- Begin with the End in Mind
- Pick an operating model that suits
1. Begin with the end in mind
As Stephen Covey, Author of the 7 Habits wrote, “Begin with the End in Mind”
If you are clear on what your ultimate going is, you are more likely to take the best actions to get there.
Whether you are new to considering a Virtual Assistant to help your business grow or whether you have had a virtual team for a while, take a moment to complete the following steps:
- Write down your business goals for the year ahead. Include any major projects your have.
- Below each goal, write down what actions you or others need to do to achieve each goal.
- Write what activities currently hold you or others back from achieving those goals.
Once you have these lists, it is time to assessment with the following screen:
| Action | Task that require your strategic value add to achieve. TIP: Yes you are awesome at many things, watch out for the busy work you are doing, it could be holding you back. Be prepared to pass items to the next three categories. |
| Automate | Repeatable task that software can be used to automate. NOTE: You will need time and budget to effectively implement automation. If they are not currently available, then go for delegation |
| Delegate | Tasks that can be completed by your virtual assistant to free up your time to work on higher strategic and value add tasks. |
| Discard | Tasks with no or low return on investment, that if not done, would not be missed or have negative consequences. TIP: Watch out for items that should be discarded but are held on to. |
By now you are started to obtain greater clarity on which items you can delegate off to a Virtual Assistant
If your list is only short at first, you are not alone. It is often not easy to articulate, in detail, all of the valuable activities you do each day. Oh…and we typically do not realise how much we are doing that someone else could do for you.
PRO TIP: Do the exercise 3 times. Then diarise your activities for a week. Every 10 mins write down what you have done. You will quickly see where your time is going.
With your list at hand, you are now in a position to find a person that is best suited to deliver these tasks for you and free up your time to focus on your great business goals.
This is where you need to…
2. Pick an operating model that suits your approach
By now you should have more clarity and increased motivation to find a way to delegate these tasks to a new team member.
The next thing to do is pick an approach that suits you the best:
- Freelance
- Managed operations
- Business Process Outsourcing
- Own offshore location
| The Core 4 Approaches | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factors to consider when deciding on which of the Core 4 Approaches to take | Freelance | Managed Operations | Business Process Outsourcing | Your Company in an Offshore Location |
| Choice of Team Member | Full Choice | Full Choice | No Choice | Full Choice |
| Assistance in Finding the Best Fit Person | Self-guided | FULL assistance by dedicated recruiters | Dictated | internal recruitment team dependent |
| Control of Task Direction | High | You are in full control | No direct control of specific team | You are in full control |
| Cost | Low | Best Value (1 to 200 staff) | Low-High | High when under 200 staff |
| influence on team culture | Med | High | Zero | High |
| Data security risk | HIGH | LOW | MED | MED |
| Term of commitment | by the hour | +3 months | 12 months | min 5 years |
In our combined 20 years experience in outsourcing offshore, we have found the managed operations approach to be the best fit for businesses that are looking to scale up.
About GoTeam (formerly Go Virtual Assistants)
GoTeam, formerly GO Virtual Assistants (GO-VA) Inc. is a registered Australian-Filipino owned company growing in the heart of Cebu City, as well as a growing number of key cities in the Philippines.
Our HQ is situated in an IT complex with modern facilities, although since March 2020, more than 70% of our team members have been working from home.
Our enhanced operations and streamlined services provide scalable opportunities that spell sustainability, growth, and success for any business venture. As your global team members, GoTeam’s goal is to create winnable games and strategies across all the work that we do, knowing that your success is our long-term fulfillment.
We help Australian, NZ, US, and UK businesses increase revenue, reduce costs, and scale through outsourced offshoring. This also creates for us the opportunity to be a catalyst for people to exceed.
AU (+61) 2 7227 8809
US (+1) 302 207 2767
PH (+63) 32 238 7448
9th Flr, i1 Bldg, Jose Ma. del Mar St, IT Park,
Cebu City, Philippines 6000
Website: https://go.team
Careers: https://go.team/ph
Email: sales@go.team
Email: careers@go.team
