NOT SURE WHAT TO DELEGATE? WE CAN HELP
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Casey breaks down the indications that made him realize he needed a VA, specifics tasks he delegates to a VA, how he delegates effectively and more!
My name is Casey and I am the founder of KickFlips. KickFlips has grown to be several stores, software and communities related to Amazon & eBay ecommerce.
My team and I find profitable products that we can buy online to sell for a profit on Amazon & eBay. Additionally, we built a suite of tools to help others do the same.
In total, our company brings in over $1 million in revenue each year and continues to grow as we learn and help others.
I started KickFlips while I was still working a full-time job. It was a side hustle for months before it started to grow quickly. I was very tired of spending all day working at my day job and growing the side hustle.
Waking up at 5:30am and working until midnight every day was very unsustainable. I finally took the leap and hired a VA after 9 months of working on KickFlips all by myself.
I remember taking a nap the next day and waking up to the VA having completed tasks I used to spend my own time on. It was one of the most freeing sensations I ever remember having.
At present, I have around 10 VA’s. I will break down their roles, as follows.
Product Researchers: This is the primary role I hire for. VA’s in the role search the internet to find products we can buy to sell on Amazon or eBay for a profit.
Short-Form Content Editor: I have one VA who edits the videos we post to Instagram & TikTok.
Personal Assistants: I have two personal assistants who assist me with the daily operations of the business. KickFlips has several ecommerce stores, software and communities. As such, we have two personal assistants who are each in charge of several aspects of the operations.
Majority of my communication with my team takes place via Discord. Discord is where we host our communities, so it is the best place for me to stay in touch with them quickly.
You should communicate with your team on the platform you already spend the most time on.
This is my weakest point as an entrepreneur. I am a very capable solopreneur and am quite effective at taking a project from zero-to-one. However, as I have scaled, I realize that I am not a great manager, delgator and leader. But, you can’t get better without practice.
The first point to realize is that delegation and outsourcing can look different with different VA’s and roles. Some roles require more hands-on communication, while others you can go a week without speaking to.
If I spend a lot of time working on a repetitive task, I will tend to delegate this to my VA. Data entry is a great example of this.
When I train a VA to do a new task, my workflow is as follows.
1. Document a Standard Operating Procedure for what a task is, why we do it and what tools are required.
2. Record a Loom video of myself accomplishing the task.
3. Saving these Standard Operating Procedures in an organized Google Drive Folder for the VA to reference at any time.
I see this workflow being effective for the majority of roles I currently have employed.
From a leadership perspective, there are three things I strongly believe in:
1. It benefits nobody for you to not be clear and set strong expectations. You should know what you want going into this relationship and the VA should know what is expected of them.
2. It is far better to be strict at first and “chill out” later than the other way around. I give all VA’s a two-week “trial period”. If they don’t seem like they are a high-performer, I will let them go after this trial period. This keeps the company full of A-Players only.
3. Belief #2 only works if your team can see that you are the hardest worker on the team. This is not your team to command - this is your team to lead. Being lazy implicitly gives your team permission to be lazy - so it is up to you to set the tone for your company. A few months ago, I hired a new VA. In their second week, I got a message from them asking if I ever slept. You should always be the hardest worker on your team.
From a tool perspective, Loom is a god-send for training VA’s on accomplishing tasks. Written instructions are rarely helpful, compared to seeing someone actually accomplish the task.
I’ve hired over a dozen VA’s and have seen several situations unfold - both positive and negative.
One challenge I faced was being too trusting and optimistic. To be a successful entrepreneur, you have to innately believe things are going to work out. However, you should not blindly trust everything said by everyone.
A few months ago, I hired a VA who claimed to have 4 years experience in the role. After 3 weeks, it seemed like he barely knew anything about the role. We let him go and, during that conversation, he admitted he lied on his resume and had no experience.
I now drill-down much more during interviews to assess their level of competency in the role.
Another challenge I faced was “letting go of the reins”.
I am not a great delegator, as I hate the idea of something going wrong through no fault of my own.
However, we all only have 24 hours per day and you can’t do everything. A VA should help you focus your efforts in the best way possible, but that means trusting them with responsibility.
VA’s are essentially another you. These are real people who are every bit as capable as you are. So, when I hire 10 VA’s, I effectively have 10x’d my ability to work on and grow my business.
VA’s have given me my time back, peace of mind that the business can work in my absence and they also give me a sense of responsibility.
Some of my VA’s have families who, by extension, require my business to continue to put food on their plates and a roof over their heads. This motivates me to show up every day and perform for a cause bigger than myself.
Huge Thanks To Casey For Taking The Time To Do This Interview, If you interested in the shoe flipping game, Make Sure To Check Out:
His newsletter at KickFlips, a free daily email notifying you exactly what sneakers are available for you to make money flipping for a profit and his Twitter profile for more interesting content.
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