How to use a VA to support your products business – with Melissa Gauge, SpareMyTime

Welcome to the, bring your product ideas to life podcast, practical advice, and inspiration to help you create and sell your own physical products. He is your host Vicki Weinberg. Hi,

And as always, thank you so much for being here. So if you have a small products business, or perhaps you're just in the process of starting one up, or even just thinking about it, you might be in a position where you are doing everything yourself, and it doesn't have to be that way. I mean, in the beginning and perhaps it does, but you know, in the future, it's always good. If you can get, if you can outsource it, it will pick up a little bit of help and get some time back. So today I'm speaking to Melissa Gauge, Melissa is the founder of Spare My Time, which is an innovative business support, a virtual assistant service for a small businesses in the professionals, as well as the franchise model for those look into work flexibly while still we're having a supporter of a network. So I, as Melissa will explain She, how are we as moms to work in her business?

And they provide VA support in all kinds of areas. And today we are going to talk specifically about products, businesses, and the kind of things that you could perhaps outsource to a VA in your business to free up a bit more time for yourself. So this is a really interesting conversation, personally, I'm terrible at outsourcing. I have good intentions, but sometimes it just seems the easiest hold on to things and we are going to talk, are we going to talk through some of the concerns people have, some of the reasons people don't outsource and Melissa is going to really help us understand the benefits of, of getting some help when you need it and want. And obviously when you could afford to do that when you're at the right stage. So I'm yeah, we cover to cover a lot, so I'm not going to talk anymore.

And I, instead I mentioned in the GC talk to Melissa, So hi, Melissa. Thank you so much for being here.

Hello.

Sorry. Can we start, Please, if you give an introduction to yourself, your business and what it is that you do

Well, I'm Melissa Gauge and I'm the founder of a business called Spare My Time we provide virtual assistance, dominantly, an admin, but keeping and social media and all of our VA's and mums. And so the reality is they're all upgrading their skills. They're all incredibly experienced, but because of the pressures of childcare, uhm, we are assisting our small businesses to get exceptional support at the same time, creating a flexible working for them.

Amazing. Thank you. So obviously I have invited you on here to talk about the kind of things that are VA could help a business Webb. So I'm assuming that some people will be at this stage where they hadn't even thought about ever sort of one thing helps as you, maybe that was the best place to start. So when, When it's a good time you start working with the VA or would you say?

Well, I mean the reality is the best time to start working with the VA is before you actually need one. Because as soon as you start feeling the pressure that you need, additional hands on decks, you would probably actually lose the momentum and it will take your son amount of time to be able to pick that speed up. And also you probably want to have the structure and flows in place in your business to be efficient. However, that is obviously an ideal world. Umm, so I have sort of two little exercises that I give people to work out. If it will be efficient and effective and economical for them to start outsourcing.

Now as a rule of thumb, a VA is always the most economical way to get support because I'm the reality is that you are not having to pay it any fixed costs. You know, there will be pretty self-sufficient that have their own computer that have their own systems and stuff like that. And they also have a fast, an array of experience because they would be working with other people at the same time. So on that basis is always an economical choice. However, the, to add a little Exercises that I suggest to people that they do when they're thinking, do they need a little bit of sort of, of support are all of these? And the first one is work out what your own hourly rate is.

to do those tasks. So you would be doing which aren't revenue generating because is key. You know, you're a principal business to business activity is what you need to focus on it or anything that distracts you from your, your parents will activity is not making money. So those are the tasks that you're going to look at outsourcing.

So for example, the average rate of a VA is about 25 pounds an hour a day in the UK for admin. If you're only more than 25 pounds an hour, then it's worth outside of the outsourcing. And the thing that is not revenue producing. So first of all, work out your hourly rate and then just do some basic maths. The second exercise that I would think is worthwhile. It's just spend a couple of days writing every task that you do and, and then go through that list and work out, which of those you need to do that either, right? The revenue generating or you're the only person who has a scale.

