Are you wasting your client’s money? If you are wasting time while working on their Virtual Assistant tasks, you might be charging them unnecessarily.
The pace you work at is a very important part of your VA business. Why? Because our clients pay us for the time we spend on their tasks. Wasting time means wasting your client’s money.
In a corporate setting, we don’t really often work against a clock. Yes, we work on deadlines (ours and other people’s) but not to the extent that we need to do so as a VA.
When we start our VA business, this can be a difficult transition – all of a sudden we have to be responsible to justify every minute of time to a client, because they are paying us for it.
Sometimes it can feel like clients are micro-managing us because they ask us how long something will take to do.
If it’s not something you have ever considered before, don’t take it the wrong way.
The client needs to understand how their budget with you will be used, and that’s a totally fair question – to ask for an estimate on any project or task.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to work faster.
Efficiency is important, but speed is not the same as work pace.
Managing your work pace means working in a way that you are maximizing the time you spend on anything, so that it is done in good time, in an organized fashion, every time.
So how do you manage your work pace so that you are working as efficiently as you can?
You can ensure that you are using the following things to get your work done at a good pace:
1. Procedures
Draw up a procedure the first time you do any task. Write it down, line by line, so you see each step you have to take to do it. When you are done, look the procedure over. Are there areas where you could make changes to do this task more efficiently? Maybe you need to do things in a different order. Maybe there is no need to improve it – but at least with a procedure, you know for sure. The next time you do the task, use the procedure. It helps to give your brain a break, and you will know you haven’t missed any steps.
2. Checklists
Just as a procedure helps you to map out a process for anything you do, checklists can be a great way to manage tasks that have a lot of moving parts, or a lot of steps to complete. If you do repetitive work, consider drawing up a checklist that can help you move through the steps more efficiently. You can also add deadlines to checklists for each step so that you can manage the work well and not have to do it all at once.
3. Automation
Automation is another great way to manage your work pace. Look for opportunities to include automation in your work. You can automate things like password management, scheduling, project management, invoicing, social media posting, and so much more. Use your procedures to figure out how you can use automation to streamline some of the things you do for clients to save time and work more efficiently.
I want to reiterate that efficiency does NOT refer to speed.
Work pace is an important thing to have a handle on, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to work faster. It means you need to work at the speed which is most efficient.
Maybe you are already doing that. Maybe you have room for improvement with some things. And it’s something you need to be aware of every day.
I manage my work pace very well, but I know I have room for improvement in many areas some days!
If you:
• Come to the end of the day and didn’t get everything done that you intended
• Get to the end of what you think was a jam packed day only to realize that you have not gotten that much done
• Are only doing a few things a day for a client, but billing them for more than 5 hours weekly
it’s time to look at your work pace.
Are you working too slowly? Are you getting distracted? Are you getting lost in tasks because you are unaware of the time that has passed while you are working?
Do a real assessment of what you are getting done and figure out if that’s an appropriate amount of time.
Time management will be one of your most important skills in your VA business. Manage it well, and your clients will be happy!
If you need some help with your productivity and time management, this self study training walks you through 10 Action Steps you can take NOW to start managing your time better. We’ll talk about things like habits, routines, and you’ll learn my most important tip for finding enough time in your day to complete everything you need to do. Check it out here: www.YourVAMentor.com/timemanagement