Want More Free Time? Let VAs Grow Your Business for You!
Want More Free Time? Let VAs Grow Your Business for You!
How can using virtual assistants help a business grow while reducing costs?
Virtual assistants are essentially outsourced team members. Typically, businesses use virtual assistants to save on labor costs by hiring internationally, particularly in countries like the Philippines and parts of Latin America. We're actually planning to open an office in Mexico, too. The key benefit is that you can stretch your dollar further by using this approach.
A common question is whether virtual assistants are qualified. The answer is yes—often, we can find highly qualified individuals with a much lower investment than hiring locally in the U.S.
Another question people ask is whether outsourcing takes jobs away from U.S. workers. The truth is, around nine out of ten businesses fail, often due to lack of capital or the inability to afford necessary staff. By providing affordable staffing options, we help businesses succeed in their early stages. Many of our clients started with virtual assistants, built their businesses, and eventually could afford to hire specialized local staff. For us, outsourcing has been a foundational tool in helping businesses grow and thrive.
How can an assistant help a business owner save time?
One of the first steps I recommend is to take your phone, open up an audio recording app, and start recording a list of things that need fixing around you. Just walk around, look at what needs attention, and speak into your phone. For some reason, people don’t often sit down to write out these lists, but making an audio recording is much easier. Personally, I use Slack for this. I’ll send myself an audio message in Slack, saying things like, "This needs to get done," or "I need to handle that." This approach not only organizes your thoughts but also transcribes them into written text, which can be forwarded to others if needed. The main goal is to clear your mind of these tasks and communicate them effectively.
Then, hire an assistant—call them an admin assistant, executive assistant, whatever fits. We have an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) specifically for managing emails and calendars, focusing on priorities. The biggest surprise for many entrepreneurs comes when they realize how much time is wasted in their inbox. There’s often this idea that only we can handle our inboxes, but in reality, very few emails require our direct attention. With an admin, they can categorize, prioritize, and even respond to emails on your behalf. Now, I only get two Slack notifications daily, detailing emails that need my personal input. I send an audio response, and my assistant handles the rest.
When I first handed over my inbox, I had 4,000 unread messages, including lots of junk. My assistant cleaned it out to zero, and it’s stayed that way ever since. Now, I only see emails that absolutely require my response, and my time has dramatically increased because of this one key change.
When should business owners start expanding their virtual teams?
Business success is closely tied to building a strong team. Many successful business owners begin by hiring a virtual assistant (VA) and, as they grow, expand to teams of ten, fifteen, or more. It's common for businesses with solid growth to build out their virtual teams quickly.
However, when a business struggles to expand, it’s often because the owner is stuck with only one VA, unable to grow their team due to limited business acumen or revenue challenges. While coaching could help, I don’t typically offer that service.
Our most successful clients understand the need to keep scaling. We help them staff entire departments, such as HR, recruiting, or sales management, and our main focus is on marketing teams. Since my background is in agency work, we often staff roles in CRM management, advertising, content creation, and more. Ultimately, most growing businesses today are building their teams virtually.
How can partnering with larger, long-term clients help scale effectively?
Scaling a business isn’t easy, especially when it requires shifting focus to new types of clients. To grow significantly, we moved beyond small, one-off clients to partner with clients who wanted to build entire teams. These clients provide more leverage and allow us to support them long-term, leading to much higher retention rates. The value in working with clients who scale their teams is clear—it’s better for their growth and ours.
However, finding the right people can be challenging. My company operates entirely with outsourced staff. My Operations Director, who runs our day-to-day operations, is based in the Philippines. Her skills are on par with, or even better than, many I've encountered in the U.S. This shows that outsourcing does not mean lower quality. In fact, she manages hundreds of employees and keeps our company moving toward the goals I set, overseeing each department to ensure alignment. Outsourced talent, like our Operations Director, plays a critical role in our success.
What impact do notifications have on productivity and health?
Health is an interesting topic because so much of it is tied to constant notifications and distractions. Personally, I don’t have social media on my phone, and I don’t get email notifications either. The only way to reach me directly is through text, and if you don’t have my number, you probably don’t need it. I believe these constant notifications are damaging people’s health and focus—they’re a distraction that pulls our attention in too many directions.
I used to wear an Apple Watch, but I stopped after my daughter pointed out that I was checking notifications during our conversation. That was a wake-up call for me. I outsource tasks to free up my time, so why was I letting notifications take my attention away from my daughter? I decided to remove devices that caused distractions. Many people may not have a diagnosed attention disorder, but they’re addicted to checking notifications. And that impacts health.
Setting boundaries with email is essential, too. Why not check it twice a day? Most people can’t resist looking at their email 30 times a day on their phone, and that adds up over time. The long-term impact is real: your relationships suffer because your attention is divided. Children see you focused on something other than them. And in business, time spent on non-dollar-productive tasks, like excessive email checking, costs you real money.
Think about it—two hours a day spent checking emails could be used for something that actually drives revenue. Over a month, that’s nearly a week wasted. Imagine if you’d used that week to generate an extra $100,000. That’s the impact of prioritizing non-dollar-productive activities. This is why nine out of ten small businesses fail—because they’re focusing on the wrong things. No business has ever failed because it had too much cash.
*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.*
