18 | Ready to Hire? Everything You Need To Know to Prepare for and Hire a Virtual Assistant with Samantha Siffring

Hey Coach Friend,

How do you know if you are ready to hire? What should you think about and have ready before you begin the hiring process? Should you hire with an agency, a job posting, or just ask a friend you know needs work to start doing a few things for you?

That’s what we’re talking about today with Samantha Siffring. Samantha is a business coach and founder of an operations/marketing agency that supports small business owners. She has degrees in psychology, marketing, and counseling, and is a certified coach. She lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband, three kids, and three pets, and loves travel, reading, and making things beautiful.

In this episode, you’ll:

• Understand the pivotal role hiring help can play in amplifying your coaching business.
• Use her closet analogy to learn how to evaluate your business’ capacity and budget for hiring additional assets effectively.
• Discover the necessity of establishing robust systems before hiring, focusing on digital file organization and recurring tasks.
• Break through the barriers of shame and embarrassment that may hinder you from seeking help and delegating tasks.
• Become aware of hiring pitfalls before it’s too late.
• Hear ideas about what a new hire can do to help you.
• Grasp the significance of budget considerations in outsourcing, and how it allows more time for self-care.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:00 – Have you registered for the “3 Steps to Organizing Your Digital Files” Workshop? Register here.
07:16 – How to assess if you’re ready to hire with Samantha’s “closet analogy”
09:40 – Where to start setting up systems to get ready to hire
11:00 – THIS one thing will keep you stuck
12:50 – Your hiring budget guidelines
14:50 – Samantha’s surprise answer to saving 5 hours with your new hire
16:48 – Now that you know you want to hire, what do you do first?
17:46 – A warning for the “Who do you use?” question
19:34 – Samantha’s agency’s onboarding process
20:40 – How a time audit can help
21:15 – Samantha’s personal process creation
23:25 – Communication is KEY + guidelines
26:15 – What to do when you hired the wrong person + wise things to consider
30:35 – Samantha’s agency services – the process and what they help businesses with
34:53 – Her balance between coaching with the agency
39:33 – Samantha’s two closing thoughts – You don’t have to conform + You will WANT to have a legal agreement

Your Helping-You-Get-Ready-To-Hire Coach,

Resources Mentioned:

Register for the workshop Wednesday, September 13, 2023 – 3 Steps To Organize Your Digital Files to Save 2 Hours a Week

Connect with Samantha Siffring:

Website
Instagram
Facebook Group – Online Business Building Women
Free: 16 Ways To Get More Visible with Clients

Samantha’s two Podcasts:
Online Business Building Mamas
Booked Out Without Burnout

Connect with me:

Idea Tracker
Client Tracker
FREE File Naming Formula Cheatsheet
Get Time Freedom with a Systemized and Organized Business 
FREE Workshop: 3 Secrets to Organize Your Digital Files 

Website 
Email 
Instagram 

Subscribe and Listen:

If you’re loving what you’re learning on this podcast every week – the strategies, how-tos, and time-saving ideas to set up your organized and systemized business so you can work less and scale – please follow, rate, and review by heading to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Transcript with time stamps:

[00:00:00] Tracy: Have you registered yet? Are you ready to save two hours a week just by getting your digital files organized? Be able to find everything you need in seconds. Get registered now for the workshop, Three Secrets to Organizing Your Digital Files. You are going to leave this workshop with a plan, with a clear vision for your business, for your digital life.

[00:00:22] Tracy: You can register in many ways. There’s a link below this episode. On my website, SimplySquaredAway.com. There’s a link in the top bar across the top. You can go to my Instagram where there’s a link in my profile. You can go to training.simplysquaredaway. com/digital. It’s September 13th, 2023, Wednesday at 2 p.m Central Time.

[00:00:45] Tracy: Are you ready to hire someone in your business? Do you want to hire someone and give up some of your tasks? How do you start the process? What should you have them do? What do you need to know in advance? All of those things we’re going to talk about today on the podcast with a special guest.

[00:01:06] Tracy: Make sure you listen all the way to the end. Right at the end she shares two really important things in the closing comments. So make sure to listen to the end and enjoy this conversation with Samantha Sifring. Are you ready to work less, feel more organized and productive, streamline repetitive tasks, and implement systems that allow your coaching business to run smoothly even without you?

