There are holistic health practitioners, acupuncturists, and other holistic health practitioners who have virtual assistance, and it can be a great avenue to support you…
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There are holistic health practitioners, acupuncturists, and other holistic health practitioners who have virtual assistance, and it can be a great avenue to support you without also having them be physically in your space or having overhead, that kind of overhead involved with having somebody physical in your space.
So this is Chen Yen your 6 & 7 figure practice makeover mentor@introvertedvisionary.com and your host, for our AAC show today, and we are gonna get into how to hire a virtual assistant for your practice to take things off your plate. We’ll talk about what what is the virtual assistant should you consider hiring one, and what are some of the The biggest let’s see here.
What are some of the common concerns that I hear about hiring one and then how to actually get it going? Like how do you hire your first VA smoothly to. I abbreviate as that virtual assistant smoothly va smoothly to, to be able to free up your time so that you can actually do more of what you enjoy doing most.
And so as far as the, should you, first of all what is a virtual assistant? So a virtual assistant as it relates to you as an acupuncturist or a holistic health practitioner. Is, and how they could be helpful for you is someone who can do anything from admin to marketing and even chart noting, did you know that virtual assistant can actually help with chart noting and yes, it’s even HIPAA compliant.
And so the. There are avenues of getting that kind of a support. And they’re virtual, so they’re not physically working in your office. And the benefits of that are that, it you’re able to have an, have someone support you. , even though you’re not necessarily seeing them every day or having them be in your physical space, and they can do a range of different types of things for you.
So you could hire a virtual assistant to just work a few hours for you a week on certain things. They also can answer phones in terms of Fred desk, receptionist possibilities too. So they don’t actually have to physically be there. And this could be good for you especially. Perhaps your, the volume of your practice isn’t that high yet in terms of patient, in terms of the, I’m talking about front desk, right?
Two possibilities. One is if the volume of patients isn’t as high yet, but you’re also not answering the phones all the time and then you’re missing calls and people are not getting attended to right away. So then they go and call somebody else and then end up booking with somebody else before, like when you call them back, they’re already like, oh, I’m already fine now.
. So it you are having some volume, but it’s not like a as high of a volume to the point where you would like to hire someone in your office to be taking calls. And then another possibility though, too related to having a virtual assistant to help you with phone calls is if you are, if your office is very busy, and you would like them to handle the overflow in your office for calls because calls do get missed because your front desk staff is already very busy and not able to really handle that load as well.
So that’s another possibility related to front desk help. virtually in terms of the chart noting side of things. It’s, it is interesting because when I first heard about it, I thought, really, is this gonna be HIPAA compliant? And that kind of thing. And yes you could, there are companies that do this where it is HIPAA compliant and and then you are able to have this taken off your plate.
Where, cuz have you ever felt like you are . You love to treat patients, but you hate the chart, noting part. , it’s such a drag that you end up putting it off and you let it pile up. Maybe at the end of the day, you feel like, okay, I, I just wanna keep seeing patients and have that kind of a flow during the day.
By the end of the day, you’re, it’s time for you to do chart noting and you feel like, Ugh, this is such a drag. And then you procrastinate it. and then you procrastinate it until it feels like even it’s even more of a drag. And then you, and when you go do it, it takes up so much time and energy. I know acupuncturists who do this and then have to stay late to do chart noting and then their family’s are you gonna come home earlier?
Cause you’re like, you’re staying home, you’re staying late at work chart noting and, starting to feel a little guilty about it, but also feeling like but I still have to get this done. Can, how many of you can relate. Like this right now, or comment blow to let me know. . Yeah. So this is something that can be happening.
And you could actually have a virtual assistant be taking chart notes for you during the visit itself, so that at the end of the visit it’s already well written in terms of the notes, and then you could summarize it or, you could tweak it and edit it and add certain things into it.
So it goes so much faster than you having to chart. Partly during the visit, also afterwards. So that is such an amazing thing. We had a client of ours we ended up connecting up cuz we have connections and and we connected her up with this one place and they’re doing chart noting for her and oh my gosh, she’s this is saving my life.
