4 Successful Entrepreneurs who have a Virtual Assistant
Member feature : by Marcia of AdminAssist
You’ve done it, you’re an entrepreneur, perhaps still in infancy stage or perhaps you’ve weathered (or rather survived) the start-up stage. Regardless what the size of your business – you need a virtual assistant.
Being completely inundated with work and small, menial tasks that equate to busyness rather than productivity is no good. Having too much work is not necessarily a bad problem to have, but it can be crippling if it removes your focus from the core activities required to build your business.
Here are 4 majorly successful entrepreneurs who’ve hired VAs.
Richard Branson (Founder of the Virgin Group)
Although Penni Pike, Richard’s personal assistant wasn’t virtual, she spent 31 years at his side and now trains other virtual assistants. She rightly states: “…learn to delegate — sooner or later you will have to get some help in order to grow. Delegation takes a huge amount of effort, patience and practice, but when you master it, it’s extremely powerful — just look at Richard Branson!”
Tim Ferriss (Author – The 4-hour Work Week)
He audaciously calls outsourcing his emails to a VA “The Holy Grail”. He explains the use of a VA for email screening on his blog and mentions that this is the last thing CEOs and high-level Executives let go of –it also keeps them in front of a computer for hours.
Tim set up his inbox using rules and trained his virtual assistant to sift through his inbox twice a day, answer relevant emails and create a to-do list for him that is concise and excerpts important tasks. Giving this list a once-over in 4-10 minutes per evening has freed up hours toward focusing on his business.
Michael Hyatt (Author – How To Get Heard in a Noisy World)
For Michael, the selling point for hiring a VA, was that he could spend more time writing. As his blog and demand grew, so did the amount of work that occupied his to-do list. He subsequently realised – not all tasks were equally deserving of his attention.
He delegated screening email, booking travel and managing his calendar. Michael mentioned that he was able to function that much more productively with the peace of mind that his VA took care of the rest.
Natalie Sisson (Blogger and Author)
Natalie brings hiring a Virtual Assistant right back to the core of why you wanted to become an entrepreneur in the first place: “Do what you love and outsource the rest.” According to her, you cannot do everything yourself and it’s imperative to surround yourself with people who can do it quicker and smarter (a tip she adopted from Richard Branson).
Natalie took time to train her VA for the required tasks and was clear about her expectations. Most importantly, she delegated and released control which is imperative in establishing an effective and productive working relationship with your VA.
Remember – you started your business to do what you love! A virtual assistant can help you achieve your business and personal goals faster and make the journey slightly easier!
For more about Marcia and how her business AdminAssist can help you, please do visit our members page.