A GREAT post by good friend and fellow podcaster Leesa Barnes:

Mistake #1 - Spending Time On Techie Stuff

An awesome point Leesa!

As a VA, I get to take on those tasks that my clients don’t want to spend time doing - these are usually things I enjoy and can do with ease. When I work with VirtualHelper4U clients I get to manage the tasks, do some work and spread some of the work around to other VA’s too. Some of our VA’s can do certain tasks better than others and it’s great to be able to pass that work on and know that it will be done to our high standards.

Say you’re not like Leesa - who has the skills to do the work herself - you pay someone for 1 hour of work to do something that might have taken you 2 or 3 hours to do. It’s done faster and admit it, probably better than you could have completed it.

If you are like Leesa and know how to do the work, this doesn’t mean it has to be you doing it. I’m a VA and I know how to do a bunch of different things but that doesn’t mean I do them all myself.

Another great benefit of delegating is that if you do everything yourself, it’s somewhat isolating in that you’re limited by your own knowledge on that particular task - an assistant that’s proficient in a certain task, process or program might have suggestions on how to do something more efficiently or with more of a return.

Do yourself a favor and next time you’re doing something unrelated to what you do directly for your customers or clients (the things that pay YOU) - think about passing it off to someone that can do it for you. I know it’s hard but it’s worth it to have someone that knows your processes and preferences and can do the work for you.

Delegate!

Filed under: This and That, Virtual Assistant on January 8th, 2008