What if there was a resource that gave you everything you need to outsource repetitive tasks in your day-to-day business?
How much time would that save you?
Just imagine: having access to training, materials, videos, cheat sheets, tutorials, agendas, and more step-by-step processes and top-notch support.
If you're ready to scale your business and level up your live stream, there is one vital next step you need to take: hire a rockstar virtual assistant.
I have three different shows: Lights, Camera, Live, Digital Confetti, and Showrunners: Secrets from the Set.
It's a lot of work, but I have an executive assistant AND a virtual assistant. They help me out so much when it comes to booking guests, repurposing content into blog posts, creating 1-minute social media videos, and so many other tasks.
So, while they're taking care of that work, I can focus on creating new content. If I didn't have them by my side, I probably wouldn't have the time for three shows. I've worked with various interns and VAs over the last five years, and they've been vital in helping me grow my brand.
In this episode of Digital Confetti, I brought on Nathan Hirsch to discuss the world of outsourcing. Nathan is an entrepreneur and an expert in remote hiring.
Nathan co-founded FreeeUp.com in 2015 with an initial $5,000 investment and scaled it to an incredibly successful business, with $12 million a year in revenue.
More recently, he co-founded Outsource School, a company working to educate entrepreneurs on effectively hiring VAs to scale their businesses.
We're halfway through quarter one already, and if you've been thinking about how you can scale your business and level up your live stream channel in 2021, this is the episode for you.
What is a virtual assistant?
For both Nathan and I, our virtual assistants are essential parts of our teams. Although many people get stuck in the mentality that VAs simply do data entry or act as a secretary, they are much more than that.
Nathan notes that he has virtual assistants who do everything from high-level sales calls, book-keeping, billing, lead generation, customer service, and more.
During his FreeeUp days, Nathan's virtual assistant would give him a list every morning of people to reach out to: blogs, podcasts, and influencers. Instead of spending his time researching them, Nathan could get straight to the point and speak to people to start scaling his business.
“As long as you open up your mind and have good systems and processes in place, you can bring on a virtual assistant to do anything in your business.”
Because VAs are not "one size fits all," Nathan categorizes VAs three different ways:
Followers
Do-ers
Experts
In basic terms, virtual assistants are Followers. They may have five years of experience in customer service or social media, and they are there to follow your systems and processes. Until you have systems and procedures in place, you shouldn't hire a virtual assistant.
Next up are the Do-ers: people like graphic designers, writers, and video editors. You aren't teaching them how to do their job, and they aren't consulting with you either. They are there to do one task for you at a high-level, and they likely do that one thing for 8-10 hours a day.
Finally, you have the Experts, which include agencies and consultants. The experts bring their own strategies and systems to the table.
In terms of growing your business and social media presence, it's best to focus on followers and do-ers.
With followers, you invest your time, money, and energy into training them to get the job done. Moving forward, you both need to be consistent in the number of hours they work. If you give them five hours of work one week and fifteen the next, they may leave to find a different client who is more consistent.
Do-ers don't necessarily need hand-holding to get started. Over time, you can grow a Rolodex of do-ers to use when you need them.
Nathan notes that he has three graphic designers, three writers, and three video editors. Whenever a project comes up, he quickly posts the details in their Slack channel. Whoever has the first availability to work on the project responds back and then gets started.
“There are three categories of virtual assistants: Followers, Do-ers, and Experts. Followers are basic VAs who follow your systems. Do-ers are masters of their craft, like writers or graphic designers. Experts are agencies and consultants.”
If you feel burnt out from creating content and live streaming, and don't have time to hop on brand sponsorship calls, start thinking about what your time is worth and what you can delegate to a VA.
There is no right or wrong way to go about working with VA, whether it's how many you work with or what tasks you delegate. Whatever works for your business and helps free up your time is the best option.
However, Nathan notes that it's a good idea to have multiple virtual assistants to work on the essential parts of your business in case one person is sick or unable to work for a week.
Curious about how many VAs you can afford? Check out the Outsource School VA Calculator to do the math for you.
How to hire a virtual assistant
At some point as a content creator or entrepreneur, you will be ready to grow your team and hire a virtual assistant. There is a massive mindset shift from "this is my passion project" to "now I'm a CEO." You can also hire a full-time or part-time VA, based on your needs and budget.
Even if you believe there is no one else who can do what you do in your business, there is; even if it's just 95% of what you're doing, that allows you to focus on higher-level tasks.
There are very few 7-figure or 8-figure solo entrepreneurs out there. If you want to grow your business, you have to put trust in someone else. Hiring another person is key if you're going to scale your business.
Instead of spending time and energy learning Facebook ads, hire someone who does that day in and day out. Focus on how to hire someone and learn those skills instead.
Many people struggle to hire a virtual assistant because they don't know how to hand off their work or manage conflict. Instead of getting upset if your VA doesn't do something right the first time, start learning new tactics to teach them in other ways.
As you get ready to hire your first VA, write out the list of tasks you want to outsource and determine your budget.
Then, there are four essential steps to follow:
Interviewing: Speaking to your potential VA to see if they are a good fit
Onboarding: Setting expectations
Training: Creating SOPs and getting your VA to prove they can handle the work
Managing: Motivating your VA and dealing with any issues that arise
When hiring a virtual assistant, keep in mind there may come a time where it is no longer a great fit. At Outsource School, they teach you how to turn problems around to keep your VA on board, but also the steps to take when letting one go.
“Once you have your processes in place, there are four steps to hiring a VA: the interview, the onboarding process, training, and managing.”
Ready to hire a virtual assistant? Here's what you need to do next.
There are many places to find a VA, and one site is FreeeUp. FreeeUp is essentially a marketplace for virtual assistants and freelancers.
Nathan and I also encourage you to head over to Outsource School. Start with the VA Calculator and see how many virtual assistants you can afford. Then, book a call with Nathan's team to see if their processes are the right fit for your business.
Outsource School has many fantastic sources to help entrepreneurs find and hire virtual assistants, including rate sheets, playbooks on hiring for different roles, interview processes, and even job postings.
Their goal is to provide you with the tools you need to connect with and hire virtual assistants and onboard them so you can grow your business. Most importantly, Outsource School teaches you how to be proactive with your team.
Do you have a virtual assistant? Or, do you want one now that you know more about how they can help you scale your business?
Let me know in the comments what you think about VAs and what tasks you think you could outsource to one.
Thank you to Restream for sponsoring Digital Confetti!
If you haven’t heard, Restream allows you to broadcast live video to 30+ social networks at the same time.
