"Over the years as our team has grown, I've delegated more to them, but by [Adah] taking some stuff off my plate, I can work more with my team on-site to grow the business and get stuff done."
— Ryan Miller, President and Co-Founder
The Challenge
Ryan Miller, president and co-founder of Farmers Hen House in Kalona, Iowa, oversees an egg grading and distribution facility that connects local Amish and Mennonite family farms with retail customers across the country. With 75 employees and partnerships with about 80 farmers, the demands on Ryan's time were substantial — and growing.
The challenge wasn't a shortage of capable people around him. Rather, Ryan found himself continuously pulling members of his internal team away from their core responsibilities to handle administrative tasks that required a dedicated hand. He was not wanting to continue to task out projects to members of his internal team, but he didn't yet know what the right solution looked like.
Ryan first heard about BELAY through Michael Hyatt's Business Accelerator program. He wasn't certain the timing was right, but the prospect of having dedicated support — without adding to his on-site headcount — was compelling enough to give it a try.
The Solution
Ryan took the leap and was immediately reassured by how seamless the onboarding experience was.
"The process was easy. I got to talk to a business owner who was a client and his VA, did the interview for the matching process, and we were off and running."
He was matched with BELAY Virtual Assistant Adah Brown, whose prior experience in a similar full-time role meant Ryan could extend real trust to her from day one — a factor he credits as essential to the partnership's early success.
Adah quickly became an indispensable extension of Ryan's workflow. She took on email and calendar management, flight and hotel bookings, personal errands, and even helped coordinate a six-month building project — following up with contractors and keeping scheduling on track.
"Communication has been easy, whether we just need to text or something like that. We had a small building project over the last six months, and that was helpful to have her be able to connect with some people [by] following up [with them] and getting some of that stuff scheduled."
"One thing that's a little bit unique to having a VA instead of let's say an assistant right here on site, is it's kind of nice to have this person that's completely on the outside of our organization compared to someone who's internal and is in parts of all these things going on. [Our partnership has] been well worth what we're paying."
— Ryan Miller, President and Co-FounderThe Impact
With Adah managing the administrative details that once competed for Ryan's attention, he has been able to invest more of his time in leading his on-site team and pursuing the growth goals that matter most to Farmers Hen House.
"Over the years as our team has grown, I've delegated more to them, but by [Adah] taking some stuff off my plate, I can work more with my team on-site to grow the business and get stuff done."
Ryan also discovered an unexpected benefit of working with a remote VA rather than an in-house assistant — the clarity and objectivity that comes from having someone entirely outside the organization.
"One thing that's a little bit unique to having a VA instead of let's say an assistant right here on site, is it's kind of nice to have this person that's completely on the outside of our organization compared to someone who's internal and is in parts of all these things going on. [Our partnership has] been well worth what we're paying."
Looking ahead, Ryan has his sights set on landing new retail store chain accounts and expanding Farmers Hen House's customer base nationwide. With Adah's continued support freeing up his schedule, he'll have the bandwidth to work alongside his sales team and go after those big wins.