22. Should you hire a virtual assistant? (with Caroline Marshall)

Intro

Welcome to 15 Minute Freelancer, your snack-sized guide to being your own boss and building a business and life you love. I'm your host Louise Shanahan. My LinkedIn bio says I'm a freelance health copywriter. But for the next 15 minutes I'll be tickling your ears with practical strategies behind the scenes stories and nuggets of wisdom so you can create freelance business that works for you. Whether you're just starting out or you've been self-employed for a while, I'll be right here with you to help me navigate the ups and downs of freelancing life. So grab a coffee relax and join me for 15 minutes of freelancing fun. Don't forget to hit subscribe. 

Louise: Hello, and welcome to another episode of 15 Minute Freelancer. Today I'm very excited to have yet another special guest here to answer more of your freelancing questions. Caroline Marshall, founder of Upsource, is joining me today. Upsource is an award-winning virtual assistant service, and I’m really looking forward to hearing Caroline's insights on why freelancers might want to consider working with a VA, and how to get that set up. Hi, Caroline. 

Caroline: Hi, thank you so much. 

L: Some of you may remember that a few episodes back, I talked about how I use theme days to organise my work so that I can stay on top of client work, but still make time for all the other important business tasks like finance and marketing and admin and creative work and learning and all the rest of it. Caroline is actually the wonder woman who helped me set up my project management processes to make all that happen. So thank you, Caroline.

C: You’re welcome.

L: I'm still using the Trello board, you'll be pleased to know.

C: Yeah, I love that. 

L: So I know that for a lot of freelancers who are used to working on their own and doing all their admin tasks themselves, the idea of working with a virtual assistant might feel a bit strange or a bit daunting, or maybe like a luxury that they can't afford. So I thought maybe we could start by talking about why a freelancer might want to hire a VA and what kinds of things can a VA support a small business owner with? 

C: That's a great question. I think when you become a freelancer, it can be really tempting to think you need to know everything, and you need to do everything. And that is really not the case. The reality is we can't be an expert in everything. And we also shouldn't try to be an expert in everything. If you're a freelancer, say in copywriting like yourself, you know, it may be the finances or processes or you know, certain communications with your clients aren't the right task for you to be doing. So, examples of why someone might bring on a VA is if you're looking to bring on more client work and boost your earning potential, or if you don't want to be chained to your desk, which is the reason you might have become a freelancer in the first place. 

L: Yeah, those are great points. Those are definitely things that have motivated me to work with your team in the past. I wonder as well, because I know that you work with quite a few freelancers, certainly a few that I know, you get to see behind the scenes and a lot of freelance businesses. So I wonder if there are some common challenges that you see small business owners struggling with that maybe they could think about getting some support with? 

C: Yes, there are definitely some common challenges. A lot of freelancers, they start their business and they know what they want to offer their clients. But things like what software to use, or what processes they should have in place are an afterthought. So that is something we can come and support you with. With our knowledge of what softwares we use and what might be beneficial for you, we can set them up. And we can also write your processes and put them in place. So you just have it all a bit more standardised in your business. Also, I know inbox management can be quite a big thing. We've used quite a few systems or tools to manage it. And we can also then on an ongoing basis, just make sure it's tidy for clients. Communications is another one. Sometimes when you have your clients, there are some tricky conversations you need to have occasionally, things like late payments, for example.

L: That's a good one

C: Yes, and to be honest, that can be really stressful, especially if you're wanting to provide a good service for your clients. So it's not something you necessarily need to do yourself is have those trickier conversations. We can help you draft the communication, so it looks like it's coming from you. That's something we can do. Or even if you want to provide us with our own email address, we can just take your completely out picture and deal with the accounts department of your client, for example. Also just staying on top of client management. So things like tracking leads, and who your clients are processes for keeping in touch asking for testimonials. All of this can drop through the net when you're really busy just trying to provide good service for your clients.

L: And I think as well when people are just starting out, you are figuring out a lot of this by yourself and you're coming up with a process as each new challenge or each new task comes up and you don't necessarily know how other people do it. So another advantage of working with the VA is maybe that they can tell you, “oh I've seen other people do it this way”, or you know, when you're thinking about different software packages and tools that you might use, they all sound so similar, and it's really hard to choose, it feels like a lot of work to set up some of these tools without knowing if you're really going to like it or not. So if someone else can say, “oh, we've tried them, this is the good bit about this one, or this is what you might like about this one”, then that can make that decision process a little bit easier.

