"I couldn't go out and find somebody like Leah or Hali, with their skill sets, to come to work with me. And that's what BELAY has been able to do [with what] I don't think any small business has the wherewithal to do in today's business climate. The access to talent that [BELAY has is something] I don't have access to. I couldn't find a Leah or a Hali and get them to come to work with me. I would have no way of doing it."
— Rodney Finglass, Co-Owner
The Challenge
Rodney Finglass, co-owner of ImproveIT! of Atlanta — a quality roofing service for metro Atlanta homeowners — was caught in a trap many small business owners know well: spending all his time working in the business instead of on it.
"As a small business owner, we're doing way too many things. We work in the business too much and not on the business."
After a 2022 episode of 60 Minutes spotlighted Virtual Assistants, Rodney began researching his options. But the search was frustrating — many providers came with significant time zone complications, and others charged prices that were simply unaffordable for a small business.
His core need was data: he required help with payroll processing, reporting, and Excel analysis.
"What I needed help with was numbers, payroll processing and reports. I could create the reports, but I was very inefficient in the way that I was doing it. So [I was looking for] somebody who was an expert on Excel and able to analyze data much more efficiently than I could."
His search eventually led him to BELAY — and the fact that BELAY is an Atlanta-based company made it feel like an especially natural fit.
The Solution
Rodney began his BELAY partnership with Virtual Assistant Leah Langdon. He was candid about the onboarding reality: it takes time — roughly 30 to 45 days — for a new VA to truly understand a business. But patience paid off quickly.
"She got it and was able to take the things that I did and put it into Excel and automate it through pivot tables and be able to take data and once [I] saw what she could do, then you're like, 'Okay, what can we do better?'"
That question prompted Rodney to expand his team. He brought on a second BELAY Virtual Assistant, Hali Scoggins, to focus on marketing — specifically managing text and email drip campaigns. With both Leah and Hali on board, Rodney now had access to a caliber of talent he openly acknowledged he could never have recruited or retained through conventional hiring.
"As a small business, you always need to be a better market and you're limited by funds. I couldn't go out and find somebody like Leah or Hali, with their skill sets, to come to work with me. And that's what BELAY has been able to do."
"The win is the level of trust to take that stress off that somebody else could do it besides me. I can have somebody else who could do a big portion of my job and I have to evolve into other things. You don't have to rely on yourself."
— Rodney Finglass, Co-OwnerThe Impact
The results of working with BELAY went beyond task completion — they changed how Rodney related to his own business. Having a dedicated VA created an unexpected layer of personal accountability that he hadn't anticipated.
"Working with Leah, she has made me more accountable because when you're doing it yourself, it's always easy to blow it off. So she's made me more efficient and more accountable to myself. I just look at her as an extension of me, and she can handle anything that I can give to her now."
Rodney also found a surprising emotional relief in the virtual working model. With his VA focused entirely on the business and removed from office dynamics, the experience became almost soothing — a word rarely associated with running a small business. He described how working with his VA gave him momentum when he would otherwise feel paralyzed.
"The win is the level of trust to take that stress off that somebody else could do it besides me. I can have somebody else who could do a big portion of my job and I have to evolve into other things. You don't have to rely on yourself."