When business starts booming and suddenly you’re simultaneously overjoyed with excitement from the new projects you’re booking and overwhelmed as f*ck by the amount of admin work that’s now bogging you down: the most logical conclusion is that you need to hire someone to take that work off your plate.

And sure, if you’re in a pinch, it won’t hurt to hire a VA (Virtual Assistant) to manage your Inbox and help get clients onboarded, but that shouldn’t be your long-term solution. At least, not initially.

The three reasons why I always recommend optimizing your systems & automations before hiring a team member

Number One: It’s a waste of money to hire before you’ve automated

9 times out of 10, the admin work that’s all of a sudden overflowing your to-do list can actually just be automated in your CRM system. So when you hire a VA to handle those tasks, like:

• scheduling calls
• sending proposals
• sending contracts & invoices
• onboarding your clients
• + more

You’re spending extra money on something that your CRM system, which you’re already paying for, could be doing for you.

And that’s not to say that hiring an expert to automate & optimize your CRM system will be a small investment—most projects of that nature will be $4k minimum. But that pales in comparison to if you were to hire a VA at $35/hour for just 5 hours per week, which equals to $9,100 in just one year. And if your workload is really heavy, you may even need 10 hours per week of support which would end up costing you $18,200 in a year.

So that one-time investment of around $4k that will set you up for long-term success, and require minimal maintenance as the years go on, could end up saving you anywhere from $4,700 to $14,800. And double or triple that if you were to keep a VA on your team for multiple years, instead of investing in automations.

Not to mention that if you focus on automating first, odds are you’ll be able to first hire a team member to help offload tasks related to your client projects, instead of your business, which will lead to a greater ROI.

Number Two: It’s not the responsibility of a Virtual Assistant to setup automations for you

Nor do they have the same level of expertise as an Expert who specializes in setting up and automating CRM systems. And that’s not to say that VA’s aren’t valuable because they absolutely can be (past-VA here!), but their role is to come into your business and execute tasks, not be in charge of strategizing and implementing automations in your CRM system or setting it up from scratch.

It is the job of a Systems Expert to help you strategize optimized processes, determine how to create the best experience for your clients, and implement strategic automations. That type of expertise is gained by specializing in that work, so when you try to take the shortcut of just having your VA handle it instead, you end up with a system that hasn’t truly been optimized and a client experience that doesn’t have the level of quality that your clients deserve.

Number Three: Your team member(s) cannot perform their role well without efficient systems to support them

Whether you’re hiring a VA or someone to help with your actual client work, they will not be able to thrive in their role if your systems are a mess (or nonexistent). A VA cannot get through all of the tasks you’d like them to, if they’re also trying to fix up your CRM system so they don’t have to do everything manually. A team member working on your client projects will not be able to succeed if you don’t have clear timelines, SOPs, and a project management tool that you can use to collaborate with them.

You can hire the best, most outstanding candidates for whatever position you’re looking to fill, but without the proper systems & automations to support you and them, you’ll be left feeling like they aren’t executing their role well and they’ll be left feeling confused, overwhelmed, and under-supported.

How can you navigate this scenario if you’re already in it and struggling to manage?

Like many things in business, your systems & automations are something that, ideally, are a proactive investment. Meaning, you’re investing in them before you get to the point of feeling overwhelmed by the admin work so that:

• when you do have an influx of projects, your automations are in place to handle the admin work, so you don’t have to worry about the overwhelm
• you’re not providing a poor experience to those influx of clients by trying to juggle too many things at once, doing everything manually
• you’re not in a rush to hire a systems expert, because most of the good ones will be booked out at least a month in advance, and if you’re only focused on a short timeline—you’ll probably end up regretting the investment down the line because you’re focusing on speed over quality

But obviously, I know that most things in the entrepreneurial journey do not go according to the “optimal” schedule. So if you’re currently in the midst of feeling overwhelmed by all your admin work, my advice would be:

1. Hire some help (if you can afford to), temporarily, so that you don’t end up burnt out from trying to squeeze too many thing on your plate. If you don’t have the budget to hire help, try making small adjustments that will free up time and/or brain space for you! Small things like automating your inquiry process or implementing a project management tool can make a huge difference.
2. Plan ahead for an investment with a systems expert, monetarily and time-wise. You will not have success implementing a new tool if you don’t make the space in your calendar to learn and get used to how it works. If you’re already seeing an influx of bookings, your calendar will likely not ‘free up’ on its own, which means you’ll need to intentionally schedule less work during the end of the CRM setup/automation project.
3. Reach out to the expert you want to hire as soon as possible! It is never too early to have a conversation about working with someone—especially for someone like myself who only takes 2-3 projects per month. I’ve had clients book a specific start date months in advance so that they can plan their schedule accordingly and choose a time that works best for them!

At the end of the day, if you’ve gone about this the opposite way—that’s okay! Don’t beat yourself up for something when you didn’t have this information prior to now. We’re all doing our best with the information we have at hand and making decisions based on what we think will be the most helpful to us. I’m just here to share my perspective and hopefully make some connections you might not have made otherwise!