Hiring a Virtual Assistant as a Hairstylist

Let me guess. You are a hustling, bustling hairstylist behind the chair, working so hard to build a beautiful career for yourself, one that gives you time, freedom, and energy to spend with yourself, your family, and your friends. But you feel like you're always working in your business, even when you're not behind the chair. My name's Hunter Donia, and I help you automate your systems and implement really beautiful strategies so you can grow your business without the overwhelm.

And this is The Modern Hairstylist podcast. Hey, friend. Welcome back to The Modern Hairstylist podcast. I know, okay, I know that all the responsibilities that you have as a beauty professional service provider in today's day and age, it's a lot.

It's a lot. I literally understand you inside and out, okay? You have a lot on your plate, you wanna implement all of the strategies, you wanna be consistent on your social media, you wanna be doing email marketing, you wanna be keeping up with all of your administrative tasks that oftentimes fall through the cracks with the crazy overwhelm that we have, um, with all of o- our, our other responsibilities and our personal life, right? And so at a certain point of any business, you grow and grow and grow and grow with all of the crazy hard work and dedication and hustle that you have.

And once you get to a certain point, you know if you wanna get to the next level or if you wanna reap the benefits of all that you've worked hard for, you have to do something different. What got you here is not gonna get you there. And sometimes, actually, m- 99% of the time, for most companies that is hiring out, right? That is hiring somebody else so you can delegate certain tasks to that person to take off of your plate so you can focus on the things that are generating direct revenue for you, right?

That's just the way that time works. That's kind of like the rules of business is that you as a CEO, you have revenue important generating tasks that oftentimes get bogged down by the non-revenue generating tasks or the things that are very low value at the end of the day. And so if you wanna get to the next level, if you want to really make sure that you keep growing and growing and growing at a sustainable pace, then it might be time for you to consider a, a hire out at some point or another. Now, I don't think that this is necessarily, like, the path that everybody has to take.

I think that with pre-visit pathway and what I teach you, I teach you how to take a shit ton off of your plate by not having to pay somebody else. Actually leaning into technology and resources where you can just make your job a whole lot easier and delegate tasks to modern technology and systems that are around today, right? Where you can create your own receptionist without having to pay a receptionist. It is a whole lot less expensive to invest into a course and some software than it is to pay a, a, a person to be doing tasks for you for a long time.

And so that's why I created my course. However, you know, uh, you can only delegate so much. Like, there are just certain things that human beings just have to be the ones doing. But that does not mean that you have to be the one doing them, right?

And so that's why today we're gonna be talking about, talking about hiring a virtual assistant, right? So, like, what are the type of different hires that we can hire as beauty professionals? And we're gonna be talking independently today, right? Just because I think that'll make more sense for everybody and that's where I have the most experience in.

A couple different hires that you can have is a receptionist, an in-person assistant, right? Or a virtual assistant. I think those are, like, the top three, like, main ones that you could think of, right? And so a virtual assistant is somebody who is remotely working for you and doing digital tasks for you, right?

And there are so many different, um, tasks that we will, we will touch today that, that a virtual assistant could be doing for you, and there's a, some differences with all these types of different types of virtual assistants and, like, what their expertise are and what you should consider when hiring one, how do you know when you're ready for one, et cetera, et cetera. And we're gonna be trying to break down as, uh, much of that as possible today in this episode of The Modern Hairstylist podcast. So, if you are ready to learn about hiring a virtual assistant as a hairstylist, then let's go. Okay, Caitlin, so I'm hyped to get into this topic today.

We don't have a crazy amount of time, so I'm gonna let you lead the conversation as per usual because you know I can just go all over the place if I if you don't lead me, if you don't lead the way. So, Caitlin, hi. How are you? Hello, friend.

I'm doing good. How about yourself? I'm doing freaking good. I'm excited to chat today and, um, you have actually been doing some VA work with me for a little bit now and you are absolutely excellent and I'm so freaking grateful to have you as a part of the team, um, at the time that we're recording this.

