Get it Done: 5 Steps to Overcome Your Tech Challenges
If you’re facing tech challenges as a health coach, you are not alone. We hear this quite often, so we know the struggle can be real and quite frustrating.
While having an online business requires some tech, coming at it from a different perspective can sometimes be helpful.
In this episode of The Wellness Business Podcast, you’ll discover:
- A 5-step strategy that will help you determine whether it makes financial sense to stick it out to overcome the tech-challenge yourself or instead, hire a virtual assistant
- The importance of analyzing the cost implications of choosing between DIY solutions and seeking external assistance
- A super-simple strategy that allows you to hire someone to help you that won’t cost you a single penny
- The best approach when hiring a virtual assistant to guarantee that you get the results you’re looking for within your allotted budget
In this episode, our goal isn’t to cover the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant to help you if you’re dealing with a tech-challenge, but rather to give you a 5-step process that helps you overcome your tech challenge once and for all. Yes, in some cases, that may require hiring someone to help, but in other cases, our system may prove that you are the right person for the job.
Let’s dive in!
Here are 5 Steps to Overcome Your Tech Challenges
Step 1 – Identify the specific tech challenge you’re facing
First and foremost, you have to know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish. For example, this could be setting up a MailerLite landing page, thank you page, email delivery & automated follow email sequence. That feels like a lot of moving parts but when you work inside one platform it does make it easier to navigate.
When you feel like the task is big and overwhelming it’s easy to stay in analysis paralysis. However, when you identify the specific tech challenge you’re having it may not be as big as you thought. For example, in the scenario shared above, it may be that you’re only having trouble with one piece of that puzzle, rather than the entire process. Hiring someone to help you with that one piece could be more cost-effective and a huge time-saver that makes it worth your while to bring them on board.
Step 2 – Decide if you can do it yourself with minimum learning or if you need to find someone to help you
This is the ultimate question, right? Do you need outside help which costs money vs. spending hours or even days, figuring it out yourself? There is a cost to doing it yourself. Time spent doing that task means less time for working with clients. Does the expense savings outweigh the lost revenue? Even if you don’t have clients at the moment, time spent working on back-office tasks means you’re not doing the marketing things that attract clients to you. That’s a major trade off and has the potential of lost revenue. It has to be part of your decision-making process.
As we discussed in step 1 – if you break down the project you’re trying to complete you may find that it’s only a small portion of it that you need assistance with vs. the entire project.
Step 3 – Look for someone in your family, friends, colleague group that has tech skills that would be open to helping you
In other words, get scrappy. While you may not be the techiest person in your circle of family and friends you have a skill set that you may be able to offer as an exchange for their services. Think of bartering your services for theirs.
Karen hired a high school student to edit her YouTube videos several years ago, and it was a great decision.
Maybe it’s a tech-savvy grandchild or girlfriend/boyfriend of someone you know. You can either offer a reasonable rate or offer something in exchange. Maybe a coaching session, meal planning, or a discount on a 30-day coaching program.
Outside the health coaching space, you could offer to babysit or a week of meal prep may be a good option. Be creative and see what you could do that would help them that doesn’t include paying them.
Step 4 – If you decide to hire a VA, here are a couple options to find the right person
The easiest and best option is to ask for recommendations from other coaches. It’s always great to get an introduction from someone in your field. It takes the guesswork out of whether the VA is legit and reliable.
Another great option, and one Karen has personally used, is to post the job description in the VA Savvies FB group. This does require a little more work and keep in mind that the job description will need to be extremely specific to get the right person. Since this will more than likely be a one-time service it makes sense to ask the applicant to give you a quote to complete the job.
If hiring someone is on your radar, be sure to listen to episode 308 of the podcast. In that episode we walk you through Getting Help Sooner Rather Than Later – 5 Steps to Take When Hiring a Virtual Assistant.
Step 5 – Review applicants and quotes. Hire skilled VA with specific instructions, milestones, and timelines
Here we are at step #5 and at this point you’ve for sure made the decision whether you’re going to work through the tech challenge yourself or hire someone to help you.
If you’re decision is to hire someone then it’s key to set yourself up for success by giving them specific instructions, milestones, and timelines. Every subcontractor needs to have some form of accountability as a way of completing the job on time and giving you the results that you’re looking for. The more details you can agree upon before they start the less chance things will go off the rails. Do your best to make sure you are both on the same page.
Lastly, requiring a specific quote from them ahead of time is imperative so you know that completing the project is within your budget and they feel like they are getting paid what they are worth.
While tech challenges can feel stressful sometimes, it can be an opportunity to either learn something new or decide to take it off your plate and delegate it to someone else. As we always say: “There is always a way!”
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