There are a lot of myths about working with a Virtual Assistant circling and, as a Virtual Assistant and business owner, I thought I’d tackle these myths head-on!

I’m not saying that working with a Virtual Assistant is right for everyone, or that you are in the right place in your business to work with a Virtual Assistant at this exact moment in time BUT there are a lot of people out there who are put off by these myths.

So, let’s dive right into busting the top 7 myths I hear people talking about.

1. My Business is too small to work with a Virtual Assistant

My business is too new/too small or I don’t make enough money to work with a Virtual Assistant is the most common myth when it comes to working with VA.

But in reality, there are two myths here so we’ll deal with each one separately:

• New business - Just because your business is new or small, doesn’t mean that you can’t benefit from working with a Virtual Assistant. It’s much better to start working with a Virtual Assistant before you get yourself and your business into a super busy, hot mess! By working with a Virtual Assistant when you’re still in the early stages of your business, you can create and establish systems, processes, and SOPs together to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Not only will this free up more of your time and enable you to scale your business sooner but it also means that everything should continue to run smoothly when your business does grow.

Fun Fact: My first client hired me in the second month of starting her business. I am still working as a Virtual Assistant for her, I must say we grew together in this online business world 😊

• Not making enough money - This one is really tough! Working with a Virtual Assistant is like any other investment in your business and so you should think about it like that. Investing in your business is one of the things that is going to help you move into the next phase of your business. There will come a time in your business journey when the only way you can continue to grow is to have more time available. When you start outsourcing your day-to-day tasks to a Virtual Assistant, you can focus your time and attention on the parts of your business that bring in the money!

Whether your business is new or you’re not making much money yet, you’ll probably find yourself in a catch-22 situation - you need more money to be able to hire a Virtual Assistant, you need more time to be able to make more money, and to have more time, you need to hire a Virtual Assistant! But the earlier you start working with a Virtual Assistant, the more easily you’ll be able to scale and grow your business (and income!)

2. Virtual Assistant isn’t for Solopreneurs

“Who are virtual assistants for” might be one of those questions you don’t think about. It seems obvious that Virtual Assistants are for big companies with a lot to delegate and not for solopreneurs looking to balance their duties better. This is one of those myths about working with a Virtual Assistant that may not immediately pop to mind.

Virtual Assistants are great at handling all sorts of tasks and can be a vital tool for businesses of all sizes!

But, what can we outsource to a VA as a solopreneur? That’s easy— a repetitive task that takes away from doing what we do best, running our businesses! Virtual Assistants can do jobs such as bookkeeping and research to more intricate things like blog management and content creation!

Virtual Assistants are as versatile as the roles that they can fill within your company. They are a valuable tool that may not suit every solopreneur but are certainly able to help you delegate the way you should be, so you can focus on the things that you love.

3. A Virtual Assistant Won’t Know or Understand My Business And My Business Needs

My business is my baby. No one else will understand my business, how I like things to work and where I’m headed is another myth most have when it comes to working with a virtual assistant.

The first thing to remember here is that Virtual Assistants are business owners too.

We completely understand how you feel about your business because we feel the same way about our businesses too!

Before you start working with a Virtual Assistant, you must get to know each other. I always start any relationship with a new client with an informal “discovery call” where we chat on Zoom for an hour and get to know each other. I use this call to dig deep and find out exactly what my new client is looking for in their Virtual Assistant. This goes deeper than just what tasks they need to complete and more into what they hope to achieve by outsourcing those tasks to me.

I also make sure that I check in with my clients regularly and that we chat about their goals and dreams for their business to ensure that we are always working towards them in everything we do.

4. It’s Very Complicated To Communicate With A Virtual Assistant From Across The Globe

If I hire a virtual assistant for my business, it will be difficult for me to communicate my needs and tasks to them daily. This is another myth that we get to hear most often when it comes to working with a Virtual Assistant.