[00:01:34] Tracy: You’re in the right place. Welcome to the Organized Coach Podcast, your go-to source for practical tips and solutions. I’m your host, Tracy Hoth, professional organizer, certified life coach, simplifying expert, and most of all, down-to-earth fellow coach, just like you. No matter if you think you’re missing the organizing gene, have ADHD, or just love anything organizing.

[00:01:59] Tracy: I’m here to help you become an organized coach with a business that works for you. Pull up a seat and let’s get started. Many of my one-on-one clients are in the spot where they’re ready to hire help and they want to hire a VA, but they aren’t sure about the process and they don’t have anything set up.

[00:02:19] Tracy: They’re just wondering what to do first. One thing I asked in my mastermind yesterday, actually, is how they wanted to be more organized in their business or what they wish they would have ready. Many of them said they want to hire help, but they don’t know how. They don’t have anything set up or they don’t have any systems in place.

[00:02:42] Tracy: These are people that are making a lot of money. It’s not just beginners. That is the topic for today. How do we assess our capacity and identify if and when we’re ready to hire? I’m so thrilled to have Samantha Siffering on the podcast today and get Samantha’s insight and perspective on this.

[00:03:05] Tracy: Welcome, Samantha.

[00:03:07] Samantha: Thank you so much for having me.

[00:03:09] Tracy: Let’s start with just you introducing yourself. I want to hear, have everyone hear what you, what you do and who you help.

[00:03:16] Samantha: Yes. I am a business coach. I have worked with women entrepreneurs, small business owners for, I think, six years now as a coach.

[00:03:29] Samantha: That has been like the primary business for me. We were just chatting before we started, that this year I started an agency that provides operations and marketing support for business owners. Now I am an agency owner and a service provider in a totally different way.

[00:03:46] Tracy: That’s so fun. I can’t wait to hear more details on that.

[00:03:52] Tracy: What’s your first thought when I mentioned that clients are asking what our coaches are supposed to do? My clients are asking, what do I do? What’s the first thing? I want to hire help, but  I don’t even know, I don’t have anything set up. So what should I do?

[00:04:08] Samantha: I have seen this too, and it’s been interesting transitioning into this different side of business support because I’ve had some of my clients.

[00:04:20] Samantha: From coaching become clients of my agency, and now I see their business from a different angle, and I think that this is so common. A lot of my clients don’t even know what they don’t know about how they could get help. A lot of times I’ll have a conversation with them and they’ll be like, well, there’s nothing that I can delegate or.

[00:04:43] Samantha: The admin stuff isn’t that much like those are the most common things that I would say that people say and I think a lot of us have been pretty scrappy from the beginning of our businesses very much DIY very much just like however I can make it work or piece it together is fine and we don’t necessarily recognize That we could bring someone in who could help us until we’re feeling kind of desperate for that.

[00:05:15] Samantha: And it feels like an emergency situation.

[00:05:18] Tracy: Were you naturally organized and had it set up or how did you learn how to do that yourself?

[00:05:24] Samantha: I actually worked as a virtual assistant while I was building my coaching business.  I had done bookkeeping and all kinds of customer service, admin, social media, like basically whatever the business owner needed.

[00:05:42] Samantha: I was filling in and, I don’t know, I think I’m just like interested in those things. I enjoy those things. I don’t think of myself as an organized person in like the traditional sense. But I have systems that work for me and I know how I work and I know how I stay on top of things and get things done.

[00:06:04] Samantha: It’s like you have the idea of like container store organization, or at least I do in my mind, and that is not me. Yeah, I think I am somebody who is very organized, very efficient, sees both the details and the big picture of how things fit together. I think my skillset has just naturally worked well with that.

[00:06:26] Samantha: As a coach, I initially went into it thinking everyone’s like this, everyone can DIY all the things. The more I’ve done this, the more I realized this is not true. We all have different strengths and some things we should just hire.

[00:06:43] Tracy: Absolutely. Well, that’s interesting that you had the advantage of doing that ahead of time and seeing inside other people’s businesses.

[00:06:52] Tracy: Cause so many of us, I think me included, I’m trying to think how many. Before, if I’ve seen the back end of someone’s business, not really. So to have seen that, that’s super helpful. As you would advise a coach in their own business, how do they assess if they’re ready, but also what should they be doing to get ready?

[00:07:16] Tracy: That I guess that’s really two different things. Yeah,

[00:07:19] Samantha: It is. It’s it’s kind of a lot of different things, but we can cover it all. So deciding when you’re ready. I think is kind of a balance of two things. One is capacity that you mentioned at the beginning and the other is budget because delegating, bringing on a team member, costs money.