Like, you are freaking badass. And I know that this was not your path. This is not what you asked for or what you wanted. But, uh, I'm grateful that you have landed here.

I truly, truly am. You have, you have changed my business, like, truly. And you have, you have attributed to a lot of the success that I've had over the past couple months, so I very much appreciate you a lot and I'm so glad to have you on my team. And you listening to this today, I want you to feel the exact same way if you do decide to have somebody come and help you.

And so that's why we're gonna have this episode today because I wanna make sure that you're set up for success and you really know what you've got going on. So, Caitlin, where do we start? What's the tea? Okay.

I think the perfect place to start would just be recognizing signs that you might be due to have a virtual assistant or that it could be something that you need to start looking into, and then we can kinda go, branch out a little bit from there. Okay. I love that. So, signs that you probably could consider having a virtual assistant.

So, some people say, some entrepreneurs I've heard say...I've heard them say, "If you're thinking about that you need one, then you probably do need one." I've heard people say that before. I don't think that's fully true.

You know, I think that for us as an industry, I think that we are just so overwhelmed by all the hats that we juggle that we could probably want to shoot that gun and, like, go right there just naturally because of how overwhelmed we can be. And I don't think that, I don't think that just because you think that you might need one that you might be actually ready for one. And, you know, you have to take in consider- I say this every freaking episode now because I just think it's so true, I mean, you have to take in consideration what you value and what you want and what you need for your profit margins to be and how much you're getting paid in profit for you to live a happy life. And I strongly, strongly would recommend that you take in consideration that money is a resource, but time is a really important resource too.

So, for any investment that you make in your business, take in consideration, what is the ROI, what is the return on my investment on the money or the time that you'll be making back? Because sometimes for some people just the time that they will get back from delegating tasks is worth the money, is worth the loss of income, because it is an expense, right? And so, you know, I, I think it's gonna be number, number one, first and foremost, if you're considering getting one and maybe you're like, "Oh, well, I can't afford that," or, "Oh, I'll be making less than I'm making now," consider, like, what is really truly worth it for you and what will make you happy, and is this investment going to be making me happier at the end of the day? Because at the end of the day, that's all we have, is our, like, mental health and wellbeing and personal life, you know?

Like, and I think that that should trump all. And so I'm not saying, like, don't survive, don't pay your bills, but I am saying, you know, don't just consider, like, how much money am I going to be spending, to consider how much money will I be making back or how much time will I be making back from this investment. Now, I think a big sign that you need a VA is if you have done the damn work yourself first, okay? That you have created a successful-ass business for yourself first, okay?

And everybody has a different definition of success, but to me, if you have really worked on marketing yourself, you have a steady flow of new guest requests coming in, you are booked out, and you have really mastered a social media plan or a marketing plan, uh, uh, in general, and you have a very, very high demand of your time, then that is definitely some sort of a sign that you can be ready for a VA, okay? Why? Because you have done the work yourself already and you are at a certain point where you are at capacity and you can't do any more unless you have somebody else helping you, right? And if you want to keep growing up, uh, beyond that space or if you want to stop spending so much freaking time to be able to maintain that space that you're in, then you, you need to be delegating out.

We posted it on the podcast, it was loss of demand after a pricing structure or something like that. Uh, that's the episode that it was. We'll leave the episode number in the show notes. But we had a member in our Modern Stylist Movement membership go through a big, big, big, big price increase.

And this, this stylist is a badass stylist, massively in demand, super booked out, very specialized, and had a really great social media marketing strategy that has just always worked for her, right? She used her Instagram, she built her business solely on Instagram, and, you know, she had this big price increase and then she lost a lot of her demand. Why? Because she ended up not being able to post on social media at the same consistent rate anymore because she was so burnt out, right?

And when you have all of your eggs in one basket like that, it's great to have all that demand coming in and all of that flow, but once you get to a certain price point, it's going to take a lot more awareness to make that price point work for you. So, once you get to a certain space where, like, you know, you're really high ticket, it's going to take you diversifying the way that you're getting people into your funnel and how you're nurturing them, and you can't just be showing up in one space anymore a lot of the time because you need more demand to make that price point work for you, you know? You need a higher percentage of people to be coming into your funnel because your conversion rate is going to be lower. The amount of people who come into your space and who will actually book with you is going to be less because your price is higher, so therefore you need to have a higher amount of people coming into that funnel, and so you need to change up the way that you're marketing and you need to diversify how you're getting more people in there.

