How To Get Clients As A Virtual Assistant
My Instagram DMs blow up daily with one very specific question, “How do Virtual Assistants get clients?!”
Million dollar question, right?!
There are so many ways you can go about finding clients, tons of things you can google, or groups you can join that will tell you all the things. But sometimes you feel like nothing at all is working in getting you any clients!
I don’t have any answers that will magically make you $10K a month. But I do have some tips and tricks that have worked for me.
Don’t come at me if you try these and you still don’t have a client. These are just some ideas to get you started. If you want to chat more, hit me up in my DMs or shoot me an email!
Let’s finally get into ways to get some clients if you are a Virtual Assistant.
#1 Shout from the rooftops
Yes, this feels silly. But, if no one knows that you started a business, they can’t send clients your way. Tell everyone you know, post on all your personal social channels (make sure you have a business page created first so you have somewhere to send possible clients who come your way), figure out how to work it into conversations when you meet new people, share it with your aunts and your friends moms and your babysitters because they will also be telling all the people. Word of Mouth has been the driving force in me growing my business, so I will say this is the most important tip of them all. You just never ever know who might need help and want to know more about outsourcing, so share it with the world!
#2 Hit up all the local spots
My client base is primarily local people, BUT I did not go into their shops and shout from the rooftops like I said in the previous tip. I continued what I was already doing: shopping local, supporting local, commenting and sharing on social media, tagging them when I purchased from them, recommending them to others. People already know my name from being a supporter of their business long before they find out what job I do! If you stop into their shop and drop your business, it’s going to feel icky and ‘cold call’ like. I’m doing zero “Hey girl!” messages, I’m just supporting like I always do and the clients eventually come to me!
(Note: I did do some cold messaging when I was deep in the trenches of teaching and trying to figure out how I was going to get out. Not proud of it, but that’s a story for another day!)
#3 Facebook Groups
I feel like Facebook Groups (neighborhood groups, business groups, etc. etc. etc)are always included in lists of ways to get clients. But you have to be doing it correctly for it to work. Again, making connections is your first priority, not listing your business in every single comment of every single job opportunity. Sometimes people post a job opp, and there are 1272 comments on it. Don’t add to those. Here are two things I do when I see those:
Click the person and see if they have their business page/website linked. Then do some research first. See if you even want to work for that business before getting sucked into the commenting your website trap!
Then message or email the person directly (always check the post first to see if they have listed what they prefer!)
#4 Networking
Although I’m not a giant fan of the word ‘networking’ I do feel like it does work! But again, I don’t want to call it networking, I want to call it making connections! I want to meet a new woman I met in business for coffee and talk about life - if the topic comes up, then you tell them about what you do and make sure you allow them the space to jabber on about what they do. THIS is how you teach people what a Virtual Assistant does or what they could do for certain businesses.
#5 Post to Social Media
I know, I know…you don’t want to hear this one! But besides word of mouth, the majority of my clients come from social media. My biggest client - who happens to live on the other side of the country - found me while scrolling a hashtag on Instagram and we are still together years later. Don’t scoff at posting to social media! Make sure your content is useful, relatable, and tells people how you can help them - otherwise they will have no idea why they would need to hire you. Again, it’s a fine line between a sales pitch and educating others, but I promise you that posting to social media can help!
In my experience, most people have no idea what a Virtual Assistant can help with. Have your elevator pitch ready when people ask what you do! That way you can explain it in short, and it allows for open-ended questions when people want you to expand. That way it doesn’t feel like a sales pitch (my biggest annoyance!) when you are just meeting up with a new group of friends for lunch, no one wants that!
My last tip that really isn’t a tip would just be to always deliver good, quality work. That way you are always going to have your current clients shouting your name for you, and you will always have word of mouth to rely on. My very first client that signed with me is still the one that brings me the most clients because she will 100% recommend me in any conversation, and I’m so grateful for that!
I hope you found some great ideas in these 5 tips on how a virtual assistant can find clients. Let me know if you use any of these!
