Starting a new business or venture is an exciting time. Having made the decision to take the step to start something on your own, saying goodbye to the oh so familiar but uninspiring nine to five will bring many things to consider.
Stepping away from the security of employment can be a nerve-wracking feeling and especially in your first year – and the years to follow. You will want to focus on building the business fast, but also solidly and successfully so that things will not crash and burn after an intense first year.
You will want to focus on both breaking even (perhaps even making a profit!) as well as building up a solid business and sales model that will withstand wobbles in the market, and keep you going and growing for many years to come.
The Importance of Delegating
As you will be new in going into this, full of drive and ideas, some entrepreneurs will find it extremely difficult to have anyone else involved helping them out. Although with all the good intentions, a new assistant often hits a brick wall in trying to be helpful and efficient as the new business founder or entrepreneur will have the tendency to do everything themselves.
However understandable, this is very risky, as very soon you will feel completely overwhelmed with a number of tasks ahead of you – spending more time on admin and other time-consuming tasks, rather than focusing on the creative side of the business, building the brand, focusing on sales and medium to long-term strategies.
Learning and trusting to delegate tasks earlier on, to an Entrepreneur Assistant, will free your time to focus on the bigger picture and not getting snowed under by emails and practical organisation that can easily be picked up by someone else.
Learning and trusting to delegate tasks earlier on will free your time to focus on the bigger picture. Share on XDoing this at the early stage, instead of waiting when the business has grown, will prevent you from getting overworked and will keep you focused on building the business to where it needs to be. Having a helping hand as you build from strength to strength can only be a good thing.
Why an Entrepreneur Assistant?
Simply said, sales will grow the company. As a startup, you will want to be looking at short-term sales, as well as building up relationships that can lead to longer-term clients and commitments. Hiring an Entrepreneur Assistant can help with the following:
Providing Structure
Having an Entrepreneur Assistant can give you structure and a plan of action when you might be full of ideas and creativity, but not have a clear path to take. Having a new business is exciting, and your mind might be going all over with all the ideas and routes to sales. An Entrepreneur Assistant can take your ideas and make them into an overviewed structure, and plan of action.
Focusing on Priorities
With any new business, you might be overwhelmed with administration and emails that need attention, but this is not relevant for direct sales and building of the business. An Entrepreneur Assistant can take on the admin tasks, relieving you from less important emails and clearing your inbox so you can focus on the important matters.
Contact Lists
However way your business is set up, whether you will be using cold calling or reaching out to existing connections, having a client/contact list and overview is an extremely helpful way of keeping track. The Entrepreneur Assistant can create this and keep it updated so that you do not lose track of who should be contacted, and what potential follow-ups should be made.
Research
The Entrepreneur Assistant can spend time researching the current market, finding potential new clients and businesses to connect with and relevant conferences for you to attend.
Diary Management
The Entrepreneur Assistant can stay on top of all meetings you have scheduled, acting as a reminder and providing you with relevant notes before each meeting takes place. They can also outline the points of action after your meetings so no clients will be missed.
How to Make it Work
If you are used to being in control of everything yourself, having someone picking tasks up for you can feel like a scary and unsettling thing. It takes time to trust someone with your work, so make sure the person is given a bit of time to get used to you and the company. It is unrealistic to expect someone to know exactly what to do for you and the business overnight!
Start by breaking down the delegation process and have someone start part-time, with small tasks where you still do the final check. This way, you build up a bit of trust, give the assistant the chance to work alongside you and understand what is expected.
As confidence grows, start delegating more tasks, and slowly give more control and responsibility to the Entrepreneur Assistant. This way, neither of you will be jumping in the deep end without support from one another and you can learn and grow together.
Secondly, availability and communication is extremely important. As an entrepreneur of a startup, you will most likely be running around most of the time, going to meetings, seeing clients and visiting conferences, so your time with your Entrepreneur Assistant will be extremely limited.
At the beginning of the week or month, take some designated time to plan in meetings with your Entrepreneur Assistant. This could either be face to face when you’re in the office or schedule a Skype/video/conference call. This way, you both know when the days and times for communication will be, so there will not have to be constant emails/phone calls going back and forward.
How to Find a Good Entrepreneur Assistant
Entrepreneur Assistants can vary from recent college or university graduates to highly experienced professionals in the field. Depending on your budget, it could be wise to invest in a junior person with 1-2 years of experience who will be keen and hardworking enough to build and grow within the company. They will have a vested interest in the company doing well because their position and role in the company could increase as the company grows, so they will have their own incentives to get the sales going strongly.
Someone with not a great deal of experience could also potentially be easier to mould into the type of Entrepreneur Assistant you are looking for.
At Polo & Tweed, we have worked with many assistants of all different backgrounds and experiences – and our team would always love to help in either giving you some advice on your options or to help you find the right Entrepreneur Assistant for you and your company! You can contact the team here, and they will be looking forward to having a chat and support you in your business ventures.