For years I kept thinking I didn’t need a VA or admin person in PPF as my background was admin, we’d automated and streamlined a lot of the admin work and I was capable of doing what we did have to do myself.
Oh how wrong I was!
I knew as the business grew I needed to delegate more and let other team members help, so after a conversation with my coach I started to take things a bit more seriously, and looked at everything I did over the period of a couple of weeks. I wrote down everything, and split it into lists – what I could delegate to the team, what I could delegate to an admin person and what I needed to keep doing myself.
And do you know what? That admin list was the biggest one! Yes, a lot of them were 5 minute jobs or under compared to the other lists that were bigger tasks. But there were a lot of them – and they all added up. So yes, there it was in black and white – I needed someone to help!
So our new role of PA & Client Co-Ordinator was born, and our Madison joined the team 🥳
I think it was actually less than a week in that I realised how foolish I’d been in thinking we didn’t need admin. Madi was already showing me the piece of the puzzle I was missing.
One of the biggest things Madi does, and she possibly isn’t even aware of how big a thing this is, is looking after my email. When I started I was obviously the only contact for all our clients, and as we’ve grown the team have taken on quite a lot of the contact, but as many business owners experience the clients still come to us, the owner – which is fine, it’s what they’re used to and obviously there is a relationship there etc. But as the team grows and they take on more of the client work, and I’m doing less of it, I’m not the best person to be helping and answering those emails.
However (and I’m sure I’m not alone here) I feel guilty for not replying, so away I go and respond, get involved, quite often where I don’t know everything because I’m not looking after them day to day! Basically, I get in the way of my team doing the great things they do.
So Madi sees these and passes on to the relevant person. Madi effectively delegates for me! How cool is that?! I’m not feeling guilty (or annoying the team for getting involved where I shouldn’t be), the team show how brilliant they are, and the client is happy. Result!
She’s also doing the things I never had time to do, or if I did them I was doing them badly – she does them brilliantly. Things like getting meetings booked in the diary. It may seem something little but before I’d send out our annual review meeting invites and if they booked great, if they didn’t they’d get missed – not so great! And there were probably so many opportunities missed because I didn’t follow up with that prospect who completed our enquiry form, but didn’t follow through and book the call – Madi now makes sure this doesn’t happen!
Another big thing for me personally was ensuring I wasn’t overloaded with meetings. It’s so easy to book every free space in my diary with meetings, but then when do I get the work done? I just couldn’t say no to all those invites. With Madi looking after my diary she makes sure she spaces them out, and leaves me some non meeting times so I don’t get overwhelmed – and there is a lot less emotion in it, just like with the delegating above, I feel sooo guilty for saying no!
But it’s not just the things Madi has taken over from me or the team – she’s brought a different dynamic to the team and can see things from other view points. With her knowledge and experience she’s able to bring so many ideas to the table, and implement them, and generally help us to raise our game as a business.
I could go on and on for hours about what a difference having Madi as part of the team has helped us, helped me! But I’m hoping I’ve got the message across – having a PA/VA/Admin person is extremely important as you start to grow and scale your business. Madi is a vital member of the team, and I think I can speak for everyone at PPF that we’d be lost without her!
So if you’re at a point in your business where you need some help I’d definitely recommend doing the exercise I did – look at what you do, and I do mean every single little task, over the course of 2-3 weeks – write everything down, then think about who could do it – you, admin, or another role. Then look at what it would take to bring in that help you need – what will give you the quickest results, help you the most and give you that time to continue growing your business.
I wish I’d got help with the admin first – but then I am a big believer that everything happens for a reason, and we’re exactly where we’re meant to be. So maybe I was meant to learn that lesson to help others!
Not sure where to start on your hiring process? Check out our previous blog: How do I go about hiring an employee?
