Episode 028 - Reclaim Your Time With A Virtual Assistant with Laura Licursi

Guest Bio

Laura Licursi is the founder of Elite Virtual Assistants. EVA helps entrepreneurs and small business owners get back to doing what they do best by helping them delegate work that is keeping them busy working IN their business instead of ON their business.  Laura was a Virtual Assistant for almost 20 years before starting EVA in 2015 with a vision to empower people to live a life that is rewarding and fun.  Laura lives in Strongsville, Ohio with her husband, 3 children and 2 dogs.   "Time is the most valuable thing that you have. You can spend it any way you'd like. But you can never get it back. So use your time the best way you possibly can." -Laura

Key Takeaways

• 1. What exactly is a VA?
     • A virtual assistant can do anything that an administrative assistant can do that does not require an immediate presence
     • A VA can act as a general administrative assistant or have one that can specialize in areas such as a social medial manager and website designer
     • VAs can be utilized as on-demand staffing
  2. Are there benefits from hiring a VA through an agency vs directly?
     • Agency - handles all the recruitment, hiring, placement process and can act as more of a relationship manager
     • Freelance - you are responsible for the recruiting, hiring and firing process
  3. How would someone know whether a VA is right move vs just hiring someone directly?
     • If they need someone they can contact multiple times a day to delegate tasks in real time then hiring someone directly and available onsite is probably more ideal
     • If they are willing to work with someone in order to delegate tasks/projects and is comfortable communicating a few times a week then a VA may be more ideal
  4. What does someone need to consider before hiring a VA?
     • Be willing to ease in slowly with smaller tasks
     • Be prepared that it will take 2-3 months until an ideal work flow is established
     • Thinking of a VA as part of your team
     • The more engaged you can be with your VA the better the relationship will be
  5. What are the essential consideration that someone should ask when hiring a VA?
     • Identify the top 5 areas that you need assistance (refer to Lisa’s interview about how to organize delegating tasks); What are your biggest time sucks?
     • The 3 main areas where a VA can be most beneficial:
       • Administrative - email clean up, calendar management, scheduling appointments, database management, follow up calls
       • Social Media - schedule posts, content creation
       • Digital Marketing - newsletter, blogs
     • If you are spending more time on tasks that are taking away from you making money, then you should consider bringing on help
     • The more systems you have in place the easier (and more cost effective) the on boarding but you do not need to have your systems in place and documented to bring on help
  6. What does the communication and workflow look like?
     • Shared filles such as Google Drive or Dropbox
     • Project management tools such as Trello or Asana
     • Minimize email communications
     • VA track their hours throughout and send a report on a weekly basis
     • Be willing to empower the VA to accomplish the tasks set forth rather than micromanage the workflow

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Contact Elite Virtual Assistants
• Social Media:

twitter.com/evassist
facebook.com/elitevirtualassist
linkedin.com/in/laura-licursi-6863a32a
instagram.com/elite_assist/
pinterest.com/evassist

This episode is sponsored by:

ErynMorgan.com/Evolution-Live