You are only one human being. So, what I suggested to this person was that, you know, it might be time for you to consider another marketing outlet that you consistently nurture and that you work on. But how is she supposed to do that if she's only one person and she's already put all of her work and energy and time into this one space on top of all of her other duties that she has as a, as a business owner, right? You delegate, right?

You delegate because you're at that point where you're at this price point, you can definitely probably afford one yourself, you've mastered this, this one marketing channel already, and so now you can train somebody or trust somebody to take over that marketing channel for you because you already have a strategy. And then therefore, you can go now focus on this new strategy where you will also be nurturing, also getting new people coming into your flow, and then you'll be able to grow consistently at a certain price point. Am I making sense, Caitlin? Yeah, definitely.

I think that'd be a good point to kind of segue to, um, what systems do you need to have in place before you can hire a soc- a, like a, a VA? Like, is it just your social media or what else do you need to have in place? Well, I think that's a great question. Let's parking lot that really quick because I think what would be good to start with, to start with before I answer that question is the different types of tasks, right?

Because, because there's different types of virtual assistants, there's different types of tasks that you can be delegating, and I, we've s- we've shared this in an e- in an episode before, I love looking at your business into different categories. I love looking at the marketing, the sales, the operations, the financials. I love, like, breaking it all down into different categories. And I have found that figuring out which categories, number one, possibly don't bring you joy or number two, are things that you can really not, you do not have to be the one doing them, that is where you want to delegate away.

Okay? The things that are taking up the most of your time where you do not have to be the person doing them is, like, that is what you want to get off your plate, you know? So is that scheduling, booking, and, and client communication? I mean, if you have pre-visit pathway, if you've, if you set up the automated systems, then, you know, that should be completely delegated at that point, you know, just with technology.

But let's say that you don't have that type of system set up, is the administrative tasks of just that, like, taking up most of your time, right? Is ordering your inventory and taking account of all of that stuff and keeping track of all that, is that taking up a lot of your time? Is the financials, right? Is the financials, the bookkeeping, all of that, is that taking up most of your time?

Because then you can hire a CPA or a bookkeeper to be doing that for you, right? You can, you should think of that as kind of like a-another hire that you could have, you know? Because if that's taking up a lot of your time, and it's something that's confusing for you, it doesn't bring you joy and it's holding you back from showing up in places that you need to show up to grow, then that is what we should be delegating. So there are gonna be different types of virtual assistants and different types of hires that are going to be specialized or just enjoy or just do certain different things, you know?

So, you know, you can call it whatever you want. I mean, I know virtual assistants who do social media management, and then I know social media managers who only focus on social media. So when you go and look for somebody to help you, you really wanna consider, like, "What is taking up most of my time and what would be most beneficial for me to delegate?" And take in consideration what that person then specializes in and what they do.

We have a, uh, we have a virtual assistant on our team who is actually an ex-hair stylist, just like Caitlin, right? I wouldn't say that you're an ex-hair stylist, but, like, you know, you're not, you're not practicing behind the chair at this time, and neither is ni- neither is this person that we're talking about. And this person, they decided to leave behind their chair because they were moving on to this, a different chapter in their life, and they wanted to brand themselves as a virtual assistant for hair stylists specifically. And I thought it was such an excellent idea, and so I snatched her up real quick.

I said, "Come onto the team." Like, "Come help me out." And it was really fascinating because she completely wants nothing to do with social media. Like, she refuses to do it.

Like, when I, when I interviewed her, when we had our first conversation, she was like, "I will do, I will do all the administration, I will do all the organization, I will do all the planning, all the projects, but I will not do social media." Why? Because that's not where she's, she's strong. She knows that's not where she's strong.

