PPB April 2020

The second is to strategically and thoughtfully recruit, hire, train andmanage VAs in the same way you would traditional employees. I used to hire VAs for occasional small tasks and was never fully satisfied with the outcome. However, now I view VAs as if they are employees inmy business and the results have been incredible. The VA Life This past summer, I was named to Silicon Valley Business Journal ’s 40 Under 40 list, but I don’t say this to brag. Let’s be honest—a guy selling swag in Silicon Valley isn’t getting anyone’s attention. I built out systems for my VAs to run my brand relationship agency, SwagWorx.com, so that I could focus on my strengths. Within my business, my greatest strength is sales, so I focus on working mostly in sales and not getting too involved with the rest of the business. Now, here’s the fun part, I work less than four hours a day while increasing sales year over year. When you free up your time, you have two options. You can either use the time you regained to grow your business or spend more of your time living and not working. In the past three years, I’ve built out the “SwagSam” brand through a media network calledWhatUp! Silicon Valley. I’ve produced nine podcasts, written three books and hosted three YouTube channels. How have I been able to do all of this? I’ve clonedmyself. Well, not literally, but I’ve built out a VA team that can systematically produce all the content while my swag business essentially runs itself. And the best part is you can do it, too. What To Know Before Hiring A VA Before you go out and hire a VA, take a look at these guidelines below and tweak them for your business. You can also listen to my podcast at www.cloneyourselfu.com/ podcast for a strategic step- by-step process to hiring your next VA. 1. Visualize: Why do you want a VA? Do you want more free time to grow your business or live your life? What will your life be like when you have more time? What will you have to give up in return for this? (Think about the growing pains you are sure to experience because we all know that anything great doesn’t come easily.) 2. Roles And Responsibilities: Think of VAs as if they are your employees. You’d never hire an employee without a purpose and a plan. Apply this same approach to hiring VAs. 3. Getting ROI With A VA: What is your budget? How will you prioritize your tasks and projects for new VAs to fit within your budget? Use this online calculator (built by a few of my VAs) to see what your savings might be using a VA’s rate of pay rather than your own: www. cloneyourselfu.com/roi. 4. Start With Objective Tasks: Objective tasks are those that have a right and wrong way to complete them; subjective tasks are those that leave room for interpretation. Set yourself (and your VAs) up for success by starting with objective tasks. 5. From Tiny Tasks To Big Projects: Take a bite-sized chunk of a project and give it to your VA instead of overwhelming them (and you) with a huge project right off the bat. Hiring A VA VAs have wide-ranging skills. If you can dream up a task, you can find a VA to help. When you make the mindset shift of looking at VAs as employees, you can begin to see the ROI of this relationship. For example, your business likely has peaks and valleys. When you are less busy, you are still paying your employee(s) to work, whereas VAs are paid on an as- needed basis. There are a lot of VA agencies you can work with, but I recommend only working with an agency that does not require you to commit to a set number of hours per week or month. Agencies that require you to commit to a minimum number of hours go against one of the main reasons businesses choose to work with VAs—flexibility. It’s likely that you might hire a VA to work just one hour a day for five days a week or some other frequency based on your workload. HOW MAY I HELP YOU? I used to hire VAs for occasional small tasks and was never fully satisfied with the outcome. However, now I viewVAs as if they are employees in my business and the results have been incredible. | APRIL 2020 | 39 GROW