KNOWING WHEN IT’S TIME TO HIRE AND HOW TO SCALE YOUR BUSINESS | ANNE HILL

ANNE [00:00]

What I found to be extremely beneficial for me was joining a couple of networking groups and then really getting to build relationships with the people that I knew in those groups.

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CAMILLE [00:19]

So you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family and still chase after those dreams? Well listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know,this is Call Me CEO.

CAMILLE [00:39]

Welcome back my friend. I am so excited that you're here today taking this very valuable time and I know that this will be time well spent because today we are talking about how to expand and grow your business in a way that helps you to capitalize on your time and your skill set. A lot of times I get questions about how to know when it's time to hire a person or grow your team and then also how to keep your systems and check this episode is going to help you with knowing all of those pieces.

And Anne Hill is the creator of Hilltop Virtual Solutions who is able to quit her full time job And replace her income within six months. She thought it was going to take her three years and we're going to go through step by step of how she was able to do that and also how she was able to create a life that she loves.

So let's dive into this episode and if you are interested about learning how to be a virtual assistant or growing a business of your own, please take a chance to go to camillewalker.com/VA to join my next group of virtual assistance. That will be starting at the beginning of the year. So let's dive in.

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CAMILLE [01:49]

Welcome everyone to another episode of Call me CEO. And if you are looking for a way to streamline and help you become more productive in your business, tune your ears and turn the volume up today we're speaking with Anne Hill from Hilltop Virtual Solutions. She's going to help us tap into our our genius, also how to figure out how to hire and create communication within our businesses so that they run smoothly and that we can work on our business and not in our business. So thank you so much and for being here today.

ANNE [02:21]

Hello, thanks for having me.

CAMILLE [02:23]

So we were talking just briefly before this, can you please introduce yourself, tell us where you're from, how many kids you have? We, we celebrate motherhood here. So tell us a little bit about your family and what matters the most and then we'll dig into the nitty-gritty of your business.

ANNE [02:38]

Yeah, so I am, I'm Anne, nice to meet everybody and I am in the Denver, Colorado areas where I'm located enjoying the lovely mountain views here that we have. And I have two boys. I've been married for about 11, 11 or 12 years now. 11 years. Yeah.

And I have two boys, one is eight and one is about to be five in a couple of weeks, so one in school, one that have a little bit more time before he starts school, so so yeah and then we have two fur babies as well, so I am a big fan of labrador retrievers and they are, I like the big dogs, so.

CAMILLE [03:21]

Oh that's wonderful. Now tell us a little bit about your business, what I love about your experiences that you have the corporate experience and then you moved it into something where you really tapped into your zone of genius and what you love. So tell us a little bit about your journey and how you developed your business now.

ANNE [03:39]

Yeah, definitely, so I, my background is a physical therapist, I went to school for that um when I finished you know undergrad, went on to grad school degree and did physical therapy and always felt like in all honesty that my journey was going to be more of that, you know, just that corporate role and I always felt like I was going to continue to be working, be working mom even after having kids and that sort of thing and just based on how things were my income, I was the primary breadwinner um in that corporate role, so I needed to be working even after having kids to continue, you know just to continue to live the lifestyle that we wanted to live and all that sort of stuff.

And so I um had gone through a few few changes I guess in the leadership in the business that I was working with and um I was a rehab manager, so I got to know the ins and outs of just the business as a whole and running the business. But there have been a few leadership changes over the course of about in all honesty, the 10 ish years that I was with this one particular organization, I would say almost five, the last five years really was kind of ups and downs throughout all of it and just got to a point where I was getting burned out of being with the business.

I was getting burnt out in the healthcare industry unfortunately and just was ready for a change, but being the primary breadwinner, I really didn't know how that was going to happen, definitely felt stuck in what I was doing and how I was doing it and started doing, you know what, I think a lot of moms do it, especially when we feel like we get stuck, you know, started looking up some things, doing some research on the computer saying, what what options are out here, what can I do? Are there any work from home jobs? Are their remote-jobs, what can I do? Because I got to a point, not only that, I was getting burnt out with the therapy world, but I wanted just some freedom back in my life.

