In the 21st Century, we’ve seen a boom on entrepreneurs and small business owners. Individuals, male and female, old and young, who have decided to become entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur with a growing business, the first few hires are critical.
Many business owners look to hire a team to work for them and others may look to compartmentalize and outsource. A growing business or brand can run into trouble quickly if the administration and paperwork are not managed properly. As the business owner and leader, you should be making high-level decisions and driving your company’s new ventures rather than replying to customer questions and the day to day running of your life and business. Finding someone versatile like an executive personal assistant can help you do just that.
Why You Should Hire a Personal Assistant for Your Business
If you, like thousands of other business owners and entrepreneurs, have a busy life, then your home and business personal management should be handled by a personal assistant. Entrepreneurs know that work life and personal life often overlap. That’s why having the versatility of a PA (opposed to a secretary and accountant) can have such a big impact on your life. Personal assistants can do multiple of tasks for your business, form easy to complicated and can help you with personal tasks too.
Here are some tasks your PA can help you with:
Easy:
– Schedule management – Update your calendar, send you reminders, make appointments, etc.
– Email management – Writing and drafting emails on your behalf and screening incoming emails.
– Account management – Handle bills, paying bills and liaising with the accountant/book keeper.
– Phone management – Managing the phone and incoming calls.
Challenging:
– Payroll – Managing staff payroll for your company (depends on company size).
– Staff management – Dealing with other support staff, interviewing new staff, firing staff, etc.
– Research – Researching new projects or activities as needed.
– Note taking – Take notes during a meeting or call and taking next steps.
Complicated:
– IT Support – Updating websites and high level IT support (you’ll need a specialized PA for some tasks).
– Security – Managing the security systems in place in the property.
– Improvisation – Provide detailed support and last minute adjustments to schedule and routine changes.
If you have the right PA for your needs you can eliminate a substantial portion of your busy work and focus on the bigger decisions that will really drive your business.
Tips for Hiring a Personal Assistant
1. Establish how many hours of support you need, from part time to full time, in-house to complete remote working. Decide what you need for your life improvements to be made.
2. Consider routes to reach out and to hire a personal assistant. There are multiple ways to do this from self-recruitment (gumtree, job sites) through to a professional agency conducting the search.
3. Write a list of duties you’ll expect the PA to do on a daily basis (this will also help establish step 1). Don’t be ashamed, it is perfectly OK for the PA to help with things like picking up and dropping off your dry cleaning.
4. Check references so you are sure you get a quality recruit the first go around. You don’t want to have to fire and rehire. Regardless if you self-recruit or go through a professional agency, ensure you do your own background checks (especially if the PA is going to be coming to your home).
5. After interviews and reference checks, ensure you trial the candidate. Some people are excellent on paper but you need them to show the skills they’ve said they have, so make sure you give them a probationary trial period to ensure that you’ve found the right person.
If you think you’re working in your business too much and not enough on your business, consider hiring a personal assistant. By choosing the right PA, you can dramatically increase your work/life balance, and grow your business faster.
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
