The biggest mistake Amanda has seen when people outsource

Really nicely there into bookings and how you've now got a team to actually help you with your reservation. Now, can you just sort of explain to the process of when you started to do this? Because for many people that are watching or listening to this, having somebody in charge of payments and dealing with guests is scary. But how did you get over that? And how do you recommend other people to say, listen, this is okay, it's total secure, it's 100% safe, and why that people should do so?

Okay, well, yeah, I totally get it. Like most people, I did everything. I did everything. I did the payments, I did the ID checks, I did the telephone calls, replying to inquiries by phone call, by email, by text, by guests try and get you in every way, don't they? I used to deal with all of that. And you don't realize how much you're doing it because it just builds up and up and up and up and up. And it's when you start realising that you've never eaten a meal from start to end without being interrupted because that's when they're booking and that's when they've got their inquiries. They finished work, they're making inquiries and you're trying to eat your evening meal. It's a massive mind shift to trust that somebody else can do that for you. You have to be realistic. Nobody is going to be as perfect as you. But if you want to build your business, grow your business, you have to let go of those little jobs, baby steps, bit by bit you have, you just have to be realistic with it. But the point is, is that when you can give, give up that work, it means you can go and do something else that you've always wanted to do or you've always needed to do.

Obviously coach people and you, you know, hire, you work with people on how to outsource. What is the big mistakes that you see people make when they first start getting into outsourcing and finding people to work with?

I think there's two, I think there's two mistakes that people make. They either don't let go and don't let those people help them because they, they're so reluctant to let go. They're so, they're so. They say, their mouth says, yes, I want you to help me, but kind of like their heart is being, no, you can't do it as well as me. Get off, get off, get off. Is that they. There's delegation, isn't there? But then there's abdication. We're not running their business. For them, we support them. We can do a lot of things on our own, but it's their particular business, the way that they want things to be done. They might have a slightly different policy on say, checking idea with guests, but they abdicate, they abdicate all the responsibility. They just kind of disappear. And my team have text them, what do we do about this? What do you want to do? A situation has happened, what should we do? And there's no answer. You have to get the balance right between understanding that a VA is there to support you and help you not to do it for. Do you understand the difference?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. No. 100%. And like you say, I think if you have the systems and the structure in it, and I think it's more of a mindset than it is anything else, if you're ready to let go and you're ready to get help, then the process is a whole lot smoother.

You know, we have a client who said to US recently that 260 transactions, so 260 bookings that had arrived that month, at the moment it's about 350 because it's a busy month, isn't it? June, Something went wrong with 10 of them. Something quite, didn't quite go right because, you know, still you still, for all of the automation that you've got, you've always still got an element of human sort of interaction there. 10 thing, 10 situations. Something went a little bit awry and it's too easy to focus on what can go wrong. So he said, I had to switch my mind and instead of focusing on those 10 things that went wrong, I had to think, no, 250 times it went absolutely right, spot on, followed procedure. Guests were happy and I didn't deal with them. So the time that he's now saved himself, he can use to build his business further. And he's just got to keep remembering that. And that's the kind of client that we love to deal with, is that realism of expectation and to allow us to help. That's the main thing we can help. We can make huge suggestions to people, allow us to help them and do a better job for the business.