I didn't want to be working 12 hour days and be going into work after dropping the kids off at school and not getting home until they basically were getting ready for bed. It didn't I didn't feel like that served my purpose at all. I didn't like who I was as I was coming home from work and I just was looking for some freedom back in my world and in my life again. And so yeah so that's I started Googling different things and now that I have a better understanding of what happens on the marketing side of things. I realized now that based on me doing some of these searches I was starting to see some different facebook ads that were coming up for different things like different opportunities, different work from home things.

One of them, in particular, was being a VA. And so uh there was a course that I went through that started my whole entrepreneurial journey and my thought was there's no way this is possible like there's no way I can do this and try to replace my income but it sold me on it. And so I ended up purchasing the course, went through it and definitely saw potential but I didn't feel very confident that I could do it myself and my business nor did I really know how to do it because I hadn't had the experience of knowing other business owners are connecting with people like that.

My network essentially was all people in the therapy world, nurses, doctors, physical therapists, people in that medical perspective and everybody that was you know working up that corporate ladder is really what my network was. So I just didn't necessarily know how I was going to make it happen. But I knew I could do something different. And once I got exposed to that V.A world it became eye opening to me that there was a world that I never knew existed.

I don't know if many people can kind of remember when all of a sudden there was that aha of like oh my gosh there's this online space, what is all of this and how does this all work and how can I get connected with people and what do I need to know? And that was kind of what I went through in the initial months of me going through this program and then also just seeing some of these different facebook groups and talking with people and in all over the world like talking with people in Germany talking with people in Australia and then talking with people in the US. And and connecting with people that I never would have even attempted to think about reaching out to prior to me having my business. So yeah so I started off as what I classified as a general VA.

Because again it was like okay well there's all these things that I can do but what do I like to do? I don't know this is a whole new world to me. I don't know what I like to do. So you know, I would connect with business owners that would say they needed help putting together some things on their website. So then I did a trustee, youtube videos, trusty google searches and figured it out it was okay. I'll figure out whatever I need to figure out. And I won't say that it's necessarily going to be the best, but I will be able to figure it out for them. So I was able to kind of, I was able to just solve a lot of problems just mhm.

By doing that really just by doing some searches and figuring out what it was that I needed to do in order to fix their problem. But in that general space it was like, oh you need some help here. Yeah, I can help you with that. Oh you need some help here. Yeah, I can help you with that. But it didn't really help me to figure out what do I really like to do and where, where do I want to spend my time.

And then it also came to a point where it was like, well this is great but I'm going to be capped out because I have to spend all this time learning and I have to spend this time doing the work too. So again it was more of a, okay, well how do I still capitalize on being using my time effectively and also run a business and also replace an income that needed to be there.

And so with that I basically started taking pieces of what is it with each client that I worked with doing that scan back of, what is it that I liked to do? What was part of it that I like to do here? What did I not like to do? And I also found that when I was talking with business owners, I was asking questions that they weren't necessarily expecting just their general VA. To be asking them, you know, I was more than happy to check the task off the list for them and help them out.

But then I would ask, well what's ultimately our goal here? Where are we trying to get to? you know, what are the things that we're looking for? What are essentially what are our metrics? But our KPI is that we need to see that this is working or isn't working or how do we need to pivot this to make it work next time for us. And I was doing a little bit more of the analysis, a little bit more of some of that strategy side there without necessarily knowing it. I just was trying to help the business owner.

I didn't realize that, you know, this wasn't what they expected me to be doing. So yeah and then through that whole journey again I started to realize oh like what I'm actually doing and what I enjoy is this more administrative operations side? So then I started saying okay well what I do is I do operations and had some success in going that road but still not necessarily knowing how to classify operations, it can be kind of a broad spectrum of what I do.

I came across a program as a director of operations certification program that really helped solidify everything in my mind and gave me that extra level of confidence of oh yes like these are my people, this is what I do, this is how I do it for my clients and this is how I help them get the results that they get. So it just took it again to another level of another program that I went through that just really helped me hone in on my skills and what, how it could relate to the small business owner.

CAMILLE [11:28]

I love it. Okay I'm gonna pause you right there because I don't know that you know this but I actually created a virtual assistant program.

ANNE [11:34]

Oh no I did not know.

