Ep 48 | Hiring an Administrative Assistant

Annie: I'm Annie.

Leah: And I'm Leah.

Annie: And this is Lactation Business Coaching with Annie and Leah, where we talk about the smart way to create compassionate and professional private practice.

Leah: Let's dive in. Hey there, Annie.

Annie: Hey there, Leah. How are you?

Leah: I am doing fantastic. I'm excited about our talk today cause we're talking about hiring an administrative assistant, which I know was a pivotal turning point in my practice. And I love talking about it because it's been such a good thing for my business and I know it has for you as well cause I hear you sing the praises all the time of how much your assistant has helped you. So I'm excited to get to share this because it has definitely been such a positive thing for you and I both, and we both talk about it all the time. So I'm ready to talk about it more with our wonderful listeners.

Annie: Yeah. And if you were listening to the last episode, you heard us interview Amanda Sherwin, who is the admin that I've been working with for almost a year now. And Leah, I know you had an admin before I did. Can you tell me what tasks you have your admin do for you, and maybe even how that's changed over the years that you've had somebody working for your practice in that capacity?

Leah: Definitely. So it was funny that conversation we had with Amanda. She had talked about how it started for her, just doing some scheduling for a lactation consultant, and that really was the first piece that I even felt comfortable handing out to somebody else. I was like, okay, well, if you could just get everybody scheduled and I'll keep doing everything else. So it really was like just dipping my little pinky toe in the waters of what could an admin do was how we started. And it was amazing how much time that freed up. And then it just really snowballed from there to where the admin was taking on more and more of the pieces that weren't really clinical pieces, like faxing doctor's reports, checking to make sure all their information was in the system, making sure that the invoices were sent and paid for, helping with some bookkeeping management and coordinating. Now we have a biller as well, so coordinating with the biller, making sure that's done, helping me with the pay and making sure that invoices are all done correctly. So it really has just grown and grown over the years. And then a lot of it now is also like project management stuff. You know, I am such a ... I'm always coming up with this new idea or fun thing I want to do or some project or something that I'm interested in. So I feel like I'm always pulling my admin into project management stuff. I'm like, okay, I have this really big idea and I want to do this. And so my admin is really great. That's what she does is project management. She's so wonderful in that she helps me get a timeline. Okay, if this is really what you want to do, this is how it's all going to go down. So it's really evolved so much from ... Gosh, it's probably been seven or eight years that I have had some kind of admin working with me and itvhas just really grown and grown now to where I feel like almost everything is done by the admin other than literally walking into the client's home or getting on the call with them and doing the actual clinical work, which is wonderful. It's been so helpful. How about you? What is your admin doing?

Annie: My admin, it started for the same reason, which was just the scheduling and a big reason for me that I really felt like I needed an admin was because living in New York City, a really densely populated area, I was just getting more appointment requests than I could fulfill and it was really stressing me out. It made me feel like I should open up more appointment slots than I actually wanted to because I would just see that somebody needed help. And so I was really kind of drowning just in that piece of it. That was on the front end and then on the backend, because my practice is almost 100% insurance-based, I was having to just spend a lot of work each week, putting the spreadsheet together for my biller to get my claims information to him in the way that he needed it, and it was just taking up so much time both of these things, time away from my family. So I had met Amanda who became my admin at a conference that we went to and she had introduced herself. And then I'm like, you know, I'm going to just give her a try. I know she works for some other people. They seem like they're very happy with her. So I gave it a try and I was like, Oh my gosh, just the difference between what it was like when I was doing it and what it was like to have somebody else do it. And I was really thinking about, okay, it's going to cost me money, so is this gonna make my life better so that I can actually focus on making more money?
New Speaker: It's kind of a basic way to put it, but that has absolutely been true. So what my Amanda does for me is she handles all of my incoming appointment requests. When people book an appointment with me, they get sent intake forms automatically. She follows up to make sure that they complete their intake forms. When they complete their intake, she sets up their chart for me in my charting platform in the way that I want to have it. I have very specific requirements so when I sit down to do a virtual visit or I go to somebody's house for an in-person visit and I open up their chart, it looks like what I want it to look like. She makes sure the weights are in there. She puts tags on it so I can get a top level view of what's happening. She makes sure their pediatrician is in our system. She creates a separate chart for the baby and links the two of them together, which is a preference that I have. So she does all of that. So then I do the visit. I send the care plan. I actually do the pediatrician report myself because I could do it with one click through my EHR platform, so I don't really need to have her do that, and then I create the claim and she takes the claim. She puts it into the spreadsheet, and then when my EOBs come in, I send her the EOBs and she maps them to the claims in my system because I really like to see where every dollar is coming from and where every dollar is going. So she helps me do that. She also answers, rescheduling people for me and random questions about insurance, like how it all works. And she's worked for me long enough that she knows how to answer a lot of questions without having to ask me and what that has done for me by taking up that time and first of all, seeing how much time it was taking me and having that time back, and having that time back is why I was able to come up with the idea for the Lactation Private Practice Essential Course. I was spending all my time on spreadsheets and responding to inquiries from people who I didn't have time to see as my clients, and I outsourced that to someone who's better at it than I am, and that helped me have this idea. Amanda also helps me on the paperless side of my business. She handles all customer service. She does a lot of just administrative tasks in there, and she helps us with the podcast. She basically takes over once we've recorded. She makes sure we get the audio back. She works with the social media person that gets our Instagram graphics made. She's helping us with the deeper dives, so she does a ton of stuff for the podcast and for my paperless business, in addition to my clinical practice. I don't know if I could have diversified the way that I have and scaled the way that I've wanted to to add these additional things that I'm really passionate about if I didn't have somebody helping me with the minutia.

