I’m excited to share with you the three biggest mistakes that virtual assistants make when looking for clients. Over the years, I have learned a thing or two about this. I am the mother of three, but I have been a virtual assistant since 2007. I’m also a virtual assistant mentor and coach, and I help other women who want to become virtual assistants. I am all about empowering women to be able to work from home, work for yourself, and help support and provide for your family.
“Stop underestimating what you are actually capable of doing.” Julie Stoian.
I really like that quote, and I just wanted to give you some encouragement because making mistakes is just part of the learning process. It doesn’t change the fact that you are capable of doing so much.
Mistake #1: Not Choosing an Area of Specialization
If you’re having trouble getting clients, one of the mistakes that you might be making is that you have not chosen an area of specialization. If you have seen my YouTube videos, you’ve probably heard me say, we cannot be Walmart. We cannot be all things to all people. We cannot be the place to get everything you need. We need to specialize, niche down, and decide who we serve and what services we provide. In doing that, we become specialized, and we stand out to our ideal client.
When I first started out, I actually started out ghost writing articles and blog posts back in 2007. I wrote a lot of different types of articles and blog posts. I wrote about everything, from being a mom to men’s eyeglasses. The company I was working with was using article marketing to promote their eyeglass website, so I had to write about eyeglasses.
But, I quickly learned that I was not passionate about eyeglasses, or some of the other things that I wrote about. Therefore, I began to delve into what I really enjoyed doing, who I really enjoyed serving, and what services I enjoyed providing for those people. I also asked myself, What could I do day in and day out without getting tired of it?
I encourage you to ask yourself that question when you’re finding an area to specialize in. Today I specialize in helping Christian authors, speakers, and coaches to build and maintain their online presence. And I do that through email marketing, social media marketing, content repurposing, and their websites, specifically WordPress websites. As you can see, I got very specific.
Are there other things that I do? Probably. I just don’t advertise those things as often or as much. I try to stick to advertising the things that I’m really good at and I really enjoy doing. Don’t make the mistake of not specializing.
One option is you can choose your services first, and then decide who those services serve. Or you can choose a target group of people that you want to work with, and then find out what services those people need. You can use either of those ways to decide your specialization.
Mistake #2: Not Marketing Enough
I made this mistake early on in my business. Many times I would realize that I had a full plate of clients, and so I would stop marketing. I would not look for potential clients. And that was a mistake. The reason being that I was not getting anyone new into my funnel, and I did not have anyone waiting in the wings to be my next client.
You need to always be marketing. Whether that is being active on social media, being out in the community to network individuals, or sending out newsletters/emails on a regular basis. Whatever your form of marketing that you choose to do, you have to always be doing it.
You cannot put on the brakes and expect to get new clients. You’ve got to market your business.
Mistake #3: Not Having an Onboarding System
It is important for you to have an onboarding system if you want to be successful. I currently use HoneyBook. I will share a code with you for HoneyBook because I have a code that allows people to get a percentage off of their HoneyBook subscription.
HoneyBook is hands down my favorite tool for onboarding. It allows you to create a lead system where people can fill out a contract, get an invoice from you, pay you, set up reoccurring payments, receive information from you, and so much more,
For example, there is a form on my website. If somebody comes over to my website and decides they want try working with my company, they go to the contact form on my website. When they fill it out, the form automatically goes into HoneyBook.
Through HoneyBook, they can also set up a free 20-minute consult with me. HoneyBook will send them information about the type of service consult they’re interested in. If they’re interested in my “Email Marketing Done for You” package, it will automatically send them information about that package. If they’re interested in a strategy session or a strategy call, it will automatically send them information about that call.
HoneyBook is really amazing, and it streamlines the process that I have, so I don’t have to manually send out all those promotions and follow-ups. It is done in HoneyBook, and it will happen whether I’m sitting at my computer or not. It is an automatic system.
You could also call it a CRM (customer relations manager) if you wanted to. If you don’t use HoneyBook, find another one that works well for you. But I do highly recommend HoneyBook because I’ve been using it for about the last four years. Prior to that, I used a Gmail plug-in called Streak. Streak was an amazing program as well. It did not have any bugs. You couldn’t send the contracts and invoices, but it did help with lead generation and helped me track whether I had set up consultations or followed up with people.
Tracking will help you a ton in your business to see where you are with these leads. And it’s important to see how many leads you got this month. And how many converted to clients to see what your conversion rate is. That is something that HoneyBook does.
Now, I’m also going to give you a bonus mistake today.
Mistake #4: Not Following Up
This is why a system like HoneyBook is so important. You know who you have talked to, who you have not talked to, who you’ve sent an email follow up to, and who you have not sent an email follow up to.
If you don’t follow up, the only person who is at fault is you. You have to have a follow-up system in place to make sure that you are following up with your potential clients. The same can be said for your current clients. You want to always be in communication with them. Don’t make the mistake of not communicating with your clients, because that is the one way to lose clients.
Following up is key to continuing to get clients and leads into your business.
As mentioned, you can get a discount on Honeybook: https://share.honeybook.com/alyssaavant