CAMILLE [11:37]

Yes I just launched it this last year because I have had so many women that have come to me and said I want to be able to work at home, what can I do. And I thought well man I started as a blogger But that is not the shortest route to creating an income and I love that as a virtual assistant, you really can tap into what it is that you find uniquely interesting and that you can also hone in on that skill set. So for the program that I have, it’s 60 days to VA I'm launching a new round of students come January.

So if you're listening right now and you're like wait this sounds amazing. You can go to camillewalekr.co/VA to be on the waitlist. You'll get like premium pricing at that if you're signed up early. But what I have taught my students who have gone through my course is that doing general admin tasks works so many people need it, they need it more than ever, especially with the pandemic and everything else.

However, once you start going through the program and realizing what you love and what you do and what really taps into your skill set of genius, that's where you're going to find the most success and also be able to up level your income. So I love that you went through that process because that's exactly what got you to the place where you are now where you're like wait, I love strategy.

Like I'm going to take a step back and hone in on that skill so that I feel confident because I will tell you all of my students, all of my virtual assistant students have told me. I know the skills are here. I've learned what you have to tell me. But how do I build that confidence? And the number one way to do that is to spend time with clients, work on the skill sets, learn as they come and then tap into what you love and up level that, which is exactly what you did. So I'm like, I just over here like, yes, like this is so awesome.

ANNE [13:36]

I can tell you too that I part of how I learned what I enjoy doing was doing things that I feel found out very quickly that I did not enjoy. First client was a social media client that I did social media management for. I would say within about two weeks I had this client for about five months. But within about two weeks I was like this is not a service I want to offer anymore. And realized very quickly that it didn't serve me. I did not enjoy it.

I dreaded having to do their planning weekly and get it all set up and schedule everything out. So I did, I did things that I just needed to get the experience with. And I did like I did, I did social media, I did some email, it was basically like email marketing that I did centers on topics and did some different things like that that I put together for clients. Some very, very minor bookkeeping for some clients invoicing that sort of stuff.

But yeah, I got a lot of exposure doing some of the more general tasks, but exposure in a lot of different areas of business. So I always joke around that. I'm good enough at the different tests to know what number one, what needs to be outsourced with it. And it's not my skill set and it's not my expertise in number two. I'll joke around and say like I'm good enough on the back end of a website that I can crash it for you. Like I can definitely mess it up, but I probably can't fix it and I'll know that somebody else needs to fix it for you.

CAMILLE [15:05]

So yeah, and I think that that's something that comes with trial and error and trusting yourself through the process of knowing that you have the ability to google it, learn it, take a course like mine where you can get a broad sense of how to start a business, how to create a financial foundation, how to create, you know, your LLC and your EIN.

And all of that stuff was setting up a business where you feel confident to start, and then from there, you just have to get creative and really trust and have that confidence in yourself, that it's okay to fail and that you can move forward with confidence knowing what you love. So that is one of the questions that you and I have talked about just for a second is how do you tap into that zone of genius and how do you feel like that's something that people can find on their own?

ANNE [15:53]

I think that it it is an evolution. It may not necessarily be an evolution for everybody. Sometimes, you know, the first thing they do, they're like, oh my gosh, this is the best thing ever. I love this. It's amazing for me. It definitely was not that I, I definitely needed to try a few different things and then I also needed to take some time and pause on it and see out of all of the different things that I had done, what were some of the similarities with them? How did they overlap?

I never would have thought in the before, you know, as a physical therapist, as I was looking at, even just the different tools that are in your toolbox when you're trying to work with a client and work with a patient, how you kind of process and prioritize and kind of compartmentalize things in in that side of things, as a rehab manager, how I'm looking at systems, how I'm looking at everything from that to then correlated over to small business. I would not necessarily just from obviously, and I didn't from day one, look at that and go, okay, what what did I do?

That was the same here, that I want to do here, it took some time for me to really look at it and say I tried this, I tried that I didn't like this, I did like this, I like this part of this, but not this part of putting together the different processes and that sort of stuff. And, and so it was really looking at it and having conversations with people and with coaches that I had worked with and hired. I'm saying, you know, here's what I've got, here's here's everything, you know, laid out, I did this analysis, this is where I see things, you know, what's your perspective on it?