[00:07:38] Samantha: You want to look at both things to really decide when you’re ready for capacity. I think of it as a closet. If you think about a closet, you can have a messy closet where you just throw things in. You can have an organized closet where the things are in there in a more organized, orderly fashion.

[00:08:00] Samantha: Typically you can fit more things when it’s organized, but then there is the situation I have personally been in where it is amazingly organized, but then you have more things than really fit in the containers or on the shelves. So then they’re organized, but then there are also things stuffed in there and that doesn’t really work.

[00:08:22] Samantha: That is what I see in a lot of people’s businesses. Even if they are organized, that’s kind of like step one of being able to handle everything in your business. There does come a time when it’s beyond what just you yourself can do. That’s that capacity piece. I typically recommend that people bring on somebody on their team before they have exploding closet situation where they start dropping balls in their business and not doing all of the things that they want to be doing.

[00:08:59] Samantha: There’s typically a range there of when they can afford to bring somebody in budget wise. When they have to bring someone in capacity wise, and ideally you want to hire in that window. Not on either side.

[00:09:16] Tracy: That’s such a good example too. As I think about a closet, if you have a messy closet, I mean, the first step is to start organizing it, to declutter it and set up some systems.

[00:09:31] Tracy: If you’re at that stage, what would you advise are the systems they should set up?

[00:09:36] Samantha: It kind of depends on what they have going on in their business, but I would say it can be really, really simple. Things like if you have a Facebook group, for example, this is my case. If you have a Facebook group where you have.

[00:09:54] Samantha: You know, weekly, daily, whatever posts that are consistent every time, having those in a document that you can easily find so that when you’re going in there to post those things or schedule those things that they’re handy for you when you want them and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time.

[00:10:13] Samantha: Same onboarding. You want to understand like, what is my sales process? What is my onboarding process? And that might sound really advanced. But it can be so basic. It can be okay. I know they book a discovery call and then I know we have the call. And then if they say yes, I know I send them an agreement and an invoice and I have all of those things where I can find them and I’m not scrambling or confused or overwhelmed when I get a yes for a discovery call or a client because I have those things ready.

[00:10:48] Samantha: I would say like those types of things are. The good things to have something I have noticed with organization and readiness to hire is that people do get this idea that they are too disorganized or their business is too messy for somebody to come in. Then they keep putting it off. And this is something that.

[00:11:09] Samantha: You really want to watch out for we notice it with our agency clients that when we have the call with them, they will already be apologetic and embarrassed about their business being messy. And that’s so normal. It’s okay. If having a super organized business is not your strong suit. It really doesn’t have to be.

[00:11:32] Samantha: I think that’s a major benefit of having a team like people who that is their wheelhouse and they can help you to find the systems that work for you. So don’t feel like you have to have it all figured out or cleaned up before you bring someone in.

[00:11:48] Tracy: Well, that’s good because that’s what I see also is clients, I mean, they just have so much shame.

[00:11:53] Tracy: They may say, “I’ll, I’ll have you help me as soon as I get this done.” Why not just get help when you need it, especially if it’s something that’s not your strength because you’re amazing at sales or at, you know, community or whatever it is. Just get help. It’s so much faster and easier and it’s so confirming for me.

[00:12:15] Tracy: I’m like, yep, digital files. That’s where I focus first is getting a digital file structure. Then my happy client map kind of is like you said, simply maps out what happens. Let’s get a process in place for that. Yeah, so good. Okay, so then they’re ready. Possibly they want to free up time and they have a budget.

[00:12:38] Tracy: Speaking about budgets, what do you expect? Is there a number or a percentage? Or how do you think about that?

[00:12:46] Samantha: I don’t know that there is like an across the board answer for that. I think a good thing to look at is. What’s my revenue, what are my other expenses so far and take a look at where you are right now, on a monthly basis over the last several months.

[00:13:08] Samantha: I would also look at the past year in total to see how are those numbers looking? What kind of surplus do I have, like, do I have business savings that are here? Because you’re not just paying for that 1st month of having someone come into your business. You are paying for them. Hopefully for a continuing recurring basis.

[00:13:34] Samantha: It’s not really helpful if they only come in for 1 month and then They aren’t there anymore. You don’t want to feel like you have to have like a year’s worth of paying them on hand or anything like that. I don’t think, um, I think what’s typically recommended is three to six months of business expenses on hand in the business.