So you can do them and then work from the rest of the last, what you could outsource UN in that, working out what you could outsource your probably work out things that don't actually need to be done as well. So just being in those and by the time you've done those two exercises, you'll have a, quite a good idea of what you can visibly outsource and be really specific. And if it's going to be cost effective for you to do so,

Thank you. And by doing these exercises, would they give you an idea of how much time he needed a VA for it as well? Because I know, I mean some VA's I know charge by the hour. So I want you to sort of commit to a, a, a block or a month. How would you work out sort of what kind of time commitment you needed from somebody?

Well, that really, really depends on there are experienced. So if you have a really experienced VA, the reality is that they will statistically a Work three times quicker than you will. So if you're spending hours going through your emails, the reality is your VA has a skill set, is to be able to monitor and manage your emails in a much quicker rate than you would be able to. So it, it, it has to be a dialogue that you have with them. And it also depends on your VA, you know, as you said that they might do day blocks or half day blocks, or they might do hourly Brooks, all of which can be very successful.

The, It again has to be a conversation with how they work that you might find. If you take a day block or just be mindful that you need to work out, you know, what your rate of return is on that. If you're going to have somebody for eight hours effectively, which is a day and how quickly or a task, and to be turned around, how much of that day are you going to have allocated to your tasks? Because there probably be managing all the one client and, and you know, just exactly what does that mean. Obviously the most transparent way of doing things is on an hourly rate, but not everybody works in that way, but really as a conversation to have with your VA, because they will know what that is, how quickly they are, skill sets, you know, the land and towards the tasks that you ask him to do.

Yeah.

Thank you for that. And do you know what I didn't actually consider the fact that the next payments VA, you could do things quicker because I can probably a lot of us, there were definitely tasks that I feel I can do very well and I can do very quickly. And of course somebody else could do them, but then you think it will take some time to explain how to do it and you think, Oh, so it was probably the best way to do it myself, because

it will take time to explain how someone else needs to do it. Hadn't actually for that. Yes, of course you need to invest that time, but afterwards they probably will be able to do it quicker and more efficiently than you do. Hadn't even considered that say thank you. Cause I think that's a really good insight.

We, we, we see it at the whole time and it's, you know, lot of people put off getting a VA because they are scared of that, that period of trying to climatize them to that business and getting up to speed on their system's and all those kind of things. But the reality is is that if you've got a new experience for a year, they would have seen a number of systems already. They might have better systems that they can suggest because then they're working with a number. And also, and this is the way that I explained it. 'cause this is how I can look at my brain too. You know, the, the, the girls that I work with and everybody's brain works differently. And hence everybody has two different skillsets.

I'm most people who lend themselves towards being a VA have brains that work in a different way to say some people who were maybe more artistic or, you know, sales orientated, or whatever it might be. But the way that I describe it in my brain feels like cooked spaghetti. And that's how my brain works. You know, it is grasshopper, I think very quickly. I do, you know, I roll things out really quickly, get things done very quickly, but the majority of girls who work for me as VAs, I always think their brains are street spaghetti. So they look at tasks and they will absolutely be streamlined them. They will see, you know, that glimmer of light that I wouldn't have seen because I'll be off doing something else or being distracted.

Or my Mac PRI brain will be off somewhere else, which is probably a typical sign of an entrepreneur. But the reality is they look at something and they'll see a very, very clear system in flow. And that's where they can do things. You know, what you might be able to do. You probably can do it, but they can just do it better quicker and in an app and probably a more precise. And, and it's not the saying that anyone was better than anyone else. It is just a different way of doing things.

And it's really interesting. Thank you. So what are the kind of things that VA can help your business with it?