Does this match what you see? Is this when I'm talking? Does this sound like the things that I'm, you know, lit up about versus what I really don't want to think about. Where do I shy away in conversations versus where do I shine, that sort of stuff too. So, and it's looking at those things.

CAMILLE [17:42]

Let me ask you, because this is a question I get a lot is how did you decide where to set your pricing and also how did you acquire clients and then transition into your expertise? Like what did that journey look like for you?

ANNE [17:58]

So pricing wise, I think it's very important, a lot of people will say, you know, make sure you price for your value and in those sort of things and I think it's important that you feel confident in what you're saying. Like I could tell you that you need to have $1,000 program. But if you don't feel confident yourself and saying this program is $1000 when you're selling somebody on it, It's gonna show in that conversation. So you need to feel confident that you know, if you're saying, Okay, this package is 350, this package is 600.

This packages, you know, whatever your prices. You need to feel like you can say that confidently and stop talking after it so that they can respond to it and not try to justify that price right after you say it. And if you don't feel confident in saying that price, it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks it should be.

You have to believe it yourself and you have to feel confident that this is really I'm providing this sort of value for you, look at what you're going to be able to get out of this and how it's going to help you in the long term. How can you not spend that on it? So, you know, you need to have that confidence going into it as the, the service provider and if you don't have that confidence yourself, nobody's ever going to believe it. And I think it's also okay to start where you might feel as super, low I think for instance, my first client, I was charging $20 an hour. For me that was just, I felt confident in saying that, that was where I started.

My next one went up to $35 an hour because I felt like I started to see more myself and what I could do, I started to feel more confident in how I was doing it for clients and it started to, you know, just go up incrementally from there for what my hourly rate was. But I also, I wouldn't say very quickly. I think it did take a little bit of time for me to start feeling like I could confidently confidently provide package pricing instead of Doing it at an hourly rate. So that was how I did some of the pricing side of things as I grew my business.

But I also know people that you know, they'll charge $15 an hour because that's what they feel comfortable with and that's where they want to start and that's completely fine, whatever that number is, it is okay and there's nothing wrong with starting what you, what you might classify as low, knowing that you want to grow it and you plan on increasing it with each new client? So.

CAMILLE [20:23]

Yeah, what, where were you able to find your clients? What was the best? Most? And even to the state, what are some of your tips for finding success in getting new clients?

ANNE [20:33]

It's always a work in progress. I would say it's something that I think no matter what level of business you're in, I think it's always there's new challenges that come and new mindset complications that come in the middle of it all that I think just as you grow, that's how it goes. What I found to be extremely beneficial for me was joining a couple of networking groups and then really getting to build relationships with the people that I knew in those groups.

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CAMILLE [21:02]

If you're listening to this episode right now and wondering how you too can create your own business from home. I would highly suggest that you joined my next group of virtual assistants who will be starting in January. We're going to get through these wonderful holiday months and then we're going to hit the ground running about mid-January. So what you can do right now is get on my wait list which is that camillewalker.co/VA. Again, that's camillewalker.co/VA.

You can create your own virtual assistant business and just like and create a life balance that you love and I'm going to walk you through it every step of the way with prerecorded course lessons as well as live sessions with me and it is so much fun but don't take my word for it. I have students who have graduated and already built businesses of their own and I would love for you to join the ranks with them. So let's keep going into this episode.

ANNE [22:00]

It wasn't necessarily that they specifically were my ideal client, but they knew other business owners and so increasing my really my network based on the the other business owners that I knew and then talking to their friends about it too. Um and then making referrals for me as well and connections for me that way.

I personally have always, I guess, struggled. It's been a challenge for me to jump into a blind conversation with somebody online. Whereas doing in person networking and getting to know people that way has always just been an avenue that I felt more comfortable in which in the online space really was an area that was untapped. So for me to go into a live networking group or a networking meeting and say I work virtually.

I had to explain what is a VA what is what is an online business manager. I had to explain a lot of those things because it's an untapped market people just didn't do that. So in some ways it helped me because I didn't necessarily have a lot of competition, quote unquote competition because other people weren't doing it, they weren't going in and talking to these brick and mortar businesses saying these are the things I can provide virtually. And so they just didn't understand it as much.

