You can have a workflow that is as optimised as the most successful companies out there, and you can have it in just four weeks.
We invite you to join our 4-week challenge and get the workflow between you and your VA as productive as possible. Ensuring you achieve results faster.
Below is the process we’ll follow. Each week we’ll elaborate on the topic and provide all the steps you need to complete the challenge. The challenge doesn’t lay in what needs completing but rather in setting aside the time to do it.
- Week 1: Streamline your Communication – More below
- Week 2: Define your Priorities and Ensure your VA does Work that Makes you Happy
- Week 3: Hand over your Calendar and Create the Pause you Need
- Week 4: Hand over your Inbox and get only essential e-mails. Nothing Else.
Week 1: Streamline your Communication
How do you and your VA communicate most effectively? How do you make sure they understand your instructions? How do you stipulate the response times you need?
If your VA is new (or you are new to having a VA,) how will you get tasks to your VA and have them report back to you? Will it be via e-mail or project-management software like Trello or Monday.com? What is the best way to reach you?
It is probably best to discuss these points at the beginning of your working relationship. However, even if you’ve been working together for a while, there’s always room for improvement. So, we recommend you and your VA set up a meeting to discuss these pertinent points in more detail.
Discussion points to consider:
- How do you prefer to communicate? Is it via e-mail, WhatsApp, phone calls?
- What are the expected response times? Should your VA perhaps call if it’s urgent, text if it can wait a little, e-mail if it can wait a day? How long should they wait for your reply before trying again?
- What communication is required and how often? Do you want daily progress reports?
- What about weekly huddles to discuss deadlines and priorities? Which tasks are due this week, which next week, and which can wait?
- Discuss discretionary limits where relevant. Up to which point may your VA perform a task before checking in or gaining authorisation? E.g., may they give a client discount, if necessary, of up to 10% without checking with you? Can they send flowers to staff having birthdays/operations/births up to R650 without clearing it with you?
- What applications, software, and online programs do you use? Is everyone trained to use it optimally?
- What are the systems and processes for each facet of the business pertaining to the VA? Should you and your VA perhaps draft checklists for these processes to avoid missing anything?
- Does your VA have the contact information for the key players in your business?
At AdminAssist, we are firm believers in a weekly 30-min huddle. You can always move it if needed, but a weekly check-in establishes a healthy rhythm for looking back and looking forward each week: What did we achieve last week? What are your top 3 priorities for this week? Make any pending decisions, answer any questions and more. It is quick, to the point and focused on the short term so, a phone or Internet call (Teams, Zoom, WhatsApp, etc.) proves the most efficient channel for conducting a virtual huddle.
When it comes to communication, over-communicating is always better than making assumptions! Investment in improving your communication will bring returns like fewer misunderstandings, less costly mistakes, reduced frustration levels, increased work performance and a happier working relationship.
So don’t delay in getting communication structures in place. You will thank us later.