She knows that she doesn't enjoy it, and she probably wouldn't do as efficient of a job as somebody else would anyway. So I have her in all of my administrative tasks, right? Um, you know, mostly for my course, right? But with the way that my schedule works behind the chair even, like, I have her making sure that my schedule is all taken care of and the way that my booking days work and all my email announcements and stuff, all of that is taken care of by her.

And my emails, things coming into my emails, that's all taken care of by her, right? Where whenever I've seen her, and she knows this, whenever I've seen her take on more creative tasks that are pushing, like, marketing or anything like that, you know, she doesn't do as proficiently as she would in, like, more organized, more administrative spaces, right? Where for me, like, I thrive in creativity, like, I thrive in that stuff, and where I don't naturally thrive is in administrative things, right? And so we are all as human beings and, and all these different hires that you may consider, they're all gonna have their different strengths and weaknesses, and you wanna put the right cheeks in the right seats, and you're gonna wanna consider, like, if you're going to hire somebody, what is gonna be their strengths and what are the specific tasks that you want to hire out for those, those specific space.

I think my, one of my biggest regrets hiring out VAs is wanting a jack of all trades and sen- giving them everything, all different types of categories, all different types of things. Although they were great at a lot of things, it was so much more effective when I started to give them only certain categories of things that I knew that they were really good at and I took the, the rest of the stuff that I knew that I was good at and that I felt like I would be more proficient in. So again, I'm gonna ask you this question a million times. Did I make sense, Caitlin?

Yeah. I think it makes perfect sense, and it's all stuff that I don't think that we think about as stylists. Like, we just hear virtual assistant and we're like, "Yes. Take this from me.

Take it all." Like, we don't really, like, itemize it, so to speak. And it really is important to kinda put forth that work and really understand what it is that you're wanting to delegate basically, like what doesn't bring you joy and delegate that out. Yeah.

And your question was, what do I need prepared?This is just from my own lessons learned with this question, okay? You can't just hire a virtual assistant and contractor or whatever and not have your own shit together first. And this is why I h- I teach systems, like, to the nines, because I realize, like, as a business that wants to grow/scale or delegate, you know, you need to have the systems in place where...

What I always say is, is the way that you should be building your business is if you had to sell your business tomorrow or if somebody had to pick up your business from where it is right now, could they keep it going without changing anything or without figuring anything out themselves? You know? Like, let's say that you went into a coma tomorrow and somebody had to pick up everything and keep everything consistent from there on, would they be able to do that, right? And so, when you systematize, when you have a clear vision, and you have it, like, literally documented what the processes and the way that you do business are, you're able to give somebody these tasks with the what, why, how, when, and where.

And that will significantly increase your success and the return of your investment into somebody else when you're hiring somebody out. So, for example, uh, my first, my first virtual assistant hire was a, specifically a social media manager. And what I kind of expected was for this social media manager to just come into my business, ask me a couple questions, and then just take away the entire strategy for me and do everything for me and figure it all out for me. And to a degree, you know, that is what the person kind of promised a little bit.

However, I felt like it w- it tended to be a, a little bit of a waste of my time and my money, because what she always had to do was keep asking me questions, keep reviewing things with me. I was the bottleneck for getting things done. I would expect a month's worth of content to be created, and then I wouldn't like any of the content because I hadn't properly, properly really figured out exactly what my system was for marketing, what worked for me in my social media, and then documented it so that way she could re- she could take that information and then just always consistently give me something that I like, you know? And we need to take responsibility for our, uh, for ourselves as business owners for, um, for how we are creating success and efficient results in our business.

And I strongly believe that because I wanted this person to, like, just take on everything from me without me being prepared, systematized, and fully figured out first, I believe that I wasted a lot of time and a lot of money. Where if I had a documented process and very clear, uh, structure and vision for what I wanted with, like, goals, you know, like s- like, real clear goals for what I'm doing with my social media, with a very clearly documented ideal client profile, content pillars, um, what channels I'm marketing on specifically, and how consistent I wanna be in them, what happens after they go into that channel, and, like, how do I nurture them into a client. Like, if I had that all, I would have, like, got a massive return on my investment. But because I was unprepared, I definitely wasted a lot of money.