CAMILLE [23:16]

This is getting me so excited because you're doing like this is why I created the course I did because, and you're, what I'd say is it's called planting seeds because every time you have a conversation, it's not that you're trying to sell that person or your friend or whoever it is you're meeting. It's that you're planning a seed of what it is that you do, who you help.

And so that when they have conversations later, they can say, hey, well, you know what an is really, she's the one who got me from this point to this point because she helped me organize my goals and growing my team, you need to call her. And so it automatically becomes this really easy sale, so to speak, in a way that it's not about selling yourself as much as it is about building relationships and being really clear about the services that you offer because if you're able to do those two things, your business will grow. So, again, I'm like, yes, this is exactly what I say. So yeah, that's awesome.

ANNE [24:18]

So yeah, it works. So do what, do what you say.

CAMILLE [24:21]

I know. I've taken a step. I'm taking a little pause right now from my first graduates to now my next launch and having this conversation. I'm like, oh, this is so fun because like this is why I love it because it is, it's an untapped market where people feel like it's so saturated, but it's really not, especially if you tap into a niche that you do really well that so many people need. Yeah, let's talk a little bit about expanding your team because that is a specialty that you offer is knowing when it's the right time to hire, finding the right fit for your team and then creating clear communication.

So take us through those steps if someone's listening right now and they're overwhelmed and needing to expand, which is something I talk about all the time, is that you do not need to be the best at everything. You simply need to be the best at finding the people who are best for that position once you can and your and your business has grown to a point where you can do that. You hire people that are smarter than you so to speak in each of those positions. So let's talk about that. How do you know when it is time to hire?

ANNE [25:30]

So I think that it's funny people always ask about when is the right time to hire and in all honesty it's the right time to hire when you can afford to hire. So there's never necessarily, oh, when I get to this number, when I get this revenue, I'm gonna need a team or when I get to this revenue, Mark, you want to definitely look at your, you know, have an understanding of your numbers, have an understanding of where your profit margins are and see when does it make more sense for me to put the money into the expert in doing this and doing it more effectively and probably getting a better result than me trying to learn it myself, maybe do it in a mediocre way and maybe have to spend more time in the long run, getting the result that I want to get.

And sometimes it's actually, I would say most of the time when you make that initial jump for that first higher, it's scary. But one of the, I actually was just at a conference that was where I was in Florida last week at the end of the week, And one of the big themes that kept coming through over and over again was faith over fear. And these were like multimillion dollar 70 figure business owners that they kept saying like, Okay, so I need to have faith in the decisions I'm making, I need to keep choosing faith over fear with all of my decisions and that comes with bringing on team members too. Now that being said, I think there are ways to make sure that you're picking the right team members to be bringing on.

But really, once you can afford it, that's when you should start bringing on team members, you can't continue to grow your business and to be the service provider at the same time, at some point, you have to make that shift of somebody else needs to be helping with some of these. Typically it ends up being more admin roles, but like somebody needs to be helping take these things off my plate so I can continue to grow my business.

CAMILLE [27:23]

That makes perfect sense.

ANNE [27:25]

And I would also say that one of the things to look at as the business owner is really, what are my values as a business owner? What are my values as a person? What do I have as that? Like true north star that I want my business to continue to grow towards? What's my vision of where I want to be um and looking at those really two key things and feel confident in what those are for you and then make sure that when you're bringing on new team members, that their values align with your values and that also they have that same vision for where your business is going to go, you want them to buy into that even from the beginning, because if they don't buy into where you're trying to get to, they're not going to be the right fit for your business.

CAMILLE [28:11]

Hmm I completely agree. I'm curious, how do you ensure that you do have that alignment? Do you think that it's good to have, like an intake form that they put together before you have a face to face in your interview? Do you feel like you should involve personality tests or like what, what is your formula for that? For making sure that from the get go you are in alignment, where you're they compliment you in what skills you have and then also that they have the same vision for where you're headed.

ANNE [28:46]

So I do what exactly what you have said. So there is an application process both for my business. And then also, if I do this with clients, I will get a job description put together so that we truly know this is what you're looking for. This is uh these are the key requirements and then also um really go into detail on that job description. Two of these are our values. Does this match with you? If you feel like you're in alignment with this, here's the application. If you're not in alignment with this, maybe it's not the right fit completely fine, there's going to be a right fit, there's going to be a wrong fit, but then have that job application that are that application that they go through some of those things.

