Think you can’t afford to hire a personal assistant as a small business owner?  Think again.

As a small business owner and parent of 5 children, I used to see time as an enemy that had to be conquered. One day my youngest son asked if I could make time for him. Without thinking I said, “Son you can’t make time you can only use time you have”. Without thinking he said: “OK dad how about using some of your time on me”.

That was 25 years and two small business’s ago, and it was then I realized that time was not my enemy, but just a tool to be used.

Some of you may still be thinking that you can not afford to hire someone, but I say it’s the opposite.

Think back to when you started your business.  You wanted to be independent, make money, and do the thing you love, and that’s impossible all by yourself because you only have 24 hours each day.

You make time when you hire a personal assistant

Being self-employed requires one to wear many hats.  Business Insider states that of the 28 million small business in the US, over 22 million of these are self-employed – Sep 10, 2013.  This means that there are over 22 million people whose success depends entirely on their ability to build their business.

According to the guardian  the biggest time wasters are other people and the mundane (meetings, marketing, social media, IT, procurement, email, paperwork).  When you spend time on these you limit your ability to do the things you do best – MAKING MONEY.

Now you can call them a secretary, personal assistant, administrator or whatever you like, but teaching someone to handle these time wasters will basically give you more time.

A few quick tips before you hire a personal assistant

1. Spend a few weeks tracking everything you do to get a handle on what you do with your time, and where you could use help.
2. Set aside a short time every morning and before bed and start organizing yourself, regularly and consistently and write what you are looking for before you start the hiring process.
3. Where to hire a personal assistant.  You can start with a part-time person, try a local employee service firm, ask other professionals in your field, place personal ads, ask for advice from trusted friends and family, talk to people in your church, service club or other organizations.
4. Set clear and concise guidelines and set aside a consistent time in the beginning to train them to do things the way that helps you, and not them.

After hiring a personal assistant I recommend having them shadow you everywhere for the first week so they can begin  basic training and familiarize themselves with the inner workings of the company. Try rolling over your phone number and email address to them to temporarily handle correspondence, and then get another phone and email so you can start fresh. Another good idea is to tell all your vendors and difficult clients that you hired a special person who could take care of all their needs personally.

After a few months you should be able to teach them how to do the mundane time-consuming things for you, in the system that works best for you (not them).   This will allow you the chance to stay organized and make sure things get done so you can focus on why you started a business in the first place.