Earlier this month, James Cann wrote an LinkedIn article on the importance of having a Virtual Assistant. With an estimated worth of £95m, people tend to listen to his business advice - I know I do!
But if you don’t have time to read his article, the gist is that – for some 25 years – James has realised the importance of delegating tasks to an assistant in order to save time (he believes 10 hours a week), allowing him to get on with tasks that genuinely require his input.
After his long-standing assistant moved on, James’ initial reaction to the idea of a Virtual Assistant was to laugh – who wants ‘virtual’ assistance; you want real, tangible assistance!
I laughed too, as it’s the same typical reaction I get when introducing myself as a Virtual Assistant. Nope, I’m not trying to say I’m a hologram!
As James found out, when most communication is done by phone and email, having someone sat next to him all day was unnecessary. Just like any business owner, James also realised it saved him money, as he only pays his Virtual Assistant for the hours she works for him.
So I wonder how many of the 1,000+ people who liked his LinkedIn article are now heeding his advice?
News flash: Running a business is hard. It’s why 8 out of 10 businesses fail to survive past 18 months , according to Forbes. One of the often-cited issues for small businesses failing is the lack of time spent on strategy; instead too much time is being spent being drowned in tasks that anyone could be doing.
I recently published my own thoughts on why a ‘one-man band’ mentality can be a big problem. This was backed by research showing only 34% of leaders believed they dealt with stuff that was truly important. With that in mind, today's your chance to change that before another week disappears. Why not talk to me about how we can help tick a few of those things on your To-Do list?
Clare Runham runs Miss MPS , which helps small business owners grow their companies by taking care of admin tasks so they can get on with what's really important.