[00:13:53] Samantha: So that’s a nice thing to aim for as far as how much just dollar amount wise. It really varies. I know that there are super low cost to be as you can find for below minimum wage in other countries. Personally, I don’t really agree with that. I know that some people’s thing and that’s fine. In my agency, our packages start at $1200 a month.

[00:14:19] Samantha: So that in my mind is kind of like a baseline to have some admins and social media taken care of. But it can vary so much.

[00:14:31] Tracy: I know I heard at one point someone say, okay, if, if you free up five hours of your time, what can you do and produce in that? That helps you see, okay, if I could do that and I could make something or get a new client or be active in some somewhere to attract new clients and do more marketing, then it would be worth it, right?

[00:14:52] Tracy: Cause you’re going to have a return on your investment.

[00:14:55] Samantha: Yes, that is a good thing to look at something that I also think is, you know, if you’re somebody who’s been working a lot in your business, doing it all. It also might just be worth it for you to not have to work those hours. Like what would it be like to pay that amount of money to then have five hours back a week to go exercise or take a nap or read a book or have a life, you know?

[00:15:21] Tracy: That’s such a great point. I’m like, fill it with more work.

[00:15:27] Samantha: Yeah. I mean, you can, and I for sure have seen both sides of this with my clients. I’ve had clients who have been able to take an actual vacation from their business for the first time where they’re, they’re no DMs. There’s no emails. Like they’re completely cut off from the business and it’s all managed for them while they’re gone.

[00:15:47] Samantha: That’s amazing. I’ve also had clients where now that they get all of this off their plate, suddenly all their creativity comes back and they start having amazing new ideas, producing more, creating new offers, selling more. So I think. It can be either or it can be a mix of both. I don’t think that there’s a wrong way to look at the ROI.

[00:16:11] Samantha: Yeah.

[00:16:11] Tracy: And I’m thinking for myself, things that I don’t like, like I don’t do any bookkeeping anymore. And it’s just makes me the happiest person in the world. So anything you don’t want to do, hire for that too. Yes. Once someone knows they want to hire someone, is there anything they need to do or should do?

[00:16:33] Tracy: I know we kind of talked about this, but is there any, do you have them write a process down of what they do or do any videos, screen shares, anything like that? Or how do you figure out? Or help someone decide where to

[00:16:48] Samantha: start. It really depends on who you’re bringing in, what kind of relationship you have with them or plan to have with them.

[00:16:58] Samantha: What that dynamic is going to be in my business with me as the CEO, I create a list of tasks for that person. I identify what are all the things that we’re going to want this person to do. What are all of the knowledge skills abilities this person needs to have essentially, like, who is the person we’re looking for?

[00:17:21] Samantha: And what do I want them to do? Then I create a job description with that. I put in our company values a little bit about. A little additional about the role about the company, and then I post that out into the world. That is my hiring process. I have had some experiences in the past where I’ve hired people just based on referral, like asking a friend, who do you use?

[00:17:48] Samantha: Then I just hire that person without thinking. It hasn’t been anything super dramatic, but it just, it a fit. I have had been friends ask me who I used for whatever thing during that time when I was working with this person who is not really a good fit. It made me realize how often the who do you use question could lead to a referral that maybe isn’t even a great referral.

[00:18:17] Samantha:  I use this person, but they’re just okay. You’re probably not going to say that. I would say that now, if that were the case, because I know what it’s like. To hire the wrong fit. But I typically don’t recommend people do that if possible, or if they do, if they are going based on referrals, that they’re still very critical and looking out for what are those things that this person needs to do.

[00:18:43] Samantha: You don’t just want to bring someone in and then turns out they don’t like to do the thing that’s on your list for them to do, or they don’t have that skill set or that isn’t their strong suit. So they’re not going to do a good job or they’re going to take a really long time to do it. That’s not the person you want to hire.

[00:19:02] Samantha: So you do want to kind of have an idea of what you want them to cover. Um, with my hiring process personally, I do like to have the processes outlined as I’ve already shared, like. That’s more of my strong suit having those things, but my agency clients come in and they pretty much have none of that documented.

[00:19:25] Samantha: And we do all of that in our onboarding process. So like over the first couple of months, we have a prioritized list from them of what are the most essential things to get off your plate. So instead of taking the first month or whatever to onboard and learn and all of that, We from the first week are taking on the highest stress or highest impact things from them, taking that on immediately as we’re onboarding the other things.

