Stop the Struggle! Let Your Team Members Help You.

Why did you hire a virtual assistant?  You needed help, right?  You felt it was time to start building a team so that you could focus on the big picture of growing your business.  You are in the midst of chaos, you’re becoming more and more disorganized.  You are not a software guru.

You needed help.

But now...you’re in a fight with your VA.  Every time she offers advice, a suggestion, an idea, you say no.  You push back.  You fight everything she’s trying to do for you.

Why?

You bring a virtual assistant on board to make things easy for you.  To lighten your ever-growing load.  And your VA is going to know how to do that for you in the best and most efficient way possible.  Isn’t that what you wanted?

It’s so important that you are open to everything she’s trying to do for you.  If you only ever use Notepad to take notes, or you put all of your notes into an email, she may suggest something better.  If you put your entire to do list in an email and she says, let’s transition this to a spreadsheet, let her do it.  She says, this way I can see the tasks clearly, one per line, and I can leave notes where you can see what the status is.  And we can share this doc and you can continue to add to it.  It’s a living document and it’ll make sure things aren’t getting lost in emails.

Your virtual assistant is offering you a good idea.  It may be uncomfortable for you because you’ve never used a spreadsheet before, but you have to open yourself up to that.  You cannot just keep doing what you’re doing because that’s the way you’ve always done it.  That’s not a reason to do ANYTHING.

Just because it’s something you’ve always done doesn’t make it right or good.  It just means that maybe you’re a little lazy or you’re horribly resistant to change.  If you’re going to run your own business, you cannot be resistant to change.  The world is changing around you.  You have to kind of go along with it and grow with it.

I’m not saying that all VA ideas are going to be perfect or great, but give them a chance and maybe when you’re comfortable with a spreadsheet, you can work up to project tracking software like Asana or Basecamp or something else that will keep you even more organized.  Especially if you’re adding more team members.

Quit pushing back.  Quit fighting everything she’s trying to do for you.  Otherwise, there’s no relationship, and you should let her go so she can help someone else.