At What Point Should You Grow Your Team?

August 30, 2008

Question: What do you do when you’re asked to do something but you don’t know how to do one part of it? If I don’t know how to do something and what I’ve done in the past is I’ve turned down the job and I’d rather not do that if I can do 80 percent of it. What’s the best way of filling in the gaps when you need them fast? How do you find other great virtual assistants?

Answer: That’s a great question! What I’ve done in my business in the past , if there were things that I didn’t know how to do and I was asked to do them right away, I would say “yes” to everything and then I would figure it out once I said yes. That wasn’t always the most stress-free way to do things!

What I would do now is:

(A) Try to figure out how to do it yourself.

One of the things I find myself doing from time to time is using the Web to do some research to try and find forums or message boards where people were currently doing what it is that I needed to figure out how to do. I would then see if, based on the knowledge given there, if it was something I could do myself.

If it was something that really went beyond my technical knowledge, I would share that with my client and say, “You know, I can do x, y and z. But I can’t necessarily do w.” The client would then make the decision of giving me the extra time to figure out the part I didn’t know or to hire someone else onto the team who could do that particular task.

(B) Outsource it to someone who already knows.

In my business now, I’m quite fortunate that I have a team as well as a pretty wide database of people, so if there’s something that I can’t necessarily do, I am able now more quickly to find those people. If you get to a point where you’re being asked to do more things that you don’t know how to do, determine if you do want to outsource it. If you do, this might be the perfect place to begin growing your team.

You’ll want to find people who fill the gap for you. If you’re lacking in the blogging department or the website department, consider finding someone who can take over this area for you. If you want to do more graphic work for example, find someone who can do that. Most things that you may need in your VA business can be outsourced to other team members. It just requires great planning and finding the right people.

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