Empower your Business by Delegating

As those of you who read my blog regularly know, I provide title processing services* for an attorney with a title company. Processing a real estate title file is time-consuming. Not just due to the work involved but the fielding of phone calls, the gathering of information from dozens of different sources; not all of which are cooperative; and always working on an “I needed it yesterday” deadline. So when the work/stress reached a level where it was affecting my ability to perform these tasks in my preferred organized manner, I contacted my client to share my concerns. They were quite understanding and immediately offered me the help of one of their interns. My first thought? “That’s nice, but just what is an inexperienced intern going to be able to do?” After all, processing truly does require experience to be done right. Yet, I clearly needed some sort of assistance if I was going to manage the end-of-the-month rush.

So this morning, between my first cup of coffee and my bowl of cholesterol-lowering oatmeal, I took the time to really think about the individual tasks I had on my to-do list. Instead of looking at them as if it would be faster for me to handle them myself, I weighed them by how difficult it would be to explain to someone else how to do it. Amazingly, I found that a good portion of them required very little background and explanation. By attaching a few documents and taking five minutes to explain what I needed done, I was able to delegate a quarter of my to-do list to the intern today. Which got me thinking about my own business and potential clients. How does that connect?

Easy. I believe there are plenty of business people out there that like the idea of using a virtual assistant, either in place of an employee or simply to add additional support. But I also think many of them think just the way I did yesterday afternoon. They have a mistaken belief that it would be easier just to do it themselves rather than take the time to explain to a VA what needs to be done.  But the time it takes to do so will be returned multiple times over, making it well worth it. Upon examination of the tasks eating up their time, it will be an eye opener at how many things could be delegated and outsourced to a virtual assistant.

I completed tasks today that I didn’t expect to be able to tackle until Thursday. Giving a few basic tasks to that intern empowered me to exceed what I thought were my limitations. If you’re someone thinking about trying out a VA, determine to do it, and empower yourself and your business too.

* I no longer provide these services. Please see my services page to see what I now offer.

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