You may need a virtual helper. The question may not be as straightforward as you first believed. The most apparent explanation is that a virtual assistant might be a terrific addition to your team if you find yourself overworked and too busy for the available hours. You may increase your daily capacity and delegate more challenging tasks to someone else.

But there may be a different sort of individual who does not realize they need a virtual assistant, even if they do not yet comprehend why. We’ve compiled this guide to help you determine whether this may apply to you.

The Most Obvious Signs You Need a Virtual Assistant

Let’s begin with the obvious indicators. You may identify with one of these indications if you’re reading this, but it doesn’t mean you can’t utilize a virtual assistant if you don’t. It only suggests that you should attempt to determine whether any of these situations resemble your own.

• Spending an excessive amount of time on administrative tasks. Suppose you are an entrepreneur or a team leader at your firm. You have an entrepreneurial, “lift yourself up by the bootstraps” mindset. This is initially excellent. It provides independence and control. However, getting buried down in administrative procedures might grind you out over time.
• Focusing too much on busywork. “Busywork.” You know the feeling when you spend many hours working on something so little for your company that you question why you bothered working so hard in the first place, right? If so, there’s a strong chance you may benefit from a virtual assistant who can manage the little issues so you can focus on the big picture.
• Missing out on vital opportunities. Your presence in your organization extends beyond the tasks you do. It is also about the chances you take advantage of or miss. If you are too occupied working on data entry for a simple job that you might outsource, then you are not out completing a significant sale or focused on the company’s overall strategy.
• Stretching your skills too thin. Even if you are multitalented, there will come a moment when your company will outgrow your abilities. If you’re a C-level executive, for instance, is it the best use of your abilities to concentrate on managing your team and controlling your own travel schedule?
• Problems with work/life balance. Lastly, but by no means least. What happens if your work-life balance is off? What should you do if you find yourself battling to get home every day by 7:00 p.m., even if your employer should only need you to be there by 5:00 p.m.? What if you discover that you are unable to enjoy family trips because you are hooked to your phone? What if you feel trapped? What if you feel unable to leave the job you previously cherished?

The Not-So-Obvious Signs You Need a Virtual Assistant

All of the aforementioned factors are clear indications that you need a virtual assistant. But what if you’re undecided and can’t decide if you should proceed or not?

Here are some of the less-obvious reasons that you may need a virtual assistant:

1. The cost of distractions. In one research, it was determined that workers spent an average of 11 minutes on a job before being distracted; if they were able to return to their original activity, it took an additional 25 minutes.

Consider this the “hidden price of diversions.” When a customer phones you when you’re hard at work at the office, you often accept the call and consider it productive work. Ultimately, you must answer such calls, right? Unfortunately, the duration of the call might extend well beyond its initial effect. You may find it essential to write down a reminder to follow up with the customer after the conversation. Alternatively, you may find yourself thinking about what the customer just stated. You may feel agitated by their complaint.

You are aware of what you are not doing, correct? Concentrating on the current job

This is the cost of distraction associated with answering your own phone calls. You may outsource more than simply phone answering to a virtual assistant. You might also:

• Have them take on social media interactions
• Have them deal with customer tickets through software like Zendesk
• Have them send out email follow-ups with clients 
• Have them manage your CRM software so that you’re bringing people through your sales funnel while you focus on working for clients

This gives you more time to concentrate on the job that has the greatest influence on your bottom line. The virtual assistant, meantime, is more than willing to do the jobs that you do not want.

2. You’re ready to grow, but not yet. Unfortunately, many company owners and executives find the prospect of hiring additional employees to be a formidable obstacle. They consider payroll taxes. Benefits. The enormous number of hours for which they will need to recruit more employees. The length of time required to vet them. Interrogate them. Examine resumes. Educate them. Incorporate them into the system. And then, after all, that, hope for the best about their job performance.

But what if you didn’t have to endure all of that in order to expand your team?

This is how a virtual assistant may fulfill your requirement without needing a significant time investment.

Consider, for instance, that a virtual assistant may save annual running expenses by up to 78%. Hiring virtual assistants that work on a freelance, part-time, or hourly basis may be quite straightforward. If you hired a virtual assistant via VA FLIX, for instance, you would be allocated a staffing manager who matches your unique requirements with a virtual assistant.

Then, if you want a virtual administrative assistant, you might consider candidates who have firsthand expertise with administrative responsibilities. If you require assistance managing your Pinterest account, you may discover virtual assistants that specialize in this area.

Best of all, it is a straightforward approach. You should not feel guilty if, following a trial period, you decide to hire your virtual assistant.

It is difficult to claim the same about a full-time hire.

