Your VA's role is to take away the unnecessary tasks so you can be more efficient, setting you up for success. There might be additional tasks in your day that you should/want to be doing but don't have time for. It might be that you just want a better work-life balance.
Most people reach boiling point, working as many hours as they can find in the day and then think "I can't go on like this, I need help!".
You end up taking too long to respond to clients/prospects and receive chasers from these people as you haven't responded to their first email. You're wasting time on administration. You're doing tasks that you don't enjoy, challenge or excite you. You need something done but don't have the skillset. All of these tasks take up time in your day and stop you from being creative. From working on new business ideas. From working through your core business objectives.
At this point it could be classed as too late.
The reason: because now you have no time to find a VA. No time to work out what it is your VA can do vs what it is you should be doing and no time to put together your requirements for your VA.
The best way is to prepare early. That way you have time to think about what it is you need your VA to be doing. You have enough time to be able to explain clearly and concisely, in detail for your VA to hit the ground running.
Start small and gradually build the time up. You may have a single project you need completing. It might be that you need your VA for a couple of hours a month.
By doing so you start to build the relationship and the trust between the two of you. You understand how each other works so by the time you're really pushed for time, you don't need to worry if your VA will do a good job or not. You already know they will.
Have a read of this post, 6 reasons to hire a VA as this goes into detail, covering the areas that your VA can help.
Hiring a VA is without a doubt, a great investment to both yourself as well as your business. Once you have decided you should hire a VA, you need to understand How to prepare for your VA.