Ah….the age-old question of who to hire for your team. As a growing business it can be tough to figure out exactly which positions to hire for, the right people for the seats, and what the heck you do with those people anyway.
For today, let’s start with the first question…who exactly do you need to hire?
You’ll hear lots of job titles floating around in the online space: VA, OBM, DOO, PM. I’ll let you in on a little secret though. There’s one position that EVERY business needs that very few businesses actually have – it’s a dedicated Executive Assistant!
Now why do you need an Executive Assistant for your business and why should they be your first hire? There are actually three reasons.
First, Executive Assistants are task masters with a little extra experience. They catch all of those little tiny tasks in your day that I guarantee are sucking away your time. The tasks that are so small you probably don’t even realize what an enormous drain they are.
It’s important to hire someone to catch the repetitive tasks in your business BEFORE you focus on high-level strategy people. This is a mistake I often see. Business owners hire an OBM or a DOO position, both of which are great at creating strategy, but then fail to realize they don’t have anyone to actually implement the strategy. This puts you right back in the overwhelm you started in.
Now, here people will argue with me that the strategy person will be responsible for the hiring, and to that, I say “maybe.” I think it’s impossible to see what you really need in a business until you have someone who can catch all the small stuff. It also takes a special skill set to know how to hire and train a new team member. Your OBM can be an expert at people management without being an expert in hiring.
Next, Executive Assistants are hired with a long-term vision in mind.
I often see people in the online world hiring a 10-hour-a-month VA to take over social media or finding a community manager so they don’t spend entire days on Facebook. These hires often work for multiple businesses at a time so their focus is spread thin. They’re never fully immersed in your business and they often don’t even understand your overall long-term goals.
Executive Assistants, on the other hand, is hired with the future in mind. They align with your mission and values and it becomes their mission to help your business succeed. Your goals become their goals. They are hired and trained not only to provide immediate relief but also with long-term growth opportunities in mind.
Finally, since our Executive Assistants are not agency hires or band-aid fixes, they are more likely to stick around. In fact, we build several intentional things into our program to ensure that they feel like a valuable, long-term team member. This means reduced team turnover for you and a greater long-term ROI from your hire.
Plus, let’s face it, it’s really great to have someone on your team who believes in your business as much as you do.
Wanna know more about Executive Assistants and what they can do for your business? Book a call and let’s talk!
