When you choose a target market, you learn about what they do in their business – how they find their clients, how they work with their clients, and what kinds of things they need help with in their business. After learning the ins and outs of what they do, you can speak very clearly about how your services will support them.
We are back with another VA Snapshot episode of The Ridiculously Good VA Show, where we talk about the specific services that Virtual Assistants can offer different target markets.
Choosing a target market helps you learn about what they do in their business – how they find their clients, how they work with their clients, and what kinds of things they need help with in their business. After learning the ins and outs of what they do, you can speak much more clearly about how your can support them with your services.
Why is this essential? Because you truly understand how their business runs, and what you can do to help them keep it running smoothly and growing.
That’s the key to working with a target market. That you find large groups of clients that all need the same services and support – it makes getting lots of great clients so much easier.
I am Tracey DAviero, Virtual Assistant Coach and Trainer and in this series, we are going to dive into 25 or 30 different industries and professions that use Virtual Assistants, and I’ll share what kinds of tasks you can do for them.
Then you just need to decide who you can best support, and start connecting with them!
In this episode we will be talking about startups.
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:
In this series we are talking about how to think about your services from the perspective of you clients.
It’s easy enough to say that you provide email support, but how do your clients think about that?
How much importance do they place on that thing?
Why is it important for them to get help with a particular service?
And how do they actually use that service, or describe it?
When you really look at things like your clients do, your messaging will be so clear to them that they will know you understand their needs. And… they will want to work with you!
So let’s talk about startups and the services VAs can provide for them.
When someone is starting a business, there is a lot to do, and probably not a huge budget to bring on help, but that’s what can make working with a VA so appealing.
For the VA, new stuff is exciting, and can lead to some really interesting projects, setup, organization research, and that kind of thing – things that VAs always tell me is the stuff they love to do.
Administrative Support
Startups need a variety of administrative support: email management, calendar management, document formatting and preparation, data entry, and even travel arrangements.
There is often a lot of correspondence and connection that needs to happen as they start to get the word out about their new business.
Creating presentations and reports is a great service to offer as well – the client can provide the nuts and bolts but they don’t have to spend time doing the whole thing.
As customers come into the business, onboarding and communication are really important. Especially if the company is new, the first batches of customers need to have excellent support – and that isn’t something that the guys in charge should be doing themselves.
It’s very common to have a customer service support system for online businesses, so that customers can get fast answers or help with things that they need access to or information about.
And of course, feedback is essential for any business, but definitely for startups as they may need to change course in the early day to ensure that they are delivering what their customers needs. Established businesses should also collect feedback, but when you have a proven product or service, this gets done a little less. Very important with startups.
Almost every VA’s favourite service seems to be research! And startups need support in this area. Whether it is market research for industry trends, competitors or finding pools of customers, research can be a really valuable and essential service to offer to clients who are early in their business journey.
Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping and accounting always comes into play for business owners. It can be time consuming and even confusing when it’s not your area of specialty and so it’s often an area that gets outsourced first.
If you offer bookkeeping services, you should never be struggling to find clients!
Marketing
Helping clients get the word out about their business is, again, always important – but even moreso with a new business like a startup.
Being able to assist with managing social media pages, updates, comments, engagement or even communities is an excellent way to get ongoing work that really impacts the client’s business.
That’s one of the things I often try to make sure VAs are clear on – the real benefits that the client will get from bringing you in to help them.
We tell them all the time we save them time and money, but we don’t really.
So we need to find the real benefits – like I just mentioned with marketing, support in this area really impacts their business – why? because it can actually help bring in clients, or help clients make that decision to say YES, or retain clients that have already purchased.
Those benefits are the ones that you want to recognize from the services you offer.
When we can see HOW the client really actually benefits from working with us and outsourcing some of the tasks they need to do, or have done themselves in the past, that can help them make the leap to hiring us.
With marketing also comes building their audience – getting more eyes on their product or service, and getting their name out there to the people who will be their customers.
That means marketing outreach, email campaigns, subscriber lists and generating leads.
Being a market VA can help you show the return on investment a client will get by working with you.
Project and Event Management
Moving right along, you can provide virtual meeting support, project management and collaboration. So many services these new companies need.
Tech and IT Support
If you are tech savvy, website and IT are a great service offering. And let’s not leave out SEO. Being found in searches is dependent on creating content and posting it to your website or blog, and that’s more ongoing work that you can count on.
Don’t forget we are always looking for the repeatable tasks that we can do for a client. We don’t always want to be doing projects with a stop and start. If we do, that means we will always be looking for new clients, which can be challenging.
But if we find clients that we can do a little bit of work for on an ongoing basis, that means a long term client.
And because startups will often tell you they don’t have a huge budget (until their product or service goes viral!), it may be a tough sell to get a big client. But small clients are just as good!
I know when I see anyone starting up a new business, the task list is never ending – long, and always being added to.
They need to be focusing on generating revenue, and that often takes a lot more time when they are just getting started.
Even better if they have accessed start up grants to fund their business, actually, but be mindful that budget will often be an issue for businesses in their infancy.
So even more reason to bring in a VA for a few hours a week, to get all the other bits done.
If you can provide specialized services for them, even better. Many hands make light work, and like I always tell clients, I work very quickly, so that means that we can increase the productivity that they would have on their own, at least by 2x and very often much more than that.
And like I said, if you have tech skills, or organization skills, or just plain old cheerleading skills, that can be a really good connection for your startup client to have in their corner.
We need to get the word out to startup business owners that VAs can be very valuable assets to their team. This support enables entrepreneurs to focus on the strategic aspects of their business, fostering growth and innovation, which is critical at the beginning stages – and beyond.
I can help…
What You Need to Do Next:
I want you to know that I can help you do this stuff in your business. That’s literally the reason I am here. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through challenges just like yours, and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of. That you dream of.
I’d love to do the same for you.
Let’s work together privately to get you to your really big goal. It’s the fastest way to get results and we can start right away. Learn more about private coaching here.
The Virtual Circle (TVC) is a monthly mastermind group for Virtual Assistants just like you. We get together 3 times a month for group Zoom sessions to talk about what you are struggling with, working on, or celebrating. It’s a close knit community of your VA colleagues that provides the best kind of support for your VA business. Learn more about TVC here.
My self study program Getting Started as a VA can help you get your VA business started easily and quickly too. You can sign up right away and be on your way to getting clients by the end of the program, with all the right foundations in place. Check out the program here.
Reach out to me if you need to talk about where you are stuck and what the right option might be to get you moving. It’s literally all I’m here to do is help you get to where you want to go. Book a complimentary Cut to the Chase call with me here.