In other words, you may have refrained from expanding your team because you are uncertain if you can afford the time, money, and effort required to bring them on. With a virtual assistant, you will have much more flexibility. You will be able to hire someone who works from home in their pajamas for a few hours a day to do your responsibilities. It is a flexible and low-commitment approach to begin developing your staff. And you may discover that it was the finest decision you could have made.

3. Your business is bigger—period. For entrepreneurs and freelancers, many of whom have labored for years to expand their enterprises, success might seem to be ephemeral. They are so ingrained in the notion that it may all go that they may not even notice as their income climb from year to year.

Eventually, though, your firm will become too large for you to handle on your own. Even if you feel in control of the situation and get home on time, you may notice the subtle indicators. You may have less time than you formerly did to reconnect with previous customers. You may continue to devote 100 percent to your productive job, but outsource other activities, such as social media updates, to AI software since you no longer have time to do them.

The difficulty? It is not quite functioning.

When your firm is expanding, it is OK to realize that you cannot do everything by yourself. You are not a superhuman being. You are an individual who is expanding a company. This is good news. There is nothing to be frightened about. It indicates that you are moving in the correct way.

The key is to remember that virtual assistants are not confined to administrative jobs if you are willing to handle them yourself. You may discover that virtual assistants may act more like full-time members of your team, covering marketing, sales, social media, and even phone management.

That is not to suggest that corporate expansion always indicates the need for a virtual assistant. However, in case you haven’t noticed, a rising company comes with an increase in time and energy needs. And you shouldn’t employ a virtual assistant after seeing all these changes. It is as events transpire. As your firm expands, you’ll already have a virtual assistant aboard and ready to take over some of your most important responsibilities.

A Comprehensive List of Signs that You Need a Virtual Assistant

Still not sure? In addition to the above-mentioned subtle and not-so-subtle signals, let’s examine some of the most prominent indications that you may benefit from a virtual assistant:

• When your family asks why they’re not seeing more of you.
• When you’re on vacation and can’t get away from your phone because you have too much to do at work.
• When you find yourself spending valuable work hours handling your own travel arrangements.
• When you never finish a day feeling like you’ve “completed” all the day’s tasks anymore.
• When you consistently put off managing tasks like data entry.
• When you have an inbox full of hundreds or even thousands of emails and you’re not sure how to tackle them.
• When you put off managing expense reports because they’re too difficult to deal with.
• If you consistently make notes in your calendar that never get done.
• If your to-do list is mostly pristine by the end of the day, having never crossed your essential tasks off the list.
• If you’re sick of dealing with people on the phone and would rather do the work that’s most productive.
• If you find that distractions are constantly biting into your time.
• If you have to work through your lunch break on a routine basis.
• When you have enough money coming in with revenue but aren’t sure how to reinvest it to make your business better.
• When you find yourself wishing that you had another pair of arms. 

How to Tell if You Need a Virtual Assistant – A Telling List of Questions

You may have reviewed the aforementioned justifications for hiring a virtual assistant, but you may still be uncertain as to whether they are sufficient to make the decision. If so, you may want to take a different approach: a set of questions that hints at your increasing need for a virtual assistant. Here are some of the most important questions to ask yourself:

• What would your life be like if you could take two hours a day off the top? If you hired a virtual assistant to perform those two hours on your behalf, it would not necessarily convert to two hours added to your bottom line. However, this is a clever thinking exercise. Would two more hours in the day solve many of the challenges you’ve been experiencing at work? No? If no, why not? In that case, what kinds of work might you outsource to save two hours?
• Are you able to get away on vacation whenever you want? Suppose we asked you whether you could redeem a cruise vacation reward the next week. However, there is a catch: it must be next week. Could you take a vacation and still have your team/business operate at peak efficiency? If not, there’s a significant probability that you’re overly dependent on the vital business procedure. It’s wonderful that your job is so important, but you shouldn’t be unable to take a week away from your company.
• Does your to-do list never seem to get done? This may be the most significant item here. Whether you’re searching for a virtual assistant to help you with Amazon listings or just to handle your office administration tasks, you will have a list of tasks. This task list is an excellent indicator of your overall productivity. The issue is whether or not it is being completed. Are you making progress toward the objective, or not? If not, it may be time to hire someone capable of completing your to-do list with flying colors.

There is no definitive answer to the question of whether you need a virtual assistant. However, there is a considerable probability that you may hear the sound of opportunity knocking if you recognize your own position in some of the concepts presented here. Do not see the addition of a team member as something dangerous or daring. Consider it a natural consequence of you becoming the greatest leader you can be.

Then, let the VA handle the remainder.