[00:19:57] Samantha: And it’s kind of this like cascading effect where in that second week you’re feeling positive impact. And then it just grows and grows. My people don’t have to worry about creating all of their things upfront. Like I said, personally, when I have hired people, I have had those things ready, so you can do it either way.

[00:20:15] Samantha: Well, in

[00:20:16] Tracy: that process you mentioned is so good, but when you think, I’ll just ask her and use her person so easy compared to doing all the other things, but then that’s what happens. We want to take the easy way and it doesn’t always mean it’s the best way. But thinking of even before that, one of the things I would recommend to someone if they have no idea is just.

[00:20:38] Tracy: Really, to do a time audit for a week, and you maybe have them do that too, but just to be able to have them know actually what they’re doing or what they’re spending time on or where their time is, you know, wasted the most. Um, so they kind of know. What they even want to help with or what someone could help them with, then they know so that now they either have that stuff done, have something.

[00:21:04] Tracy: Is there anything you do? Like when you record your process of doing something, do you have a system for that? Do you? Type it all out in a checklist. I mean, just you personally and your business over the years. I personally

[00:21:16] Samantha: like to type it out step by step because that’s how I like to consume it. I am not somebody who wants to sit and watch you do it on a video.

[00:21:26] Samantha: I want to be able to just like skim through, read it, and then reference that as I’m going through each step. So that’s my preference as a person who’s following the process. And so that’s how I create it. Some people on my team have also created loom videos and that kind of thing to accompany it because I know some people really like that as well.

[00:21:46] Samantha: Yeah. I think the more communication, the more guidance that you’re giving someone, the better. If you’re able to

[00:21:55] Tracy: right, and I’m just now since my podcast is fairly new, I’m I typed out yesterday a whole list of how everything that I do. I’m the type though, that starts and gets interrupted. And then so I’m.

[00:22:10] Tracy: It doesn’t goes out of order on the list. I don’t know if I must not like checklists or what, but I am making myself go back to the list. I’m actually going to print it out and hang it up so that every time I follow the same list, my sister, I know we have that in common. She is, um, helps me a lot in my business and she loves the list.

[00:22:32] Tracy: She loves just going down and checking off each item off of the list. So it’s interesting. I’m going to become. Okay. Very skilled at doing those things for my podcast until I have that down. And so anyone that’s listening, that is, you know, kind of at the stage where you’re making systems, just do it with one thing.

[00:22:53] Tracy: Like, I’m just doing it with my podcast right now, and then I can move on to the next thing. So then they come in and tell me what happens then. Well, I mean, I guess they just enjoy the. Amazing service that you offer and enjoy their free time. Yeah.

[00:23:11] Samantha: I do have some thoughts just generally, whether they’re working with me or someone else, it is so important to have frequent communication with this person.

[00:23:21] Samantha: I know a lot of people will hire and then they will feel bad about delegating things that are unpleasant to that person. So then they just won’t and then they aren’t utilizing the person that they’ve hired. Um, a lot of times, too, I have found this. Also, it’s really hard to give critical feedback. It’s hard to tell someone this thing you created is not.

[00:23:46] Samantha: Good. It’s not what I want. It needs to change. Here’s all the ways I find it even worse than when you’re like, here’s some feedback for this. And then you get the second draft and you still have feedback for it. So I think those things are hard and this is a whole new skill set that of being a business owner, like we have our coaching skill set.

[00:24:08] Samantha: We have our beginner CEO solopreneur skill set that we’ve developed. And now this is the manager skill set that is the next level to work on. So just being kind to yourself, gentle with yourself, that you’re learning something really new and being as clear as possible as direct as possible. I think of it as setting this person up for success.

[00:24:32] Samantha: So how can I set this person up for success? Even if I feel like maybe they don’t need all of this. It may be really helpful. Like maybe they don’t need this step by step directions and the loom video, but that would be more helpful than one or the other because they can pick and choose what’s useful to them.

[00:24:50] Samantha: So I think, you know, as much as you can support them and keep lines of communication open, the better.

[00:24:57] Tracy: That’s such a good point too, because I know having worked for someone, you know, not having a process in place and not having any regular plan or meetings, like I want to do my best, but I’m not sure if I’m doing my best and I have no idea.

[00:25:16] Tracy: So do you recommend, do you have weekly meetings or how do you think it’s best to set that up?