Well, it depends what your business is. Number one, and it depends who you are talking to. Number two. So the VA is a massively, massively, massively broad sweeping spectrum. And, and, and our business. We've got an admin, we've got a bookkeeping, got a social media. And we, we put them in to those silos because they are totally different disciplines, but some VA's might be able, we've got one VA. He works on every single discipline, which was quite unusual, but a lot of VA is, can do a lot of stuff. And if you were, if you are talking about a product based business and it can be anything from, you know, incredibly practical stuff, just

helping you with orders, helping you make sure that things, you know, do the completing finishing so that they can make sure that your client's experience is seamless, which whilst that's an incredibly important part of the process and is the difference between being y'know A-class and being C-Class.

So you could have the same product, but if you have that wonderful customer flow, that it just looks actually, they seem as if it puts you into that. And that's sort of different I'm kind of level doesn't get when somebody thinks, Oh my God, that was just, you know, like, you know, that it was just really Slack and that's the kind of things that people can help you with. They were all girls do a lot of like Product analysis research. We just had somebody doing some really wonderful packaging research for one of our product based businesses. And it's, that's again, taken her business from Scott, a beautiful product. But the research that Rose has done on her behalf has got these wonderful packages is, and has taken it into that sort of luxury field.

So those things that once you could do it yourself, you know, somebody else who it's their role to do, we'll just do it better because they don't have any distractions.

That's really helpful. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah.

Before you start talking about, you know, doing your invoicing and your board and all of that kind of stuff, that in a very practical term, if you want your business to be, she had just run very smoothly and reflect incredibly well to clients. It just, it gives it a big edge.

Yeah. Thank you. I know, I think, and also, you know, VA can obviously help with things like customer service and answering customer emails and queries things that I've had VA's D for me in the past as well, it includes, so you can get VA's that may be specialized in some of the software you might be using as a product business, say something like Shopify or eBay or Amazon, you know, if you want people to upload listings for you to update your inventory or anything like that. And actually, if you are listening to this and you're just getting started, even things like contacting suppliers, if you're looking for quotes, if you, you know, you can provide the list and you can ask if VA to do that work for you 'cause while it's it's fair, you know, it's not a particularly difficult.

What are they doing exactly that for somebody at the moment, he's got a child's bath, right? It's a beautiful product. And they just want to go to awards, but less one of our girls. And she was calling around all of the buyers of luxury buyer's and she's working out what the processes are to be able to get the product until it, which is absolutely, you know, anybody can do. But the reality is it takes time and dedication and, you know,

and, and when that is your role, you will take it to the next level when you will make sure that you do it incredibly well, because that is what your focus is. And that is what you know, and that's what you're there to deliver.

So, yes, that's a really good one. And we do have you do get asked that question a lot.

Yeah, absolutely. I think anything that's going to take a lot of time, and this is something that I've learnt from my own experience. Anything that's going to take you a lot of time and takes your way from the things that only you can do is worth considering investing in because you, you can spend hours on the task that I'm important that actually, you know, you don't necessarily do we need to be the one to do them.

Absolutely. And going back to your comments about software that's, it is a really good one, but they were in that circumstance. Right. And, you know, we do a lot of stuff with software, particularly integrating it with things like zero, which has an accounting platform. A lot of people come to us with Shopify and probably that, you know, books and Not the street as the way that they would have liked them to be on the neatest, a form that they really liked to, but they wouldn't have understand it and understood, you know, the different automations that you can have, or, you know, there's little things that by talking to someone who was effectively is seeing it in a lot of different other scenarios, you can actually access greater.

I'm a greater skill-set and a greater users have software that you're working on. So yes, it actually, it goes down to the uploading photos or, you know, just that, those manual tasks, which quite frankly, you don't need to do yourself to actually being able to utilize your soft wear to a much better degree, because you're using someone who uses a lot.

