How to confidently and successfully use Support Assistants to scale your business – in just 7 minutes
Marketing the Invisible
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Episode breakdown
Barbara Turley is an investor, entrepreneur, and Founder & CEO of The Virtual Hub – a company that recruits, trains, and manages support assistants for businesses who need to free up time and energy so they can go to the next level.
In this episode, Barbara shares the ins and outs, and the benefits of hiring a support assistant. If you have never hired a Support Assistant before, it could be hard to figure out where to begin. Barbara gives you a better picture of your starting point with your Support Assistant.
- Barbara’s ideal client
- Problem she helps solve
- Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Barbara
- Common mistakes people make when trying to solve that problem
- Barbara’s Valuable Free Action(VFA)
You've got to make sure your systems, processes, communication channels, and business structure are correct before you go this path.
In this episode
00:00 - Introduction and Guest Welcome
Tom Poland opens the interview by welcoming Barbara Turley, discussing their respective locations in Australia, and briefly touching on Barbara’s Irish background. He introduces her professional profile as the founder and CEO of The Virtual Hub and casually mentions her pregnancy.
01:45 - Ideal Client Profile
Barbara describes her ideal client as small to medium business owners engaged in digital marketing activities like social media, blogging, and funnels. She emphasizes that while they serve various niches, a digital strategy presence is essential.
02:10 - Problems The Virtual Hub Solves
Barbara explains that beyond providing support assistants, the core issues they address involve training, onboarding, managing support assistants, and preparing businesses for offshore team success. She highlights how many business owners underestimate the complexities involved.
02:39 - Challenges with Traditional Outsourcing Platforms
Tom and Barbara discuss the pitfalls of hiring freelancers through common platforms. Barbara points out that while it may seem like a quick win, it often becomes an additional job for business owners, and failure stories are common due to a lack of proper systems and preparation.
03:25 - Common Client Symptoms Before Seeking Help
Barbara identifies the signs that businesses experience before turning to The Virtual Hub: failed outsourcing attempts, difficulties finding and retaining quality support assistants, and challenges managing overseas staff. She notes how these frustrations lead to a lack of confidence in scaling efforts.
04:16 - Emotional Frustrations of Outsourcing Failures
Barbara discusses the emotional experience of seeing others succeed with support assistants while personally struggling. Many feel isolated and frustrated when they can’t replicate others’ apparent success.
04:31 - Common Mistakes People Make Before Seeking Help
Barbara outlines typical errors business owners make when trying to hire support assistants on their own. These include underestimating the recruitment effort, hiring based on rapport or interviews alone, and failing to prepare their business structure, systems, and reporting lines before onboarding a Support Assistant.
06:17 - Free Resource Recommendation
Barbara shares a free downloadable ebook, The Five Biggest Mistakes People Make with VAs and How to Fix Them, available at The Virtual Hub’s website. It offers insights into common pitfalls and how to avoid them.
06:45 - Actionable First Step Toward Successful Delegation
Barbara recommends mapping out recurring tasks in each business department, identifying which ones are easy to delegate. Creating simple processes for these tasks ensures consistency and makes outsourcing smoother and more controlled.
07:48 - Overlooked Question About Onshore vs Offshore Teams
Barbara highlights a frequently overlooked issue: the difference between spoken and written English proficiency among offshore Support Assistants, particularly in the Philippines. Strong verbal skills don’t always guarantee strong writing skills, which can be critical for certain roles.
