What Will You Do This Week to Find New VA Clients?

Do you need a new client?

Most VAs will answer YES! to that question without hesitation.

But do you know where your next client is going to come from?

If you don’t answer that question as quickly as the first one, then you need to get a plan in place!

There are many places you can find your next client.

The best thing to do is to build a system into your business where you can find new clients easily in a few different places.

And then you need to network!

Online, offline, start getting out to events and really connecting with people to fill your pipeline.

If you talk to just 2 people a day about your business (and theirs), that is 40 to 60 people in a month. That’s so many leads! Surely you can get 1 client out of that many conversations.

So you have to start the conversations. And to get the conversations you have to start to build that pipeline.

If you are just starting out, or if you don’t have that system in place yet, then here are a few ideas for you!

1. Ask your current clients if they know anyone who they might be able to refer you to. If you are doing a great job for them, they might have a suggestion. Some clients don’t like to give away the babysitter’s number, so to speak, but most will probably come up with a name or two.

2. Put a note out to your family and friends – let them know specifically what you do and ask them if they know anyone who might need your help (often our friends and family have no idea what we do until we articulate it well to them). Almost everyone can find at least one client this way!

3. Connect with your strategic partners – these are people who serve the same market as you but they don’t offer the same services. For instance, maybe a bookkeeper or a website designer might support similar small business owner clients, but you don’t do the same things for them so it’s an easy referral.

4. Connect with people in your social media groups. You should be posting to these groups regularly, so don’t just pop in if you have been a lurker and say ‘hey does anyone need a VA?’ – that is rarely effective! But you can reach out to specific people you have been in touch with before and ask them if they have a need, or if someone they know might.

5. Ask old clients (if you liked them!). Often I have parted ways with a client because our businesses went in different directions. An old client that you liked but maybe wasn’t a good fit at the time can be a great new client.

6. Seek out a local networking group if you are looking for a local client. Many times there are few, if any, VAs who go to those groups. You could corner the market, especially if you offer a service like social media management, which is a service that many small business owners need but often don’t understand or care to do for themselves.

7. Do a social media search. Hashtags and keywords are our friends. You can often find people who are posting that they need help by simply doing a quick search in a group or on a social media platform. These can be the fast way to cash because there is an immediate need.

8. Follow up with people whose business cards you collected at events you have attended. Follow up is the one thing that is statistically proven to get you clients. So many people attend an event, meet some potential clients and then never follow up with them. Reach out and reintroduce yourself, and see if they are looking for someone.

9. Join social media groups if you haven’t already. Introduce yourself. Ask questions. Answer questions. Get involved in conversations.VA groups don’t count – your clients are not there! Find groups that have people in them who would use VAs – you can find groups for everything including services that those clients might be using that you can use too. Think outside the box!

10. Ask your current clients if they need any additional work. If you keep doing what you do for them, you can stay where you are. But if you have some new training you can even increase your billables with the people you are already working with.

How many of these have you tried before?

How many will you try now?

What can you do to get new clients this week?

Now you know where to start!