Get Back to doing What You Love Most.

By Crystal Redhead-Gould

Most entrepreneurs start of their new businesses bursting with creative ideas and energy. Soon after the administrative tasks and other trivial daily activities cause burnout and lack of creativity. Instead of building your business you are now running your business (hopefully not into the ground).

No one would argue that owners of small businesses have to wear a variety of hats. Keep in mind however that successful businesses are not always built on the effort of one person, namely the entrepreneur. Get back to doing what you’re good at and leave the small stuff to someone else. Why waste time doing something that frankly you’re not good at if there are people out there to do it for you?

You may start thinking that you’re on a budget so you do your bookkeeping, answer the phones, respond to emails, build a website, update your business plan, design your marketing material, write your copy and countless other activities. Does this sound familiar? Soon your creativity is lost and you wonder if its too late to go back to go back to your day job.

There’s hope and help for you however. It’s called virtual help. A Virtual Assistant is an offsite professional who can take away all those non revenue-producing tasks. They work independently from their home office so its saves you the hassle of hiring a full time office assistant. No need to worry about setting up an office or inviting someone into your already small workspace.

So what should you outsource? My advice is to take a week to list all the activities that you do on a daily basis. Include them all, even the small tasks like sorting emails. Cross off the ones that you’re absolutely good at. You can even cross off the ones that you enjoy doing. You are then left with your list of undesirables. These are the tasks you can then list as your job specifications.

Some of the tasks I’ve completed for clients, as a VA include:

You get the picture. Whatever the task, there is a VA to complete it. Most small business owners worry that they may not have the budget to add the expense of a VA. My question is, Can you afford not to? Furthermore, a VA will only bill you for the hours that she actually works on your tasks. Although rates start upwards of $30.00 an hour the value is found in the quality of the individual whose services you are paying for. The added value is that you will not need to worry about the expense of setting up an office with new equipment. The best value is the time it frees up for you to focus on building your business.

So what are you waiting for? Make the most of your time and your business and find your very own VA today. You’ll love it, that’s my promise!

Crystal Redhead-Gould is the President of Five Star Executives.