You can also ask again, some of the questions that I like to ask is, you know, even whether it's a somebody looking to hire an employee or whether they're looking to hire on a contractor, where do you see yourself in the next three years, what are their goals for themselves? And how do those goals match with what you want to do in your business? Definitely when you're looking to hire, if you're in an immediate need and you're just looking to fill an immediate role, you're probably not going to have a good long term fit for your business.

You're probably not going to be really helping in the long run, but also not even helping in the short run because when you're in that desperate spot then you're usually just like I need this, I need this done, I need this done, I need this done. But you're really not looking at how is this person truly going to help me grow? How is this person truly going to help even in a role? Like a VA, an admin role? They still based on the time that they are saving. They, there should be like an ROI. For you in that still.

And they should be able to basically recoup the cost of bringing that person on within 3 to 6 months, if not shorter than that sometimes, but they should be able to recoup the cost just based on the time they're saving you.

That allows you to then either go out and gain more business or if the time is more valuable to you than necessarily the money, then they've allowed you to now go to your son's soccer game, go go pick up your child at school, be able to, you know, if the time is really the part that matters more to you, then that's completely fine. That are, oh, I doesn't have to be specifically a number based on the revenue in your business. It can be that they are helping you to just have that live the lifestyle that you want to live.

CAMILLE [31:10]

Yeah, I agree with that so much because often, especially as mothers, I think creating space for clarity and mental space, simply having space to be in your own thoughts or take time for your mental and physical health and wellness and your relationships will pay in dividends because the measure of your health Is 10 times over the health of your business. And I love that you said that the health of a person and the health of the business are very much aligned where if someone is taking care of themselves, chances are their business is doing better too because they're able to have that wellness, that sense of wellness. And I think that that's what hiring outside of ourselves allows us to do is to create that wellness so that we're not putting ourselves to burn out.

ANNE [31:59]

Yeah.

CAMILLE [32:00]

Over and over again.

ANNE [32:01]

Yeah, definitely. One of the hardest things to do is figure out how to delegate to somebody and not micromanage them. So I find when people have that first higher, it's when for whatever reason we feel like nobody's going to do this the way that I'm going to do it and that may be true in all honesty, they may do it better than you did it. You don't know that yet because you haven't given them the opportunity.

But the other thing with that too is that they may, they may fail and be okay with that, especially with some of what you might classify as like lower level tasks like let them fail if it's not going to be this huge thing that's going to completely, you know, drown your business, let them fail and let them learn from it.

Because if you haven't given them the ability to truly be making the decisions the way that you would based on the training that you're giving them and what you're providing for them, then they're you're not actually effectively delegating if you have to keep answering questions for them, if you have to keep being that ultimate decision maker, you haven't effectively delegated the task and you haven't actually freed up your time either.

CAMILLE [33:11]

Absolutely.

ANNE [33:12]

Because all they're doing is continuing to come back to you and ask questions and ask questions. Well if I need your approval on it every single time then how have I helped you? So yeah.

CAMILLE [33:24]

So what do you think the best systems and ways of doing things are best for streamlining the business and also having an open communication for making sure you know, what's going on as a business owner.

ANNE [33:38]

When you really even when it's just you. But even when you're starting to bring on team members, having a place where everybody has everything um a project management tool of some sort that has everything on it. I personally use click up, it's my favorite tool out there allows for the most customization and it's just I love it, but I like that one, there are other ones, people use tremolo, people use asana, that sort of thing to even sometimes just an Excel spreadsheet can work depending on what it is that we're looking at, but you need to have a place that has dates, it has a sign ease, it has goals, it has tasks, it has those things on it, but in order for somebody else to know what needs to be done and you to be able to see okay, these things have been laid out, you have to have something.

So starting off with some sort of a project management tool is key along with that, you also need to know what your workflow is, so you need to know what the expectation is of, where things need to move in order for the projects to be completed in order for the task to be completed. So those are two areas that you need to know. And then the third part like you mentioned is the communication, having that clear expectations laid out between you and the team members of what needs to be communicated when it needs to be communicated when it needs to be like a priority communication versus just something that we can get to on the next weekly meeting, that sort of stuff and being consistent with how you're doing it all is the other part of it all.

