An entrepreneur's manual for delegating to an independent assistant (1/3)

Part 1. Tasks to consider delegating to an independent assistant

One of the most rewarding aspects of working with an independent assistant is the opportunity to hand over tasks and free up your time. It sounds simple enough: you delegate to her all the tasks that you don't have the time, skills, or inclination to do yourself.

What tasks could you delegate to your freelance assistant?

When deciding which tasks to delegate, consider your own strengths and weaknesses, what takes up most of your time, and what you don't like to do. There are several tasks that most small and medium-sized business owners will want to delegate to an independent assistant.

Calendar management

Keeping your calendar in check may seem simple, but you will have more and more responsibility as your business grows. Moving items around in your calendar and rescheduling appointments – while making sure you never miss a deadline – can be a challenge. An independent assistant can manage your calendar for you, and even send you notifications before a meeting or when you need to complete an important task.

Email management

Email tends to take up all our time – yet we still manage to forget to respond to urgent messages. Your independent assistant can sort through your inbox for you: deleting spam, notifying you of messages you need to see immediately, and storing other messages that can wait until later. Your independent assistant can even answer some of these messages for you.

Research

It is common for founders of new businesses to do a lot of research. You may need to find out what your competitors are doing and other key market information, learn about potential customers and investors, and look for new opportunities.

If you've ever done online research, you know how quickly the hours fly by, especially if you don't know where to look or if you keep getting lost. An experienced independent research assistant will know where to go to find the information you need and focus on the task at hand.

Additional administrative tasks

Other administrative tasks for which you might consider hiring an independent assistant include, but not only:

• data entry

• travel arrangements

• online shopping

• writing and sending correspondence

• managing your CRM

The advantage of outsourcing these tasks is that you can find a generalist independent assistant who charges an affordable rate. This means that you free up your time by eliminating some of your more time-consuming tasks for a minimal investment. If a task is a waste of your time, it makes no sense to not delegate it.

Project management

Whether you have a team of independent/virtual staff or you are collaborating with another company, you need someone to manage the project. When there are a lot of moving parts, you may need to constantly monitor progress, communicate with team members, set deadlines for each new task, and check that everyone is meeting their targets. It may be better to delegate all this to an independent assistant experienced in project management rather than trying to do it yourself.

Financial tasks

An independent assistant can keep your accounts up to date. Tasks to delegate can include invoicing, expense management, and other « small » accounting tasks.

Social media

To gain visibility and stay in touch with your clients, you need to be active on social media. The problem is that creating content, responding to comments, and strategizing is time-consuming. You can take advantage of social media without taking time away from your work by delegating some (or all) of your social media tasks to an independent assistant.

In the next article, I'll tell you about « DELEGATION » !

In the meantime, why not contact me to talk about you and your needs?

Adapted from this article