How many people have you hired to help you simply survive in your business? To stop you from being swallowed during a busy period or under a day that just won’t quit?
Truth is, when it’s ALL-SYSTEMS-GO, it can seem easier to hire bodies on seats than it is to find other ways.
And there are many.
Pay-as-you-go PAs, people you can hire for a few minutes, or an hour, who have just as much experience as someone you could spend months recruiting. Who take over tasks as easily as if they’ve always known you and your business.
This is what life looks like for some of the most successful CEOs, Founders and Hedge Fund Managers. Why? Because they’ve found themselves a one-day only PA.
What is a pay-as-you-go PA?
Here’s an example of a classic PA situation and why you get someone amazing, even when you’re only hiring for a day:
Sarah is a 35 y/o Mum of two. She used to work as a PA for Deutsche Bank earning £55K per year with bonus, but after her second son was born, she wanted to be at home more. Swapping her commute for a chunk of salary seemed like a fair deal. Now Sarah works from home, doing around six hours a day helping COOs of technology companies to get stuff done. It’s fast-paced enough that it keeps Sarah interested but she can do it from home and be finished in time for nursery pick ups.
Sarah isn’t the only type of pay-as-you-go PA either. Some go out to events, travel and do everyday errands like dry-cleaning and shopping. Whether deskbound or out-of-office proud, their only similarity is that they’re sh*t-hot at getting stuff done, fast.
If you think about it, we’re already using this model in a ton of other business scenarios. Rather than hiring an office, you take an area in a coworking space. Instead of filling a filing cabinet, you put everything on Dropbox.
In almost every other business sense, you only pay for what you need. But when it comes to people, we’re stuck paying for every minute that’s spent commuting, making a cup of tea or taking time off. It doesn’t work for anyone: when PAs are chained to their desks they can’t get on with the other things they want to do or that life throws at them. When Founders are forced into hiring weekly contractors they only need for a day, they’re wasting money.
Which leads us on to:
Can you hire a personal assistant for a day?
The answer is yes. Many sites, including ibLE let you hire personal assistants for small time periods. With ibLE, we bill in five-minute increments to be exact. There’s a surprising amount our PAs can get done in that time and it just seems fairer that you only pay for what you use.
This type of hire also works if you need a personal assistant for a specific trip, event or business activity. Maybe you just need someone to field emails for a day while you’re otherwise engaged, or to help with time-management for appointments at a tradeshow.
Most PAs are so experienced that they can jump in with little guidance. Truth be told, they just want to get on and get the job done. Pleasantries are great but they’re not for those working to five-minute time clocks and our PAs are nothing if not time conscious.
Is it worth hiring a PA for a day?
That niggly feeling you’ve got? The one that whispers “this seems too good to be true?” It’s the biggest barrier to getting from overworked and overwhelmed to into control. It’s time to trust the system.
Every mentor you’ll ever have, every entrepreneur success-story you’ll read, they’re all talking about the benefit of having a good PA. And yes, when you hire a PA for a day there’s an element of risk. You don’t know how good they are or what they’re going to be able to get done. If they mess up, the day’s over and there’s no second chance.
But what if they don’t? What if you’re free to just turn up at the conference. Without worrying if your suit’s clean or if you’ve got the right meeting appointment times?
Those tasks you’re thinking about getting someone to do? They seem overwhelming to you right now because you have a million and one other things to think about. But they aren’t overwhelming to an experienced, conscientious PA. To them, those tasks are a breeze.
It’s an investment in yourself, but also in your business. The more small tasks you can delegate, the more headway you can make into the actual journey.
Think of it like this: you can’t drive the train if you’re tending the drinks cart, cleaning the toilets and filling up the petrol. They’re all essential parts to getting the train there and in good shape, but they aren’t a one-person job. So let other people (i.e., your personal assistant) do the bits you can’t do while you’re looking out the front window.
Sure you might only need them for a day, or half a day. But the amount of headspace it’ll clear (and over time it WILL add up), the more headway you’ll be able to make.
Until the journey isn’t only faster, it’s more enjoyable too.
Looking to hire a PA for a day? We ready and waiting to get you matched to a PA who can start now. Sign-up at ible-it.com.