If you’re looking to up-level your business – and I know you are! – you simply cannot do it alone.
Flying solo can only get you so far as an entrepreneur, which means that outsourcing is an essential step in business growth.
But how do you dive in?!?
Where do you start, and how do you build a killer virtual team?
Who will bring the most value to your business as you expand?
Which players are essential to growing your endeavor in a sustainable, efficient, SANE way?
I’ve got a list of 5 key players for ya, and every single one of them will boost your ability to think bigger and grow faster.
So who should you hire first?
A Virtual Assistant Will Allow You to Focus on High-priority Work
A virtual assistant (VA) is someone who does online, remote work for their clients. Most entrepreneurs hire VAs to help with simple administrative work, especially recurring tasks that don’t generate direct revenue.
This should be your very first hire, since your virtual assistant can help you coordinate and manage your schedule, your client load, and all of your outsourceable work.
WHY DO YOU NEED ONE?
Because a VA will help you stay organized and focused. By removing some of the simpler recurring work from your plate, she frees you up to spend your valuable time on high-level tasks.
WHAT CAN THEY DO FOR YOU?
Many can handle administrative, customer support, marketing, and operational tasks for you, though some have specialties. A good VA can do everything from handling simple help desk requests to replying to emails about your products and services.
ANY PITFALLS?
In some cases, your virtual assistant may be the first point of contact for new clients. If she’s snippy, if she sends emails filled with spelling errors, or if she can’t answer simple questions about your offerings, that reflects badly on YOU. Train her well and thoroughly to avoid this.
A Client Care Rep Will Make Your Customers Feel Valued
Adding a client care rep to your team can be a fantastic way to manage and coordinate simpler, less personal customer support tasks.
Since you’re extremely busy and overwhelmed, entrusting your rep with essential customer work means questions and queries get answered quicker, making your clients feel valued and supported.
WHY DO YOU NEED ONE?
Because every client deserves a personal touch … but not necessarily from you. As an entrepreneur, you have dozens of recurring questions and needs that can be handled by a good client care rep. Responding to them yourself isn’t a good use of your time.
WHAT CAN THEY DO FOR YOU?
Anything recurring that needs to be handled with more finesse than an autoresponse can muster. A client care rep can conduct a personalized follow-up on cart abandonment, point clients to relevant offerings, even handle late or failed payments.
ANY PITFALLS?
If your rep is skilled enough, it can be tempting to give her more and more responsibility. Remember that, as the business owner, you’ll need to handle any coaching, training, and closing of sales yourself.
A Ghostwriter Will Help You Create Consistent, High-quality Content
Lovelies, ghostwriters are the best-kept secret in the entrepreneurship game. They can help you write everything from blog posts to books, in YOUR voice and with YOUR brand attributes.
WHY DO YOU NEED ONE?
As is the case with your whole virtual team, it’s all about time management! When you hire a ghostwriter and hand over writing-intensive work that has been languishing on your desk, you instantly free up your time for other tasks. Instead of spinning your wheels creating content, you’re able to scale your business and focus on big-picture work. (This is especially true if writing doesn’t come naturally to you!)
WHAT CAN THEY DO FOR YOU?
I mentioned blog posts and books, but certain ghostwriters can also handle marketing copy, workbooks, Facebook posts, video scripts, online courses … you name it. With clear guidance, talented ghostwriters can help with anything that needs to be written.
ANY PITFALLS?
Even a skilled ghostwriter will need feedback! Be sure to review everything yourself to make sure it truly sounds like you and represents your ideas.
A Graphic Designer Will Unify Your Brand
It’s a visual world, and getting more visual every day. When you hire a graphic designer to join your virtual team, you’re making sure you can keep abreast of design trends, create consistency across platforms, and present a picture of your business that’s authentically YOU.
Having a designer on staff makes it so much easier to build a visual brand that’s memorable and unique.
WHY DO YOU NEED ONE?
Your business likely has graphics-related needs every single day. When you’ve got someone on-call, you never have to worry about waiting hours or days on a correction or vital image.
WHAT CAN THEY DO FOR YOU?
Depending on skill level, graphic designers can handle everything from resizing images to creating layouts for multi-page lead magnets.
ANY PITFALLS?
Very few designers will go rogue, but be sure to have a brand guide available to keep all work visually consistent. If you don’t already have one, work with your designer to set parameters and create one!
A Social Media Manager Will Make Your Online Presence Vibrant
Overwhelmed by an ever-growing list of social media posts you need to create every single day?
We all are! Which is a great reason to add a social media manager to your team. Even if you keep some of the work on your own plate, sharing the load with a skilled pro will make it easier to handle.
WHY DO YOU NEED ONE?
A good social media manager will both keep your feeds full of fresh, engaging content AND help keep you informed about new trends and tools!
WHAT CAN THEY DO FOR YOU?
Write captions, tweak photos, post videos, moderate comments, coordinate giveaways, analyze user actions … just about anything related to social media.
ANY PITFALLS?
As with a ghostwriter, don’t step back TOO far. Try to duck in and review posts and captions occasionally to make sure they reflect the real you.
I truly believe that all five of these players make a robust virtual team … but also listed them in order of importance for you. Start by hiring a talented VA, then find your customer care rep, then continue on down the list.
If your budget doesn’t have room for all five at once, you can still outsource design and writing through sites like Fiverr and Upwork in the meantime.
Then as you build and scale, keep adding to your team until you’ve got all the slots filled and all the workloads covered!