C: Exactly. I’ve found that a lot. Like you said, I've worked with you and I've worked with freelancers in your community, I can find similarities, I can say, “okay, this didn't work for them. But it might work for you.” It's really helpful. So for example, on certain project management systems, I can say, “well, if you like to keep it simple, let's not go down the Asana route, but maybe something like Trello, or to do list will be more helpful.” And I can show you the best the simplest way to set it up rather than you spending lots of time on it. 

L: Yeah, so as we have mentioned, you really helped me figure out my processes, which allowed me to manage my time better and track client work and keep track of new leads, like you were saying. So often people might feel like they are curious about outsourcing some of the work and they'd like to do that. But maybe they feel like they're too busy to make the time either to figure out what they should get help with, or to figure out how to explain what they want or need someone else to do. So how should people start thinking about and preparing the tasks that they want to outsource? 

C: This is a really good question, I really recommend tracking your time, using a tool such as Toggle or Clockify. Just finding where you're spending your time is a really good start, so you can start to identify where you might be wasting time or these little recurring tasks you're doing each week, which don't take too long, but do take you away from the high value work you could be doing. But I also recommend to start using a simple task tracking tool, like I've mentioned, something like Todoist might be super helpful or Trello, just where you can list all your tasks. And you don't need to make it tidy. You just dump things you know that you have to do regularly or on your to do list or things that you're just not getting done. And you can start to identify well, do I really need to be doing this every week, identify any skills or time gaps you have. So it's something like social media engagement is really not your thing. But you know, it's really helpful to connecting with your community, finding new clients, finding new leads, that's definitely something you could outsource. So really think about what skills you're good at, and whether you want to actually learn and whether it's valuable for you to learn how to do them. I'd also recommend getting a password software. If you have a password software in place, you start to realise there's a lot you could share with a VA and work together with a VA on. I sometimes talk to potential clients, and they have no idea where to start in sharing things like their inbox, or certain software that we can work together and collaborate on. So a password software in place already will really help with that. 

L: Yeah. So it's interesting that you mentioned passwords, because I think for a lot of freelancers, when you're used to working on your own and doing everything yourself, and you have very kind of tight control over everything. The idea of letting somebody else in feels quite scary in a way, just letting someone see behind the scenes of your business. You know, I know for me, things might have looked quite organised on the outside, but behind the scenes were quite messy. And the thought of letting someone else get involved when was giving them access to your passwords or representing you to clients. It's quite an important relationship, isn't it? There needs to be a lot of trust there. How do you suggest people go about actually finding a VA who's going to be a good fit so that you can work well together? 

C: That's a great question. And I never undervalue how much trust people put in us as VAs, because it's your business. It's your pride and joy. And then to suddenly bring someone else in on that, it's a lot. So a lot of VAs have a non-obligation free discovery chat. Do take them up on this. Chat to several VAs, see you who your personality would work with, and from that call, you can really find out you know what they offer they can offer you things that you hadn't even thought of. What I'd also suggest as well is do your research, ask in your network, find out who your colleagues in your field are using. That's a really helpful way of finding the right person for you. If you know people you trust and collaborate with enjoy working with that person. 

L: Yeah, like you say it is about just finding the right fit – the same with any clients that we work with as well. What do VAs need from us as clients to make your life easier? 

C: Gosh, so several things. For me. I like clients to be open. I really think that's the best way you can get what you need out of your VA. There's the nitty gritty of the tech and the details and the password. But there's also the bigger picture side of sharing your goals and who your clients are, how you like to work with them. It can feel quite hard to open up about all of that. And sometimes it might reveal some truths about how you work as well. I think that is one of the key things is just be open about your business and then ensure your expectations are in line, what's really helpful for me as a VA is to know what the client expects from us. It sounds very, very simple, I know. But it really is the key to start off a good relationship, is just knowing what we both expect from each other when we go into it. 