And so really taking that extra time to lay it all out and work through some of those kinks, helps to streamline the process as a whole. There's different areas of your business. Don't try to tackle them all at once. So like if your first team member is a VA, that's helping with some of that say maybe it's some of the scheduling the onboarding of new clients, that sort of stuff.

Then only focus on that process first with that via and that team member don't try to figure out what you're the generation processes. Don't try to figure out what you're off boarding processes. Don't try to figure out what your fulfillment processes only work on the one process at a time. Once you feel like you have that one solid then start taking on some of the other processes with it too.

CAMILLE [36:02]

I like that. That what, what is your favorite way of setting up Communication? I know that you like click up but for weekly meetings, do you suggest Zoom meetings? Do you think it's good to do that Weekly? And then have like maybe, do you suggest that people give their personal phone numbers or you Skype for messaging or what do you think is best?

ANNE [36:24]

I stay away from personal phone numbers as much as possible because I like to enforce boundaries and businesses and it's hard to I mean I'm sure we all get notifications of all sorts of things all day long and I've really tried, even in my own business to really hone in on. What do I need to know? What do I not need to know?

Do I need to have a clique up app on my phone or can it just be during business hours that I'm looking at this project management tool and figuring out what's going on. There are a variety of different tools out there. So click up in particular does have like a chat ability that you like a widget that you can put in there that will allow you to essentially do like a slack conversation in click up.

Some people like that. It really depends on the business for what, what they like best. Some people like that because then they go to this project management tool and they see it all there. And some people like Boxer, some people like Slack, I would say those are probably the biggest ones that I see utilized.

It really just depends on what the team really, what the business owner thinks will be most effective for them and then training the team in those other areas and making sure that the team continues to use those same tools and when they're not using it, reiterating with them. Hey, can you go put this in the slack channel or oh, can you put this on the project management tool so that you don't have to look between email, between text message, between Facebook Messenger, between boxer. Like you want to have it all in one spot and not be trying to figure out where did we have this conversation and tracking that down.

CAMILLE [37:56]

Yeah, I agree. One of my favorite if you're doing something with visual, like visual project, I built a program called Time for us subscription that had a lot of principles and design elements and I love using Marco Polo for that because it's a walkie talkie visual app. Yeah. And so they could, my designer could say, okay this is what it looks like but I could also make it smaller and look like this or what do you think about this? And I didn't have to be on the phone with her right when she was showing it to me but it was visual so I could see it and go, oh yeah that hit the marker oh no let's change that. It's looking long whatever. So that's been a super helpful one for me too.

ANNE [38:35]

I have done for my team. I'll do little loom videos, Send them this instructions on these are some things I need you to do. You know, they'll have the task assigned to them. But then when they open it up in the description they'll be a little loom video. This is what I need you to do. Let me know if you have any questions because that way yeah, I'm not having to coordinate with different time zones of, here's a meeting that we need to discuss for five minutes, what I need you to do and then go do it type thing.

So there are definitely are a lot of different ways that you can Still get that visual aspect of it and not have to try to set up a specific meeting time. That being said though, I do think it is very handy to get the team together even for just like a quick 30 minute, what time usually beginning or end of the week is good. So it's like what are we doing this week? What are our goals this week or either at the end? What are we, what are we doing or what have we completed for the week type thing? And I think that's definitely good to do as well.

CAMILLE [39:36]

Yeah I agree. It definitely helps to keep everyone on, keeps them accountable but also keeps everyone in the know of like what the overall goal is and where you're headed. So that's super, super helpful. What do you think the biggest hurdle is as far as I mean because I've had a number of different virtual assistants who have helped me. But I've never hired someone that's been to the point of like an employee status, it's been more of a contractor, like an independent contractor because I haven't done like benefits or you know, going to that next level of business growth when when would you say is a good time to jump to that level.

ANNE [40:21]

So some of it really depends on in all honesty like labor laws, I think it's always full disclosure. I am not an attorney. Disclaimer here, definitely talked to an attorney about these things because there are laws obviously in different states that have different kind of criteria with that all but one a few things that I will talk to business owners about when they're considering. Should I be looking for an employee or should I be just trying to bring in on a subcontractor is how how much control do you want to have of their time?

