In today’s podcast episode, I’m sharing how to start a virtual assistant business. This is the exact blueprint I created and followed myself when I was laid off from my job during the pandemic and decided to take another path. Within four weeks of following this very same process, I built a profitable six-figure virtual assistant business.
If you have been curious about what types of services virtual assistant jobs and similar online jobs can offer, you will love this post.
How To Start A Virtual Assistant Business
If you are someone who is looking for remote work, creating a virtual assistant service might be for you. Especially if you have a background in areas such as digital marketing, email marketing, content creation, social media platforms, social media management, or anything that relates to knowing about marketing strategies.
Today, I’m sharing the formula I designed for becoming a profitable virtual assistant with future, entry-level virtual assistants in mind. The first step in this process is to attract your dream clients with an irresistible offer that you craft based on your existing skill set. The second step is to actually book these high-paying clients. And finally, you will want to automate your internal systems so that you can work less and earn more along the way.
Step #1: Creating Your Irresistible Offer
This step is key to actually booking those high-paying clients. You might think that you need to learn more about the industry, take a training course, or become more specialized in certain areas. The truth is – you don’t have to do any of those things! Instead, you can start with what you know RIGHT NOW.
Start by identifying your existing skill set. You can do this by making a list of everything that you can do to serve your future clients. And when I say everything, I mean everything! Write down anything you think might serve those dream clients of yours. Nothing is too big or too small. Then, package those skills into a service offering to show that you can support a very specific niche.
It’s important to note that you won’t be able to support everyone. So with this expectation in mind, you can search for the most profitable niche for your skill set. The best part about using your existing skillset is that you don’t have to wait to start making money. Instead, you can get started immediately making money as a full-time virtual assistant.
Step #2: Booking High-Paying Clients
The next step in how to start a virtual assistant business is to book high-paying clients. Believe it or not, your future clients are ready for you today. There are two key themes I’ve seen that they probably want your help with:
- Tasks that can grow their business
- Tasks that give them more time to grow their business
Yes, these future clients are trying to grow their businesses and they want people on board that can help them grow. So, whatever skills you can offer to help them do exactly that will certainly be intriguing to them.
So often I see aspiring virtual assistants spending their precious time on social media trying to create an online presence and engage with potential clients by creating content around the virtual assistant industry. But the truth is, this method will always end up feeling like a hamster wheel and it doesn’t actually lead to gaining the paying clients you’re looking for.
What clients actually want is someone who can help them with things such as administrative tasks, project management, and tasks that are time-consuming to them. Think about these clients as if they are individual small businesses – they need the help, but they might just not have the time to search for it. So, going directly to them to offer your services can really pay off.
Trust me, they want to move these things off their plate, but they might not know how! This is where you come in. Find out which tasks are plaguing a potential client, and it’ll be easy for you to convince them to pass these tasks over to someone like you. Be sure you are ready to take them on right away because they won’t want to wait.
The Breakdown of Booking High-Paying Clients
First, you will craft your irresistible offer that you will actually send to pitch yourself to potential clients. This will help you find where these clients are online and what to say to them.
Then, you will do some research to assemble a list of clients that would work well to serve your skill set and niche. Next, you will try to connect and reach out to them and actually provide them with your irresistible offer.
Now, it’s time to convert these potential clients into actual clients. More than likely, you will find that 5 out of every 20 people you reach out to will be interested in joining a discovery call with you. Even if you just have one person who gets back to you, take that as a win! No matter how many prospects you have join a discovery call, put your best foot forward. This is where you use your best sales pitch to convert as many of them as you can into actual clients.
Did you think the process stopped there? It certainly doesn’t – and it only gets better. Because your process is so seamless, your clients can’t help but tell their friends in their industry about you. That’s right, word-of-mouth marketing is very much alive and well in this industry. Maybe even more than you think!
The more work you do for more clients, the more you will notice a cycle of referrals starting to happen. Be sure to keep this in mind as you build connections, and always expect one connection to lead to another!
Step 3: Automate Processes to Earn Profit
This is the final step in the process to become a profitable virtual assistant. Automating processes and turning them into profits is where you create efficient systems for yourself to save you time so that you can work less and earn more.
On average, onboarding a single client can take up to 15 hours if you have no automation in place. Yes, 15 hours! That’s a lot of precious time, and that’s not even time you’re paid for. So, that’s why it’s so important to automate any of the processes that you can. You are sure to save yourself time and money down the road by doing so.
Try to get your onboarding process down to about 2 hours. By automating every process that you can, you’re sure to be able to do this. Once your clients are onboarded and you have everything you need to perform your best work for them, all you’ll have to worry about is serving them well. This might take some time to get worked out, but don’t give up on this one. Saving time in areas like this will save you money.
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