There is a recorded audio to go with this post. If you’d rather just start listening than read my ramblings, then go ahead and go there now, sparky.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I’ve decided to hire an assistant. What may not have been entirely clear was what I was going to do, or what that arrangement would look like, or… most importantly… why you should care.

Well, here’s why you should give a shit about my quest for an assistant:

A lot of you reading this are just starting a new business, are looking to start one, or have nurtured one along for a little while now. And at the beginning, it seems to make sense to just do everything yourself that you’re capable of doing yourself. i.e., if you know how to create and send a newsletter, you should do it. If you know how to launch a new website for a new service or product, you should do it. If you know how to buy your own stamps and research your own new printer, you should do it. Because you can save money that way.

So again, a lot of you are saying, “I don’t care about JT’s assistant. I can’t afford and/or don’t need an assistant. I just want tips on how to get more clients.”

For those of you who are thinking that, I want you to pay attention anyway because if you’re going to ever succeed, you need to start RIGHT NOW thinking about the value of your time. If you want to buy your own stamps, that’s cool. Just remember that you’re doing it because you have time to kill or really want to get out of the office… and NOT because you have to. Your time is valuable. Very valuable. You’re the Big Cheese, after all. Buying stamps is beneath you. So, the minute you have something more important that you should be doing, someone else should be buying those stamps for you. Even if you’re not there yet, I want you to operate with this mentality. Do what makes you money. Outsource the rest.

And then, one day, your business is going to grow, and those little tasks and the big tasks will both multiply and begin to war with each other for your precious time. You’re going to someday realize out of the blue that you’re really, really busy. You will probably not know why, or even have a clear accounting of your time. You won’t truly understand that you’re doing things that are unproductive, and you won’t know what to do to make yourself less busy. All you’ll know is that you need help. Help with what? Well, who the hell knows. You just need help.

And that’s where I am. I’m just really busy. I don’t know what I’m doing right or wrong or what I should be doing different. I just know that I need help.

So at this point — whether you’re just trying to engender “Big Cheese” thinking or whether you’re currently going batshit crazy with busyness and don’t know where to start fixing it — just listen to this recording between me and Marcia Hoeck. We talked about exactly how to put order back into your life and put yourself back at the wheel of the giant ship of your business, rather than working below deck fixing leaks.

(Audio is below… if you’re reading this via a feed, you may have to click through to the post.)

Download as MP3 file

>>>> If you’d like to find out how to simplify your own business and hire your own supremely helpful awesome savior V.A., check out Get More Done, Make More Money: The 5 Easy Steps to Find, Hire, and Partner with a Virtual Assistant. (That’s the book we talked about in the recording above.)