Diary of a Small Business Owner, Jackie Nees Virtual Assistant Edition: T-T-T-Team?

Team – for many small business owners, this is a very familiar word that brings about feelings of comfort and peace knowing that things are getting done by talented, capable people. For me, it brings about feelings of panic and terror.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think teams are great. In fact, I am a member of several as a VA, and I believe that when the right people join together for a common goal, it can be magical. I’ve always thought it was great for other people but not for me. Until recently, that is.

Since I started my VA business people have often asked me, “do you work with a team or do you do everything yourself?” My answer was always a proud and resounding, “I do everything myself. My clients are very important to me and I’m a control freak so I don’t want to leave their projects in someone else’s hands.” Lately though, I’m starting to wonder if my “control freakishness” (is that a word?) is getting in the way of my business growth. I mean, there are only so many hours in the day and only one me, right? How can I continue to move forward with all of my big plans going solo?

Ironically I have had two clients in the last few weeks ask me if I had planned on working with a team eventually because they would like to see me hand off some of the little stuff to someone else while I oversee everything and help them with the big stuff. First of all, it’s a huge confidence booster to hear comments like that and ideally, yes, that’s exactly what I would love to do. Enter panic and terror.

My excitement builds at the thought of gathering my team of assistants and giving them their project assignments leaving me with more time to do bigger things and take on more clients. But then my heart starts pounding and thoughts begin racing. Thoughts like, “Where will I find these amazing people?”, “How can I find someone inexpensively?”, “What do I hand off and what do I do myself?”, “Am I ready to manage someone other than myself?”, “Can I let go of my control issues where some things are concerned and trust someone else to do it?” It’s enough to make a girl reach for the nearest wine glass.

So, this week is going to be all about giving this team thing some deep thought. I think I’ve come to grips with the fact that I do need help, I just have to figure out the logistics of what that looks like for me. Maybe I should take baby steps and start thinking in terms of one other person instead of the big “T” word looming over my head. Yes, that feels better already. I think I’m ready. Well, almost. Where did I put that wine glass again?