Assistant

Have you found yourself caught in that mental ping pong yet:

“I need to hire some help. But I can’t afford to hire help. But I can’t get everything done on my own. But it would cost too much bring someone in. I mean, I can’t afford to pay…”

As your business grows, you find yourself becoming busier and busier.

Question: At what point should you consider delegating some of the day to day office details to some sort of hired assistant?

Answer: When you get to the point where you’re overwhelmed – or overloaded – or there’s something in your business that you Just-Don’t-Want-To-Do…, it’s time to look outside yourself and hire an assistant.

The first time you run into this should-I-shouldn’t-I-hire scenario, it feels hugely overwhelming and most people wait longer than they should to bring in their first assistant. Be aware, it slows you down in the short term to train an employee, so don’t wait until you’re totally covered up or you won’t find the time necessary to spend training them!

As your business continues to grow, the second and third hires are easier to justify and happen much faster.

When and whom to hire varies, naturally, with each business. It depends greatly on where you’re headed and the results you want. Maybe it’s time to notice that you’ve already created the business you want so it’s time to stop growing and start slowing.

If, however, you want to grow, there comes a point when the business outgrows a single operator. Celebrate!

For us, the first person we hired was a bookkeeper. I HATE bookkeeping (even signed up for accounting classes at a local community college until I came to my senses). I finally recognized that some people love bookkeeping and I should be paying them to do mine. Bookkeeping, as vital as it is …read more