Today’s Quote: It takes months to find a customer … seconds to lose one. – Vince Lombardi
Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today I am going to talk about how to be ridiculously good at managing multiple clients – their requests, their work, their deadlines, and more.
Click the play button above to tune in, or choose your favourite podcast player below:
Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
Having lots of clients is a good thing, but if you can’t manage your workload then it can be really stressful for all of you.
There are many times when having too many priorities comes up, but handling your workload well on a regular basis helps you manage that better.
Let’s talk about your first clients – we get excited, and then we get into the habit of answering their emails quickly, finishing their tasks quickly, and basically giving them really fast service.
That’s not a bad thing – I mean they are paying you, right?
But the problem with that is that it’s not sustainable as you gain more clients. Which you will if you are a successful VA.
Imagine being the client who got same day service in the beginning and then all of a sudden gets slowed right down, and being told ‘I’ll do that on Thursday’.
Doesn’t feel very good – does it?
And that’s one of the biggest problems that new VAs face.
Like Vince says in today’s quote – it takes months to get a great client, and seconds to lose one.
Very true. We work SO hard to get our clients – it’s really important to work with them in a way that helps them feel valued and also so that we can make sure they value us.
So how to manage it? Well for starters, you want to make sure that you work smarter from the get go.
Which can be a real challenge because you often have nothing else to do – but you have to handle the client as though you have a full schedule.
If you have already started, you are probably going to have to have a conversation with your client or face that disappointment that I described earlier.
I know it well, I’ve had that conversation with clients.
They don’t like being downgraded from being your highest priority.
So you have to build your business with the intention of managing the tasks of many clients.
I bet you never really thought of it till now did you?
I know I sure didn’t!
So let’s talk about how you can do that.
First you have to be able to tell your clients that they are not your only client. They can’t treat you like you are their assistant. You’re not.
You are a VA that they have hired to do their admin work (whatever that is), and they have to treat you like any other business that they would outsource to.
Part of working with a target market is looking for clients who are GREAT – and that means clients who value you and understand that you are working together, that you are not working for them.
If they think you are only working for them (or that they are your highest priority because they are paying you), you will run into problems regularly.
So … start with that! Have that conversation. Let them know that you are in charge of your own schedule. They can let you know what they need done, but they can not dictate when you will do it. Only when it is ‘due’.
There are lots of ways to do work for multiple clients. They all require the use of your schedule.
Use Your Schedule
Some VAs will set aside large blocks of time to work on stuff for client A, client B etc.
But I am not a big believer in blocking off large blocks of time in any given day.
If you have 5 clients, and you book 2 hours today to work for client A, then what happens to the other 4 clients?
My preferred way of working with multiple clients was to block off short blocks of time – 30 minutes or less. You can always circle back to client A’s work later in the day if you need to.
Break up all tasks that you do for your clients into smaller time buckets For instance if you are working on their newsletter don’t try to sit down and produce the newsletter within the hour.
Break your pieces of what needs doing into much smaller tasks so you can do them a little at a time. For the newsletter, there are multiple steps that you need to ‘do’ to get it.
And make sure you factor in breaks to your day – burnout is real and it can rob you of valuable time.
The short blocks of time help you with that too – long periods of time working are bad for many reasons.
One of the main reasons is that the longer you give yourself to do something, the longer you will take to do it.
You also need to be sure that you are planning the right amount of time to complete every task – if you go over on your time regularly, then you have to revise your estimate.
Use Checklists
Instead of booking in an hour and starting from scratch, create a checklist of everything that you need to do to, to get it done. Then look at how long each of those steps takes to complete – and book THOSE times into your calendar.
Think about it – how many 15 minute or 30 minute time slots do you have in your day?
Lots! And it’s easier to fill those by doing something that takes 15 to 30 minutes, and then move on to something else.
Breaking up your tasks into smaller time buckets makes sense when you have a lot of things to do.
It also makes it easier to mix up your day.
I love to create checklists for all the things that need ‘doing’ – they not only help you make sure you don’t miss steps, but they help you to work very efficiently too.
