Wednesday, September 12, 2018

I'm Thinking About Getting a VA, But I Struggle With Delegation


I'm reading a book right now called the Time Wealthy Investor by Mark B. Dolfini. I'm fairly certain that if I wrote a book, it would be pretty similar to this one. It's focus is on building systems that work  for you to reduce your personal workload. Think E-Myth and The 4-Hour Workweek applied to real estate investing. If you're an investor, it's worth reading (along with Landlording on Autopilot which gets more tactical).

Automation

What's interesting is that I'm finding I'm excellent and automating systems. I started reading the book hoping to learn a couple tricks to further automate what I'm doing, but I'm finding I'm already doing well. There are a couple small things I could automate, but the relative gains are small. For example, when I send a message, I email and text everyone individually. Technically I could set up a list for email through something like MailChimp, but I don't like that there will be an unsubscribe button. Plus, I don't even know of a texting service that'll let me use my existing phone number. It hardly seems worth it to spend 4 hours researching if it's possible for the ~4 times a year I send a text to everyone, which I already pretty easy because I use Google Voice and send everyone from a computer with copy/paste (if you know of a service, let me know).

Automation? Check.

Delegation

The other part of the book talks about setting up processes that are documented and repeatable, with the goal of making them easy to delegate and manage. With such easy access to virtual assistants (VAs), it's super easy to delegate small tasks without having to hire someone full time. Example tasks could include:

  • When someone moves out: calculate their last month's rent, send the move-out email and prepare a new Craigslist ad.
  • When a new person is accepted as a resident: add their info to the database & QuickBooks, calculate their first month's rent, prepare the rental agreement, and schedule a time to sign.
  • When a resident calls with a maintenance request: add the request to Trello, contact the proper home service provider (which could be me), coordinate the schedule fix time, follow-up with the resident when it's done, document in Trello, and send a payment.

You get the idea. When a certain event happens, the documented actions are taken.

This seems pretty easy as I write it out, but for some reason I struggle to give up that control. I don't want to lose a pulse on what's working on Craigslist. How do I stay on top of it? Since I end up doing most of the maintenance repairs - because they're normally easily, and I enjoying getting out from behind my desk - what's the point of having someone else be the go-between? That seems needlessly complicated.

I also have a very high standard. Even today I was helping Jessi print our monthly newsletter (pictured above) and I couldn't help but notice a couple formatting issues (which nobody but I will notice. Like a double space after a period). I'm super happy Jessi is able to help with the newsletters, but how do I keep the quality where I want it... without hurting a relationship?

I've noticed this trend in other areas as well. Last week I was asked if I needed help on an HP project. My instinct was to say no because I knew the person wouldn't do as good of a job as I would and I didn't want to spend even more time going back and correcting it. Again, how do I set quality expectations and properly train somebody to successfully hit them? For a while my thought was "I'll just hire amazing people", but that seems implausible and limiting. The problem isn't automation. Perhaps it's a process that isn't fully documented, including quality checklists?

Delegation? I'm honestly not sure how to pull this off.

Moving Forward

I need to figure this out. We're planning to continue growing and it won't be sustainable as a part-time hustle for much longer. Unfortunately, I think the answer is I need to invest more time in the short-term to figure out delegation so I can spend less time later. I found one good article about successful VA relationships, but there really doesn't seem to be lot of good resources, which looks like a mini-red flag - why aren't there more resources and success stories? And I just looking in the wrong places?

Of course, then I go the opposite direction and wonder if I'm making life too complicated, like in the Fisherman's Parable. Should I instead figure out ways to remove tasks off my plate completely? For example, if we lived in a tiny home that was owned free and clear, that would remove a lot of the financial pressure and allow me to drop my job and then do all the business tasks myself. Of course, that would create new issues: space for the kids, a less desirable location, less ability to invite friends over, etc.

So no answers at this time, just public processing. If you've hired a VA, I'd love to learn about your experience and talk about what has and hasn't worked.

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