Yeah. And I'm guessing as well, one of the advantages that, you know, you were working with someone who's worked for other people, and this is probably a lot more familiar with some things then you are, especially if you're just starting out. And even if you've been going for a while, there's, you know, if someone's working with something day in, day out, or they've worked with multiple clients, chances are, they've never known a few things that you don't know, which is invaluable. I remember it was a while ago now somebody showed me how to integrate my inventory management system with all the platforms that I

sell my products on. Yeah. It was just amazing. And not having to actually manually go in and say, Oh, I've only got eight of these now. Well, this one was sold out, but just having everything integrated, it was like, you know, that one thing save so much time and I never, ever would have even thought about it.

And he knew how to do it. And to someone else that was such a simple thing that probably to, you know, half an hour and it just save so much time say, yeah, I'm all for getting help.

Well, part of that is actually just knowing that that software is available. 'cause why, why should, you know, really, quite frankly, because that's not, you know, that's not your business, that something that facilitates you're business, but that's not your business. So why should you be an expert in everything surrounding what lets you do your business? You shouldn't be scared to help out the, you know, ask people for help and ask people for ideas. And that's not just on using a VA, but that's asking how other people, and that's why, you know, things like podcasts or a fantastic, because it's a sharing of, of, of knowledge and experience. But the reality with the VA is that they are surrounded by this the whole entire time. And they are surrounded by people's problems, which is a very, very good learning place.

And so, you know, I never be scared to ask a, Beyond the sort of Beyond the kind of the gist outsourcing, what you, you know, you don't need to do yourself, never be scared to ask you a VA, you know what they think. Well, they've seen what if they see me work with other people because you are, you're sitting with a treasure trove of Experience there and they might, you know, they might have some gems that you just are

not aware of.

That was really interesting. Thank you. So we were definitely both on board with the fact that having a VA really help your business, but how would you go about finding a VA and specifically, what is your best advice on finding the VA that's going to really suit you and you're business and the way you work, I guess, as a, as a person. And I know that it was quite a big question, but I know you have a lot of experience. So what would you say?

I know that that sort of VAs come up, it comes in as many, many format's. So the first is doing those exercises, writing that nest, you will have a successful relationship with Your VA. There are lots of different points in this room, but the key is to be incredibly specific as what you need done. There was no point in going to a VA and say, Oh, well, I'd like to hear my bookkeeping, Darren. And I'd also like you to manage my Instagram. And I'd like you to upload it to my stuff on eBay. And yeah, because the reality is, is multiple skill sets. But if you have are very specific it with what you need to do, you can sit down and say, this is my list of

things. Do you think I need done? What can you do for my list? And you can work out if those are the priorities to you.

And, and don't believe that anyone who can say they can do everything because you can't be a, you can't be brilliant at absolutely everything in life, but you need to work out that their skillsets align with your priorities. That's the number one key thing to do in terms of finding a VA, you know, that they asked people who are in similar industries, You that's a really good place to go. There are lots of, sort of Facebook groups to go on to that. You can have a look and you can ask around and, and that hundreds of thousands of people are on and, you know, sort of freelance Facebook groups. And I'm sure you will be inundated with people who are, who were keen to talk to you.

And the way I would talk to people, you know, in your industry or who do similar things to you and ask them if they know anyone or have a referral. But remember that a VA is a very, very personal thing. So what works for somebody else might not work for you. So always have that in your back of your mind. You've got lots of different opportunities. When you hire a VA, you can go direct, which is absolutely nothing. When we're at UW, there are lots of videos out there who were working on a freelance basis and, you know, and, and you, you can just go to them direct. And the upside of it is that you will be, you know, they can only have a certain of clients and that will be, and that will be one that will be you.

And there are certain legal and technical things. I ask that if anyone is aware of this as a piece of legislation coming in, and this year it's been delayed, you have to be very, very careful. If you are employing a VA, one-on one like that, that you've employing a freelancer's that you are not there. So as an employer, and I'm not going to get into, I'll set you up because you're, you know, like for you to sleep on it, but just to be very careful. But if you are employing someone for a certain amount of hours that they have, they can demonstrate that they've got a number of other clients, because I was, you might find that you have four or five of the fall of Iowa, 35 and you were deep in their employer.

