As soon as you step into the world of entrepreneurship, you can’t help but see opportunities everywhere. Before you know it, you’ve got numerous businesses under your belt and chaos ensues.
Jumping from one business to another can lower your productivity. At one point, you might find one of your businesses suffering. As a serial entrepreneur, you need someone to anchor you and keep you updated with everything that’s going on.
Ever notice why most successful serial entrepreneurs always have that one person beside them?
An overarching Assistant (or VA or EA):
1. Connects you to all your businesses
Having an overarching assistant means this person does not belong to any single businesses of yours. He or she is not really a part of any of your company’s team but he is involved. He knows what’s going on in each of your businesses, knows your team, knows what needs to be done and knows what need your attention the most. This person will be able to give you updates on your businesses and direct you to where you are needed the most. In addition, you can count on this person to pull a fast one (that is, do something urgent) for you without you having to explain what it’s about.
2. Connects you to your personal life
Since this person will also be working with you and not for a single business you own, he or she will definitely be aware of your personal needs, who your family is, where you need to go, even the promises you made. He’ll prioritize and would even stop you from committing to something if there’s a conflict with your partner’s birthday, children’s recital. This person will keep you balanced and remind you to spend time on you, your family and your friends.
3. Acts like a project manager
You probably have project managers in your businesses to make sure projects are happening. This is what an overarching VA will do to your businesses. Since he or she knows all of your businesses, he can manage the things that you need to do for each. Think of it this way, a project manager oversees various projects in your business, from operations to marketing, customer support, sales and more. Your overarching VA will oversee your businesses just like how a project manager does.
4. Acts like a consultant
And since this person sees everything from one business to another but is not really a part of the team or day to day operations, this person can give you an objective point of view for issues or decisions that you’ll need to face. He or she can also see the good points of each business and can make suggestions on what to improve on. Like, “hey your team in business 1 does this and it gets this effect, so maybe you could try it in business 2.”
5. Keep you sane
The most important of all, with all the things you need to juggle, this person will keep you sane. He or she will be there to keep you on your toes and make sure you get to do everything that you need to do and even help you with them.
If you don’t have an overarching VA or assistant, now is the time to have one. It’s probably one of the best decisions you’ll ever make.
