You have your dream job working as a travel advisor. You’re putting in 60-80 hours per week. Sure, your business is super successful and thriving. You’re getting the recognition for it, winning awards. You have endless referrals. But you’re exhausted. Your friends don’t get to see you; your health is declining, and your marriage is suffering.
This was the case for Mary Beth Lynn, travel agency owner and CEO of Assistants That Work. She found herself sitting on the gold couch in her living room with her husband realizing she had a very important choice to make. She could keep going at the rate she was going and lose what mattered most in life, or she could stop believing that she was the only person who could handle every part of her business.
“We decided that night on the couch that I had 6 months to figure it out, or I would close my business,” Lynn said.
She began starting her workdays between 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. to get a few hours in working on her systems, creating a library and eventually hiring an assistant before shifting to client trips for the rest of the day (and often into the evening).
“Hiring my first assistant was the turning point,” Lynn said. “It allowed me to step out of the day-to-day, focus on growth, and ultimately get my time and life back. Eventually, I went from working 60-80 hours a week to being able to work as little as 20 hours a week while my business was growing by 200% year over year.”
Benefits of Working With an Assistant
Hiring an assistant can unleash some huge benefits for travel advisors. According to Lynn, the biggest one is getting your time and your life back. Say goodbye to constantly being buried in repetitive tasks, emails and logistics. When an assistant handles these parts of the business, it allows you to focus on the bigger picture.
“An assistant can also bring consistency to your processes, improve client experience, and help your business run more efficiently,” Lynn said. “The right assistant that works for YOU and your business is an investment, not an expense.”
As a business owner, you may be used to doing it all yourself, but Lynn said holding onto everything could be what’s holding you back. “Sustainable growth requires a shift from doing everything yourself to leading and delegating,” she said.
It’s not an easy feat to loosen the reins a bit, but advisors can start small and build trust over time. Lynn said when this happens, “people will find that they’re not losing control, they’re gaining capacity.”
Taking the First Step
If you’re relating to everything said so far, you might be thinking where on earth do you even begin — and it might not be where you think. It’s certainly not just posting a job opportunity online. The first step is tracking what you do during your workday. This way you can figure out which tasks you need to keep and which ones you can hand off.
“First, track your time for just two weeks,” Lynn said. “Inside Systems & Assistants That Work, we don’t start with job descriptions or hiring; we start with time tracking. It’s not fun, but it’s critical. I’ve had hundreds of advisors tell me that time tracking for two weeks opened their eyes. They had NO idea how much of their time was spent on tasks that weren’t directly moving the needle in their business.”
Once you have everything documented, it’s time to evaluate the client trip workflow. Take a deeper look at every single task you’ve been doing — from responding to emails and sending quotes to document preparation and follow ups — and figure out which ones you truly need to be doing yourself.
“Then, you can use your time-tracking results and workflow audits to identify the tasks and skills you need from an assistant,” Lynn said. “Having this clarity allows you to hire with purpose instead of guessing, and it sets both you and your assistant up for success.”
How To Find Success
“Success early on comes down to clarity and communication,” said Lynn. “You need clear expectations, documented processes, and consistent check-ins. Even the best assistant cannot succeed without clear direction and processes.”
Viewing it as a partnership can also help, she said. Instead of only thinking of the short term and what tasks your assistant can help with, envision what successful collaboration could look like years from now.
“The more you invest in training and communication upfront, the more your assistant can potentially grow into a long-term, high-value partner in your business,” Lynn said.
The perfect fit may not be available at first glance. You may need to take some time doing interviews until you find the right person. Lynn said just because someone is an easy, available hire, it doesn’t always mean they are the right fit for your specific needs. If you take the steps to track your time and audit your workflow, you’ll have the skill set you need to look for during the hiring process.
Don’t Settle for Burnout
Hiring an assistant will almost certainly help scale your business, but it’s not easy to do the prep work and find the right fit. It doesn’t happen overnight. But if you’re on the verge of burnout, working more hours isn’t the answer. Ruining relationships and putting your family on the back burner isn’t the answer. It may feel overwhelming, but you can start with the first step.
“One of the most powerful things you can do is take a step back and look at how your business is actually running day to day,” Lynn said. “Honestly, no one wants to hear this, but you have to MAKE time to do the WORK if you want to experience a life-changing assistant. The time will never just show up; things will not suddenly slow down so you can do the work of preparing for and hiring an assistant.”
To make it a reality, you may need to get up earlier, take on fewer sales for a short period of time or pause the business altogether. It may not happen instantly, but finding the right assistant and having the right systems in place can have a huge impact on your business.
It can also have a huge impact on the person you hire. Lynn said after working with advisors and assistants domestically and internationally that “the level of impact a job opportunity provides someone is directly correlated to the level of impact they will have on your business. I would encourage any advisor to reflect on this as they work toward the goal of having an assistant partner with them in their business.”
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