Why ‘Just Hire a VA’ Is Terrible Advice
This year, something clicked for me.
For a long time, our strategy services were full-day deep dives. We’d map out everything: the team, the systems, the bottlenecks, all of it. It worked beautifully for clients who needed full operational clarity.
Plus, I was still caught up in the "I need to be this big, badass process improvement guru". Which, don't get me wrong, I love a good process overhaul but what I love even more is our Virtual Assistant Services.
Ok - don't leave! Yes, there's a pitch at the end of this beautiful article. But there's also some DIY strategy here, I promise.
So, after five years of pairing virtual assistants with clients, I started to see a pattern I couldn’t ignore (and I had a rejuvenated love for delegation work, not just processes and ops work).
I realized many of our clients didn’t need a full-day overhaul. They just needed clarity on one thing: where to start.
And honestly, I wish I’d had that lightbulb moment years ago. *cue the face palm.*
The Conversations That Sparked It
Here's what I hear all the time:
“I’ve had hiring a VA on my list for over a year and just didn’t know where to start.”
“Having someone help me sounds awesome, but what would they even do?”
“I feel like I need to apologize to my assistant because I have so much to give them but not sure where to start.”
Different people, same problem. Actually, I've heard this over the years and all of these statements in the past month alone.
These people weren’t struggling with who to hire, they were stuck on how to make hiring actually work.
Why Most Delegation Advice Misses the Point
So many people approach delegation like a task dump. They try to come up with random things to hand off each week, hoping it’ll lighten their load.
But here’s what happens instead. Every time one of those little tasks pops up, they think, “It’s quicker if I just do it.”
And suddenly, delegation becomes another thing on the to-do list.
That’s why I tell clients to start with themselves. Not the tasks. Not the assistant.
Start with you.
What do you actually want to do? Where do you feel the most effective and impactful in your business?
Once you figure that out, the rest becomes clear. You’ll see what belongs to you and what doesn’t. And for the first time, delegation won’t feel like giving something up, it’ll feel like getting something back.
How We Shifted Our Approach
Instead of telling clients to “just hire an assistant,” we now help them get everything out of their head first.
We introduced Mini Delegation Strategy Sessions — quick, two-hour sessions where we brain dump together and map out what they want to own, what they want to hand off, and how to make it flow.
It’s amazing what happens when someone finally sees their business laid out clearly on paper. They walk away lighter, clearer, and genuinely excited to lead again.
The Result
For some, it’s their first time hiring an assistant. For others, it’s the first time they’ve had a good experience doing it.
And that’s what it’s about, creating clarity that sticks, not chaos that multiplies. And we're about to finish the year with a 100% client retention rate (knock on wood!).
If delegation has felt confusing, heavy, or full of false starts, you don’t need a full overhaul. You just need a starting point that makes sense.
🗓 Book a Mini Delegation Strategy Session here.
Or chat with me about what makes sense for in your current phase of business: auxosvs.com/book
Because once you know what’s really yours to own, everything else gets easier to hand off.
If you love the idea of a Delegation Strategy Session but want to walk through it on your own, grab The Hiring Kit.
It breaks down the same framework we use in our sessions and gives you all of our internal Auxo templates — job descriptions, interview questions, hiring checklists, and the exact process we follow to match clients with the right assistants.
Think of it as the “do it yourself” version of what we do with you in strategy.