Why is my VA team underdelivering, and how do I fix it?

"Without a manager, it's like I don't know who's writing what newsletter."

That one sentence explains most of what went wrong with my VA team. This is my diagnosis, not a proven fix yet.

What's the fix list?

1. Give every recurring task a stated time budget. An open-ended task eats whatever time is available.
2. Assign a manager before adding headcount. More people with no owner is more chaos.
3. Don't buy monitoring software as a substitute. I considered having contractors on Zoom all day and rejected it myself.
4. Document and streamline the system before enforcing accountability. Enforcement will probably cost you someone, so make sure the system is worth enforcing first.

Is it a skill problem or a context problem?

Often context. My assistants can do the boring stuff. They just aren't context-aware enough. Everything comes out either the most exciting thing ever or drab, without that human spice.

The hard part of scaling local newsletters is research in towns your team has never seen: find all the events, find all the news, use AI to summarize, then write it better than the AI did. That last step is the priority when you hire. A peer suggested recruiting interns through a local college's communications department, and I think it's a good idea.

Should my VA team do the initial setup?

Probably not. I charge $3,000 to set everything up from zero to one, and several people have paid for it. One person thought that was too much, said his VA team could handle it, and asked for consulting instead, so I charged him less. Three or four weeks later, his VA had barely accomplished anything, even though I kept telling her exactly what to do.

The setup has a lot of small details. It feels easy to me only because I've done it so many times. Pay someone who's done it to do the one-time setup, then hand your team the recurring work.

How many people should I have?

One more than you need. There are so many other things the extra person can do: social media, sales, unique pieces for the newsletter.

Building the newsletter itself isn't rocket science, so cross-train. If I hire someone for social media and lose someone who builds newsletters, the social person can help. At one point a single VA was producing six newsletters, and I thought adding one or two more was feasible.

Should I hire a part-time specialist or a full-time generalist?

If the work is volume-bound, the generalist. When a 20-hour-a-week specialist might leave, I saw an opportunity: for the same money I could get someone working 40 hours who may not be as good at design and social media, but can do twice as much. That was a plan on a call, not a measured result.

How much should a new owner hand off?

Most of it. I told a new operator with an assistant to have her do 80% to 90% of the newsletter, then come in and add his local flavor. Keep the brand consistent across the newsletter, Instagram and any local podcast.

The handoff only works when the system is clear. My QA setup is in how to set up newsletter QA, and how I want people to bring me decisions is in how to delegate so you only say yes or no.