This week on the Digital Velocity Podcast, Barbara Turley of The Virtual Hub joins Tim and Erik to discuss the opportunities of utilizing virtual assistants to help navigate the challenges of scaling a business.
When scaling a business, the owner and other significant people must focus on strategy and not be consumed with tasks that can be process-driven. Barbara says,
“…if you’re a business owner, you’re in the business of business building…you’ve got to get out of technician mode and think about like, how are we growing this business? And the energy of the owner, and the creative mind of the owner, and the key people is actually the thing that you want to expand. And the only way to do that is to take the busy work off them, such that they can actually move forward, move the needle.”
Oftentimes, those key people don’t think they can free up enough time to delegate work to virtual assistants, but the extra effort will pay off. Barbara explains,
“I don’t have time for that. Yes, you don’t have time. But this is this idea of in any business slowing down to speed up later. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, all these sorts of things. And it is annoying, but the dividends that it will pay you in six months or a year’s time are enormous because you will not be doing that job anymore. Whereas if you don’t delegate it now and you don’t spend the time to offload it properly and successfully in 12 months time, you will still be doing it…”
It’s imperative to begin slowly and not try to hand off too much too quickly to virtual assistants. Barbara says,
“It actually can be as simple as bullet points on a page to start with and delegating one small process, a simple one to an assistant…Otherwise, it will be overwhelming, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s just slowly methodically going through each process and slowly delegating. You’re not going to delegate all of it in one day. It might take six months, but that’s okay. Just one step at a time, and that’s really powerful. I think people try to go too fast and then they get all caught up and overwhelmed and it doesn’t happen.”
Listen to this week’s episode to learn more about how virtual assistants can help grow your business.
About the Guest:
Barbara Turley’s mission is to eradicate business overwhelm and remove the friction that stunts growth by helping clients to optimize their operations using offshore teams of virtual assistants, clever automations and streamlined processes. The Virtual Hub makes this happen every day through virtual assistants who can aid with digital marketing, social media and administrative support plus consultants & system architects who optimize platforms and processes for growing businesses.
The Virtual Hub is a virtual assistant company with the added advantage of an operational efficiency consulting and implementation team. Rather than doing business “the usual way,” they actually create their own virtual assistant successes (and yours) through deep training programs (including software like Hubspot and Ontraport) as well as ongoing career development and customized coaching to best serve each of their clients.
Barbara proudly wears the label of Founder and CEO at The Virtual Hub as well as the titles wife and mom.