I wasted a lot of money, and I felt like it was almost more work to train this person and to have more revisions done all the fricking time and not like what was going on than it was for me to just do it myself. And that comes from lack of preparedness and lack of systems. And so I highly encourage that you just document and you fully strategize as much as you possibly can prior to hiring somebody to do whatever task it's going to be, so that way you can really hit the ground r-r-running with that person and they can too, and they have a full understanding of what's going on. Then they can take responsibility, and then they can come up with the ideas, and then they can be responsible for certain goals, and they can figure out, uh, new ways to make that goal happen, but they need the preparation from you first to be able to get there, I feel like.

Does that make sense Yeah. Absolutely. I completely agree with you. With all of this in mind, like, this has all been, like, super useful information.

I feel like we haven't quite touched the, like, the common question, right, which is, like, how much is this gonna cost? So, can you kind of dive into that a little bit and, like, how it might vary? Yes. So, this is so variable, okay?

It's extremely variable. And unfortunately, I just, like, won't have an, a, a straight-up answer for you, because I have seen such variances across the board as far as, like, how much people are charging. What I will say, okay? What I will say is please take in consideration that person's experience and what their specialty is as a virtual assistant, okay?

Because if that person is specifically focused on social media marketing for hair stylists, that, to me, is much more worth and a larger investment, because they understand my business, and it's what they do. It's the exact same principle for you as a business owner listening to this, and you niching down and you being specialized. Somebody will pay more for the expert of what they specifically need. And so it's the same exact situation for you as a business owner.

If, if you are looking specifically for administrative tasks for hair stylists, right, then I believe that that person can justify pay, uh, charging a little bit more than the virtual assistant who works with any and all businesses who is the jack of all trades. Like, I am a firm believer in that. And so I would say that take that into consideration, for sure.Um, I would also take into consideration what the hourly rate is of what you are paying somebody, you know?

I think that we, we tend to just go straight towards like, "Okay, what is this gonna cost me per month?" But when you are comparing different hourly rates between every single, uh, VA that you may be considering hiring, I want you to think about, okay, like what is their cost per hour and what is justifying this cost per hour? Does this person have more experience in what they're doing versus this person? Does that re- is that reflecting in their hourly rate?

Does this person have their own team, right? Is this like a social media management company? Is this, uh, uh, just a single freelancer virtual assistant, right? 'Cause if somebody has their own team, then you know there's demand on their time and they have to be charging a higher hourly rate.

And it'll probably b- be worth it for that higher investment because they know exactly what they're doing. They have a systematized process for how they get things done, you know? But you could also consider that, you know, you might want to only work with a freelancer who you feel like really fits like you and what you're looking for and your core values and understands your vision and mission and, and hav- find real great value in the fact that it's just them and it's not a whole team helping you out too. And so, you know, you have to consider like what's worth it for you, what's not, and what makes it so your perception of how much, how much is actually worth it to you is going to be higher or lower.

And I, and again, that goes back to considering like what tasks are you trying to, to delegate out and what is the quality that you're expecting for each of, each and every one of those tasks. And if you're gonna be hiring like a jack of all trades, somebody who has only been doing this for a couple months, and somebody who is just servicing all types of industries and doing all sorts of things, then I would expect that to be a lower hourly rate than somebody who is specifically focusing on the one thing for th- for this type of business. Um, I think that they should be able to charge a higher rate than, than like the jack of all trades, et cetera, et cetera. I will tell you this.

This is what I'll just say. Again, it, it varies so much. I will say that I paid wh- as a hairstylist, okay, this is not, this is not as my online business with like my education and stuff. This is me as a hairstylist.

I started out paying $600 a month for my social media manager, and that was my first virtual assistant hire that I ever had. So, that's what I'll just say And would you say too, like, I personally never had an in-salon assistant, but like would you say that you would want to budget like similarly to that? Like, you're essentially bringing on like somebody that's going to work a certain amount of hours for you. You've already said all of this, but like, I'm just trying to approach it from like a different perspective.

