In today's marketplace being creative is almost a necessity in order to be able to drive a successful business. Competition is fierce and customers are inundated with information.

Protecting your creativity and designing an environment that nurtures it could make or break you in the market place and hiring an assistant could be the deal maker you're hoping for.

Nobody operates at their best when they're feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes just being able to delegate some of the busy work can create just the space you need to start working smarter - not harder!

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said that "God is in the details", and certainly projects and tasks run a lot smoother when attention is paid to them. Having an assistant working in harness with you means that two pairs of eyes - not one - are looking out for the details.

If you find yourself smacking yourself on the forehead on a regular basis because you've realized you've dropped the ball on a great opportunity then you are an ideal candidate for a personal or virtual assistant. Sometimes self-employed business owners feel that they can't afford to hire the help they need, but if you're missing opportunities then maybe you can't afford not to.

It takes leadership to get to the finish line of running a successful business. If you're spending all of your time "in the trenches" and never get to the business of actually managing your business then you could be in some very risky territory.

When was the last time you devoted a significant amount of time and energy focusing on managing your business?

If it's been a while, you might really want to consider taking immediate action on hiring an assistant.

If you're looking forward to working with an assistant but something is stopping you, then how can you remove the obstacle to making it happen?

Now is always the time to take action.

If you spend your entire day working like a demon but don't feel that you've accomplished anything meaningful by the end of the day it may be because the busy work is consuming your valuable resources.

Beginning a brand new relationship with an assistant certainly has a learning curve for both of you, but bringing your assistant up to speed is an investment; throwing your time and energy at the busy work isn't.

I'm incredibly creative and brainstorming is one of my strengths, so I know that for me even if I had a battalion of personal assistants I'd still never get to take action on all of my ideas, but having an assistant not only frees up more of my time to take action on the best ones, it also gives me a partner to help me sift out what the best ideas are from the ideas that I find exciting but wouldn't be a profitable use of my time and energy.

A personal assistant can be a lot more than someone to delegate to if you're willing to develop the relationship. They could turn out to be your most committed cheerleader as well as your coach and advocate for your highest success.

It can be a lot of fun to be engaged in a challenging life and constantly stretching to meet its demands, but if you never get to end your day feeling like a winner then it's time to step back and re-evaluate how you're spending your time.

If you're just throwing up your hands and feeling like you don't even want to play in the sandbox anymore, you need to expand your team. And maybe the team member you need to add is a personal or virtual assistant. How could an assistant help to move you through the impasse?