Every virtual assistant wants to create results for her client. Every client wants the same. But when the client’s budget is tight, what kind of outcomes can you realistically expect for only 5 or 10 hours a month?
This is where a lot of client-VA relationships go sour. Yet a lot of good things can come out of those hours if used the right way. Some tips for helping you leverage a limited virtual assistance budget:
1. Communicate expectations regularly. “Set it and forget it” doesn’t often work with a virtual assistant. Instead, treat your VA like a key player in your business, even if she’s only billing you for a few hours a month. Ideally, you should be telling your VA what you want to achieve each month, ahead of time. Then ask your VA for an honest assessment of what can and cannot be accomplished with the time and budget allotted. This doesn’t have to be a state-of-the-union discussion; an email exchange can work just fine.
2. Keep the momentum. When time and money are limited, it can be a challenge to sustain progress and in turn see real results. However, this can be overcome to some degree. Retaining your VA on a consistent, monthly basis, rather than booking her time willy-nilly with no real plan, makes a world of difference. Your virtual assistant needs to be in the loop and stay in the loop in order to feel and be invested in your business success.
3. Pick your battles. A virtual assistant can get a lot done if you delegate projects that are of manageable scope. That means they have a clear beginning, middle, and end. For example, my VA is organizing a blog book tour for me. This is very achievable with minimal input from me, while not eating up a ton of budget.
As I always say, I can’t change the world for five hundred bucks, but I can change your world enough to make it worth the money.
Thanks for the great post, Karri. This information is invaluable to most clients in this tight economy and the methods you discuss here really work. I have a client that is in this situation and we are moving forward in a controlled, planned way.
Great points Karri! Our most successful client/VA relationships are with those clients that communicate with us on a regular basis regarding the things they want to achieve in the next month, or even the next 2 or 3 months. When we have a clear understanding of the end goal, it’s much easier to establish a game plan to accomplish that goal. The more we know about our clients’ businesses and what they want to achieve, the more effective we will be in our role as their virtual assistant. Your point about keeping the momentum up by retaining your VA on a consistent, monthly basis rather than (as you said) “booking her time willy-nilly with no real plan,” really is the most sensible way to work a VA into your budget and effectively use her time and get the most out of your money … especially when time and money are limited.
Karri-
Can you elaborate more on the concept of “blog book tour”? I would love to see clarification of what you mean by this.
Thanks,
Gail Margolies Reid
CPA, Small Business Advisor and Writer
Alpharetta, Georgia
@Gail A blog book tour is a method by which an author can promote his/her publication online. For example, I just published a book for work-at-home moms in 2009 (Warning: shameless plug!); my VA is helping me set up a virtual tour where I will be “stopping” at various WAHM-related blogs around the web and writing guest posts. The blog “host(ess)” benefits greatly by generating unique content his/her readers will appreciate as well as by enhancing his/her existing brand; the author benefits from the added exposure online and support of his/her colleagues.
HTH and thanks for asking 🙂
Karri, this is an excellent and very relevant post. I work primarily with very small businesses and solo entrepreneurs who are just starting out. Sometimes even 5-10 hours a month is financially difficult. Yet so much can be done even in just a couple of hours each week, as long as it’s done continuously.
One point I’d like to add – the importance of establishing goals and strategy when you’re on a very tight budget. Also, you make a great point about keeping the momentum. But there are situations when a business owner has to discontinue working with a VA for a month or so.
It is very important to have the foundation in place that would allow the business owner to continue all the tasks that would have, otherwise, been done by a VA, even if these tasks are scaled down. Otherwise, things can rapidly snowball and the backlog of work builds up. As a matter of fact, a virtual assistant can help business owner create the “emergency autopilot” plan.