People ask all the time: “Where do I even start with delegation?” The answer is the same four things, in the same order, almost every time.
1. Inbox triage
Not “answering email.” Triage. Your VA reads incoming mail, flags what needs you, drafts replies for what doesn’t, and archives the rest. You go from 200 emails a day to 20 that genuinely need your eyes. This single change buys back 60, 90 minutes a day for most founders.
Set up a shared inbox or grant delegated access. Give your VA a one-page document of rules: “respond directly to anything that’s X, Y, or Z; flag anything from these specific people; never respond to anything tagged confidential.”
2. Calendar coordination
If you’re still emailing people three rounds of “does Tuesday work?”, stop. Your VA owns the calendar. Meeting requests come to them, they propose times, they confirm. You see a finished calendar each morning.
Tools: a scheduling link for routine bookings (Calendly, SavvyCal), your VA for everything custom.
3. Routine reporting
Whatever weekly numbers you stare at on a spreadsheet on Sunday night, your VA pulls those, dumps them in a dashboard, and sends you the snapshot every Monday at 8am. You go from “doing the report” to “reading the report.”
This is also where you find out fast whether your VA can think analytically or just execute mechanically. Both have value, but it’s good to know which you’ve hired.
4. Customer follow-up
The lead from last week’s call. The prospect who said “ping me in Q4.” The customer whose contract renews in 45 days. These are the highest-ROI touches in your business and the first thing busy founders drop.
Build a simple follow-up cadence (we like 1, 3, 7, 14, 30 days). Your VA runs the cadence, you handle the actual conversations when they’re ready to talk.
Start with these four, in this order
Don’t try to delegate everything in month one. Pick task #1, get it stable, then add the next. You’ll be shocked how much capacity you free up before you even get to task #4.