It’s often difficult to identify areas where there may be repetition or glaring gaps in how you go about operating your business every day. We are all good at some things, but trying to be good at everything often end up with us in chaos.

Depending on your individual areas of expertise, a virtual assistant can help smooth over inefficiencies and streamline your operations so that can help everything run smoother and increase productivity.

There are many ways to find a VA, such as Upwork and Fiverr are common . And can also try reaching out to your business network, associations, and industry groups to see what they do. But what you are likely to find is a mixed bag of good and bad stories. In fact, from my experience hiring a virtual assistant is often a 50/50 craps shoot at best. That is unless you go with a managed VA service.

Knowing what to pay is another big challenge. VAs either charge by the hour or a set figure that encompasses performing specific tasks. And the pricing is all over the place, but I can tell you one thing.. you generally get what you pay for. If you go too cheap, you are highly unlikely to be happy with the results. I’ve found that you should really approach hiring a VA like any other employee, complete with a detailed job description, interview, references and a trial period. If you don’t have time to do all that yourself, than a managed VA service is for you.

Not ready for a personal VA just yet? There are other ways to outsource admin needs. For example, get an 800 number so you don’t have to use your mobile number; it also makes your business look more professional. Additionally, you can set up your voice mail to transcribe messages, which then can be e-mailed or forwarded to your regular phone. This way you have a record of information that can be shared with others on your team. These are good short term workaround until you are at a point where you decide a VA is just what you need.

While you probably have the skills to do all or most of your administrative and specialized tasks, you should take an inventory of your day and decide what is the best use of your time. When we are stressed or not at optimum energy, our executive and critical thinking skills suffer. It is more important to work smarter and devote your workday to the areas of your business that require your full attention and energy.

Take for example posting on Facebook. It’s not hard. Anyone can do it. But should you be the one doing it? Do the math. What is your time worth? I bet whatever you come up with will be a lot more than the $5–$10 an hour that you could have VA doing the posting for you.

No matter what your business size, investing in a VA can be a small amount to pay in order to help maintain a stronger work-life balance that benefits both you, your company and those in your personal life.

That is where Sonic VA comes in. We can get you a VA, one that will consistently add value to your business for a reasonable price.

This is an example of what you will get. Here’s Vida, one of our veteran VAs, “Working from home is perfect for mothers like me. It gives me the opportunity to look after my little one and still earning an income. I’m so lucky I’ve found a company that provides us good compensation and benefits, very understanding with employees’ needs, and I have awesome colleagues to work with.”

Happy employees + more free time for you = big value add to your business

And that is how you get yourself our of the chaos you find yourself in when you try do everything in your business by yourself.

Daniel Meyer heads Sonic Analytics, an analytics firm with offices in Manila, the San Francisco Bay Area and Ocala, FL. With over 20 years in Big Data, Dan is one of the most sought-after public speakers in Asia and offers big data coaching and analytics training seminars on both sides of the Pacific. Dan has also recently joined the Powerteam International family as a small business analytics resource speaker.

Sonic Analytics(www.sonicanalytics.com) brings virtual staffing and big data analytics solutions like business intelligence, business dashboards and data storytelling to small and medium sized organizations looking to enhance their data-driven decision-making capabilities. We also advocate the use of analytics for civic responsibility through training, consulting and education.

As citizens of this great democracy, we need to look at the data (analytics), plan a course of action (strategy) and share our data-driven viewpoints (presentation). This approach to a data savvy work force starts in school. So, we started an internship program to empower our youth to use Analytics, plan Strategy and Present their insights… ASP!

When not training current and future analysts, you can find Dan championing the use of analytics to empower data-driven citizenship by volunteering his expertise with schools and non-profits dedicated to evidence-based social progress like Saint Leo University’s Women in STEAM 2020 Conference.