I wanted to write something for VAs who are serious about being great at this job. And for the business owners trying to figure out what "great" actually looks like. I run a VA placement agency. We've placed hundreds of VAs with entrepreneurs across every industry you can think of. Medical practices, property management, e-commerce, real estate, home services... you name it. After doing this for years, I've noticed a clear pattern. The VAs who succeed don't think of themselves as task-completers. They think of themselves as partners. And for the business owners reading this: understanding this distinction will help you hire better and get more out of the people you bring on. That's what this guide is about. Link to Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewmetros/p/how-to-be-a-top-1-virtual-assistant?r=4e36e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

I work with a lot of small business owners. Property managers, home service companies, solopreneurs trying to scale. And the conversation usually starts the same way. They're exhausted. They're doing everything themselves. They know they need to delegate but they don't trust anyone else to do it right. And they feel like they're working harder than ever but not getting anywhere. Here's what I've realized after helping hundreds and hundreds of operators build virtual assistant teams and get their time back. The problem usually isn't their work ethic. Their work ethics are INSANE. It's just their habits. These aren't lazy people. They're not slacking off. The issue is they've built habits they think are helping them but are actually keeping them stuck. Things like multitasking, saying yes to everything, treating every task like it's equally urgent. I've fallen into these traps myself. I still do. But I've also built habits that changed how I operate, and I've seen them work for the entrepreneurs I help every day. So I wanted to write this down. Not as some guru advice, but as what I've actually seen work in the real world with real operators. Link to Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewmetros/p/the-habits-that-are-actually-killing?r=4e36e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Ok, so today I wanted to put together a straightforward guide on getting your business finances in order. I’m writing this because I’ve seen so many entrepreneurs (including myself) overcomplicate this stuff. ESPECIALLY when you are in your first few years. There’s all these different schemes for tracking money, fancy software, complex spreadsheets, and everybody thinks that frameworks like Profit First are hard to follow. The jargon is meant to sound smart but it just confuses people. Getting your finances together as an entrepreneur literally doesn’t need to be difficult. The fundamentals are simple. The problem is that nobody explains it simply. This guide is my attempt to lay out the Profit First framework in plain terms. If you run a home service business, property management company, or any local service operation, this applies to you. This guide is as much for me as it is for you. Link to Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewmetros/p/the-profit-first-framework-without?r=4e36e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Ok, so I need to be honest about something. I am terrible at managing people. I get frustrated. I yell. I will send 600 messages and act completely in the moment. I do it all the time. I tell myself I won't do it again. Then I do it again. I'm writing this because I see a lot of really passionate entrepreneurs do the same thing. They burn out teammates. They lose people. Then they have to restart from scratch. Managing people is something very few are taught and very few can do well. The great thing about working with humans is that they're human. The bad thing is that they're human. And if you want to build teams, you have to chill out. Seriously. You have to chill out. Or else you're going to end up never growing. Never being able to truly delegate. You cannot have such high incredible expectations for your team. There's a limit. You have to get comfortable with okay being good. If you shoot for perfection, I guarantee you're going to burn your team out. This guide is as much for me as it is for you. Link to Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewmetros/p/why-you-cant-scale-if-you-cant-chill?r=4e36e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Ok, so today I want to go over how you keep your virtual assistant long-term. I've been doing this for years now. Placed hundreds of VAs. And I've seen what works and what doesn't. This guide goes through the fundamentals. Building an actual relationship with them. Assigning outputs. Having proper review cycles and feedback. And the tools you need to make this relationship work for the long run. I'm writing this because retention is the thing that separates operators who scale from operators who stay stuck. If you're constantly cycling through VAs, you're wasting time and money. The goal is to build something that lasts. Link to Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewmetros/p/how-to-keep-your-virtual-assistant?r=4e36e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true