She can’t imagine now not having one. . And then the and in terms of ad virtual assistant being able to help with other kinds of admin things, it could also tie into marketing related kinds of things. So for example, have you ever felt like there are tech things that you don’t do very well, but it would be nice to be able to hand off to somebody else who’s good at doing it.
And, but it doesn’t really seem like it’ll make too much sense to hire someone to come in your office and help you with that on a regular basis. And and so you could hire that out. For example, if you would like to stay in touch with your patient base by email and then you would like to put together something to send to them, the text side of that, or even sometimes the writing side of that can be done by virtual assistant.
In terms of the talent range of the virtual systems, there’s a range, a huge range of talent range. There are those who are strictly, like very good with rote kinds of things like data entry and, those kinds of things. And. The way you do it over and over again. They’re really good at doing, but they don’t, they’re less of strategic thinking kind of people, or they might not be able to do things like marketing and that kind of thing very well.
But then there’s a ra there’s also people who are jack of all trades and they do a mix of those kinds of things that I just mentioned to you right now. And then there are also people who are very zeroed in on one particular kind of thing, whether it’s okay, so I will write up your.
Their, your newsletters for you, or I will do this thing for you, ev all the time. Very specific, more high level kinds of things. So there’s a whole range of talent and experience and and what you could hire a virtual assistant for. And so as such, cuz like one of the most common questions I get asked is like, how much does a virtual assistant cost?
And it’s, so as such it ranges quite a bit because of the level of talent and also where you might be hiring them from. So you could be hiring them from your own country or you could be hiring them from other countries, including. Like the Philippines or India, where places where there’s some really good talent.
However, the the cost of living in terms of the what people tend to make in your country is it might be significantly more than in their country. So they’re actually getting paid pretty well when they’re working for you, but then for you, it ends up being less than hiring somebody from your country.
So it ranges in terms of how much the more charges it range. So much because of the variations of those factors that I just shared with you, the level of talent, what exactly you’re doing for you and where you’re hiring them from. So now what about the. So if you have an interest in hiring someone what are some considerations, right?
It’s oh, I’ve never thought about this. What if I could? Cuz imagine if you could even just take a few hours off your plate even once a week, right? Like even if it was like, if you had three hours. Back in your life to do whatever you would like to do, whether it is seeing more patients and making more money for the practice also, or it isn’t, maybe it’s like you could actually go home earlier, , you could put your feet up and relax a little bit, take a breather for, what would that, what would that mean for you if you’re able to do that?
Just be able to have more time back in your life. Whether it’s a few hours a week, whether it’s 10 hours a week. Whether it’s 40 hours a week it’s like that, that somebody else could. Doing something for you and then you’re able to do more because of it too, right? Like you’re able to accomplish more, you’re able to grow more, you’re able to help more people because you have support instead of wearing so many different hats and trying to do everything yourself, and then feeling burnt out and feel, still feeling like you’re not doing anything.
Any, not anything, but you’re not doing like everything really. Because it’s really difficult to do that. So let’s talk a little bit about if you have an interest in hiring someone, what are some considerations? For one, it’s, I think the one, some of the most the biggest mistakes is, To just get excited about it and then be like, oh, let me go look this up and see who I can hire and then find someone and then hire them and yay they’re gonna take things off my plate.
And from experience. So I have. I’ve been hiring virtual assistants for, let’s see, I think it’s been at least 15 years. And when I first heard about one, this is back when the concept was more new for most people I thought, oh, that sounds like a good idea. And then I went and hired my first one and I didn’t think too much.
I didn’t realize you had to think about all, certain things. And so I just hired them and I thought, oh, this person’s gonna be able to help me, and I’m going to be able. To free up all my time more of my time. And I then I realized, oh, like they don’t read my mind, or, oh, they’re not really equipped to do this kind of a thing.