[00:25:21] Samantha: So in my business, I have weekly meetings with my COO, who’s my sister, and we run both businesses together. So there’s a lot going on. So we meet weekly with our agency clients, typically just once a month, unless there’s other things going on a launch or something else that we need to talk about.

[00:25:42] Samantha: But typically in between the monthly meetings, Just communicating on slack or email is enough.

[00:25:48] Tracy: Okay. What about if someone hire someone and maybe it’s the referral easy way that they’ve had or I mean, how do you recommend or end a relationship? Like how do you go about that? And I love how you said you be gentle with yourself.

[00:26:05] Tracy: This is a new skill you’re learning, but any advice you have

[00:26:08] Samantha: with that. Yeah, so typically there is a moment when awareness dawns on you that it is not working and probably won’t work out. And I always feel like this is the thing I wish I didn’t know, like, I wish I didn’t know that thing because now I have to have this.

[00:26:26] Samantha: hard conversation, but I do recommend when you have that realization that you start to put together the plan and you want to have a plan in place before you go into that conversation. We all want to believe the best about the people that work with us, but you really want to protect yourself and your business as well.

[00:26:48] Samantha: So having a plan for removing access that that person has to anything in the business. Like an off boarding plan, essentially, I know something that I kind of grapple with each time is, you know, if I really care about this person, which is normal with someone on your team, you think, well, it’d be nice to like, give them notice and then have.

[00:27:12] Samantha: A couple weeks of working before they’re done, but like, that’s really not how it’s done when you let someone go. You’re certainly free to continue paying them for a little while. If you’d like to, if that feels justified, but you should be ready to. Ties professionally, or at least with the working relationship that you currently have.

[00:27:32] Samantha: Um, when you have that conversation, and then, like, in the actual conversation, being really clear, being really direct. Not kind of beating around the bush to where they aren’t even sure what you’re saying. Um, that can be hard. Um, and don’t feel like you have to go into a bunch of detail. You don’t have to give a reason you don’t have to explain yourself.

[00:27:59] Samantha: And then you also don’t have to then become their coach and help them with their emotions. I think, unfortunately, the role you’re playing in that conversation is. The unpleasant circumstance in their day and to then like transition to being the coach. I don’t think is really a good point or really that helpful, but it will be the urge that we have as coaches, but it’s better to just get off the call quickly and let them go find their support person in their life.

[00:28:30] Tracy: Such good advice and insight. And the first part you said, have a plan in place, have something written down and you know, know what you’re doing. I mean, even before you hire, you could have that in place.

[00:28:45] Samantha: Yeah, I think, you know, it’s helpful to have in place no matter what. And I think even if you’re not preparing to let someone go, there’s always the chance that they could get sick and not be able to work for a little while, or that they’re going to get a better opportunity and leave.

[00:29:03] Samantha: So you don’t want to have a situation where your business is hinging on. One person. That’s not you. So you need to really be in the loop on things. You need to have a plan in place in case who knows what happens. Like hopefully nothing bad happens to your team member, but you don’t want to have a situation where you don’t have access to stuff for your business or you don’t know how certain things are run.

[00:29:29] Samantha: You want to at least have access to all of those things. And And hopefully either you or them has created the process where you or someone else could step in whenever necessary.

[00:29:39] Tracy: Yes, the process that brings me back to before we hire, make sure we know what we’re asking them to do and even know how to tell them what you want them to do and how to do it yourself or someone on your team knows how to do it and they can document it because.

[00:29:59] Tracy: If they, like you said, if they’re gone, then what? So yeah. So now someone knows what to do in the beginning. I mean, audit your time and then start seeing where you want to free up your, your time. And then if you want to hire, you gave a great example of a process you use to hire and assessing where they’re at as far as budget and.

[00:30:24] Tracy: Capacity. So let’s say they’re ready to hire. What would they do if they were interested in using your agency? Yeah, they could

[00:30:33] Samantha: just reach out to me. Uh, so on my website, samanthasiffering. com, there is a page specifically for our agency services. So you can read a little bit more about myself and my sister, Brenna, who’s also my COO, and it talks about our background and experience our process.

[00:30:53] Samantha: And then there’s also an interest form on there where you can reach out and let us know. Hey, I’m interested. Here’s a little about me. And from there, we schedule a discovery call and talk about if it’s a good fit and how we can

[00:31:07] Tracy: help. What is the top, let’s say, percent thing that you help people with? I mean, I know you probably can customize it to whatever someone needs.