Okay. So before we do move on, from that point, it is there job, is there a certain number of hours, but I RFS you have cut because I I'm thinking of, I F I R for 35 is a bit of mouthful, isn't it? And so, for example, if someone's doing sort of five hours a month, let's say 10 hours a month, I'm assuming that it is part of the time, but is there, is there ever sort of a limit at which point people were going to start looking at you and say you were actually this person's employer

That, I mean, there absolutely is. And, and I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not going to give advice.

It's a ruler as

A rule of thumb. If you are employing someone on a weekly basis for a set number of hours, and those hours are more than, you know, if you've got somebody for one hour a week, quite frankly, it's going to be hard for anyone to argue that you were their main employer, but if you were employing somebody for a day, a week, two days, a week, three days a week, but in a freelance capacity, the reality is you need to be comfortable that you are not their main source of income. I, as a rule of thumb, I would say that's probably quite a good place to start, because if it is that you are there a significant employer, then the, they should probably have some employment rights from you that, you know, that's the basis.

It's a good letter of the legislation. The basis of it is that they know that that freelancers don't miss out on employment rights. So just be mindful if you're starting to get to that place where you'd be employing someone for 20 hours a week, quite frankly, they are an employee, aren't they? So if there's a sort of a certain moral code to it, but if you're having a harmful of hours a month, then you know, you're not in that kind of space. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. I'm so glad to sort of go down that rabbit hole. I just felt that just in case anyone heard of that and sort of immediately started worrying about what that means is that at least hopefully we've got some minds at rest then. I mean, I know, cause I think the, most of us are the hours we are going to be looking at are going to be like, I, I think not even a part-time job, you know,

And that was totally fine. You will be absolutely fine if it's on a monthly basis, it was absolutely fine. If you got two, three hours, you know, if you're in, if you're doing a day a week, if you're a VA is very active, you know, when you are one of 20 clients and it is neither here nor that you're not their main employee and it's not as something to worry about, but it is just is something that you were, once you stop venturing into this world, like help at getting people to help you virtually remotely. And as you know, on the freelance basis, if there is something that is definitely worth well, thank you. And so I think taking off track, no, no, don't worry too. Oh my God. I can talk about it. I have 30 for like four hours then the other thing actually, and it sort of does that lead into it is that the other option is to, you know, obviously we use the agency of which we are in a S in essence, we are an agency, even though we all are, VA's worked for us, you know, spend my time when we have clients effectively it's agency type model.

And the benefit of an agency type model is I are 35 or, you know, it is its all responsibility as an agency to make sure that we're managing that. But also, you know what it is the, the diversity of skillset. So if you have an individual VA, which can be fantastic, if you can build a wonderful relationship with them. And the reality is that you are also exposed to their skills gaps just as you were exposed to your own skills gaps, you know, on the basis that everybody can't do everything, they cannot be presented, everything you were exposed to their skills gaps, and it all in the, the model that we work or, you know, you can get an agency who will find you a VA, which will help with that matching, you know, so that worry of who do I need?

Where do I start? Are we going to be a good skills match or are we going to be a good personality match? Because that's another really big thing. You know, you, it's a very, very personal relationship with somebody who is helping you with your business or your personal life, or, you know, there's a very close relationship that you would have. So it's a, you know, personality is, I do play a big role. So you can have somebody who will actually go and find you a bit like a recruitment agent, or you can have a disease such as ours where, you know, we have a number of VA's and whilst you'll have your own VA, who was the point of contact. And if they find that they have the skills gap or they can then reach in to the group and say, my clients has got this problem, or this is what the issue we're looking to address right now, has anyone come across it?

