I’ve had around the same number of billable hours each month for the last year. I’ve had clients hours fluctuate, I’ve lost some clients, gained some new ones, but it all seems to level out.

About two months ago, I was at a point where I was at the computer from 7 in the morning until 2 in the morning. I still only put in a few hours of billable time - the rest of that time was spent managing projects, staying on top of email, wrangling my children, etc. I was rapidly approaching the ‘burn-out zone’. While I was subcontracting some work, I was still spending way too much time on project management and other administrative things. I wasn’t able to market my business, follow up properly, or eat lunch without feeling guilty for being away from my computer.

So I took the plunge and retained the services of a VA to keep on top of that stuff for me. It’s the best investment I have ever made in my business, and more importantly, in myself.

For the last two months I have had my own dedicated VA. I’ve blogged about her before - Victoria is my lifesaver. I wonder…is this how my clients feel after they start delegating projects to me? It is a glorious feeling.

Victoria and I are in different time zones, so she starts managing my email when her work day begins, and that frees up so much time, you have no idea. I can actually focus on the day’s projects without being distracted by my email. That is saving me at least an hour or two every day.

I’m delegating more and more work that I don’t really have to do myself. My VAs are more than capable, and it prevents me from switching between projects a million times a day which is idle time I can’t charge for.

A strange thing happened this week. I kept feeling as though I was forgetting something. After dinner when the babes were fed and bathed and I would sit down at my computer to work, but my client work for the day was taken care of. Hmmmmm.

Honestly, it didn’t sink in for awhile. Why do I have free time in the evenings? Am I forgetting about certain projects? What’s happening?

Wait a minute. It’s my VA. What a light bulb moment. Now that I am on the ‘client’ side of the VA arrangement, I will be able to market my services much better because I am living the benefits.

When my workday is done (ya, it does have an end now!!!) I am able to follow up with old leads, work on personal projects and my own business development.

Now it’s Saturday and I have options! I can either get my stuff together to give to my bookkeeper so my taxes will get done on time, or work on a fictional story I’ve been wanting to get to forever. I can clean my house, play with my kids, go for a drive, or just read a book.

Who knew life could be this good for a busy entrepreneur?

If you are on the fence about hiring a VA - get off the fence and get yourself one. Preferably Mann Made Time, of course. Never before has my team been so efficient.

My tagline, “When there aren’t enough hours in the day…” has a whole new meaning for me now. When you find yourself feeling that way, give me a call. We really can add hours to your day.

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My business became fairly successful, fairly quickly. I absolutely love what I do. I love, love, love supporting busy professionals, and that has led to my becoming a busy professional!

Everyone knows we are only given 24 hours per day - all of us. No matter how wealthy we are, we can’t really buy more time. However, the smartest among us know that we can free up more time by outsourcing some of our tasks.

My client work must come before anything else I do, and I don’t believe that to be unique to my business. As a result of my priorities, I’ve been falling behind on the administration of Mann Made Time. My email was getting way out of control, and managing all aspects of my projects had become overwhelming, and takes a ton of (unbillable) time.

I decided that it was time to do something about this! I’ve been working with Victoria Santiago for almost 8 months now, contracting her services for several different things.

I’ve mentioned before on my blog that I’ve had her start managing my email. It’s a very tough habit to break, staying out of my Outlook, but it’s starting to run very smoothly. As action items come up in my email, Victoria adds them to my ‘Toodledo‘ list, and ensures everything is entered in my collaboration site. She also set up a top secret Gmail account where she forwards my urgent messages (So I don’t get distracted in Outlook). It’s working out great. We’re almost a perfectly well oiled machine.

The bottom line is, for the number of hours I’ve retained her for, it’s an absolute priceless investment. I’ve got more focus for my important client projects, I have a system in place for delegating work to my other associates, and I’ve freed up time.

If you’re a busy professional and feel like you can’t breathe with the amount of stuff you have on your plate, get in touch with me. My team can help you. I know how tough it is to let go of that control, I’ve done it myself.

And I am not looking back.

