What is a Business Assistant and why do you need one!

Hello! This week I’ve got something really exciting to talk about. Business Assistant!

I’ve been running my agency for a few years now in the online world and originally, I came from an amazing career in London, in the corporate world. I have a lot of experience in keeping the wheels in motion in business.
When I started my business, I wanted to serve more people and help them achieve their dreamy vision in life. I knew I could really help them get what they wanted from life. And for most of that, is their version of success whatever that may look like. Because every single one of us has a different outlook on what success looks like for us.

In order to seriously scale your business, you will eventually need a team. You cannot do it alone forever and be successful.
Quite often our clients come to us overwhelmed, frustrated, exhausted and feeling lost. They are drained from trying to juggle all the things. They have hired a Virtual Assistant before, but it did not help them the way they needed and they are literally at breaking point. This breaks my heart.
But the main reason why they are feeling that way is that what they actually needed was a bit more than what a Virtual Assistant can offer. They need someone to do more of the thinking and ideas as well as the implementing.
Virtual Assistants are a great first addition to your business, however they do need guidance and managing. And generally, they do not have the experience to bring ideas and strategies to the table.

Then there is the Online Business Manager. Which is a great addition when you are established and growing.
But what about that in-between roll? Where you need a bit of Online Business Manager and a bit of Virtual Assistant?

What happens there?

CVA Associates Business Assistant is what happens now.

I found so many people needed that higher-level support but did not have the budget or workload to warrant paying for an Online Business Manager yet. They were not ready for that investment when their business was not established enough.
So, I created my very own signature role, that has been a huge transformation for so many business owners. I saw the need you so badly required and I delivered. That’s what I do.
We are in this business journey together after all.

What is the difference between a Virtual Assistant, a Business Assistant and an Online Business Manager?

An Online Business Manager is the person businesses need when they have an established business. They have a team and they are needing someone to work alongside them managing all the projects, creating road maps of how to get to their version of success. Online Business Managers are strategic thinkers.

My amazing Business Assistance are the people that you need when you need some direction with your tasks. When you need some ideas generated from looking at your metrics and when you need guidance to achieve your goals. When you need a bit of help about what you can do to create a bigger impact. They are people that can think on their feet and do not need as much managing as a Virtual Assistant does.

Last but not least our amazing Virtual Assistants. Virtual Assistants are an amazing help to business owners earlier on in their journey where they need help implement an action in tasks. Generally, the direction and guidance will come from the business owner who will tell the Virtual Assistant what they need doing and when with the business owner managing through to completion.

So, how would your business look when you’re established?

Generally, you will find your business will eventually have all three of these hires in order to keep them as cost-effective as possible.
There’s no point having a Business Assistant doing the tasks that a Virtual Assistant could do because you’re paying more for the experience of that Business Assistant — that would be complete and utter madness.
- You will have an Online Business Manager that is overseeing the operational side and day-to-day running.
- You will have a Business Assistant that gathers the details for the Online Business Manager to then get the full picture and make bigger decisions.
- And the Virtual Assistant that will continue implementing the tasks in order for the Business Assistant to check the details.

Let me give you an example here to see how this will work for you.
Let’s take marketing as an example because it’s something all business owners will be able to relate to.
You have new lead content created weekly which the Virtual Assistant formats and uploads.
The Business Assistant will then, every month, complete the marketing tracker to get the key metrics needed, see where the business is at and highlight where there could be improvements.
Then he’ll provide that data to the Online Business Manager to look into further. And that Business Manager will create a plan related to the client feedback to the Virtual Assistant to use a slightly different approach next time round.

You can see how this all works and all fits together. It provides you with comprehensive support, so you are able to step away from the operations.

Another question is: “When to go higher?”

This is dependent on your business growth because every business has a different level of growth. This is not a simple answer as in saying “In 1 years’ time”.
But the best way to look at it is to hire before you become overwhelmed.
For most people this looks like:

• When you have a regular revenue from paying clients coming in monthly you would look at hiring a Virtual Assistant to help implement things.
• When you have regular revenue and more paying clients but you need more help from your Virtual Assistant. You are finding it stressful to keep up with managing the Virtual Assistant’s workloads and providing the guidance to the Virtual Assistant’s needs, a Business Assistant will be your next addition to the team.
• And then comes the Online Business Manager. You were struggling to create the strategies needed to tweak certain parts of your business. Your headspace feels limited and you are starting to struggle to manage everything and stay visible. Time is of the essence and you find yourself not adapting and staying stagnant with your business growth halted. That’s where your Online Business Manager will come in.

What does that investment look like?

I’ll use this as a guideline for the most common layout I see with businesses.

Generally, the Virtual Assistant support is the most popular starting point of around 10 hours per month, which is an investment of £300.
A Business Assistant, again, will be around the 10 hours a month mark, and that will be, roughly, £450 per month.
And the Online Business Manager will be around £1,200 per month.
In total, your eventual team will be an investment of £1,950 per month — and that’s your total for all three of those hires.
It is really important to understand that this is a total cost and it will, generally, be when your business has a turnover of over £150,000 per year and you are in the scaling phase of business. This is when your business really has traction and it’s really growing at a fast rate.

Remove yourself from the operations so you can lead your business to success. You cannot lead and do the operational and implementing side of business. You need to be able to have your head space to lead your business through. When your business gains that traction and begins to grow at a rate of knots you really can’t be on a headspace of what you need to do for a particular task or how your content is performing or what your audience needs to know.
You need someone else that can take control of that side for you.

So, is a Business Assistant the missing jigsaw piece from your business?
Are you feeling frustrated and you need a bit more support?
Our Business Assistant could be the answer!

Book a call to chat through your requirements for us to see where you are at in your business and what that ‘hiring map’ looks like for you.

So, hope you found this helpful and until next week, goodbye!