Tips For Virtual Assistants to Find Clients

In the world of self-employment, you will inevitably run into many different issues at various points. Some issues may arise as early as the moment you establish yourself as an official business. For example, becoming a virtual assistant has its challenges from the start. 

As if starting the business itself wasn’t a challenging enough factor, you then have to take the next step and gain clients for your business. Though an early step in the process it can make or break your company because you can have all the knowledge and skills possible if you do not have any clients it will all be for nothing. A lot of people struggle with finding clients for their business and are unable to keep themselves afloat for the long term. Luckily, if you are reading this you will be able to garner new perspectives and tips on how to find and draw clients to your services.

Standing Out From the Crowd

Before we give you exact tips and tricks, it should go without saying that the overall goal is to find ways to stand out from the crowd. You must find what is unique or different about your business and services than market it to the public. Without a discerning characteristic of your company, your growth will be stagnant and you may never reach the truest potential possible. 

Though this process can be daunting and it has kept many budding virtual assistants up at night, you must believe that it is possible. Also, you have to be willing to adapt to new ways of the world and not be afraid to try those new things. You definitely do not want to become someone that gets in the way of their own success.

We hope to prove to you that you can gain more clients and achieve the success you have envisioned for yourself and your business.

Persona

The best platform you can use for any client-based service is Persona. A virtual assistant will have so many things to juggle at one time. It would definitely be of great help to have their own virtual assistant and Persona can be that. The platform will help you handle your scheduling and financial obligations so well that you will only have to check-in for updates. This is a major help because you will need the extra time you saved to dedicate to progressing your business to the next level. Also, the platform is backed by Stripe Payments and Goldman Sachs, thus there is no need to fear that you’re utilizing an untrustworthy service. Lastly, but certainly not least, Persona is free of charge to use. Overall, we strongly recommend that you do yourself a favor and build your business better with Persona.

Word of Mouth 

Once you have officially opened for business, the first thing you should do is tell people that you are in business. By this, we mean, for you to make use of word-of-mouth marketing. Tell your friends, family, neighbors, and anyone else that will listen. The benefit of doing this is not only in your close circle knowing about your services but more than likely they will, in turn, spread news about your business to their circles. 

Remember not to limit yourself to specifically speaking to people in person to inform them of your services as social media, email, calls, and texts are all means that you can use. You never know who needs or can benefit from your services.

Knowing Where to Search

The search for your first clients can be difficult for some newcomers to the virtual assistant business. However, there are two options we can suggest that will help make your search a bit more refined thus providing some ease. The two options are:

• Upwork: allows for clients to interview, hire and work with freelancers and freelance companies. Clients post a job description along with the price they are willing to pay for someone to complete it. You can filter it to only show jobs pertaining to virtual assistants. Also you can list your services as Catalogs and clients can purchase directly without having to post a job offer.
• Job boards: There are many jobs available on job boards such as Flexjobs and VAInsiders. After finding a job post that interests you, draft a description that is appealing to your prospect. Make sure you inform them of how you can help them and if you have any previous work or testimonials include links to those as well.

Create A Website

Any professional should have a professional website for several reasons. Firstly, it adds credibility to your business. If someone is looking for a virtual assistant and wants to check your legitimacy, a website is one of the first ways they will be able to get those answers. Secondly, all the information that a potential client needs to see should be in one set place they can always refer to. A website provides that for them and gives you the edge on the competition that may not have one. 

If you are hesitant because you are not an expert in creating websites, there is help for you. There are several different website builders that can make designing your own website simple. Remember this is an investment as it is not free and you have to purchase your domain, but it will be worth it in the end.

Key In On One Social Media Platform

Earlier we stated that you can use social media as a tool to promote yourself and it’s true. However, there is a difference between promoting your business once you first begin and targeting a specific platform to build your audience. You don’t want to spread yourself so thin by trying to attack all platforms simultaneously because you will eventually become overwhelmed. Rather, you should key in on a platform that has your ideal clients on it and make a presence there. 

Specifically, you should use the features on the platform that will allow you to grow your presence the most. For example, Facebook has groups that consist of virtual assistants and business owners. There will be so much information and tips to grasp in those groups plus you can land your own clients in the process. Try picking about 2-5 groups and build yourself up there first before you move on to another social media platform.

Connecting with other Virtual Assistants

Find other virtual assistants that offer similar services to you and reach out to them. Upon reaching out to them, let them know you have space to take on new clients. There will be a chance that some of them may be fully booked up and be able to refer some clients that they have come across to you. 

Also, you can reach out to virtual assistants that do not offer the same services as you. The reason this can be beneficial is that they more than likely have and will continue to run into clients that need services they don’t offer. Once you connect with these kinds of virtual assistants, you open up the opportunity to be referred to those clients due to the fact that you have the ability to help them.

Local SEO

When it comes to SEO, it can take years for it to make a difference on a global search scale. Nonetheless, you can make a quicker impact in local searches as it will be a lot less competitive especially when you narrow it down to virtual assistants. You must create and update the Google My Business page and list your business in all relevant local directories, ensuring that your listing info is accurate and consistent across the web. Next, create dedicated pages for local search mainly because clients will prefer someone that is in their time zone so keeping it local will build your advantage. 

Test Your Services

It is incredibly useful for you to test out your services before you implement them to the general public. For example, you may be apprehensive about a certain new, unique service that you want to add to your business. You can give a free sample of the service to anyone willing to try and in return, they give you feedback on how they felt about the service. With this feedback, you can see whether to add or subtract to the service or do away with it entirely. Beyond just getting to see how your service will be received, you can also build your confidence and start gathering miniature testimonials.

Conclusion

Searching for your first clients or more clients, in general, can be difficult at times. However, the key is to make sure you adapt and try different methods to accomplish your goal. If you continue doing the same thing that is not working then you cannot expect results. Self-employment, especially in its early days, is a roller coaster and you have to be willing to ride it out.