Imagine having a worry-free attitude, knowing your business is taken care of while you’re enjoying a work-life balance.
A lot of business owners get stuck in ‘trying to do it all’ and overlook the importance of asking themselves:
- What are all the things I’m doing right now in my business?
- Which of these are routine tasks taking up my valuable time?
- How can I be more strategic in delegating these tasks?
This is where Virtual Assistants can bring you the most benefit by giving you back your most valuable asset – time.
Today the CEO of Outsourcing Angel, Linh Podetti, spoke to our Operations Manager, Richard Phu, about how to securely free up your time for more important things in life. Watch the video below or keep reading to hear about Richard’s personal experience and his top 5 tips on guiding you to the ultimate freedom!
About Richard Phu
Richard Phu is the Operations Manager here at Outsourcing Angel.
He has over 8 years of experience in IT and Consultancy combined with more than 3 years of recruiting, managing and training his own remote team of Virtual Assistants.
Richard has revolutionised our systems and provided many of our employees and clients with training and guidance on how to work effectively online.
“You really need to tap into why you’re running your business in the first place. It’s not just about getting status… but spending more time with what we want to do… It’s ultimately, buying time for freedom.”
5 Steps to Business Freedom
1) Leave the busy bee lifestyle behind
We have all been guilty of this. It is too easy to get caught up in a lifestyle of constant busyness. This means we have such little time to do the things we actually want to do. Remember, money and business isn’t everything!
We should start to design our days around what blocks of time that we have freed up for ourselves and choose activities that we know will fulfill ourselves and make us happy. A happy and relaxed mind is a sharp and focused mind.
In the interview, Linh Podetti pointed out that when she takes some time off:
“I come back with more ideas… even smarter, innovative ideas.”
By removing yourself from a perpetual state of busyness, you are able to open yourself up to a whole range of possibilities. It’s important to make time for meditation, exercise, nights out with friends or family, or even just sitting to read your favourite book that has been waiting on your bedside table for ‘when you have the time.’
2) The Virtue of Patience
Investing into a virtual assistant’s development is your ticket to success. We always have to remember that every one of us operates at a different rhythm. Something that takes us 10 minutes, may take someone else 20. But, in due time they will know exactly what to do!
Having patience is key when building a long term relationship with your Virtual Assistant. As Richard says:
“When you put in the time, the effort, then they’re going to evolve and start to make decisions for you the way that you want it to happen”
3) Turn your employees into leaders
The best way to build a long lasting relationship with your team, is by empowering your staff and delegating responsibility.
By teaching your Virtual Assistant everything you know, it will build up their confidence and most importantly, will allow them to grow with you!
To empower your team effectively, it’s important to think about nurturing your team with a positive mindset, allow yourself to let go of control and trust your team. While being patient and understanding with them can be an obstacle to overcome, in the long term, it will definitely be worth your while.
In the interview, Linh Podetti pointed out that when she takes some time off:
“I come back with more ideas… even smarter, innovative ideas.”
By removing yourself from a perpetual state of busyness, you are able to open yourself up to a whole range of possibilities. It’s important to make time for meditation, exercise, nights out with friends or family, or even just sitting to read your favourite book that has been waiting on your bedside table for ‘when you have the time.’
4) Spoon feeding is not the answer
Free yourself from problem solving by encouraging your team to develop their skills from task based assignments to decision making responsibilities.
Giving an employee more tasks to do, doesn’t necessarily free up your time. They will keep coming back, asking more questions and needing your help for decisions.
It’s important to train your team to make decisions for themselves, rather than spoon feeding the answer.
Richard’s Tips
- Start with small decisions: Give your Virtual Assistant small roles, which encourages them to learn to make the decisions you would make.
- Build up to bigger decisions: Your VA will soon be trained to follow in your decision making footsteps and by giving them bigger tasks, you can start to feel comfortable in giving away your control
5) Keep your processes and systems simple
An essential component to working effectively with a Virtual Assistant is to ensure that the systems and processes are operating smoothly.
Remember, you don’t want to overcomplicate anything. Forget about looking 100 steps ahead. Keep in mind the end goal for your business and focus on just a few, key steps to get there.
When you run your own business, you’re adapting all the time. There is always new softwares, trends and ideas that come about. So, it’s important to constantly improve, but at the same time, keeping everything working soundly
How is Outsourcing Angel different?
Trusted Talent Pool
Unlike other outsourcing providers, we don’t hire freelancers and virtual staff that we don’t know or trust.
We hire from our existing talent pool of trusted Virtual Assistants with experience in working remotely with clients.
Signature Recruitment System
All of our Virtual Assistants must also pass our rigorous pre-screening interview and panel interview before they’re shortlisted for any roles with our clients.
We handhold you through everything
Our team is by your side from start to finish so that you are set up with our systems and procedures including matters relating to: Payroll, HR, Performance Evaluation and on-boarding.
We also assign a team member to oversee your relationship with your Virtual Assistant during the initial months. This sets the right expectations on both sides from the start and ensures an easy flowing relationship.
But most importantly, we focus on Long-term Relationships for Long-term Freedom
The most important point of difference for us is our focus on a long-term relationship for your long-term freedom.
Not only do we want you to have the ability to delegate your low impact tasks and responsibilities. We want to set you up with a Virtual Employee that you can trust with more and more tasks to free you up even more over time.
As Linh Podetti, owner of Outsourcing Angel says in the interview:
“The biggest difference between ourselves and the market, is our ability to allow owners to free themselves”
By investing into your Virtual Assistant, you will be able to build a strong long term relationship. While your company grows, your Virtual Angel will too.
Do you want to work with a reliable virtual assistant on a long term basis? Book a FREE Discovery Call with us today. We’d love to help you unlock the key to freedom, by finding you a virtual employee who you can trust for many many years to come!