And so part of that was because I didn’t know a lot of things when I first started hiring virtual assistants. And one thing I wish I knew was that. to be really clear about what you’re really looking for and also understand what a virtual assistant can or cannot do for you. I had certain thing expectations and I didn’t realize that, that the person I hired wasn’t really a, like a fit for that kind of expectation that I had.
And so the first step is getting really clear. Who you’re looking for and what exactly they’ll do for you. And this is much, many times it’s much easier Seth than dad because it’s like you don’t know what you don’t know, right? . That’s something to get really clear on and also be clear about the distinction of what you could hire one for and what may not make as much sense and that kind of thing.
So that’s the first step. Then the second step is then where, as far as well, where to find somebody like that. And there’s a range of where you could look for, and so there’s. You could either be hiring someone directly or you could hire from a company. And if you hire from a company, though, many times there are it ends up being, if you’re looking at costs and that kind of thing, it’ll be higher costs just because, you’re, there’s another middleman they’re involved.
And then there are also like sometimes. Find more of a jack of all trades more if you are hiring someone more directly than go through a company in particular. So then it becomes who best to hire and then Have it really work well for you, right? And what’s your screening process?
That and I didn’t know ha half the things I should have asked back then, , now I know what to ask and evaluate with that. In fact, that’s something that we cover or clients come to us for when they’re wanting to hire, whether it’s a virtual assistant or a for their practice, or it is just an admin person with, for the.
Within their brick and mortar practice or an associate into their practice. Many times when you are hitting a point in your practice where you would love more support and would love to hire out, it’s not like you, you had learned these things in school about what to look for and what to pay attention to, how best to screen someone.
We had I just spoke to a practitioner yesterday and she’s I didn’t really think much of this back then. And then she hired and then, She realized after the fact, she’s oh, I wish I knew these things that now you can help me with. So in fact, she signed up to, to work with us in our four weeks to a new hire program that’s coming up, which is gonna help with both being able to get a new virtual assistant hired and smoothly the process for that and to shortcut that and also our connections too.
I can introduce you to, to the best kind of possible scenarios for you all in terms of where to look for someone and things like that, depending on what exactly you’re looking for, as well as the screening side of things. So this is all, this is for the virtual side of things and for brick and mortar side of things.
So I’m really excited about that coming up. In any case and also like templates from our our recruiting business set that I’ve had as another business and where companies paid us to find the right hires for them. So we had templates and frameworks for like whether it’s interview and what to ask.
Like people tend to tell you what they want, what you wanna hear, right? So things like that, to help you with navigating in such a way that, that you end up finding somebody good and you could suss things out well before you hire them. You could spot, spot for laziness or unmotivated kinds of things that through the process that normally doesn’t show up in the process unless you have certain screening things in place.
In any way, in any case, what I was gonna mention to you, So that’s the second step is where to find them, where’s the best place to find them? And then third step is then finding the right fit and screening for the right fit. And then the fourth step is how are you onboarding them so that they end up Doing really well for you.
So many times the most exciting day of hiring is the day you hire them, but then you know how it turns out can have an effect. It depends, like what you do when you onboard them has an effect on their success. So you could have somebody who’s amazing, but then you just throw them in and you expect them to do certain things and then they might actually feel overwhelmed or they might feel a little bit resentful, even though they’re not telling you that.
And then it may not actually work out as well. This goes for all hires. It’s not just virtual help. But and by the way I, one thing that you may not know about me, So now I’ve run two successful businesses and I’ve never met a single one of my hires in terms of people, my team who’s worked for me.
And for those of you who are feeling I ca you know, I can’t possibly fathom hiring somebody who I won’t be able to see in person and manage them and that kind of thing. It’s totally doable, and I’ll talk a little bit about that in a moment here, but, What I was saying, back to what I was saying about the onboarding side of things.
So what I’ve learned over the years is that sometimes you could have an amazing hire, but you could screw up the onboarding and then they might end up not doing as well as you would like, they may not be as productive as quickly as you’d like, as well. . And so part of it is do you have an a good onboarding plan in place?
