Signs you may NOT be ready for a VA

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Hi, welcome to the podcast that explores what virtual assistants want business owners to

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know when they start asking themselves the question, Hey, do I need a VA?

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I'm Rachel Davila.

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And after 18 years as a virtual assistant going it alone, I experienced the steep learning

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curve from the other side of the VA client relationship when I hired my own assistant.

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Joining me on this podcast is a group of friends and colleagues who all have their own take

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on what busy entrepreneurs need to know to find, hire, and work with a virtual assistant

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and mindfully answer the question, Hey, do I need a VA?

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Let's get this episode started.

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Hello and welcome back to season two, episode three of Hey, do I need a VA?

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The podcast.

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I'm your host, Rachel Davila with me is Bree BV, Sydney Hubbard, and Leanne Uremli.

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Today we're talking about signs you're not ready for a VA.

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Season one was full of all the things to do to get ready for someone.

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And season two is kind of like the other things that you might want to ask about.

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But sometimes the answer to the question is you're just not ready or a VA is not the right

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fit for you and your business.

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So that's the topic of today.

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Does anyone have any points that they want to jump in with?

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What's one sign that you might kind of go, yeah, you might not be ready for me yet.

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I can start.

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Yeah, a lot of people aren't ready if they don't have income.

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You gotta be able to pay your VA.

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And it's funny because it's almost like which comes first, because you kind of need the

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VA to get your business going.

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But at the same time, you need your business going to pay for the VA.

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So there are ways to work around that.

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But that's one thing to really think about is do you have the income to pay for the services

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you're going to need?

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That's a good one.

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Yeah.

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And sometimes you might need that budget episode to kind of work through the order in which

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you will work with someone to get to the point where you get that income stream coming in

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to pay for somebody.

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Sid, what idea do you have?

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Yeah, I think the income thing is really good.

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I think being able to make income without a VA is necessary.

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And if you can't make income without a VA, then you probably actually need an employee

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instead.

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Because I know I've worked for people who really the amount of hours they needed was

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an employee amount of hours.

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And VAs, they have their own businesses, they have their own clients.

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And so it doesn't make sense for a VA to really only be dedicated to one person.

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It doesn't make sense to ask a VA to take on an employee workload.

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And I think also just the idea that an employee will work to emergencies because that's what

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they're being paid to do.

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But a VA shouldn't have to do that because they're not an employee.

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So I think those are the main things that come to mind for me.

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Just because it's not an employee, though, like you can still have somebody who works

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for you remotely, even if it is that 40 hour a week, like just having it because it has

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a different status, like there might be somebody who's willing to do that work remotely where

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you don't need to have the overhead cost of having an office or something like that, just

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that relationship might look differently.

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And then those expectations would need to be addressed if that was going to be the case.

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And that would be the heaviness of the workload just to have those kinds of things.

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And so then that's where for me, like if you are not ready to communicate those needs or

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you're not clear on what your goals are, that can also be a sign that you're not quite ready.

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Because if you don't have the direction to give to them, or at least what the goals are

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that you guys can all work towards to communicate that with them, that might also be a sign

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because we can only do as much as we're giving the guidance and the information to do, right?

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Like there's only so much magic we can do.

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And if you're not clear on where you want to go, what your goals and objectives are,

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what's been working and what you would like to improve, there needs to be some kind of

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baseline there of getting that clarity or working with maybe a little bit of a higher

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level, more of that partner minded VA that can help you talk that out and has the experience

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to help you kind of come up with what those might look like, like how Rachel, you do your

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sessions on mapping out what the things and stuff look like.

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Like that would be different than a first starting out VA that may not have that capacity

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to do those.

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So also knowing those kinds of things.

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If you don't have that to get started with just any VA, maybe it's that you have to find

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a different VA and then that loops back again to the budget.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And just to reiterate for anyone new to the podcast, most VA's will max out at 40 hours

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a month.

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I know here in California, I can't legally do more than 40 hours for one client.

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That puts me into an employee, not a 1099 contractor position.

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And so when you're considering what your needs are, if you need someone on site or you need

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someone for more than 40 hours a month, or you're looking for that kind of on the spot

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support that is just for your business, then you might look at getting an employee versus

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hiring a VA, especially if you're trying to find a temporary solution to a problem.

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A VA may be a great option for a part-time worker or doing some part-time support.

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But if you're looking for a temporary solution to a full-time employee, a VA may not be the

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right fit for you.

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You might want to look at a temp agency or working in-house with other assistants that

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can take on the workload if you have more than one.

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And I like what you are saying, Bri, about the vague ideas of what you need, what you're

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looking for, what your vision is.

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You have to come to the table with at least a basic understanding of what you're looking

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for.

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And Randolph List is a great place to start, kind of knowing what your first project is

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and kind of knowing in what order you want things to go.

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You need to have that in mind.

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And if you don't, figure that out first.

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One thing that kind of was mentioned in a roundabout way, but I'm going to pull it to

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the front, is if you don't have time to invest in the relationship.

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The client-VA relationship is a relationship.

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It's a give and take.

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It's back and forth.

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We need your support.

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You need our support.

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If you don't have time to invest, if you think you are just going to hand something off and

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ignore us, then you may not be ready to work with a virtual assistant.

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You may want an employee who can come to you and ask you questions throughout the day or

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whatever.

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But we need that communication.

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We need to have that back and forth because questions come up.

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Needs come up.

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We might be heading down a path and be like, whoa, Nellie, and go down a completely different

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trajectory just on what comes at us.

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Then we might need you to step in and make decisions because I tell clients all the time,

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it's your business.

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You are the decision maker.

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The buck stops with you.

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I can help you.

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I can support you.

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I can give you my years of knowledge and experience, but ultimately, it's your business.

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You make those decisions.

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If you don't have the time or the desire to be part of that, then a VA is not the right

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fit.

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If you brought up the work to emergencies, I would also say if you need to see your support

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person, we're virtual.

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We're all over the country and sometimes all over the world.

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If you need someone to be there and you want to see them, it might feel micromanaging,

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but some people do feel better when their assistant is in the next room and they can

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see that they're working on their stuff.

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If that's your leadership style or manager style, then a VA is not the right fit for

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you.

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You'll want to look for somebody that can be there and they can oversee any other ideas,

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anything that's come up for you in your years of practice.

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I think too, having realistic expectations on timelines, even if you have goals for the

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next three months, what that looks like, but then having realistic expectation of what

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the timeline and the budget line up to be is really important to have.

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If you're like, I want to go full bore ahead, but you don't have the budget to do that,

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then setting that expectation and communicating those things is really important too when

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you're working with it.

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Again, maybe you're not quite ready to go that fast if that's the type of support and

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the things that you're looking for, but you don't have the budget for it.

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Notice that you're not ready for a VA.

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You have no money coming in.

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You have vague ideas of your projects or vision.

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You have no time to invest in the relationship.

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You don't know what you want your VA to do and you work to emergencies or want to see

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a person doing your work or you need more than 40 hours a month.

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These are all signs that you may not be ready for a VA or that a VA is not the right fit

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for you and your business.

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If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to any one of us or send us an

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email at heyvapodcast at gmail.com.

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We're happy to answer any and all questions.

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Give us a like, review, or share this episode with anyone who you feel might benefit from

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this information and we will see you next time.

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Take care.

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Thank you for joining us on this episode of Hey, Do I Need a VA?

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The Podcast.

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If you found this episode helpful, please leave a like, comment, or review and feel

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free to join our Facebook group, Find, Hire, and Work with a VA for more tips and tools.

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If you have any questions, please email them to heyvapodcast at gmail.com.

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We'll see you next time.