Most small business owners realize at some point that they can no longer continue to ‘do it all’ as they once did when starting out. They begin to consider what it might be like to start building a virtual team and get some support in their business. This usually happens when they are established and their business becomes successful. They are busy doing what they do best and find it necessary to start outsourcing the time consuming administrative tasks.

An Administrative Virtual Assistant is typically the first step in building a team. As a generalist your Administrative VA will assist with tasks such as managing your calendar, email correspondence and phone calls, customer service and document creation to name a few. In a successful business owner and VA partnership, over time (several months up to a year or more) the business owner will have experienced more growth and it becomes necessary to expand the team. Your VA generalist can continue to handle the administrative tasks and the logical next step is to find a VA who has the skills needed to create revenue generation strategies.

A Marketing/Technical Virtual Assistant who specializes in business support services that revolve around strategic planning, internet marketing and ecommerce can augment the support you are already getting and help take your business to the next level. Together you will strategize and she will use her expertise to help plan your marketing campaigns, set up your online shopping cart and carry out all the associated tasks for product and program launches. Newsletter creation and maintenance, article distribution, posting to your blog and website maintenance are commonly part of this specialty service package.

What are some other specialty services you as a business owner might want to consider adding when building a team?

A Social Media Specialist – to create your profile, your posts & generally maintain your social media presence and reputation by posting on social media sites on your behalf.

A Web/Graphics Specialist – to create your website and/or sales pages, design and create graphics.

Of course each business owner will have their own specific needs and each specialist will have specific service offerings tailored to their own skillset.

So now you have your team member or members, what next? If you’ve been a solopreneur up until now it can be difficult to let go but with the right people, good communication and a plan it can work very well.

Here are the 5 key elements to ensure you and your virtual team work together effectively:

1. Communication – Any method of communication will work as long as you’re consistent. Some people prefer a phone conversation over a series of emails back and forth. For others they like to have their conversations documented to refer back to later. Sometimes a simple text message will do.

2. Goal – The business owner must be clear about their goal, for example, “I want to double my annual sales.”

3. Strategize & Plan – What steps will be taken to reach the desired goal? The right team will be proactive and knowledgeable enough to suggest strategies and contribute to the plans.

4. Document – Keep track of to do’s and record details in a procedures manual. It can be a simple Word document or there are many online tools that are very effective. I have used Teamwork when working with a large team and it works very well to manage projects.

5. Analyze – Was the goal achieved? What worked and what didn’t? Do we need to change anything to meet the next desired goal?

So you see, solo is not the only way to go. Your team is probably one of the most important investments an established business owner will make. Building a virtual team to work with you with their complementary skills will help take your business successfully to the next level.