How to Become a Virtual Assistant-Finding Clients - Your Skills

* Who ARE my clients going to be?
* What do THEY do?
* Where can I find THEM?

Many people start a business and then run a business without ever finding out who their ideal clients are going to be. Saying - I will work for Small to Medium sized businesses, or my skills are best suited to the middle class individual, is casting your net far too wide. It is estimated that the response from a directed mail shot is 1 to 2%, and that is when it is ensured that each and every letter or mail goes to the target group who can best be served. Marketing yourself as a VA is almost impossible if you do not know who your ideal clients are.

It is far easier if you work in one specific field, such as Real Estate or if you specialise in Medical transcription, far more difficult if you are a ‘solutions provider’ – who actually needs that solution and what is it?

Finding your niche is the way to almost guarantee that your business will succeed - you may actually have more than one but you should concentrate on marketing the first and then you can repeat the procedure for your other specialist skills.

Di Chapman - the Award Winning Virtual Assistant"

Is my business YOUR business?

I am asking this question as I get a lot of queries I can answer but on occasion I get direct requests for personal business documentation that is confidential and has legal implications. Of course I am not prepared to give or even sell this – it is part of MY business that I have built up over the last 18 years.

I was amazed to find that ‘some’ Business Advisors tell prospective VAs that the best place to get information on how to set up their business is from other VAs. Your competition is NOT the best place and there are so many types of service on offer that you may go through a lot of Virtual Assistants before you find one who has the same skill set as you have. I have even been asked how much certain specialist equipment costs – not being on that side of the profession, I have no idea.

If you want information (apart from pricing) you will find that there are forums all over the world specifically for VAs. A search on Google will show up many of these and some directories also have a forum for their members. This is the place to ask and get answers to business questions.

Our site Become a Virtual Assistant gives as much information as we can on starting up, but due to country restrictions and local taxes etc it is impossible to cover all countries and their rules and regulations.

Items such as Booking Forms, Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies should be company specific and should also be checked over by a solicitor/lawyer/etc depending on your country. Your financial planning is of great importance and a visit to a local accountant is well worth it and will probably be free for a first visit. These professions are there to give you advice as are local business organisations.

Why should a newcomer to the VA industry not approach another VA for this information? Well the real reason I advise against it is because running a home or small business is more than just doing the work and collecting the cheque. It involves marketing, accounting and a myriad of other tasks just to keep the business running – they are not qualified and simply do not have time.

If you want further advice on starting up your practice, may I suggest Alexandra Amour’s site and book’s.

I hope that you are all enjoying summer. Work tends to slow down now for many but that just gives us time to plan our marketing campaign for the autumn. Summer to me means soft fruit and we were lucky enough to be invited to a cherry picking evening – the season is so short that it is a good excuse to eat as many as possible. Some went into bottles for the winter as a reminder on a dark day of what is to come again.

Di Chapman

8 Steps to Kick Start Your Virtual Assistant Practice

Well the site is really and truly up and running and our new complimentary e-book '8 Steps to Kick Start Your Virtual Assistant Practice' can be downloaded from here.

We have had a lot of really nice reviews and e-mails from both those wanting to be, new and experienced VAs. They all say the content is useful and very helpful.

Members of the AUKVA (Alliance of UK Virtual Assistants) have kindly sent in articles which I have put up as there is nothing as important as advice and help from your peers. There is also a page on digital transcription where I have two links to pages on the AUKVA site. This complex subject is described in detail both from the VA and Clients viewpoint and is written by AUKVA members.

I hope that the weather is kinder to you than it is to us. At the moment it is above 30C and we also have a gale blowing for a lot of the time. I don't mean a breeze - that would be great, I mean a howling hot gale. The garden is as put out as I am by it all.

Time for a tip?

I notice in all the mails I get that many of you are missing a trick - were are your signatures detailing what you do, where is your URL and where is your confidentiality statement?

With Outlook you can have as many signatures as you want. I have various signatures - for clients, VAs, friends, and forum posts.

My signature on VA posts is:

Best wishes

Di Chapman
The Award Winning Virtual Assistant

http://www.iceni-it.co.uk Resource site for new and aspiring Virtual Assistants.
Download your complimentary business e-book, '8 Steps to Kick Start Your Virtual Assistant Practice'

Winner, E-Business, (Small Company) Essex Countywide Business Awards
Winner, E-Business, (Small Company), Colchester and District Business Awards
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Iceni-it
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When you send a mail - advertise your presence with every mail - get noticed, change the colour - stand out. You will be remembered eventually (they say it takes 6 to 8 times for your name to be seen for it to be remembered).

I hope you found the above tip useful. Used on forums you will find it creates a lot of interest - even if the forum has nothing but nothing to do with your business, everyone knows someone and I have got work from posting to forums on gardening topics :).

Enjoy June, summer is really here.

Best wishes,
Di Chapman, the Award Winning Virtual Assistant