Blog | Trust the Process

Win back 500 hours of your time by onboarding a Virtual Assistant

Written by Peter Liston | Mar 21, 2022 2:51:00 PM

We all know time is precious and our most important resource.

How would you spend an extra 50 hours of free time? More time on your health and relationships? Working on the next business idea? Maybe doing, well absolutely nothing!

The key to winning your time back is to understand how you spend it so let's classify your activities into three different outcomes

  • game changing
  • revenue and relationship generating
  • administration

The trick is to keep the game changing, revenue and relationship creating activities and look to get rid of your administration. It's your administration that's keeping you from operating in your highest space and where the 'low hanging fruit' is hiding. Invoicing, building quotes and proposals, trying (with hope) to clear your inbox, reconciling accounts, chasing accounts receivable, data basing and research, updating your CRM, managing your business social media, conducting LinkedIn outreach. The list just drag on and on and on.....

For you to win your first 50 hours back follow these three simple steps.

Step 1 - Identify the task

Let's identify a one hour task that you do once per week. Find something that is relatively simple, easy to train and has an impact on your day.

Step 2 - Transfer the task

Using screen recording software (like Loom or Vidyard), transfer the task into a simple 'how-to-guide', which captures the way you want this task to be completed. Once you've captured this task, they can reference this guide when you're not around to help them get it right.

Step 3 - Teach the task

This is the most important step. If we don't get this right, those dreaded words 'I many as well just do it myself' may raise it's ugly head.

  • familiarise first - get your team member to watch the training material and instruct them to complete any research on the context of your task before you start. It's a really powerful first action to set them up for success
  • let them shadow you - demonstrate the task in real time. Show them how you do it. If you're doing this on Zoom or screenshare, hit record to add the session to the training library
  • you shadow them - now switch over and ask them to conduct the task under your supervision. Guide them, answer questions, test and adjust them. Be patient, this is the critical moment of you delegating this for ever.
  • quality control - before you hand the reigns over, check the quality. Ask them to do the work in draft before releasing. Then get them to cc you on the work to clients so you can keep an eye on it. Then spot check to make sure standards are maintained.

Expect this whole process to take you 5 hours from identifying the task, creating your how to guides, nurturing and teaching your team member, then doing quality checks to build trust. It may cost you 5 hours in investment, but look at the reward. You never have to do that task ever again.

You have just saved yourself 50 hours per year, more than one whole working week to spend on whatever you like.

Now this was just one task that you did once per week. What if we apply this to a task you spend one hour on every day. Let's delegate that and save you 250 hours per year. Over 6 weeks of work time saved. 

Hopefully now we've got you thinking.

At Trust the Process, we're here to help you get this right. We'll help you every step of the way to understand what to transfer, how to build great 'how-to-guides', then support you transfer and training your team member on that task.

Contact Trust the Process now on 02 9056 7442 to chat with one of our team today.

Get it right the first time.

Trust the Process.