At the February 2025 Business Blueprint conference, virtual teams expert Kody Thompson shared the lessons he’s learned from building multiple businesses, including Lightning Sites and WrkPod, a virtual assistant hub based in The Philippines.
Kody’s presentation was a masterclass in building high-performing virtual teams that free up your time and allow your business to break through plateaus and grow with consistency.
Below are 10 insights from his talk to help you build a more productive and sustainable business through virtual team support.
1. Understand the Real Purpose of Hiring
Hiring isn’t just about getting help. It’s about buying back your time so you can focus on the tasks that grow your business. As a business owner, you need to view hiring through the lens of return on time investment. If a task can be done for less than your personal hourly rate, it should be outsourced to someone else.
2. Know Your “Buyback Rate”
Your buyback rate is the hourly amount you can justify paying someone else, based on your business’s total income. To calculate it, divide your total business income by 2,000 (the average annual work hours), then divide that by four. This gives you a target hourly rate that justifies a 4x return on any outsourcing decisions.
For example, if your business turns over $200,000, your buyback rate will be $25. So you can afford to pay someone this amount per hour (and with a VA based at Wrkpod, you will pay less than this for their wages and desk hire).
3. Start With Admin, Not Strategy
One of the biggest mistakes Kody sees at WrkPod is founders hiring high-level roles—like marketing managers—before they’ve offloaded their basic admin. The best starting point is always administration: emails, appointment scheduling, task management, and simple bookkeeping. These are non-revenue generating tasks that can quickly free up time and give you the power to focus on the bigger picture. .
4. Apply the Buyback Loop
When you hit a ceiling in your business, it’s time for the buyback loop: audit your time, transfer low-value tasks to others, and reinvest your reclaimed time into growth activities.
Even if a team member can only perform the task at 80% of your standard, the trade-off is worth it if it frees you from the “pain zone” of lost time working on menial tasks.
5. Delegate the Right Tasks First
Kody introduced a helpful framework for task delegation.
- Begin with low-value, low-energy tasks—the ones you don’t enjoy and don’t generate income.
- Next, move to core tasks that can be systemised.
- Ultimately, your goal is to live in your “genius zone”—the activities that energise you and drive revenue.
6. Delete Before You Delegate
Before passing off a task, ask if it even needs doing. Often, businesses continue with activities simply out of habit. As Kody shared, “One of the biggest problem-solving mistakes is optimising a step that should have been deleted.” If a task doesn’t serve your business, eliminate it.
7. Build Systems, Not Just Teams
Every delegated task should come with a system. Kody recommends recording yourself doing the task, generating a step-by-step guide using AI tools like Loom, and creating a checklist and flowchart to ensure quality control. Store these in a searchable intranet so your team can access them easily.
8. Hire for Culture and Train for Skills
While capabilities matter, attitude and cultural fit are just as important. “Superstars are built, not hired,” Kody shared. Look for hunger, coachability and alignment with your business values. If a candidate has the right attitude, you can train them to fill technical skill gaps over time.
9. Track What Matters
Use scorecards to track performance across all departments. These should include a few key metrics—leading indicators like calls booked or applicants received—that reflect how each team is progressing. Regular measurement drives accountability and makes improvements possible.
10. Create Clarity with Structure
Confusion stifles progress. Having a clear accountability chart ensures everyone knows who’s responsible for what. Kody recommends structuring your business into three main silos: Sales and Marketing, Delivery, and Admin/Finance. Even in small teams, this structure can provide clarity and direction.
Kody rounded off his presentation by reminding the audience that building a team isn’t about doing less work—it’s about doing more of the right work. “When I have my time to spend on the business,” he said, “that’s when it grows.”
By starting small, hiring smart, and building strong systems, you can move out of survival mode and build a venture that’s both scalable and sustainable.
Not sure where to start with a VA? Download this FREE checklist of 160 tasks you can delegate. It will open your eyes to the number of jobs you are wasting time on each week and inspire you to prepare for your first or next team member.
About Business Blueprint
The World’s #1 Business Program
Business Blueprint brings members the latest techniques and strategies to take control of their marketing, build better foundations and achieve the growth they are dreaming of.
If you’re tired of the business owner hamster wheel and sick of spending every day putting out spot fires, sign up for personal support, group accountability and access to the strategies that will maximise your profits and free you from the daily grind.
Membership includes:
- In-person conferences
- Weekly workshops (including AI news and training)
- Access to a library of over 1000 training videos (check out some samples here)
- Accountability groups
- One-on-one coaching calls
Want to know more? Book a call with a member of our team today.