L: Yeah, just in terms of setting expectations, you might not know how much it's realistic to expect to be done in an hour or two hours, or five hours, or whatever it is. So there can be an element of needing to figure that out over time as well. 

C: Exactly, exactly what you know, there's often pieces of work we've done quite a lot before. And we can be “Oh, this will be approximately this much time.” But there's things like say, for example, communications and diary management, there could be a lot of back and forth. And it can be surprising when you first become a VA how long things take, and it'll be for you as well. Because when you realise how long you've been spending, doing back and forth emails with setting priors that you no longer have to do will take a chunk of time from your virtual assistant, but will be really worth it.

L: And then, of course, the time that you're not spending on that work, because your VA is doing it is time that you can spend on other tasks, whether that's generating revenue through your client work, or investing in yourself or your business through training and things like that. 

C: Yeah, exactly. 

L: So you're obviously a whiz when it comes to organisation and project management. What are your favourite project management and productivity tools? You mentioned some software systems earlier? What are your favourites? 

C: Yes, so a couple of my favourites. I have been using Asana for years, I have loved it. But actually I've moved to one called Clickup, which I'm starting to use for me because I work as a team, that one works really well. For an individual person, I'd probably not recommend that. But I'm starting to use Clickup and love that one, they all pretty much do the same. It's how much they cost and certain small functionalities that can change and how much you want to grow with them. But for me, it's how you like them to be laid out and how you like the look and feel of them. So a couple of other favourites I have for clients have been Trello or Monday or Todoist for the super simple ones. But personally, I use Asana and I'm probably moving to Clickup, which is a bit of a surprise. 

L: Yeah, there is an element of a sunk cost fallacy with some of this isn't there? You feel like you've put so much time into setting up one system, you don't want to move, I definitely prefer the simpler versions myself. But I think the key is finding one that you're actually going to use, you're not just going to set it up and then kind of forget about it.

C: And that's why I prefer for many clients just to keep it simple in the beginning. 

L: So I've got one final question for you. Because I know that we do have some freelance VAs who listen to this. And if anyone listening is thinking of becoming a VA themselves – how would you suggest they get started? Or what would you encourage them to consider? 

C: Oh, wow, that's a really good question. So for freelance VA is this is gonna sound super simple, but do your research. This is what I personally did was I just went out onto Facebook, there are tonnes of Facebook groups out there, start talking to other people who are doing it, start watching conversations and finding out if it's the industry for you. Start looking into some of the virtual assistant coaches who are out there, find out what their offerings are, if you feel you've got some skill gaps, what kind of virtual assistant you want to be, what kind of clients you want to support. I did that by just seeing what other people are doing and having a look at what best practices are in the industry, and if it's the right industry for you. There's also associations like the Society of Virtual Assistants that's got some really good tools and resources on their web page for free. A lot of coaches offer some free downloads. Spend some time finding out. But on the same page coming back to software, don't feel like you need to go out and learn all the software because that's impossible and a waste of your time. 

L: Yeah, I think like any other businesses, it can be quite helpful to have a few areas that you focus on and you're the expert in and you can kind of be the go to person for those things. 

C: Exactly. Look back on your career history. What have been your skills you've learned from that and what you can find as a service, is it going down the social media routes or going down the inbox and diary management route or the lifestyle personal services, it's really good to see where your strengths are, if you're looking at becoming a VA, that was so useful. 

L: Thank you, Caroline. If people want to connect with you, or find out more about your services, or just find you and say hello, where should they look for you? 

C: Ah, that would be great. So my website is www.weareupsource.co.uk. I am also on Instagram. I'm very active on there, at @weareupsource. Or you can find me on LinkedIn as Caroline Marshall. 

L: Okay, yeah. So I definitely recommend people go to Instagram and have a look at your reels. They are hilarious.

C: Thank you.

L: All right. Thank you very much. And thank you to everybody for listening. We'll see you next week. Bye. 

Outro 

You've been listening to 15 Minute Freelancer with me, Louise Shanahan, freelance health copywriter and content marketer at thecopyprescription.com. If you enjoyed this, please hit subscribe, leave a review or share it with a freelance friend. And if you've got a freelancing question you want answered on the podcast find me and say hi on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. Thanks, and until next time, happy freelancing!