One of the things that checklists do is to stop the need to remember where you left off, or think about what the next step is.
It seems like something that is so simple, but it really frees up that brain space, and it honestly saves you time.
Communication
Another really important piece of managing multiple clients is communication, It’s actually one of the most important parts.
If your clients have to wonder about the progress of their tasks, that’s not good.
They can become anxious – whether they tell you or not – and it can lead to being unhappy with your work.
So communication is always key.
Let them know that you received their work request or email or message.
Let them know when you are going to be able to take care of it or work on it or complete it for them.
Let them know the status of it, whether you are on time or not.
Let them know if anything goes wrong that they have to fix or approve or know about.
Let them know what kinds of lead times you need for all of the tasks you do for them.
Let them know what they need to provide for you in order for you to get their work done efficiently and on time.
Bill them for all communication, and keep it tight.
Set a method of communication and hold them to it. Production meeting once a week and email the rest (or pm system). If they can access you in more than once place you are spending more time on their communication than you should.
Production Meetings
Book a weekly production with all clients so that you can keep the rest of the week’s communication going via emails or project management system only.
Meetings are a waste of time almost all of the time. The more time your clients keep you in meetings, the less time you can actually dedicate to working on their tasks.
A good production meeting helps you keep on top of the priorities for everyone, and gives you that once a week touch point with your clients so you can build a relationship with them.
Mondays are good days for production meetings – and when you can keep them to 20 minutes, you can be done by noon and have the rest of the day to do actual client work.
For instance – if you have 6 clients, book them in every 30 minutes starting at 9 am.
Keep a strict agenda and keep the meeting to 20 minutes. Once you finish the call, take another 10 minutes to put your notes into the project management system.
Bill the client 30 minutes.
The key is making sure the client is aware that it’s a productivity session – and that means a high level overview of what is going to happen in the coming week only.
Create an agenda and stick to it.
Some smaller clients will not need a full 20 minutes.
Even your busiest or biggest clients can have a 20 minute meeting.
You don’t need to cover all details in these – that’s what you project management software is for.
For example, we are doing a newsletter this week, where are the pieces for that? we have 3 group sessions, what is outstanding for those? we are planning for that event next month, where do we stand on the call for speakers? and is there anything new coming down the pipe?
It’s YOUR job to keep things moving and be efficient. You are in charge of the call, not the client. It’s not a gab session or a work session.
It’s a quick connect meeting because you can cover way more in a 20 minute call than a hundred emails. And you can get answers to questions quickly.
And you nurture your working relationship because you are actually speaking with each other every week.
Invaluable.
If a client decides to add a new priority mid week, ask them what can be moved (to a
if a client adds a new priority mid week, ask them what can be moved on the current list or tell them what is moving – communication is key, especially with changes. a client may not realize that they have given you more work and that you are already scheduled out- it’s your job to tell them that you are.
Focus
The last way to manage multiple clients is one that you have heard time and time again but maybe you aren’t doing.
You need to focus on what you are working on every minute of every day.
The best way to get more done is to pay attention to it and to do it efficiently – and that means focus.
Avoid those distractions.
Set those buckets of time – start and stop times.
Use checklist to keep track of what you need to do (and what’s done).
Don’t do rush work. Teach your clients that your lead times and deadlines are firm.
Say no to things that you don’t want to do or can’t do.
Automate where you can (I like to think checklists are a form of automation!)
And make sure you bill all time that you work for your clients to them – there is no free time, meetings are billable, communication is billable, managing their tasks and projects is billable.
Stay organized.
Stay in charge.
Manage your client expectations and master your communication.
I’m going to leave it there for today.
Need Some Help?
This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you – there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.
I’ll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.
I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of.
I’d love to do the same for you.
You can work with me privately, or you can join The Virtual Circle, my mastermind group for Virtual Assistants. Check it out at www.YourVAMentor.com/TVC (the virtual circle) – I bet it’s exactly what you need to start running the VA business you dreamed of.
Reach out to me if you are interested.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week, see you next time!