[00:31:15] Samantha: Yeah. So I think the biggest impact thing for most people is their inbox and customer service with their inbox. There comes a time in your coaching business where there’s a lot going on in your inbox. And I know. Yeah. Looking back at that period of time for myself, I would open things up and there would be things in there that would maybe feel bad to see if there was a failed payment or if there was, you know, a client who was not super happy about something or even if it was, you know, I didn’t receive my workbook or whatever it was, you know, those types of things that just Don’t feel amazing to read in the middle of your work day.

[00:32:01] Samantha: Yeah. Um, so getting that off of the plate first, I think like that’s something that we do for all of our clients. I think there’s a lot of freedom that comes with not having that be your inbox. As the CEO, you now have a separate inbox. We forward to you the things that are for you and we handle the rest and anything like unpleasant really except for anything that you need to be involved in.

[00:32:29] Samantha: That

[00:32:29] Tracy: is so amazing. I’m so glad I asked because I hear people say, I just wish someone could take my inbox. So that would be the number one and so impactful. And then what are a couple of the other things? I know you kind of mentioned a few, but yeah,

[00:32:43] Samantha: social media also. Um, and for some of our clients, we are just taking content that they have written and provide to us.

[00:32:52] Samantha: We have some clients who will like write out an entire month’s worth of social media content. We just take it, create the graphics, schedule it, put it all out there. Then there’s clients who are like, can you just like fully take this? And then we’re repurposing things. We’re creating things is really kind of a spectrum of what people need.

[00:33:13] Samantha: So, social media and lots of different platforms, um, were on so many different platforms for different clients. And then, hmm, what else would be beyond that as kind of a top thing? I think like, so that first thing was kind of like customer service and inbox. Additionally, kind of similar would be like program management.

[00:33:36] Samantha: So if they have some kind of group program membership, something like that, just all of the logistics with that. So whether it’s onboarding and offboarding, um, uploading video files into a portal, that kind of thing.

[00:33:51] Tracy: Does your team Document, let’s say someone comes and they have nothing documented. Do you, do you all document and then create an official SOP for

[00:34:00] Samantha: them?

[00:34:01] Samantha: Yeah. We do that for most people because most of the people that come to us don’t have those things and most of them have at least some kind of a relationship with me where that trust is there and and be like, here’s the mess and, and, and they know that. We have experience, particularly with coaching businesses, knowing what needs to be happening.

[00:34:30] Samantha: And it’s very easy for us to step in, pick things up and document as we go.

[00:34:36] Tracy: How much coaching do you do in that relationship? Because you know what their business should look like. You probably, as you see it, see, oh, they should be doing this. They need to do more of that. So how do you handle that?

[00:34:51] Samantha: So this is the thing that we have continually been talking about.

[00:34:54] Samantha: My sister and I just like, where’s the balance with this? There’s some things that we’re starting to kind of like build into it. So there was a client who. Really was disorganized when it came to launches. And I was like, Oh my gosh, like I wrote a book on launches and gave it to you. I did not say that in the moment, but I was thinking it like, how is this not sinking in?

[00:35:19] Samantha: But then my sister who is meeting with her was able to say like. Here, here’s the document where you can list like all of these things out and this is your launch plan. And it was just like exactly what I teach as a coach. But she was like, here it is, like fill in your worksheet about your lunch. So like those kinds of things are happening there.

[00:35:39] Samantha: I have tried so far to be careful to not blur the lines with the agency. Um, some of these people are still my coaching clients, so it’s nice having additional insight from the agency side to be able to bring things up in our coaching sessions instead of bringing it into the agency work. But I do think going forward, I’d like to incorporate some strategy into our agency packages.

[00:36:08] Samantha: where there’s some coaching, some strategizing that we would do in addition to the services.

[00:36:18] Tracy: Yeah. That made me wonder if you do, well, you teach launch launching in your coaching program, but then is there an assistant on your team that helps with the launch? Yeah.

[00:36:32] Samantha: Yeah, absolutely. The team does launch execution for all of our clients who launch.

[00:36:38] Tracy: Okay. Amazing. This sounds so exciting. And I think so many people will love it. Where would you direct people to your website? You said, and we’ll have that in the show notes. What else?

[00:36:50] Samantha: Okay. So my website, my Facebook group, I have a free Facebook group. It’s called online business building women. I also have.