Leah: Yeah. I think that's one thing that I really discovered is how much you can grow your business if you're not limited by those kind of minutia, those little tasks that take so much time and they're so repetitive and tedious, and they don't require those very specific skills that you have, and they're not putting those passions and talents into action to grow and diversify, like you said. And so I also found it, so just amazing how much more I was able to do and how many new ventures and things I was able to tap into once I reclaimed this time. And also I felt like all those tasks I'm not super good at, so they were also so draining to me to have. Of course, talking to clients - I'm good at that - but when I would go to schedule somebody I'm asking 14,000 more questions than need to be asked on a scheduling call, cause I'm like, wait a second. Wait, what did you just say? Like I'm trying to get into clinic mode already. It was so hard to keep my brain. I know nothing about lactation. I am scheduling... I just could not do it. So I would spend so much time on the phone and we know how those calls go. They're so draining. Now my head is all caught up in this person's situation, so I'm already thinking about how that visit is going to go, what's going to happen. I mean, it seems like such a menial little thing, but it was such a revelation when I had somebody helping me about how much time that was taking, and energy. That was the big thing. It was sucking the energy out of me and spreadsheets are not my friend. They don't like me. We don't get along at all. I get along with almost everyone but not spreadsheets and things like that are just not what I am gifted with for sure. And so those things, although I can force my brain to do them, I made it through college. I had to do this stuff, but it is not something that is bringing me energy or joy or passion. So again, it just taps that energy that we have. And so I feel like ever since I've been able to shift out of having to do some of that stuff, my energy level, my passion for my work has increased as well and I'm able to just be fed by the things that I know I do really good, and I'm gonna feel really good when I leave that moment. I do not feel good when I leave a spreadsheet cause I'm like, I don't even know what just happened. There were things and formulas and I dunno and I broke it all. Never leave that feeling good, but when I focus so much time on doing the things that I know I do good and I'm feeling really good, leaving them, it's just shifts how you just show up in life. And so I think it pays you in ways you could never imagine like financially, but also just in your own life enjoyment to be able to farm out these tasks that you know you can't do. And I know sometimes like you were saying, it feels a little scary because you're like, wait a second. Do I even have the money in my practice to do this? I don't really see that many people, but like I said, the way it feeds you and then the way that it brings you more time to do those things you're really talented at that bring money into your practice or diversify your practice. I feel like it's, it's been a very, very beneficial investment that I am reaping the rewards of long-term, wouldn't you say? I mean, it's obviously made such a big impact

Annie: Definitely, and we would never tell the families we're working with that they should be doing this incredibly hard work of raising a baby all by themselves without any help, and we shouldn't be doing this incredibly difficult work of building a business, a sustainable effective business without help. That whole, I'm going to do it myself. I mean, if you read like Inc. Magazine or whatever and you read about entrepreneurs, it's never one person. They always have people. There's always people there supporting them in some way.

Leah: There's always a team. Yeah. Yeah. That's something that I didn't get until I dove more into consuming entrepreneurial information. I always would look at these entrepreneurs that were influencers out there in the world, and I'm just like, how do they have the time for all of this? I don't understand how they're doing this, you know. And then once I really started to engage with their... whatever they had going on, I started to realize like, Oh wait, this is like five people. They have like 20 people working for them. No wonder they're amazing, and to know that really so many of those people that you're probably looking up to are not doing it alone. And when we say hiring admin, it doesn't have to be finding somebody that's working for you full time and you're paying them thousands and thousands of dollars. You can start really, really small and grow it as it's benefiting you, as you really recapture more time and can focus that on more income, then you get them to do more. And I think that's how it started for me. I mean, it was not even a couple hours a week that I had somebody in the very, very beginning, because all they were doing was just taking calls and scheduling and that didn't take long at all. But it's so amazing how even just that little bit. That's a couple hours you recapture, that's another consult. What do you think makes these people that we found so amazing? What are the traits that you think really make for a good administrative assistant or somebody that's helping you in the admin role?

