Something that has come up a lot during recent coaching sessions with my clients has been how much time blogging, newsletters and social media takes.
They feel as if they are constantly on their computer, spending hours at a time staring at screens, bogged down with blogs, newsletters, email sequences, and Instagram posts.
One client said to me just last week:
“Amanda, I feel like I am just constantly working in my business, but the weeks go by and I feel like all I have been doing is writing newsletters and blogs!!”
Can you relate?
If so, this post is for you! Watch the video or read on for how you overcome this problem…
How To Save Time In Your Business By Working With A VA:
It’s incredible how much time actually goes into something as “simple” as a blog post, a newsletter, or a social media post (or seven!)...
I guarantee you’re spending HOURS trying to do these tasks each week. I know my clients are!
But let me ask you, what else could you be focusing on in that time you’re spending at your laptop, bogged down in those tasks?
You could be using that time to:
Build your relationships with other health practitioners and coaches.
Host workshops, classes and events.
Approach local cafes about workshops, events & classes.
Host MeetUp groups, and getting out into your community more.
Schedule “business lunches” and build in-person relationships.
Pursue corporate wellness opportunities.
Build relationships that can benefit you with other online entrepreneurs.
Attend networking events.
Pitch yourself for Podcast interviews.
Get PR for your business.
Coach more clients!!
The truth is...
There’s so much you can do — and need to be doing — to get clients and build your business beyond blogging and newsletters!!
And I see so many people neglecting in-person relationship building, or actually getting clients and PR… Because they’re constantly bogged down in “online” tasks… spinning their wheels blogging, worrying about growing their email list, posting to social media etc.
That is only ONE part of puzzle, and definitely not enough to hit $5K months.
Of course, you DO want to be building that tribe… growing a loyal audience of people who follow you online. And that only happens with consistency. Showing up in this work regularly. Which takes a large chunk of time and energy!!
This is where a Virtual Assistant (VA) comes in, and can be a huge asset.
“But Amanda, I’m not earning enough to hire a VA!”
Many new coaches have a ‘money block’ around hiring a VA. Even if you’re not making lots of money, I would still strongly advise you to look at hiring a VA seriously.
It’s a Wealth Consciousness piece, too.
Because hiring a VA is an investment in your business — and yourself (because your time and energy are finite).
And the good news is, investing in a VA doesn’t have to be a big expense, especially when you have a streamlined, time-saving system in place.
With the system I’m going to share with you, you’ll only need a VA for 2 hours per week.
It’s not a lot of time, but frees up a lot of YOUR time and energy.
It will mean you’re consistent with your content — AND you have time for OTHER client-generating activities beyond blogging and newsletters.
Because the reality is:
If you focus all your energy, and use all your time, on things that can easily be outsourced to someone else — then you’re stunting the growth of your business.
Right now, do an audit of the tasks in your business, and ask yourself, is that time of your highest use, and getting a good return on investment?
Ask yourself…
How many hours are you really spending on smaller tasks in your biz?
Say you’re being paid $150 an hour when you coach — is that 4 hours on your computer writing, editing, graphic-making, scheduling, posting, actually making you $600?!
Probably not.
Your time is only going to get more and more cramped…
And although you can’t buy more time for yourself, you CAN buy someone else’s time.
Do you feel uncomfortable or nervous about delegating tasks?
Don’t. It’s essential!
I’m a little bit of a control freak too ;-) and I know it’s hard to let go of things in your business…
But simple tasks like proofreading, editing, graphic-creating, and scheduling blog posts, newsletters and social media is something that someone else can do JUST FINE. *cough cough* maybe even better and quicker than you can!
Delegating those smaller tasks (that you probably RESENT) creates more space for tasks that you LOVE — Like coaching, teaching, connecting, community and relationship-building…
It creates space for you to take action on other things that bring IN clients and create income….
A woman who makes $5K months does MORE than just blogging..., and she has a VA to support her!
Here’s MY streamlined, ultra-efficient system that you can start using with a VA immediately.
In this system, YOU are the content creator, and you write (or record) ONE blog post a week.
That’s IT.
Then your VA will turn that one piece of content into a polished blog post — publish it with proper graphics and formatting — send it out as a newsletter — repurpose the blog post into several social media posts for FB or Instagram — and schedule/send/publish everything.
All you need to do, once you’ve written the one blog post, is to review and approve each piece of content before it goes out.
SIMPLE. STREAMLINED. CONSISTENT CONTENT ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS.
That takes only 2 hours of YOUR time, tops, to write the post.
And you hand the rest over to your VA.
Here’s the complete, step-by-step process for you, below.
System Outline: A step-by-step process for weekly content generation with a VA.
You (the business owner):
Brainstorm ideas in a Google doc for possible blog posts (optional)
Choose the ideas that most resonate (optional)
Plot the blog posts into a content calendar (optional)
Outline blog post in bullet points or short sentences.
Create a draft of your blog post.
Your Virtual Assistant:
Blog post (Steps 1 - 9) ⇢ Newsletter (Steps 10 - 13) ⇢ Social Media (Steps 14 - 18)
Review blog post and check spelling
Input the blog post into website
Check formatting – make use of headings and subheadings.
Create Pinterest-friendly graphic for blog post (optional but recommended)
Source relevant and meaningful imagery for body content (if applicable).
Make sure all images have file names and file descriptions using SEO keywords relevant to the blog post.
Finalise blog post draft for final approval from you
Once approved, schedule blog post to go live (blog posts go live weekly).
Once blog post is live, share on Pinterest and any additional relevant boards.
Draft newsletter content in Email Platform using the blog post as content and link to the blog post to “read more” or “leave a comment”.
Check with you for any additional promotional content or ‘Calls to Action’ that need to be included in the newsletter.
Send a preview of the newsletter to you for review/approval
Once approved, schedule your newsletter for release to the mailing list.
Create 2-4 social media posts or “snippets” from the Blog Post to share on Instagram/FB.
Source relevant and meaningful imagery for Instagram posts (if applicable)
Draft Instagram posts in Social Media Scheduler for you to approve.
Once approved, schedule Instagram posts.
You hit publish when you receive a notification on your phone, sharing to Insta & FB.
I also created a PDF version of this process, which you can grab here.
Amanda xx
PS. After you hire a VA to help you out, you’ll have more time to attract dream clients to your business. Grab my FREE “How To Attract Dream Clients” playbook to action with that extra time up your sleeve by clicking the button below!
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