My clients keep me pretty busy. That’s great. But it means that some of my business tasks get pushed to the bottom of the to do list. That’s not good: I need to manage my business in order to keep it going and really know how I am doing.
I recently realized that I need help, so I decided to look for an assistant.
First I made a list of all the tasks someone could help with. Then I posted a job description on my local design group’s discussion board. My description was very clear that this was a freelance position for a few hours a month (up to more hours depending on workload). I set the rate I would pay on the high end for this kind of office work, since the person I work with will be paying their own taxes. And I spelled out exactly what kind of work the assistant would be doing, so there would be no surprises.
And hooray! I found just the right person. She has worked with me for three weekly sessions so far. In that time, she has helped get my tax paperwork to the accountant (whew!), entered all of my expense receipts for this year into my bookkeeping system, cleared up the paper filing pile, and started on the mountain of completed client files that need to be organized and archived.
When I’m able, I’ll start training her on some design production work with the hope that she can help out with client projects in the future. But for now, it’s worth every penny to me to have this non-billable work off my list and on to someone else’s list. I am more productive because I’m not wasting energy thinking about all the stuff that needs to get done: instead, I have a plan and a person to get it done.
How could an assistant help you?