Delegate to elevate: How letting go can grow your business
Talking with Teri
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Episode breakdown
Barbara is an investor, entrepreneur, and Founder & CEO of The Virtual Hub – a business she started by accident that exploded in its first 12 months to become one of the leading companies that recruits, trains and manages support assistants in the digital marketing and social media space for businesses who need to free up time and energy so they can go to the next level.
The company’s mission is to eradicate small business overwhelm and pave the way for more businesses to scale successfully using offshore team strategies.
Barbara is also Mum to Ruby & Alexander, wife to her best friend Eti and an adventure lover with a passion for horses, skiing, tennis and timeout in nature.
- How Barbara started her support assistant business
- What’s the biggest challenge that Barbara Turley faced when building The Virtual Hub
- Why delegation is important
- What’s the biggest challenge that entrepreneurs have about delegating to an assistant
- Why having the right systems and structures in your business is important
- How to be a successful business owner while being a mom
A business is a machine, whether we like it or not, it has impact, and it can be beautiful... if you want to delegate effectively, you first must have the right operational framework
In this episode
00:00 Introduction to business growth challenges
Teri introduces the show and highlights the universal challenge for businesses: the catch-22 of needing to grow to hire, but needing to hire to grow. She frames the conversation around overcoming limiting beliefs, self-sabotage, and imposter syndrome.
01:12 Barbara Turley’s entrepreneurial journey
Barbara shares her transition from corporate investment banking to entrepreneurship. Her business journey began accidentally during a financial crisis when she helped clients find assistants, which organically grew into a formal company.
04:10 The Virtual Hub’s business model and purpose
Discussion on how The Virtual Hub trains assistants based on client needs, creating a culture prioritizing both client satisfaction and staff well-being. The company’s purpose, “unlocking dreams,” focuses on helping both business owners and virtual staff achieve their personal and professional goals.
07:35 Biggest challenges in building the business
Barbara recounts the challenges she faced starting the business without prior experience in HR, recruiting, or leadership. She emphasizes the importance of listening to feedback from both clients and staff, continuously rebuilding processes, and committing to mastering delegation and systems.
09:50 The art and difficulty of delegation
A candid conversation about entrepreneurs’ resistance to process mapping and operational systems. Barbara highlights how avoiding operational structure undermines delegation and how systems increase a company’s asset value.
12:53 Systems, structure, and business scalability
Using examples like McDonald’s and referencing the book E-Myth Revisited, they discuss how systems and operational frameworks are essential for business scalability, sustainability, and avoiding over-reliance on individual employees.
16:41 Balancing business ownership and motherhood
Barbara shares her motivation to build a business that accommodates motherhood, debunking the belief that you must choose between family and career. She reflects on lessons learned about avoiding burnout and the importance of preserving personal time.
18:27 Prioritizing personal time and strategic thinking
Barbara talks about integrating personal space into work routines, particularly for leadership roles, to foster strategic thinking. She emphasizes that this practice benefits both individual well-being and business growth.
19:43 Essential tools and resources for business growth
Barbara recommends Asana or Trello for project management and Scaling Up by Verne Harnish as pivotal resources. These tools transformed how she operated her business and scaled operations effectively.
23:02 Closing thoughts and practical advice
Teri reiterates the importance of identifying tasks outside one’s zone of genius and using resources like The Virtual Hub’s assistant task list to delegate effectively. She encourages listeners to free themselves from operational overwhelm to reclaim time and business growth potential.