Yeah. Think of it like you're hiring an assistant, like an in-salon assistant, almost. Well, I think that's a brilliant question because you have to consider the differences, right? So like when, when you're hiring an in-salon assistant, oftentimes you are considering the return on your investment because your times may be shorter and you're thinking about, "Okay, how many more clients can I fit into my day," right?

And then how much more money is that gonna make me? And then is that gonna be profitable, right? So, if I'm paying this person $100 in a day, will I be able to make more than an extra $100 for bringing this person on, you know? I had a really hard time grasping this concept, okay, until v- actually, pretty recently when I, I've been going through some shit in my personal life.

And I've always considered when I spend money on something, I've always considered like, "Okay, how much money am I gonna make back from this," right? And I only focus on the money, you know? Because that's like a safe measurable and it's something that is, it's what we mostly focus on. But as I have gone through some shit in my personal life and as I've considered the investment that I'm making in what I am delegating, the return on the time, peace, and energy, and the f- the time that I've be, been able to focus on the shit that's been going on in my life, that has been way more worth it to me than the amount of money that it brings me back.

Like, truly, I have a much larger appreciation for how I invest money and what that does for my time and my mental health and my energy. Like, it, there is a lot of importance around that and I feel like we are so scared of making decisions based upon that because it's not tangible and it's because we don't see it, and because it kind of goes against the grain, and it comes from fear. But truly, like I honestly, I could hire an assistant in person not to double book or not to make more money, just to make my day flow easier, you know? Like, you can do that listening to this right now.

And I wouldn't necessarily invest a crazy amount of money into that type of person, but you know, if it, if you are burnt out and you are overwhelmed and you are making a great amount of money and you feel like you could afford to delegate a little bit throughout your day just for the peace of mind, like that, that does have an ROI of both time and money because you can make more money just by having more energy and space and time, you know, in the long run. You have longer, uh, longevity in your career because you won't be as burnt out, you know? Anyways, I'm going on a rant because like I feel really passionately about this, especially recently, like, like thank God I have the team that I have because if I didn't, like, I, my, like my life would be a shit show the past couple like weeks, like truly. With an assistant in the salon, it's different because you're considering how much money you're gonna make.

But you wanna think about with a virtual assistant, you're not gonna see that upfront. You know, you're gonna see that on the backend. And that's why it's important to set goals for that virtual assistant because then that, th- then those goals are expected to be met. So, like, your goal could be, "I want five new guest requests directly from Instagram in a month by this date."

So then the virtual assistant, they have your marketing plan, they know how to speak to your target market, they- they should have some experience knowing how to s- post on your social, um, or post, or do effective social posts in general, right? And then they are responsible for that goal, and then that is how you see the ROI. That's how you measure whether or not this amount of money is worth it to be investing into this person because how much money is five new guest requests for you, right? How much money does that bring you on the backend in the long run, right?

And then that's the way that you can measure how much money is this ac- actually gonna make you. Period . Period. I can't stress enough too, like, how valuable time really is.

And that's, like, just a personal journey is, like, figuring out and, like, really evaluating how much your time is worth basically and, like, how much you're willing to spend to gain time too. But that's a whole nother thing for a whole nother day. So, if we could wrap this up with a bow really beautifully by giving the listeners a couple of resources as to, like, where to even start trying to find a VA. My one VA who's actually been with me for the longest, I found her on Fiverr.

And a lot of people will tell you that, like, Fiverr is, like, the worst place to find, like, a really great hands-on VA. Um, but, like, I was just, like, so desperate , I was just, like, messaging, like, a bunch of V-... So, like, Fiverr is a place to start. Fiverr is great if you're looking to just get, like, project by project done.

So, like, maybe not, like, a consistent gig, you know? Let's say you're doing a course or something, or let's say that you want some sort of, like, setup or, um, like, I don't know. What, Fiverr is great for one-off projects, okay? That's what it's mostly for.

