If you’re Miranda Priestly, beautifully portrayed by THE Meryl Streep in the 2006 movie The Devil Wears Prada, you would have endless “to do’s” for your assistant.
She had her poor gal running around New York City to find the unpublished Harry Potter manuscript, and figuring out vague instructions, such as “pick up 10-15 skirts from Calvin Klein.”
But that’s the movies, nothing like real life (or so we hope!) and our assistants are usually key components to helping us with organization, people we truly rely on and trust. But hiring someone can be scary. Will I have enough for them to do?
Working ON your business, is a lot more important than working IN your business. Finding a good assistant, allows you to get away from the mundane emails, phone calls, and calendar management, and gives you the freedom to work on the big picture.
As CEO, you shouldn’t be processing payments or researching events to attend. Those are the types of things you should be delegating to your assistant, letting them use their expertise, so in turn, you can use yours.
Most of us NEED support, even if think we can handle it all. As tasks get overwhelming, quality begins to suffer, so finding someone we can lean on, will really change the game.
Training a new hire can be cumbersome, but once they are up to speed, it’s easy cruising.
Here’s a few tips on getting started:
1. Start small. Look at your list of projects/to-dos and identify your main revenue generating items.
2. Train your assistant in real time as your executing the task. There’s nothing better than hands-on experience.
3. Document processes so your assistant is confident and understands exactly what to do. Giving your assistant the step by step instructions helps put both you and her at ease.
4. Set up automated systems, so your team isn’t doing repetitive tasks daily.
Daryl Hall, of Hall and Oates fame, said, “If you take a bunch of superstars and put them in a room where they don’t have their assistants and entourage, it’s funny to see what happens.”
Although he was taking a jab at our famous friends, his words are quite true. We should always be grateful to the amazing team surrounding us. They are the foundation and the glue, holding it all together. And without them, we surely wouldn’t shine as bright. And we’d probably miss an appointment or two, haha.
I want to hear from you. Comment below and tell us how adding an assistant has changed your life. Or, if you are an assistant, how do you keep it calm, cool, and collected when everyone else is stressed?
Share small business news, blogs and social media tips with Project Eve’s community of small business owners and entrepreneurs today. Our contributors come from a wide range of backgrounds; so whether you are a small business owner, social media strategist, financial adviser, serial entrepreneur, or write an amateur blog we urge you to contribute a blog to our 500,000+ community today. For more information, please refer to our Content Submissions Guidelines.
