No matter how established a VA is, one of the biggest issues you may face is knowing how to get more clients for your VA business. It’s a question that often pops up in the VA Help Desk Facebook Community – and it’s one that often highlights hidden issues and limiting fears or beliefs a VA may have!
Why? Because so many VAs, like any other online or virtual business owner, often has unresolved issues around being visible. If you want clients, you need to reach out get them – and that can be a scary prospect for many of us.
So, if you’re looking to get more clients for your VA business, here are the three levels of visibility, you need to learn.
Level 1: You need to be visible
As VAs our job is often to work happily in the background. Many VAs thrive on not being front and centre, the public face of a business. And whilst clients are happy to recommend us to others, that is where we often like to stay.
But referrals aren’t a guaranteed means of getting new clients for your VA business – they’re a nice bonus. As a business owner, you need to get comfortable with being visible and being seen as the face of your business. This means you need to have a plan in place for promoting yourself and using the available solutions around you – and without hiding in plain sight!
Level 2: It needs to be in the right places and in front of the right people!
So you’ve made your plan and decided to spend time on the one or two social media platforms that most appeal to you, and maybe even join a couple of business groups for VAs. But are those platforms and groups where your ideal clients are actually hanging out?
Being more visible is one thing, but if you’re not showing up in the right places, it’s going to be a wasted effort and your plan will fail. You need to ensure you’re going where your clients are. Pick the social media platforms they use the most and join the same online and networking groups they’re a part of. Be in the right place and in front of the right people.
Level 3: You need to be a conversation starter
Once you’ve decided to get more visible and have picked where that’s going to happen, you need to engage your ideal clients. Joining a group or going to a network will only work if you strike up a conversation with someone!
Take some of the pressure away from yourself, by looking to build contacts and relationships, not to make sales or get clients. Spend time getting to know the people you engage with and listen to their frustrations and issues – as this will help highlight ways you can potentially be of service to them. Set yourself a target of talking to x number of new people at a networking event, or of responding to x posts on your preferred social media platform or group. And if you’re really stuck, simply ask how you can be of value. Ask what problems they’re looking to solve, or where they’re currently stuck, and see if you can help them move forward.
If you want more clients for your VA business, visibility is the key. But it’s important to remember that visibility alone, is never enough. It’s only by holding yourself accountable for your own business success, by getting in front of the right people, reaching out and engaging regularly with them, that you’ll start to build relationships and ultimately, attract the clients you’re looking for.
It can be difficult knowing how to expand and grow your VA business, once you’ve been in business for a while. That’s why I’ve created the VA Membership. It gives you an affordable way to access the practical, supportive and expert help you need, to grow your business further and get the life and business you set out to achieve. If you’re ready to invest in your VA business, you can read more about the VA membership, here.