It's for freelancers or agencies, companies to offer one-off projects for people, um, at a certain rate. So, Fiverr is a great place. Upwork is another place. Honestly, Instagram, dude.

Instagram is great. If you look up virtual assistant on Instagram, you will find a shit ton of VAs who are marketing themselves. And it's great because a lot of VAs will specialize and niche themselves down into virtual assistant for sm- women-owned small businesses. Um, virtual assist-...

Or I'm sorry, social media manager for service providers, right? Like, so you can see and find, like, these, these people who have niched down into specifically what you are doing and what you need. So, I like that with Instagram. And you can see what their work ethic is, what the quality of what they post is, and, like, what their website is, et cetera, et cetera, with Instagram.

And- and so I really like that. There are Facebook groups. So, if you look up virtual assistant Facebook groups, you can, like, literally just, like, post in those Facebook groups and you'll get a bunch of comments under your post and, like, people inquiring, et cetera, et cetera. Um, word of mouth.

If you know other stylists who are using a virtual assistant for their business right now, ask them what their experience has been and, like, if they ha- if they have room for more work. Um, I think that's a great place to start. I think literally posting on your Facebook, Facebook page or your Facebook and, like, being like, "Hey, does anybody, like, know of anybody who would be interested in doing these tasks for me part-time on a monthly basis?" Or, like, whatever it may be.

Like, there are many, many, many ways that, to go about it. It can be a difficult search, especially to find, like, the right person for you. Just, I would very much recommend understanding exactly what you want, okay? Exactly what you want.

Like, you cannot go into it without a plan. And hire slow, fire fast, like, very much so. Just take in consideration, like, what you really want and what is super worth it to you when you're going through those searches, because it'll make your search easier. One little quick tip, this is a special little quick tip, is come up with...

And, you know, these are independent contractors who may have their own processes and systems already, okay? So, sometimes this isn't gonna always fly depending on who you're trying to possibly bring on. I would suggest that you come up with some sort of example project, okay? And I- and whenever I do this, I pay people for the example project.

But you can come up with some sort of example project, so that way when you're considering somebody, you can be like, "Okay, before we fully commit to this monthly retainer," let's say, "um, would you be able, would you be willing to carry out an example project for me to be able to see, you know, what you're able to produce, um, based upon what my needs would be?" Right? So, then you come up with a project, let's say, like, create, like, three social media posts based upon this information and, like, what I'm trying to, to create. You need to give them everything that they need to carry out the project, all the information, all the resources, all the pictures, whatever it may be, and then you give them a due date, and then they carry out that task, and then you're able to see what their work is going to look like for you prior to pressing the hire button, you know, and- and h- prior to signing a contract possibly.

And so that way you really know what you're getting yourselves into and you get an idea of what's going on. So, that's a hot little tip for you when you're going out and you're trying to find the right person for you. I hope this was helpful. I truly do I mean, I found it super helpful, so at the very least .

I'll take it. I'm not mad about that. Uh, I really hope this was helpful for you, my friend, listening to this. I think that you really wanna consider what you actually want.

What will delegating some of your time bring you back in your business? And again, we live in this time, day, and age where technology can do so much for you and that's a lot less money than hiring somebody out, and that's exactly why I teach what I teach in my courses. And so just don't forget that that is an option for you, you know, that you can rely on technology to do a lot for you right now before you jump right into hiring somebody, because I want you to be profitable. I want you to not have to spend any more money than you want to spend.

But at the same time, think about what is really gonna be worth it to you, w- how much time are you spending in your business, and how much money is worth it for you to create a sustainable life and career for yourself. And delegating is a great way to, uh, to get back some of that time or to be able to make more space to make more money in the long run. So, so much love to you, my friend. Caitlyn, thank you so much for joining me on this episode.

As per usual, you are the best. And, uh, if you don't mind, my friend, if you enjoyed this episode, we'd really appreciate if you left a five-star testimonial wherever you're listening to this. It will help us reach more like-minded beauty professionals just like you trying to elevate this industry collaboratively. And I will see you on the next episode.

Peace out, girl scout. Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2022 Hunter Donia LLC.