If You Don’t Have An Assistant, You Are One

Business is changing at an increasingly rapid pace. And it’s critical that business owners and executives continually assess how customer expectations, technology, customer buying habits, and marketing trends are changing. The challenge is finding the time to prioritize those high-value, high-level activities.  

Having more time in the day seems impossible—but what if we told you it’s not? 

Why Every Business Owner Needs an Assistant

Business owners spend nearly 65% of their time on admin work and meetings and 20% searching for information, which only leaves 15% of their time for meaningful work. In order to reach business goals, that number (for meaningful work) should be closer to 80%. That’s why having an assistant is no longer an optional luxury, but a requirement. 

By hiring an assistant, you can take time-consuming tasks such as scheduling, bookkeeping, organizing documents, and communicating with clients or vendors off your plate and focus on growing your business.

The best investment in your own productivity, bar none, is a direct assistant who will handle your schedule and hundreds of other small but important details that clutter up your life and mind—and when added up cost you hours of your time.”

– Dan Sullivan, Founder of Strategic Coach

Understanding these Strategic Coach principles can provide clarity about the value of an assistant and ultimately drive massive growth in your business:

• Unique Ability®: a combination of things that you enjoy, drive a lot of value for your business, and are fairly unique to you (things not everyone has the ability to do). These are the things you should be spending your time on. 
• Who Not HowTM: rather than thinking about how you’re going to solve a challenge or issue, think about who you can find to solve it so you can focus on Unique Ability activities. 

The True Cost of Neglecting Your Unique Abilities

As a business owner or executive, you should be considering the value of your time. 

For example: If you spend as little as 40% of your time on administrative activities and your salary is $200,000, that means you’re spending nearly $1,600 a week on administrative work—but you’re paying for that work with your salary and your time.

And the previous display doesn’t include the opportunity cost of what you would do with that time. Our clients tell us that the opportunity cost is often 5x the “actual” cost. Here’s what two business owners had to say about working with a WBN virtual assistant (VA): 

I would say three months ago, I was still doing probably 70 or 80% of the client work. Whereas now, [my WorkBetterNow VA] Isamarys is actually able to do 60 to 70% of some of that client work. So, the end result is more strategic time with my clients and more business development for me as well.

– Julie Cruit, Managing Partner of Lotus Revenue

[WorkBetterNow VA] Isabel has massively expanded my understanding of what someone who is highly qualified in the work of an executive assistant is capable of doing. She has enabled me be more present for my clients and business partners through better preparation, better organization, better access to information, more transparency, and faster reaction times.”

– Sir Steven Wilkinson, Founder of Good and Prosper Ltd.

Why to Consider Nearshore Remote Talent

Many small and mid-size businesses are feeling the effects of the talent crisis, which makes it hard to find good hires in a small local talent pool.  

Expanding your search to the nearshore talent marketplace can be a game-changer. They’re highly skilled, dedicated, and aligned to the U.S. time zone, which is a huge positive for U.S.-based businesses. They have cultural similarities and high English proficiency, can be hired at a lower cost, allow for fewer regulatory hurdles throughout the hiring process, and much more.  

What’s better than that? WorkBetterNow has fine-tuned the process of hiring remote talent and can help you hire and onboard a virtual assistant in as little as three weeks. We not only provide assistants but we’ve filled 40 different types of roles in the U.S. and Canada using our talent pool. Our thorough screening process lowers your risk of a poor hire, and our ongoing support team ensures a smooth onboarding and beyond.  

For a deeper dive into this concept, my co-founder, Rob, recently conducted a comprehensive webinar where he delved into the details. You can access the recorded session here. 

Ready to hire an assistant? Book a 15-minute consultation with us!