And I’m not looking in Outlook, Victoria. Promise

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I’m spending much of this weekend up close and personal with my business. I’m preparing a handbook to give each of my associate VAs to provide them with a detailed look into my company and how I expect it to be operated. I should have done this a long time ago, and I do have a basic policy and procedure document in progress, but this is different. A policy and procedure manual is something for my husband to give someone if I get hit by a bus, so Mann Made Time can survive without me. Have you read Michael Gerber’s ‘The E-Myth Revisited’? It’s all about implementing systems, and my business could stand to be a lot more systemised.

So as I sit here thinking about topics to include in my handbook, and the way I expect my associates to represent my company, it’s really forcing me to think. It’s a wonderful exercise to go through, and I urge every business owner to put something like this in place. Something you’ll be able to give your employees, or your virtual assistant to follow when representing your firm.

You also should have a general policy and procedure manual that could be handed to someone in case of an emergency that takes you away from your business. A wonderful resource, Yvonne Weld’s Guide to Creating a Thriving Business can be found here.

You can not have any good reason for not doing this. If you do, I would love to hear it. Honestly, who can predict what’s going to happen tomorrow? Your back up plan doesn’t do much good if it’s located ‘in the back of your mind’. Get to it!

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Well, one of my team members, Mark Hodder, has introduced me to a fabulous collaboration tool. It’s called Assembla, and if you’re looking for a virtual collaboration space, this one is awesome. It seems similar to Basecamp, which I have only used while on the client side of things. I personally prefer Assembla’s interface, which is why I’ve decided to go with it. How shallow of me. Seriously though, otherwise I don’t see much of a difference. Fact is, because I’m juggling quite a few clients and leading a team of VAs, I need a team space and I like this one. So I’m running with it.

Software like this prevents sifting through email to ensure nothing has gotten missed - it contains a history of all interactions. Large files will no longer gum up my email - they can be uploaded to Assembla. This will be a major time saver for me, and I think it will really improve Mann Made Time’s efficiency.

One of my resolutions for 2008 (and specifically for January) was to set up a collaboration space. Done!

Thanks Mark

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It’s 4:26am. I just put way too much cream in my coffee. I’m awake and not wanting to be because my little girls each have their very first colds and it’s wreaking havoc in our lives! Don’t get me wrong - I’m grateful that they have never been sick a day and it’s only a cold and all the rest - but it is still a bummer when you are craving sleep and getting none.

What’s a ‘home based working mom’ to do when her days are filled with very unglamorous duties associated with caring for sick babies and her workload is massive because her business is absolutely thriving? Well, she enlists the help of her VAs, her in laws, her coffee and gets through it whenever and however she can.

I know without a doubt I’ll be pulled in a hundred directions today by my daughters (I know that’s their job - they’re 4 months and 28 months old), AND I have a lunch date which I’ve been looking forward to forever. I also have about 15 hours of billable work that needs to get done. It’s 4:31am. If I worked straight through today with no interruptions - which is impossible - I might be done by the girls’ bedtime. But I’m not going to do that. I’m a business owner and a mother. I have to balance both of those roles.

So here’s what I do:

• Get up at 4:00am, not because I want to but because both kids finally went to sleep and I can get 2-3 hours of billable time in before they wake up again. That means I’ll be less stressed today and can…
• Enjoy lunch at the Urban Eatery with my friend who happens to be a client.
• Make a detailed list of the client work I need to get done today and delegate as much as I an to my associate VAs.
• Do only the projects that will be fun for me to do, saving precious energy for later when I really need it.

If I didn’t have a team in place to help with my client workload I would be in big trouble today. I have projects coming from every direction and even though some of these things are items I want to do myself, I can have my VAs work on other things such as the documents I’ve been wanting created for my own business, checking my emails, internet research for myself and clients, etc.

It really is a wonderful feeling to have a skilled VA (or multiple skilled VAs) by your side when you’re a solo-preneur. I’m not alone. I might be up at 4:41am at my computer drinking coffee and writing a blog post because I’ll never get to it later today and wishing that my kids would sleep through the night for the sake of all that’s good and holy - but I’m not in it alone. I have help. I’ll get through the day.

What would I do if I didn’t have VAs to turn to? Well…I wouldn’t be this busy I suppose…so perhaps it wouldn’t be an issue…

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