How hiring an assistant has been the best thing i've done in 2024 so far

At first you do everything

When I started The Daily Wine, I went from wearing one hat as a Mechanical Engineer to wearing multiple hats at the same time:

• Customer Support
• Placing Orders
• Processing Invoices
• Finances
• Marketing
• Planning
• Coding

When you start a business, it’s not necessarily that you enjoy doing everything, you just cannot afford to hire anyone else, or at least it feels like you cannot.

At various stages, I considered hiring someone, but to be honest, I was scared of the financial commitment. It’s scary to think that someone else relies on you to pay their salary.

The opportunity presents itself

At the start of 2024, a mishmash of circumstances (beyond the scope of this blog) resulted in an opportunity to hire an executive assistant.

So I decided to go ahead and do it. I hired an energetic, witty young woman to work for me in the mornings every weekday. At first, I was not sure what I could delegate to her, so we started slowly.

Start with small tasks and then add more

• First, I created a shared inbox using Missive which allows both of us to read, reply, and even collaborate on emails. One of her tasks is to keep the inbox empty.
• Then she could start doing customer support.
• Next was daily wine orders from our suppliers.
• After that, we added order fulfillment with couriers.
• Finally, she started creating our social media posts and scheduling our social calendar.

Doing it right to ensure continuity

Most of the tasks my assistant is doing at the moment follow a standard procedure. This makes them ideal for setting up standard operating procedures (SOPs). Essentially, these are written documents stating, “if this happens, then do that.”

Why is this necessary?

When you teach someone to do something new, it’s mostly a massive information dump, and the person will miss a lot of what you are explaining. Asking them to write it down and reviewing it afterward ensures that everyone is on the same page.

The other benefit is that if someone else had to take over the role, it would ensure continuity.

Let’s be honest, the chances of someone working for you forever are extremely unlikely (no matter how much you would like them to). People have their own dreams they want to pursue and will spread their wings sooner or later.

Be clear with your assistant about this. They are not only setting up the SOPs for themselves but also for their future successor. Therefore, they should make an extra effort to make them complete.

The challenges of employing someone

Disclaimer: I am a terrible employee. I don’t like being told what to do and when to do it. I am self-motivated and I determine when I work and how hard. That’s why I became an entrepreneur.

With that as context, my approach was: treat them like you want to be treated

• Minimum rules
• Flexible work hours
• Don’t try to motivate them; they will be self-motivated
• Structure is not that important; they will find ways to contribute

The issue with the above assumptions is that if the person working for you is self-motivated, disciplined, maniacally driven to work, a self-starter, and looks for ways to contribute and better the company – THEY WOULD BE RUNNING THEIR OWN COMPANY

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that my executive assistant does not have these traits. What I am saying is, if they had all of them:

1. They wouldn’t be working for someone; or
2. I wouldn’t be able to afford them.

And that’s okay. Most people don’t want to start their own companies and work for themselves. They don’t want all the stress and responsibility. They just want to:

• Show up at work each day
• Know exactly what is expected of them
• Go home after work and forget about the job
• Get their paycheck at the end of the month

And that is perfectly fine.

The rewards of employing someone

I was a bit skeptical at first about the benefits of hiring someone. Would it really benefit me that much?

My skepticism was not warranted. At first, it took some effort to set up everything, but once my assistant started building up some confidence and everything clicked, we started working together very nicely.

I have managed to win back 3-5 hours per day. That’s up to 25 hours per week. This is significant, and I can now spend most of my days creating new value in my businesses, making them more robust.

Now I have more time to focus on new promotions (to drive more sales), more time coding (to automate and streamline), and more time on expanding the revenue streams.

How did I ever survive without an assistant?

A few weeks ago, I was driving in my car and reminiscing about how many hours per week I actually spent on the operational day-to-day activities of The Daily Wine. I estimated it to be 10 hours per week. In contrast to 30+ hours before, this is a massive WIN.

Then she went on holiday for two weeks, and I realized the true extent of what I am gaining by having her on my team. All of a sudden, I had to go back to doing everything I used to do before.

Now I find myself considering all the ways I can ensure that she stays on my team forever. (Selfish, I know, but I’ll cross that bridge when we get there.)

Here’s my challenge

1. Watch the In Time movie. It’s an old movie (2011) but it had a very creative angle. In the movie, the characters have no money. Instead, they buy, sell, and gamble using the amount of time they have left to live. We exchange our time for money, so we also pay for things using a fraction of the time we have left.
2. Hire someone to help:
   • Don’t wash your own car; pay someone.
   • Hire a house cleaner or nanny.
   • Hire someone to help with your admin.

I guarantee that the time you gain will be worth more than the money you pay.