There are 3 important questions to ask yourself before hiring an assistant.
Some days, 24 hours are just not enough to get everything done on our to-do lists. Some days, it feels like maybe the universe is playing tricks on us and stealing our valuable time right out from underneath us!
If you feel this way more often than not, and you want to take your business to the next level, it may very well be time to hire an assistant.
In fact, you probably should have done so months ago.
If you’re reading this and nodding your head, you’re thinking about hiring an assistant, which is a step in the right direction!
If you are too busy to do all the things, or at least to do them all well, hiring an assistant is a great way to open back up some space to do the things you’re best at — the things which made you want to go into this business in the first place.
“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent, and not enough time on what is important.”
– Steven Covey.
Before you go out and hire the first person who expresses interest in helping you take some things off of your plate, there are a few essential questions you’ll need to ask yourself. Otherwise, you may not get the results you were hoping for.
1. Do you have solid systems in place to show someone else how to do what you do?
If you’re not clear about your processes for getting things done on a daily basis, it will be challenging for you to show someone else.
Unless you plan to hire someone to figure out your systems for you, you’ll want to have them written down and ready to share with your assistant before you welcome someone to your team. Otherwise, you’re setting yourself and the assistant up for failure, and that’s a waste of everyone’s time.
2. Do you have clear expectations of what the completion of a specific task should look like?
Like the first question, do you know what you would expect an assistant to do for you?
Do you have a list of tasks that, if someone else were completing, you’d be able to free up a significant amount of time? If you don’t, get started right now! Start by listing everything you want to be completed, and then narrow it down to those things you know you can successfully outsource right now. You can always add on in the future as needed.
3. What could you achieve if you had someone assisting you with tasks that aren’t your main focus, you’re not passionate about or aren’t in your wheelhouse?
This question is quite possibly the most important one to ask.
Why? Because if you don’t have a clear idea of what you could accomplish by hiring an assistant, you may never decide to pull the trigger.
It’s hard to see the value in investing in someone else’s services if you don’t understand how it can ultimately help grow your business.
So, make a list of everything you think could be made possible by having a little extra time and a little less busy work on your plate. If the possibilities seem endless, it’s probably time to hire an assistant! (Make sure you have answers to questions 1 and 2 as well, and you’ll be good to go!)
If you don’t have answers to the questions above, or you aren’t satisfied with the answers you came up with, then you have a little bit of work to do, and that’s OK.
Take the time to come up with the answers and keep imagining what you could do with the help of an assistant.
You’ll be reaching your goals in no time!
