What Can a Virtual Assistant Do for My Subscription Box Business?

Discover what a virtual assistant can do in your subscription box business and how hiring one can help your business grow.  

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When you first start your subscription box business, you do all the things yourself. A helpful family member or friend might pitch in when it’s time to pack and ship your subscription boxes, but the day-to-day tasks that go into running your business? They’re all yours.

That means you’re the shipping person, the receiving person, and the packer. You’re handling your social media, answering emails, and even acting as the janitor. I get it. I was there, too.

As your subscription box business grows, you’ll come to a point where you realize you need more help. 

You need to focus on the big picture things like being creative, working on marketing, and creating content. Those are the things that will help you continue to grow your business. 

To focus on those big picture parts of your business, you need to take some things off your plate. 

Of course, those things still need to get done. That’s where a virtual assistant (VA) can be the perfect solution.

I hired my first VA, Allison, to do just what I’m talking about. To take some tasks off my plate – some things I needed to stop doing to focus on the things that would make the biggest difference in my business.

Allison was my first VA and she’s still with me! She’s grown with me and my business and has become truly irreplaceable. Learn more about Allison and all she does for me by listening to this episode of the Launch Your Box Podcast.

Let’s talk today about why a virtual assistant is a good first hire for many subscription box businesses and what a virtual assistant can do for you.

What is a virtual assistant or VA?

You’ve probably heard the term virtual assistant or VA. As the online business world has grown, so has the demand for virtual assistants.

Virtual assistant is a term that can mean a LOT of different things because virtual assistants can do a LOT of different things in your business. 

First, It’s important to understand that VAs are independent contractors. This means they are not your employees. Most VAs have other clients they are also working for. A virtual assistant will work a set number of hours for you or complete specific tasks for your business for a set fee.

Some virtual assistants help with a wide variety of tasks. Others choose to specialize. There are administrative VAs, tech VAs, social media VAs, and so much more.

What tasks can a VA help a subscription box owner with?

When looking at how a virtual assistant can come in and help you with your subscription box business, ask yourself three questions.

1. What things am I not good at doing?
2. What things do I not like to do?
3. What things are repetitive?

The answers to these questions are the first things you should consider delegating to a virtual assistant.

Inside Launch Your Box, I talk about delegating customer service as a way to not only give subscription box owners more time to spend on big picture items inside their businesses, but also as a way to preserve their energy. 

Listen to this episode of the Launch Your Box Podcast for more about the importance of preserving your energy as a subscription box owner. 

Launch Your Box members often ask what they should have a new VA help with. They know they need help, but they’re not sure exactly how a VA can help them in their subscription box business. 

Looking at these three task buckets is a great way to determine where a VA could make the biggest difference in your business.

1. Admin

Many subscription box owners make an admin VA their first hire. Administrative virtual assistants can help with a variety of tasks.

• Customer service
• Billing and bookkeeping
• Calendar management and digital organization

2. Creative

You know how much time it takes to develop graphics and marketing materials. A VA who specializes in creative tasks can be a huge help and save you so much time!

• Creating social media graphics
• Creating ad graphics 
• Creating custom email templates
• Designing newsletters, worksheets, or e-books 

3. Tech

If you’re not tech-savvy, hiring a virtual assistant who specializes in tech can be a game-changer and a sanity saver!

• Maintaining the back end of your website
• Integrating waitlists to email lists
• Optimizing website plugins
• Segmenting and tagging your email list
• Optimizing blog posts and more for SEO

Don’t let tech challenges stop you from making progress like I did. It took me 18 months to launch my subscription box - and a lot of that time was because I couldn’t figure out the tech on my own. As soon as I hired someone to help me with that piece, I was on my way.

So what type of virtual assistant should you hire first? That’s a question only you can answer. 

Look back at those three questions I had you ask yourself and match up your answers with these admin, creative, and tech tasks. That should give you a good place to start when deciding how a virtual assistant can help you in your subscription box business.

Why hire a virtual assistant instead of an employee?

Hiring an independent contractor instead of a full-time employee is often more cost-effective and allows you to hire to meet your business’s specific needs.

As a business owner, hiring an independent contractor means you’re not taking on the additional burden of providing benefits and paying payroll taxes like you would if you hired a W-2 employee. Instead, you are hiring someone for a set amount of hours per week/month or to complete a specific set of tasks.

The benefit to the VA is that they can work a flexible schedule from any location. I told you about my OG VA Allison. She lives in Washington State and I’m in Texas. We’re several states and two time zones apart, so Allison works hours that are convenient for her while doing all the things to keep me and my business running smoothly. 

As my business has grown, I’ve added other virtual team members and now work with amazing women who live all over the country and even on the other side of the world. Yep, one of my team members lives in Kenya!

Where can you find the right VA for you?

There are so many people working online as virtual assistants. Once you decide you need to bring a VA into your business, it’s time to find one. And not just any virtual assistant - you need the right virtual assistant for you and your business.

I found Allison and two other virtual members of my team through a fellow online entrepreneur I met in a class we both took. Emily Reagan has some great training programs where she teaches smart women all the skills they need to work virtually as digital marketing assistants. She then posts job opportunities inside her private student and alumni groups. Emily is the first person I send Launch Your Box members to who are looking for a VA.

What can you do to make hiring a VA work for you and your business?

There are important things to keep in mind when you’re hiring a virtual assistant beyond simply making sure they have the skills you need.

To make this relationship successful, make sure you:

• Set clear expectations - on both sides!
• Agree on pay rates and hours to be worked.
• Realize that as your VA’s workload and skills grow, your budget will need to grow, too.

Inside Launch Your Box, I recommend my students hire before they think they can afford to. The truth is, if you wait until you’re “ready,” you’ll never hire. And when you do add someone to your team of one, you’ll be amazed at how much more you can get done! You’ll give yourself time and room to step into the CEO role in your business and your business will grow. 

And if you hire the right person, you may be blessed with someone who cares about you and your business – someone who becomes a valued member of your team.