That's one of the things is like, do you truly want somebody to be available from eight to noon every day to be able to help with X, Y and Z in your business? If you want to have that official quote unquote control of their time to where you're saying this is when I need you to work. Then truly they need to be an employee and not a contractor just based on labor laws and that sort of stuff. But the other side of that is also, what is it that they are doing in your business.

Because if the things that they're doing in your business or the service that you provide or that that your business is all about, then they should also be an employee and not be, even if it's a part time employee doesn't have to officially be a full time employee. Even if it's a part time employee, they should be an employee, a W2 versus being a 1099.

CAMILLE [41:37]

Right. Yeah, that's super helpful. Well, and this has been amazing. I think we could go on with this conversation forever, but I think that what we've covered so far, I hope for those of you that are listening, that you've written down some of these app ideas, some of these ways to grow your business, because there has been so many good golden nuggets here that I'm like, yes, like it's just been awesome and we mentioned really briefly loom for those of you who might not know what that is.

That is a screen recording of your computer so that if you have a system that you're wanting to show or something visually that's on your computer screen that you can record that and send it in a short little clip video, I just wanted to mention that. So I will, I will link to some of those uh those apps that we mentioned below, like click up and loom and Marco Polo and all those other things because truly when you start to utilize the business tools that are available today, you will free up so much time. And I also want to link to you and if you would share with our audience where they can find you, if they are looking for strategy and how to streamline and create a balance within their lives.

ANNE [42:50]

Yeah, so Linkedin is really where I spend a majority of my time, I would say on the social media side of things, the I can pull up my exact like I guess handle whatever you call it on social media. I'm not, I'm operations. I'm not, I think I might have, but Anne Hill is what I am on on linkedin and then I do actually have, if, if you think it would be helpful, I have a tool that I can give you a link to all. So that's basically a new team member checklist. So people are looking to bring on a new team member, it just goes through some things they would want to try to get in place themselves either before.

Like right, when they're hiring on that new team member, it talks about things like, you know, if they are at 1099 getting getting the documentation that you need from from them talks about kind of mapping out a 30, 60, 90, day goals, things that are done in corporate, but that we actually want to do as we're bringing on new team members so that the team member knows what the expectations are of what you need them to be doing in your business and the goals that you want the meeting along the way.

CAMILLE [43:56]

So I love it. I love it. That's actually the next step I've considered making a course about is how to grow from a team of one to a team of many and that is gold right there knowing what questions to ask, what goals you want to. I really like how you highlighted asking the person that is potentially going to be working with you what their goals are because that's a huge part of creating true alignment. So that is awesome. We will for sure. Link to that below. Thank you so much for your time today. This has been so much fun.

ANNE [44:27]

Yeah, it definitely has been. I agree. Thank you very much.

CAMILLE [44:30]

You're welcome.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE [44:34]

Hey Ceo's, thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring your helpful, please let me know in a comment in a five star review. You could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode, continue the conversation on instagram at Call Me Ceo podcast and remember you are the boss.

Over the last 10 years my life has been greatly blessed by being able to work as a stay at home mom to help us pay down debt and also have more financial independence to do things we like vacationing and having fun activities for the kids. A question I get asked a lot is how can I to create my own at home business. And after racking my mind for quite a long time, I decided that a virtual assistant business is where it's at right now. There are so many ways to be a successful virtual assistant and this is something that I wanted to help other moms be able to do. And that is why I created the 60 days to V. A. program. And it has been so wonderful to see these women who had no previous experience be able to create a business of their own with clients and success.

I have a recent graduate Rachel who says “I can't believe how much I learned in only seven weeks. When I started the course, I learned how to do administrative work that I found online to have my own LLC beautiful website, knowledge of how to properly market myself on any platform and the ability to use my different business programs. I feel so professional and confident to take on new clients. I would highly recommend this course. Anyone who is thinking about joining live sessions with Camille and other experts are worth the investment alone. You will complete the course with all the tools and resources you need to be your own boss, make additional income for your family and really feel confident in the value you add to the business world.” I want this for all of you and I can tell you that this is the kind of confidence that will come to you as well. When you take my virtual assistant course, if you're interested go to camillewalker.co/va. Again that's camillewalker.co/va.