What Common Mistakes Do Firms Make When Hiring Virtual Assistants?

Matthew: I think the first mistake is waiting too long. That, you know, we as attorneys, we like to cogitate on problems a lot and, you know, think it through in minute detail. You know, our friend Jan Copley said unstructured dithering, right? So, we want to analyze it to death or analysis paralysis.

And so, people can wait too long before they act. And I’ll tell you a story about that, Steve. So, we just finished reading in the Dominate Your Market, Buy Back Your Time. And one of the big lessons or take away from that book is hire an executive assistant to check your email to manage your scheduling. And like I suspect a lot of other people, you know, I’m very attached to my email, but I found myself spending an inordinate amount of time during each day, you know, checking email, going back, checking email again. And it’s almost as if it’s like an OCD fixation.

I was aware that I needed to hire an executive assistant, but I had, you know, I had a mental block against it. And I was talking with my Atticus coach about it. And I said, this is crazy. I own a staffing agency. I’ve got a list of a dozen VAs that I could hire tomorrow and get them staffed up and ramped up and trained to manage my email. And, you know, I realized that it was just the analysis paralysis part of it. And so, I you know, pulled the trigger, hired an executive assistant, did the training. And within a week, she was managing all of my email, managing all of my calendar.