And there's a skill share so that, you know, that is another option out there for you, the final option. And this is the only one that I would say just to be a little bit wary of is going abroad for your VAs, which was very popular, you know, going to some way or where you will be able to employ someone for a lot of money. And the only way they can work very, very well. I'm not going to do it on the quality front or anything like that. The only thing I would say, if you were in a product type business or you have customer service, as part of the roll, just really makes sure that the person that you decide to employ has a cultural understanding of your client base, because there is, can be a lot missed in a lack of cultural understanding.

And if you, if you're looking for somebody to help you with your customer relations, you need to have somebody who understands exactly what that entails. So that would be the only thing I would say to watch out for on that front.

That was good advice. Thank you. I guess. Yeah. Whoever you choose to work with, whoever, wherever their base, they need to have a good understanding of who your customer is. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. So let's see how, so once you F you found a VA to work with what's some advice you have got on how you can have a really good productive working relationship. I suppose, knowing what you want from that person is a good first step. Is there anything else that you can do either ahead of bringing someone on or especially particularly the early stages to just make sure that you both get what you need out of it?

We need to be incredibly clear. Do you need to be cleared? And this was the whole entire time. It's never stops. You need to be a very good at communication. And to be very clear that the more precise your instructions are, the better your job your VA can do. And it's, this is the same way in life with anything. Isn't it. If you give very clear and concise instructions, people at which people can follow it, and then you're going to get exactly the result that you want, the reality is it, it doesn't always work that way. It doesn't hurt you if you would like for you to be in a bit of a rushed and go, ah, how do you think you could do, you know, could you sort out that customer who asked her this as a question and you put a lot of a, you know, you, you needed them to be very proactive.

The reality is don't try and jump to that station straight away. There's no way that somebody can understand your business as soon as you hit go. So write them a detailed, less of the tasks in general, you would like them to do and write them the systems that you use and, you know, and ask them if they've got to experience in those systems, explain to them, if there's any other systems you'd like them to have a look at while they're doing it. So just so that they have that kind of general overview and the amount of time that you put in at the beginning towards educating your VA, you will, when that time back in the long run, because there will be at a better position to be able to hit the ground running.

If suddenly, as you know, every two weeks we were having to give them a bit more information and sort of drip feed it. They're never going to get the whole picture and it's going to take them until you finished giving them all the information, how many weeks it might take to be up to speed. If you sit down, you have however long it is going to take with some detailed notes that they can then refer back to, or, you know, have a zoom meeting and record the calls so that they can go back into it. You know, that they were brilliant when there's so much fantastic talent Knology nowadays, but have a point that they can go back and they can refer back to what you've asked them to do, because you know, it, it, it just gives them something to fall back on and make sure that they can deliver the job to your expectations.

Other than that communication communication is absolutely the number one way of getting a great result from your VA.

Amazing. Thank you. So just before we finish up, Melissa, what is your number one piece of advice for someone looking to work from the VA and it's possibly something that you already covered, and that was fine, but what would be the one takeaway you want people to have

Just keep talking to them if they don't leave them to go off on a spiral or, you know, and just keep talking to them, ask for updates, be very precise. And when you want Work returned to you, you have to give deadlines, just be very clear in your communication. Yeah,

That was great. Thank you. And finding Melissa or where can people find out more about you and spend my time and all of the services at you and your VA's offer?

Well, we've got a website which is SpareMyTime.com, but I'm very active on Instagram, Spare My Time. And I'm always sharing business tips, productivity tips on there and say, come in and say, hi, hi there. I have always got something to say,

Thank you so much. And I will link to everything in the show notes, as well as making it super easy, to be able to find G well thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for all that you've shared. Yeah. I think this is really valuable. Thank you.

Well, it has been an absent pleasure. Thank you so much for having me on

Your welcome. I really hope you enjoy this conversation with Melissa as always. If you have a second to rate and review of the show, that would be fantastic. And please, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. So you don't miss out on any of the fantastic interviews we've got coming up. Say thank you again for being here. I really hope you enjoyed it and speak with you next week.