Communication is an essential life skill that we use every day. In business, it is key to the growth of an organization and reaching its goals. There are many ways that communication can be utilized to its full potential, so using it to give instructions is not enough.

Perhaps due to cultural differences or the network discrepancies or the extra noise you hear when speaking in the call makes things unclear for both of you. Both bear in mind that Virtual Assistants are very patient when they try to understand the instructions you give them.

If voices over calls are unclear, the internet provides a lot of alternatives. If you’re going to discuss the task, make sure to leave a file of instructions, even if they had taken down notes.

Pro-Tip:

If both business owners and virtual assistants are in favor of recording their calls, I always recommend recording my zoom calls on the cloud with the clients I work for. Post the call, I ask them to share the link of the recording so that as a virtual assistant I can keep checking when I need any information from the call.

I also make sure that there are Minutes Of the Meeting prepared with action items for both parties as per the discussion we had during the weekly meeting and send them across to make sure we didn’t miss anything in the list that we discussed in the meeting. This list will act as a Checklist of Tasks until you meet next time.

Note: I highly recommend checking out the communication tools I use with various clients in my business. Slack, Voxer, and Clickup are the best communication tools I tried from the ones out there in the market.

5. A Virtual Assistant Can Do Everything I Need Them To

"I can pass ALL of my work over to a Virtual Assistant and they can just do everything for me" is another myth a lot of people think of about working with a virtual assistant!

But the truth is, as with most business owners, a lot of Virtual Assistants have specialisms. Some Virtual Assistants are great at copywriting, some at social media, some at graphic design, some at admin tasks…you get the idea!

The point is, you will probably struggle to find a single Virtual Assistant to do EVERYTHING (or at least at a high standard!) However, you will be able to build a team of Virtual Assistants who, between them, can do everything you need.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that most Virtual Assistants will work with more than one client at a time and, as such, may not be able to dedicate “full-time” hours to your business. This will also have a bearing on how much work/how many tasks they can take off your hands.

Remember “NO ONE IS EXPERT IN EVERYTHING!” Having a clear understanding of what tasks you are willing and wish to delegate before even considering hiring a Virtual Assistant, will have clarity on what type of VA services you need for your business.

5. Virtual Assistants need handholding and supervision

Another myth about working with a virtual assistant I hear most is, If I hire a Virtual Assistant, I’m going to spend so much time assigning tasks, showing them how to do things, checking the work, etc. that I might as well just do the task myself.

I’ll be straight with you - most Virtual Assistants will require some sort of onboarding and possibly some training when you first start working together. Even a Virtual Assistant who has years of experience will need to get accustomed to how you do things in your business (and you want them to get to know you, and the ins and outs of your business early on).

But once you’re both settled into the routine of working together, assigning work to your Virtual Assistant should be a breeze and minimal supervision will be required…leaving you with lots of extra time to work on the things you love (or, ya I know, just watching Netflix).

Note:

• If you do find yourself spending lots of time assigning work to your Virtual Assistant you may need to review your systems and processes to see what can be streamlined, what templates can be created etc.

(Or)

• If you are spending a lot of time checking your Virtual Assistant's work, even after a few months of working together, you may have to reevaluate the person you hired.

7. My business doesn't seem to be working well, a Virtual Assistant will help me fix it!

A Virtual Assistant is a magical creature who can come in and fix a business that isn’t working is one of the annoying myths about working with Virtual Assistants that I came across. If truth be told, Virtual Assistants can do a lot of things…and I mean a LOT.

But it’s not up to them to come in and fix a business that isn’t working due to poor strategy. Sure, they can mull over ideas with you, give feedback, and more but your success is ultimately your responsibility.

I hope this post busted some of the myths you might have about working with Virtual Assistants, if you still have any - would love to know in the comments!

Note: If you’re looking for more business input/strategy you may be ready for a coach or an OBM, and not a Virtual Assistant.

If you’re ready to outsource some of your business tasks or need business strategy decisions, get in touch with me here to see how we could work together to not only free up more of your time but also grow and scale up your business!