From time to time, everyone needs a little help, whether that’s for their business or in their personal life. But what happens when a busy week turns into a busy month, a busy year, a busy… forever? What should you do when working flat out all the time has turned into an inescapable norm?
It might just be that you’re exactly the kind of person who’d benefit from the hands-on support of a virtual assistant. So if you’ve been asking yourself “do I need a virtual assistant?”, here are some of the key signs to help identify if this could be you…
Burning the candle at both ends
You’re stretching your day to make the tasks fit and regularly find yourself working long hours on a regular basis. This is especially a red flag if a lot of that time is spent doing repetitive or tedious tasks like reconciling your accounts or replying to social media comments.
Sweating the small stuff
You’re so overwhelmed with the small chores you’re starting to miss the big stuff. You might even find yourself bypassing deadlines, missing opportunities or losing customers because you can’t respond to emails in a timely manner.
The ever-growing list
Your to do list is getting longer faster than Pinocchio’s nose, and the more work you get the worse the problem becomes. It feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
You don’t have time to grow
You can’t make the most of growth opportunities because you’re too busy handling day to day business chores, and you start groaning every time you get a new piece of work despairing at how you’ll fit it in.
You aren’t leveraging your own value
You’re spending too much time on low value tasks. Instead of spending your time adding value to the company, you’re focussing on admin chores and repetitive tasks.
You’re not playing to your strengths
Some tasks aren’t in your skillset and take you longer than they would do if you were an expert.
You’re not doing what you love
You’re doing work you don’t like. If you enjoy those tedious tasks, then by all means stick with them. They might energize you or spark ideas that you otherwise wouldn’t have. But make sure you like your work. Doing tasks that you dislike can lead to burnout, which will have a negative effect on your productivity—and your business.
Many hands make light work
You need an extra pair of hands but don’t want to commit to a full time employee.
If some of these strike a chord but you’re still not sure, ask yourself how many of these statements resonate:
- You feel like you’re not spending enough time with your family
- You can’t relax on holiday because the “to do list” is still creeping in
- At the end of a day, you never feel like you’ve completed the day’s tasks
- You find yourself putting off tasks that are boring, repetitive or that you don’t enjoy doing
- Your inbox is insane
- You’re constantly distracted, hopping from one urgent task to the next
- You just wish you had an extra pair of hands to get stuff done
If you’ve been asking yourself “do I need a virtual assistant?”, it’s time to consider taking the step which could revolutionise your life! Because if you really want to grow, evolve and achieve that work/life balance you’ve been craving, you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect a different result!
Instead of asking yourself why hire a virtual assistant, ask yourself why not hire a virtual assistant? Email martha@mnvirtualassistant.co.uk today to find out how I can help can free up your precious time for what really matters!