How to Profitably Hire and Train a Great Assistant to Scale Your Consulting Agency with Tim Francis – E30
Timothy Francis from Great Assistant was Mandi’s guest on the podcast today. Through his work as a private consultant, Tim noticed that entrepreneurs desperately needed help with the minutiae involved with running a business – they needed to get those administrative and operational tasks off their plate. Tim started Great Assistant to help entrepreneurs hire an assistant, retain them for years, and make them really profitable.
Right out of the gate, Tim shared three amazing strategies to delegate better:
- Do not use email to delegate to anyone on your internal team – it’s a wasteland of distraction for both you and your assistant.
- Use Loom. It’s a free tool that you can use in your browser. It allows you to record your screen and narrate what you want done. We can delegate far more quickly, and be more clear about what we want done.
- Hire an assistant that fits you properly. Hands down, the best value for your dollar is to hire someone from the United States or Canada for $18-$22 per hour.
The surgeon in the room
Entrepreneurs should only be doing three jobs, similar to a surgeon in an operating room:
- strategy,
- high-level skill, and
- high-level access.
A surgeon doesn’t book the surgery date, prepare the patient, clean the room beforehand, or prepare the paperwork. You can’t be in the CEO seat doing the high-level things you need to be doing if you’re constantly in reactivity mode. Always remember that you are your business’s most valuable resource.
When you hire a Great Assistant, you can see a ROI very quickly. There are people out there who can do what you’re doing better than you can. Administrative tasks require a very different skill set. Getting those tasks off your plate will not only free up time, but also mental and physical energy that you can use to meditate, exercise, innovate, strategize, and more.
The quality triangle for hiring (aka #ShowerThoughts)
We’ve all heard of the “quality triangle.” Good, fast, cheap…. You can only have two.
In hiring, there’s a similar two of three scenario. The three points of the triangle are talent, compensation, and working conditions.
Talent is non-negotiable. But working conditions is an area where you can be flexible.
Try and hire someone to work a traditional 9-5, and you’ll be competing with large corporations, government, and other top employers for the best talent. Offer flexible hours and remote work, and all of a sudden you can compete for the talent you need at the price point you want. Your new employee is also more likely to be loyal, and give you that continuity of employment you’re looking for.
Hiring and risk
The real work happens at computers. Not in boardrooms or offices. The more time goes by, the more work is done virtually. When you’re hiring someone to work virtually, it’s about reducing that risk, Tim says.
Big management mistakes
It’s tempting to manage by abdication and just say “Get it done. GO!” This never works!
Most people are terrible at delegating.
But it’s an easy skill to learn with the right approach.
Tim has this great free tool to show you how to do that. Download 360 Delegation for a 3 step process to delegate the right way.
Final thoughts
Tim runs his business in the same way as we teach at Hands-Off CEO™. He has been able to scale his services profitably and sustainably because he sells only one thing, and he does that one thing really, REALLY well. The success rate of administrative assistants making an hourly wage is around 50%. Great Assistant has an 85% success rate at the 90 day mark, and 80% of assistants stay longer than a year.
If you have an inbox full of opportunities, you really can’t wait. Book a Discovery Call with Great Assistant, and get yourself that person in place in the next 30 days. They’re so knowledgeable and confident in the service they offer that they will even tell you if you’re not ready for their services and offer you alternate options.
And, if you decide to use Tim’s services to find your Great Assistant, there’s a guarantee. For any reason, if you or your assistant choose to end the relationship within 90 days, Great Assistant will find you a replacement at no extra charge.
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Hire yourself a Great Assistant!
Tim built his company, Great Assistant, in the exact way we teach our clients in Scale to Freedom™ to scale services. I wanted to introduce you to Tim, because there’s so much synergy with what we offer at Hands-Off CEO™. The truth is, some CEOs may not be ready to work with Hands-Off CEO until they’ve hired that Great Assistant.
The quality of assistants they hire are the kinds of people we can develop into Operations Managers. If you don’t already have that person in place and need support finding them, Great Assistant is a fantastic option! They can hire and train a Great Assistant in as little as 30 days, guaranteed!
Download the 360 Delegation tool at greatassistant.com/handsoffceo.
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We help consulting agency CEOs free up 10 hours per week for strategic growth, command 50-600% higher fees, and unlock millions of dollars of profitable growth.
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