I love being a Virtual Assistant. I love working with my clients, and I love meeting prospective clients.
I know this, but it’s interesting what really reminds you of that sentiment.
I have been recovering from surgery the last couple of weeks and to say I am going stir crazy is probably an understatement.
Not only do I have to heal, but I have some limitations imposed by doctor’s orders. No swimming and no driving. And no lifting things over 10 pounds.
So what’s a girl to do? The lifting part I’ve got down. That means no laundry!! Easy enough. But the other two – no driving and no swimming? I had planned to spend my time ‘off’ by the pool. But sitting by the pool without being allowed to go in it is brutal. And with no driving and a husband and son who are busy at work, that means no leaving the house.
How do I fill my time?
Well I’ll tell you. I fill it by planning. Thinking. Dreaming. Building.
It’s kind of exciting to be honest.
I am working my way through a group coaching program and getting many things in order for the various areas of my VA business.
One of the things I am setting up is some new training. It feels like forever since I have taught something live and that’s one of the things that I absolutely love to do.
It hasn’t been forever – in fact it’s been less than two months since my live VA conference! But because I love what I do, that is a long break.
The other thing I’m doing is connecting with people. I have a couple of in person events I’ll be attending if I feel well enough, but I am doing a lot of reaching out to people via email and online in social media platforms.
It’s nice to have the time to actually connect with people and get to know them.
You never know where your next client will come from!
Actually … that’s not entirely true! Do you know where your next client will come from?
You can know exactly where to find them – when you have a strategy and a plan for your connections.
For instance, there is a quarterly event I go to that is coming up in the next couple of weeks. I would like to be able to go to connect with some people I have recently met. I have attended this event 3 other times and each time, my connections become deeper with the people that I meet. We also connect on social media in various groups, so we can stay in touch between events. So if I made a goal of finding 2 people at the upcoming event to really connect with, and then followed up with them to talk about how to work together, I’m pretty sure I could get at least one client. Probably two.
That’s how it works. You have to have a strategy – what do you need? One client? Many clients? Where can you find them? When can you meet them? How long will it take to convert them to a client?
It’s not all ‘throw spaghetti at the wall’ with networking In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The more focused you are the better your results will be.
Connecting with new people each time isn’t always the way to get a new client.
You don’t have to go to live events to get clients, either.
You can apply the same strategy to your online networking. It takes a bit of finesse, so that you don’t come across as someone who is just looking to get a client, but it’s easy to build relationships with people online. Easier than in person, actually, since you have regular access to them.
And think of it this way: how many clients can you possibly work with at any given time? 10? 5? 3? So how many people do you really have to connect with if you find the right group of people to network with? And if you say the right things in your conversations?
Your next VA client is just one conversation away. Where will you find them?
If you need help with your networking, maybe this blog post can help!