Case Study From Joanne Crovini, Nutritional Therapist

What is your business?

I’m a Nutritional Therapist and I work mainly with women who are perimenopausal and menopausal. I do also work with men and younger women, and I support people to put in step-by-step practical changes to their diet and their lifestyle to help them get to where they need to be. And then when I’m not working with individuals Io go into businesses, so I run a lot of workshops and online courses .

What stage were you at before working with Megan?

Before working with Megan, I was a sole trader and I was basically doing everything myself, and it didn’t feel like my business was big enough to get anyone else to do stuff for me. I didn’t feel like I could afford to get anyone else to do tasks for me. So, I was getting busier, and I was getting slightly overwhelmed by the sort of work I had to do.

I had a messenger chat with Megan about what she could offer. And then it was literally months later when I started using her because I wasn’t sure how to take the first step.

How did you make the decision to work with Megan?

I was having some coaching and the person I was having coaching with said, “Well, why don’t you get a VA to do something like that for you?” And actually, that one bit of research that Megan did for me brought me a lot of new contacts that maybe four or five of those have turned out to be clients who I’ve done a couple of bits of work for.
I think just doing that one task really made me see the value in it. And the reason I went with Megan is because I know other people who already used Megan. So, I knew already that she was really good, so that gave me confidence.

What’s it like to work with Megan?

Do you know I was thinking about this the other day, I’ve literally never spoken to Megan. I’ve  handed over this work to her purely via email and messenger messages. But I guess the trust was already there. And I think I’m quite an organised person and I like things to be neat and tidy and in order and I like to know where I am, and I like to know when I can expect things and adjust. Megan’s just got amazing attention to detail.

I always know exactly when she’s going to do something. I always know exactly what she’s going to do, how she’s going to do it, how she’s going to give it back to me. And I just know that as soon as I’ve handed it over to her, I don’t need to think about it again. So, it’s just easy.

What impact has working with Megan had on yourself and the business?

I would say after that initial work, which was around getting contacts, she now does a lot of stuff for me, which is more sort of practical, day to day based. So scheduling posts for free Facebook groups and for my membership. She schedules lots of stuff for my launches. And then in the time that’s left, she’s doing continuing research. So, I think for me, having that kind of practical day to day admin stuff done just frees up my time to do other stuff in my business, which is the kind of things that would have already always been at the bottom of the list, because I would have had to have done the day-to-day stuff first. It frees me up to do the stuff that only I can do, and, in that sense, it’s helped my business to grow. So, for example, I now do a monthly email to all my business contacts, which is another thing I’d put off forever, but Megan sends that out for me now.

I know that as long as I write the email and do a PDF attachment I can give it to her to send, because what was happening with it was, I started sending it out and then people would reply, or I’d get out of offices, and I’ end up all over the place. Whereas now it’s just like a clean job that I do and then hand over. I think it’s quicker for Megan to do it then it is for me to do it because she doesn’t get tangled up in the inbox and replies to stuff as it’s happening.
It means that I do things that I would have found a reason not to do. It also means that it frees me up to do bigger stuff. So, in my business, I think it’s helped my business to grow.
And then, in life in general, I would just say it means that I’ve got more time because if I was trying to do everything, then I would be working out a lot more hours.

What do you see for the future, for your business, with support from Megan?

For the future I’ll carry on using Megan every month to support with daily admin and research and that will help me to focus on the things in my business that only I can do.
Long term I think that’s going to help me grow my business.

Are there any standout moments of collaboration when you realised you worked well together?

I think it was probably that first bit of work that Megan did for me because I’d never used a VA before. I’d literally never had anyone do anything in my business apart from me. So, it was a bit of a trial and in terms of the success of that, it was huge,  it really highlighted the benefits of working with someone else.

Actually, it’s not just about paying someone to do certain amount of hours, it’s the benefit that having a VA can have on your business overall. I think it was a bit of an eye opener for me, which is why I’ve now kind of carried on using it for lots of different things.