We spend so much of our life trying for “more”. We talk about more money, more clients, more time, more energy, more freedom, more you fill in the blank. But more is not always better. You’ve heard the phrase “Less is more”, right? Well, the longer I’m in this business, the more that rings true.
Here’s why you should listen to what I’m about to say: I’ve been on multiple sides of this Virtual Assistant business. I’ve been a VA to small and large clients. I’ve developed programs and coached other VA’s and watched them grow and succeed. I’m now hiring VA’s for my own team, which gives me a totally unique perspective as a consumer. Throughout this journey, I’ve learned a few things.
And it turns out, in so many cases – we need to do LESS, not more. Or maybe we need to do LESS of some things, to free up time to do MORE of others. As always, the critical thing is to identify your overarching goal. For almost everyone, that’s going to be to attract and book our ideal clients and retain our current clients. The four things I’ve listed below directly relate to that goal.
Here are four very specific things you need to do LESS of in your Virtual Assistant business:
Less barriers of entry
We’ve already established that your goal is to book a call with your ideal client. We need to make this initial step as easy and barrier-free as possible. Here’s what this means for you:
Less fancy descriptions in your social media bio. You just need your name, title, who you serve, what you offer, the transformation you provide and a link to book a call (or to your website).
Yup, this also means fewer links on your Linktree fewer buttons on your website. Make it easy for potential clients to navigate to that “book a call” page or “connect with me” page by keeping that tab or link front and center when they visit your website. If they have to search, there is a good chance they won’t make the effort.
Less descriptions on your website
This is one that I see all the time, especially on service pages. The danger of being over descriptive or including too many details is twofold: First, it’s too much text for a visitor to read and so they are likely to skip it altogether. Second, if it’s too specific, you may lose some visitors because something you mentioned doesn’t apply to them.
Here’s what you actually need:
- What services you offer
- The transformation the service provides
- A short description of the service (this could include 5-8 bullet points)
- The starting price or a link to book a call for a custom quote
Trust me on this, they do not need to see Cheesecake Factory type service menu. Less is more.
Less talking on your discovery calls
Raise your hand if you’re a nervous talker! Take it from the queen of nervous energy, the best way to tank a discovery call is to talk more than your potential client does. The goal of a discovery call is for you to listen, and ask questions to gather all the information you need to give them a proposal that is relevant to their needs. Here’s the general rule of thumb: You should be talking 20%, they should be talking 80%.
Less explanations and details
This one specifically applies to retaining existing clients. As someone who has now hired multiple different VA’s and service providers – take it from me, your client doesn’t want a blow by blow breakdown of how you did the thing they hired you to do. Unless they specifically ask for details, keep your updates to the highlights and communicate your progress as succinctly as possible. Detailed updates about the problems or challenges that the task presented will only stress them out and overwhelm them.
What else can you do less of? We’ve already talked about the goal of attracting ideal clients and retaining current clients. That goal is the filter that you need to run all of your daily activities through to see if they are actually necessary. Are the actions you are taking moving you closer to that goal? Are you prioritizing the right things?
If your goal is MORE, consider doing LESS.
