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Entrepreneurs who have small businesses and start-ups as well as solopreneurs and independent consultants often have one bad habit in common — we try to do everything ourselves. Yet, as one of my new Virtual Assistants recently told me, we need to know when to get out of our own way and focus our energies on the activities that make money. In my case, that focus is university marketing and communications, alumni and development communications and nonprofit and small business marketing.

Where to concentrate among all the things that come up each day is not always a simple equation — each of us must assess the tasks for maintaining or ramping up productivity in our business. However, as independents or entrepreneurs, we most juggle many things, aren’t particularly good at delegating, have a tendency to micro-manage and are reluctant to pay for something we know we can do even if it distracts our attention from what really matters.

Yet what I’ve come to learn as I study where I’m spending my time is that using VAs frees up my time to invest in my own knowledge work – the communications strategies I develop and implement for my university, nonprofit and small business clients. In other words, it takes a village!

What is a Virtual Assistant anyway? Technically a VA is an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services, according to the International Virtual Assistants Association. “Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office on a contractual basis” is how the IVAA describes the role.

Some of the most popular categories of VAs are those skilled at organization and maintenance (a host of clerical duties), project/meeting/event coordination, customer service and relationship building and personal assistance.  Others may have very specific expertise, such as graphic design, online research, webinar oversight, newsletters and press releases, website updates, marketing and growth management activities and social media management.

In this economy, professionals whose businesses have tanked or who have lost their jobs are becoming VAs pay the bills, stay busy and market themselves for new and more sustainable work. They are also entrepreneurs who are augmenting their own small businesses, professionals desirous of only part-time work and others otherwise known as “freelancers” or “consultants.”

Daria Steigman, whose Independent Thinking blog I follow, recently wrote about VAs for the International Association of Business Communicators. I also consulted Katie Gutierrez, founder of Assistant Match, which specializes in small businesses that are experiencing rapid growth and workload bottlenecks. Assistant Match finds the VAs and prescreens them, that in itself a major time-saver.

Here are some tips for expanding your team with VAs:

• Start with your own self-assessment. What are the priorities for your time? What are the things you can do but could delegate? What are the time-eaters that aren’t making you money but are part of doing business?
• Try out one or more people. Your VA has to be a good match with your temperament, processes (such as meeting your deadlines) and bring enough value that she/he is invaluable to maintaining and/or growing your business. It may take a few tries to find the right relationships so be prepared for that.
• Set up a time-limited test assignment to analyze the VA’s work and your investment.
• Don’t try to force fit all your needs into one VA — hire two or more for specific tasks if that makes sense to your needs, the specialties required and your operating style.
• Create a budget for your VA support, understand the parameters clearly and reevaluate the arrangement monthly. VAs typically are paid hourly, and if they are managed by an agency, billing will likely occur in 15-minute increments. Administrative support tends to be less than specialized skills such as graphic design and social media management.
• Establish performance expectations at the outset, just as you would with any professional providing a business service.

And communicate often! Out of sight does not mean out of mind in the virtual office. Employee development expert Marla Rosner has some very wise recommendations about long-distance delegation. Managing a VA is no different from managing any other assistant and requires professional courtesy, input and support, collaboration and feedback.

With fewer distractions and more efficiency, using VAs allows you to right-size your business and refocus creativity and time on what you should be doing to be successful.