"I just can't do email anymore" and other signs you need an assistant

​567. Five hundred sixty-seven soul-sucking messages.

567. That's how many emails lurked in my inbox when I got back from Peru last week. 567 missives from both humans and from bots telling me the news in Africa, offering me all the wealth of a Saudi prince if I just send over my social security number, and dozens of cold outreaches from software developers and recruiters. 567 annoying, overwhelming, STULTIFYING emails.

And I have good email hygiene. I hit inbox zero every ten days or so, and I have a trigger-happy finger on the "archive" button.

Who has time for this s#*t?

For solo-preneurs and for overworked business owners and managers, tasks like this act like the gaping void—they consume all the energy you should be putting toward growing your business, getting systems in place so everything doesn't fall apart as your grow, and hiring a staff so that things grow without your foot on the accelerator every single day.

Email is the avatar of tech overload and the tyranny of the urgent.

And if you are like me, you just don't feel like doing it anymore. (I'll blissfully ignore the irony of sending you an email teaching you how to avoid reading emails...)

Do you need an assistant? Also, can you afford one?

Simple answer: probably.

As the owner or manager of a small business, your time is a hot commodity. You have fires to put out (emergency wire transfers to send, Very Important Clients to woo back, revenue to generate) and everything you do defines the direction of your brand. When you put a dollar amount on your time, you can't just look at project work but also the opportunity cost of your focus.

For example, maybe you can make $150/hour doing design work for clients. Which, on the surface of it, is great. You could extrapolate that hourly and the question of whether you should pay $25 max for getting your focus back is pretty easy.

But beyond that convincing argument for hiring, look at the opportunity costs you're losing by being in the weeds dealing with email, invoicing, and all the other rote admin tasks a good assistant will take off your plate.

You are your business's best asset.

A single afternoon brainstorm session could bring in a cool $1M for your business.

Showing up, fiery and focused, at a business event could net you your best client EVER.

Taking a meaningful Masterclass and putting what you learned into action could result in doubling your profit this year.

You are your business's future and vision. ANY ways you can free your headspace and time to do what only you can do is a good move. No matter what that means, as long as it's actually happening (the business has to work, and you do need to have increasing revenue and profit over a period of time to justify hiring) then taking on an assistant is probably a good move for you.

Whether that's a part time VA who supports 5 other entrepreneurs or a dedicated assistant, that's up to you to decide.

Do you need support hiring an assistant?

If you need help with this, I'm creating a Masterclass that walks through the whole process, including templates for a job description, interviews, and job offers. Stay tuned!