Errands Were Killing My Productivity
It became clear when tasks from my personal life started to interfere with my ever-growing schedule. It wasn’t as much of a problem before — but after that line was crossed, it became a trade-off between getting all my work done or neglecting the personal errands. Thankfully, now I can delegate much of my personal life to my assistant, as well as some of those small business tasks that ate time. – Alec Bowers, Abraxas Solutions
A. I Was Ignoring Core Tasks
The moment you realize that lately, you haven’t really worked on the “core tasks” that grow your business because of all the minutiae — that is the final moment you need to stop and reassess your workload. Focus on the work you do best and hire other people to do the rest. Being the jack of all trades can seem like a necessity for many entrepreneurs, but it really doesn’t have to be that way. Focus. – Juha Liikala, Stripped Bare Media
A. My Business Was Growing
I tried a couple of virtual assistant services when my first business was starting to pick up but didn’t have the budget or the need for someone in-office. It improved my quality of life tremendously. I loved the concept so much that I tried to come up with the perfect VA and founded Uassist.ME. – Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME
A. I Realized Others Could Do It Better
When clients ask me about virtual assistants or remote staff, the first thing I get them to understand is what they as clients are good at or not good at doing. This is often quite difficult for entrepreneurs, as they’ve usually been doing everything in their business themselves. Once you show them that others can not only do it better, but that their business can’t grow without delegation, they get a VA. – Liam Martin, Staff.com
A. My First Hour Was No Longer My Own
I’ve always thought that the first hour of the workday really sets the tone for those to follow. Realizing this hour had become routinely filled with marginalia was a big sign I needed to hand off some tasks in order to get the right ones back. – Sam Saxton, Salter Spiral Stair and Mylen Stairs
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