"I was working up to anything from 65 to 75 hours a week. I am very close to 50 hours now, and it's probably only going to diminish a little from there. That was unimaginable to me. I had no idea that was even a possibility anymore."
— Dannie Erb, General Manager
The Challenge
Dannie Erb had been running the day-to-day operations of Goods Electric, Heating & Air for years, and despite the company's growth to 39 employees and $8.3 million in annual revenue, he was stretched dangerously thin. With 16 direct reports, a calendar constantly double-booked, and workweeks stretching from 65 to 75 hours, the business was consuming him — but Dannie couldn't see it.
It took the company's owner, Daniel, to recognize the problem. Daniel had repeatedly flagged the pain points in Dannie's workflow, but Dannie kept pushing back.
"I actually didn't reach out to BELAY. I was convinced I didn't need help. And Daniel, the owner, had mentioned multiple times that he [was seeing] the pain points that I have clearer than I was seeing them."
Eventually, Daniel stopped waiting for Dannie to come around. He scheduled a meeting with BELAY's Theresa Summerlin on Dannie's behalf and informed him by email: the meeting was set, and they'd decide afterward if it was a fit. When Theresa asked how many hours of support he thought he'd need, Dannie said not more than 20 hours a month — and both Daniel and Theresa laughed. They started him at 85.
The Solution
BELAY matched Dannie with Virtual Assistant Haley Vick, and the impact was felt almost immediately. Haley arrived on day one prepared with solutions before Dannie had even gotten his login credentials organized.
"At the end of the first week, I was like, 'I have no idea how I even functioned before this,' because it was almost immediate."
One of Haley's first moves was introducing a simple but powerful system: an Evernote document she called a "brain dump," where Dannie could capture every task and idea running through his head. From there, she migrated tasks into Asana, then Notion and Google Drive, creating an organized system that made everything easy to find. She color-coded and labeled Dannie's calendar, took over meeting facilitation for the leadership and manager teams, handled research requests for the owner, and worked directly with other team members to keep their projects on track.
Haley's own experience as a business owner gave her a unique ability to cut through the noise.
"It was like a tangled-up ball of yarn, and I just started pulling the threads and untangling it. I said, 'Okay, well, these are the main pain points that I'm seeing right now. Let's start working on this one.'"The two established weekly Monday morning meetings with ad hoc brainstorming sessions as needed, and closed every meeting with an honest feedback check-in — a practice both credit as essential to their success.
"Now, Sunday evenings are one of my favorite times. We have people over again, which we hadn't been doing for a long time. That's huge because what happens after work and outside of business hours is insanely important to me."
— Dannie Erb, General ManagerThe Impact
The results transformed both Dannie's business and his personal life. On the operational side, his direct reports were restructured from 16 down to just three — all on the leadership team, exactly as Daniel had originally envisioned. His workweeks dropped from 65–75 hours to nearly 50, a reduction Dannie once believed was no longer possible.
"I was working up to anything from 65 to 75 hours a week. I am very close to 50 hours now, and it's probably only going to diminish a little from there. That was unimaginable to me. I had no idea that was even a possibility anymore."
But perhaps the most meaningful shift happened outside business hours. Dannie used to spend Sunday afternoons grinding through four to eight hours of prep work, rarely falling asleep before midnight as anxiety about the week ahead built. That dread is now gone. He hosts friends again, he is present for his six children and their farm, and Sunday evenings have become something he genuinely looks forward to.
"Now, Sunday evenings are one of my favorite times. We have people over again, which we hadn't been doing for a long time."
For Haley, the transformation is deeply personal. She entered VA work because she loves helping people, and watching Dannie's organization chart go from what she described as "a little octopus with all of the arms coming off of Danny" to a clean leadership structure made every effort worthwhile.
"It's been such a big change in the best way and seeing all of that come to fruition, it makes my heart really happy."