Annie: I mean, I think the obvious ones being someone who's organized, somebody who is a good communicator and someone who has a good sense of how things work together to be able to keep their eye on the big picture and then break that big picture concept down into tasks. Not everybody has that skill, and there's nothing wrong with not having it, but for an administrative assistant, you want to have somebody who can do that. And I think for me personally, I feel like I need somebody that can bring a level of calm to things that I don't always have. I can get really wound up and really worried, especially when it comes to anything affecting the money that's coming into my business. I can really get myself in a tizzy about certain things, and so to have somebody who can address my concerns or my worries without matching my energy, that's been really, really helpful to me because sometimes I just need to be like, blah, this is driving me crazy, and then not have the person be like, Oh no, if it's driving you crazy, I better freak out about it too. Just someone who feels like, 'okay, I'm on it'. I'm like, great. Yeah, that felt good. I told you how worried I am and you received that and now you're going to do something about it, but you're not going to wind me up too.

Leah: Match your energy, yeah. Yeah. I think having somebody who can also work with your personality and your style, your work style. I need somebody to bring my attention back on cause I'll just have more ideas and more ideas and we can try this new thing and this other new thing. And so I love that my admin will be like, okay, I'll write those on our list of ideas that we're going to try, but let's come back to this topic at hand or the thing that we're working on right now and you'll have that to me by Friday, right? And so I'm really appreciative of having an admin that can be a little bossy and help me stay on task and help me not get too caught up in all the big ideas that I have so that I don't end up making anything come from those ideas, you know? So she helps me really cultivate that that I need. And I think that's important to find somebody that kind of can mold or matches the type of personality you have around your work life and things that you need. I think having some awareness for yourself can be really helpful, matching that.

Annie: So Leah, what do you think are some of the things you need to have in place if you want your relationship with your administrative assistant to be really successful and run really smoothly?

Leah: So definitely creating systems for the work that you do, so everybody knows what tasks are on their list and what the timelines for those tasks need to get done. Everything flows so much better if those systems are laid out and in the beginning, you're going to be cultivating those and they might be shifting because you realize this flows better than that. But having those expectations, those systems laid out ahead of time, I think is a critical piece. And then, really open communication. You want to make sure you select somebody that you feel super comfortable talking to, and somebody that's really receptive and they feel really comfortable talking to you. So keeping those lines of communication open that y'all are just going to be honest and open - what's working, what's not working - and being open to suggestion, open to feedback I think is really such an important part. When you're looking to hire somebody, think about how easy did this conversation flow when we were even in the hiring process, cause that can give you a glimpse into how it might go when you're actually working together. And then, critical piece is going to be having a solid contract with each other, and making sure everything from the expectations of the work they're going to do all the way down to an exit plan if things aren't going well is such an important piece. You don't want to ever think of the bad things that can happen between you and somebody that you wanted to work with, but we do have to think through if this isn't working, how are we going to separate? Or if this isn't working, what could we do to fix those things? Having all that laid out ahead of time just puts everybody's mind at ease so we can work together happily and joyously but then communicate if something isn't working out and know that we've already agreed if it isn't working, this is how we're going to handle it. And I think that makes it just a more peaceful place to be together, because it's all been dealt with and talked through and the contracts are signed and we can start our journey together in a good place.

Annie: Definitely. And if you go to learn.anniefrisbee.com and click on attorney reviewed templates, you will find a whole template for coming up with a contract for an administrative assistant. It's a group practice template. It also has templates for biller and subcontractor, so it's not something where you can just plug your name in and send it off to be signed, but it's gonna really take you through everything you need to think about in putting that agreement together, because it really is essential. Contracts keep things friendly, and that's what you want. You want to have a relationship based on trust. And when everybody knows where things stand and how things are supposed to go, then you're free to enjoy the relationship that you have with your administrative assistant.

Leah: Well, this has been so much fun to talk about because every time we leave a conversation about my admin assistant, I want to call her and say...and it's my Amanda - you have an Amanda, I have an Amanda - and my Amanda and say I love you so much. You're so wonderful. I can't be doing the work that I'm doing without you and I'm so grateful for you. So Amanda, when you listen to this, just know that. And I would encourage you, even if you're starting out, you just keep your mind open about this possibility and how this might work for you. Even if it's not right now, just know that this is something that can really help you grow your business and be such a wonderful addition to the amazing work that you do. So thank you so much for listening to us today and we look forward to being back with you in a couple weeks.

Annie: Definitely. Thanks everybody. Bye Leah.