Hiring a Virtual Assistant = Buying Extra Hours for Yourself

Overhearing a conversation that is not meant for you can make one uncomfortable. But every now and again, it can be a good thing. Like this weekend when I caught a tiny snippet of a conversation in which the obviously overworked and overbooked woman stated to her companion, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could buy a little extra time?” I moved away from the conversation, but that question popped back into my head yesterday as I listened to a dear friend list all of the things she has on her agenda between now and her wedding in January. If anyone needed to buy a little time it was her. I offered to contact potential photographers with her questions for her in an effort to help in some way. And then it hit me. There really was a way for busy people to buy extra hours! And I’d been offering it to them for over a year.

As I had listened to my friend listing her to do list, I had automatically dissected the list into things that I could do for her in order to help. Not surprisingly, they just happened to be tasks that are among the services I offer with my virtual assistance business. Ding!! The bell went off in my head. Not only did purchasing my services equal buying time for themselves, my clients got to choose just how much extra they buy! Some might only need to purchase an extra hour or two a month, others an hour or two a week and still others a few hours a day. Amazingly, a client who purchases 40 hours of virtual assistance services a month could say they were buying an entire work week of extra time, to do with what they wish. A whole week a month! Time enough to do all of those things that got pushed to the wayside while you said, “If I only had a little more time!”

When a busy business professional hires me, they are, in effect, purchasing additional time for themselves. How they spend that additional time is up to them. Perhaps it will allow them to attend their children’s activities more often, or attend an enrichment class for themselves. Maybe they will turn their business attention in new directions to expand and grow. It’s their time, to with what they wish.

So sit down and make your wish list. If you could buy extra hours, what would you spend it on? Are those things important enough to you to pay for? If so, maybe it’s time you hired a virtual assistant.