[00:36:59] Samantha: Two different podcasts. One, I don’t record for any more online business building mamas, but I recorded that for four and a half years, I think. And then now I’ve been recording on booked out without burnout. That’s a little more conversational and unfiltered. Whereas The other podcast was like shorter form instructional, like how to

[00:37:22] Tracy: that kind of, Ooh, sounds amazing.

[00:37:24] Tracy: Well, it was a pleasure. I feel like we covered the whole gamut of hiring and what might happen, you know, where to start at all levels and the lat, the thing I want to close with, and then you can. Close with anything that’s still on your mind. We’ve talked about it a little bit, but the shame that you’re just embarrassed because that’s not your gift or your strength or whatever.

[00:37:47] Tracy: You probably, if you’re listening, might not realize the huge percentage of people that are at the exact same. Their, their business looks exactly the same having seen the back end. Now, both of us that it’s very common, but yet we think we’re the only one that has a messy business or, you know, so just step out, reach out, get help from either one of us in a nonjudgmental.

[00:38:13] Tracy: Wait, like we’re here. It’s kind of exciting to help someone transform and get it organized and take the workload off in your case for them. So that’s why we do

[00:38:23] Samantha: what we do. You know, like if there weren’t messy people who needed help in their business with their messiness, we would not either of us have businesses.

[00:38:35] Samantha: So I think that’s important to remember to it. It kind of feels like yeah. Cleaning the house before the cleaners come to clean. Like you don’t need to do that. They see messy houses is likely not the worst they’ve ever seen. Yours is probably average. It’s like everyone that they see that’s been our experience with every single client.

[00:39:00] Samantha: Is that they think, Oh, it’s so messy. It’s so disorganized. And we come in and we’re like, no, this is just a business. This is just a little bit normal.

[00:39:09] Tracy: Well, so good, Samantha. Anything you want to close with?

[00:39:14] Samantha: Yeah, I have two thoughts that I want to leave people with. So the first thing is. Don’t feel like when you hire someone or work with an agency or whatever, that you have to conform to their way of doing things.

[00:39:33] Samantha: We all have the ways that we work best. And I think especially if you’re someone who doesn’t feel like they are organized in the traditional sense that you need to be working with somebody who can help you find what’s I think the people that you hire should conform to you and how you work best. And support you in that, not try to fit you into the box that they have decided is the right way to do things.

[00:40:04] Samantha: That’s just something that I have noticed with some people out there that offer these services that they’re like, no, this is the way. And if that doesn’t make sense to you, if that doesn’t feel like it’s efficient to you, it’s not going to work out. So really be looking for somebody who is responsive to how you’re wired.

[00:40:25] Samantha: The other thing is that you must have an agreement with the person that you hire, not necessarily a legal contract, but a legal agreement where everything is lined out like these are the terms we’re agreeing to in this relationship. This is the price. This is the payment schedule. These are the deliverables you can expect.

[00:40:51] Samantha: This is how one or both of us cancels like all of those things. There’s so many templates out there for those, um, that you can buy from attorneys. But I Just really want to urge people to have that. It’s easy to have a conversation and think that you’re on the same page, but until you have that contract outlining everything in detail with worst case scenarios accounted for, you may not be on the same page and you may not know it until a not good situation happens.

[00:41:21] Samantha: And you most likely will not be on the same page, you know what I mean? Our minds just all work differently. We have no idea what the other person’s thinking.

[00:41:29] Samantha: Absolutely. This is something that I think is easy to overlook. But for both parties, protection in the relationship is good to have.

[00:41:41] Tracy: Such good advice. Thank you so much for sharing that and for coming on the show and having this conversation with me. I really appreciate it. I know for myself, I’ve learned a lot and I know my listeners are going to be able to take something from here and use it as they hire, get ready to hire, or even come to you and work with you in your agency.

[00:42:05] Tracy: Thanks so much

[00:42:05] Samantha: Thanks for having me.

[00:42:11] Tracy: Thanks for listening to the episode. Please share this episode with your coaching bestie and tag me on Instagram at @TracyHoth. And of course, I would be so grateful if you could subscribe and leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. It’s the number one way you can thank me. To thank you, I’m giving you the File Naming Formula Cheat Sheet and watch the workshop replay, Three Secrets to Organize Your Digital Files.

[00:42:34] Tracy: Both are linked in the show notes. Until next time, have a beautiful week.

About Tracy

I'm so glad you're here! I specialize in helping women simplify and organize their lives. Combining all I know as a professional organizer and all my training as a certified life coach, I help you take it to the next level. Let's go!