And for example, we have frameworks for things like this, like a 90 day onboarding plan. And so that way you’re able to be able to Have them ramped up quickly and taking things off your plate and you’re feeling like, oh, this is so nice. I’ve got hours back in my day, or hours back in my week.
So that’s really amazing when that can happen. Let’s talk a little bit about, I was gonna talk about the most common concerns for hiring a virtual assistant. . One thing that I often hear is I don’t know if I could trust someone. And the truth is that whether you could trust someone or not, it’s a consideration for you, whether you hire them virtually or in person to work with you side by side.
And this is one of the biggest things that I see hold back a lot of acupuncturists and other holistic health practitioner practitioners to growth, which is this thing of I can do this so much better myself, or I can do this much faster myself, so I might as well just do it. Or this fear of trust kind of a thing, right?
And but making decisions based on a small percentage chance of someone not being able to be trusted is small. Think. and we can go about practicing and being distrusted people and stay small and then continue to have a smaller practice than you could really have. And also just what happens when you’re sick, like certain things don’t get done.
What happens when you go on vacation? Again, certain things don’t get done right and all the weight is like a lot of the weight is on your shoulders or all the weight’s on your shoulders. So the upside is really getting back weeks. Time, getting back time in your life, which could add up to weeks of time in your life back in, in a year, right?
So it’s much greater, the upside is much greater than the downside of the fear. So it’s just a matter of having a good certainly being intuitive and going with your intuition, that’s really important too, and having a good approach in place to, to find and. and then also get someone hired.
And then as far as another concern that I sometimes hear is that I’m not sure if I can afford one right now. And so many times this is a concern because of the fear of not being able to cover the expenses of a hire or feeling like you could take home more. if you just like yourself, if you just kept it all in your pocket and not hired anyone, right?
But the reality of it is that a good virtual assistant, or any hire for that matter can take things off your plate to allow you to actually make more money. It’ll free you up more with more energy and time so that you can make more money. Because how much money do you make an hour if you were seeing.
It’s usually a lot more than what a, a virtual assistant or any, anyone you hire would end up being right. But the unfortunate thing is that many acupuncturists and other holistic practitioners end up waiting too long and then get to that point of where they’re really burnt out, stressed, and then they feel like I really needed someone yesterday.
Instead of actually looking ahead and thinking, oh, you know what? I think it would be good to have support coming up here in the next year. So maybe let me start looking at this cuz I’m getting busier my practice or I’m wearing too many different hats, spread too thin. And so I’m going to start looking into this as a possibility and then learning about this, understanding this because remember how I mentioned to you that one of the biggest mistakes I see when hiring a virtual assistant is it’s not really Understanding the distinction and of what what to look for and then how best to really find the right person for you and suss that out.
And so it’s good to learn about this before you actually go about doing it. And same thing with overall hires. It doesn’t have to even be virtual assistant hire, but it could. , anyone you’re thinking about hiring within your practice in hi in your brick and mortar practice as well. So with that, if, for those of you who are interested in my more in-depth webinar free masterclass on this topic then feel, I’m gonna drop a link in the comment below, and so in the chapel, Section below.
So you could see, you could click on it and then watch the more about it. So I go into to answering more of your most common questions about this, how to hire a virtual good virtual assistant and take things off your plate. And then for those of you who would like free six and seven figure practice makeover chips, you can go to introverted visionary.com.
And feel free to ask us about the four weeks to a new. Program coming up as well. If that’s something that is like you’re looking for hiring you, maybe you have hired before you had a bad experience or you have hired before and you would just like to hire someone different now and you would to actually have a good process in place to save you time and energy from.
The process and also to be able to find the right fit. The, in ha have things working for you to find the right fit to. or you are hiring your first hire for you’re an admin person or associate, then feel free to, to reach out to us. So with that look forward to you having more support, feeling more supported, and and doing what you enjoy the most.
Which for many of you it’s mainly seeing patients or doing other things. So with that till next time.