Can you guess the hardest part of starting a Virtual Assistant business?
Starting.
That’s right. A dream is just a thought until you take action. But what actions do you need to take? And what comes first? What mistakes should you avoid? What do you actually need to start your Virtual Assistant business? And more importantly, why do you need those things?
In this post, I want to give you a high-level overview of the steps you need to take to build a solid foundation for your Virtual Assistant business – and why they are critical to your success. Some of these might feel like “fluff”, but this is a bare-bones list. Nothing has been added as filler or gratuitously. It all matters. Let’s get started:
Choose a positive mindset.
Resist the urge to minimize or only mentally commit halfway. This often looks like having thoughts or making statements like, “I’ll just see how this works out”, “this will just be a little side-hustle”, or “I don’t think I’ll have time for this, but I guess I’ll try”.
Why it matters: These types of thoughts are poison to your baby business. If you practice positive thinking about your business – it will change the way you approach decision making, and greatly affect your ultimate success.
Establish your “Why” and your specific goals.
Why are you doing this? Is it to make a few extra bucks? Provide a full-time income for your family? Pay off debt? Put pen to paper and get very, very specific about why you want to build a VA business. Then, name your goals. Is it a specific monthly income goal? Or to replace a current salary at your 9-5? Write it down and be honest with yourself about the time investment your specific monetary goals will require. For example, if you want to bring in 5k a month, but only plan to invest 5 hours a week, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.
Why it matters: Establishing your “why” and knowing where you want to go will greatly impact your ability to keep going when things get tough. Prepare to work hard.
Choose a skill or skills to market.
You don’t have to offer everything. In fact, you shouldn’t! Think about the skills that you already have or jobs you’ve had in the past. What stands out as something that is marketable online AND that you like to do?
Why it matters: If you try to market yourself too broadly, you’ll reach no one. Choosing a skill set allows you to narrow down and select your ideal client and target market…which brings us to the next step.
Identify a target market and ideal client.
The content you create on social media, your brand and your marketing efforts all need to speak to the pain points of your target market. Where does your skill set interact with a particular industry? Maybe you have a background as a legal secretary and could service online legal services entrepreneurs.
Why it matters: Identifying, right down the smallest demographic, your ideal client will allow you to get super specific about how your services can help your target market.
Set your prices.
So many new VA’s get hung up right here. Listen, it doesn’t matter how “new” you are the online world – your skills are valuable, and you should charge no less than the industry standard for your services. For new VA’s this means between the equivalent of $20-$30 an hour. I highly recommend creating a customized package for your prospective clients, which just means you should create a monthly package price based on the number of hours you estimate that a task will take you.
Why it matters: Knowing ahead of time how you will structure your pricing, will allow you to pursue prospective clients without anxiety, fear, and uncertainty. Your prices are your prices. Just like reading the price of a meal off of a restaurant menu, you shouldn’t feel shame or anxiety in sharing your prices with a client.
Establish yourself online.
This one is critically important. If you run an online business, it only makes sense to be...online. Choose two social media platforms and establish a consistent posting schedule. I recommend Instagram and Facebook, but this could vary based on your target market and where they hang out online. In addition to social media, you need a place for clients to land. Ideally, this would be a website, where potential clients can find out more about you and how you can help them. If building a website isn’t possible right now, you can start with a well-curated Facebook Page.
Why it matters: If you don’t have a website or a Facebook page, prospective clients will be forced to piece together what they can about you from social media, or whatever else they can find out about you online. Because believe me, people are checking you out before they book a call. Here’s the truth: They aren’t going to look that hard. If you don’t appear to have a strong online presence, they will simply move on to someone else.
These are my 6 non-negotiable getting-started tips for Virtual Assistants. Because if you don’t start with this solid foundation, anything you build will be on shaky ground. You wouldn’t dream of building a house without a foundation that was rock solid – and you shouldn’t build a business that way either!
Two more resources to keep the ball rolling…
Okay, so now what? If you’re serious about this whole “starting a Virtual Assistant business” thing, you’re going to need more. Here are 2 more totally free resources that will help you dig a little deeper and really dive into this journey:
- The Virtual Assistant Club is a totally free private Facebook community for current (and wannabes!) VA’s. I’d love to have you onboard! Inside the community, you’ll find live video training, helpful pro-tips, and the collective mind of thousands of VA’s who’ve been exactly where you are right now.
- I’d also love to offer you my FREE guide to getting started as a VA. In this 13-page guide, we’ll work through the items in this blog – and then some.
Need more help with all your foundational business basics? The next round of The Foundation Group Program starts in January 2021! Want to learn more about how this program can jump start your business? CLICK HERE!
