Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today I want to talk about getting those great clients that seem to be elusive.
Today’s Quote: “Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” – Chris Grosser
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Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
I’m Tracey D’Aviero, your Confidence Coach for Virtual Assistants, and today we’re talking about a question I hear all the time: “Where do I find good clients?”
Not just any clients. Not the draining ones. Not the $25-an-hour ones who question every invoice. The best clients. The respectful ones. The ones who value what you do. The ones who pay properly and stick around.
Well, I’m going to say something that might surprise you. It’s not about the platform, it’s about the positioning.
There Is No Magic Platform
A lot of VAs think there is a secret place where all the amazing clients are hiding.
They think: If I just get on the right job board… If I just join the right Facebook group… If I just sign up for the right freelancing platform…
They ask in the VA groups where do I find clients (and they really do mean tell me where to go to find them)
Then want that magic place named, and then they think suddenly the best clients will appear.
I’m not making fun of you if you have asked this question before, but it’s important that if you have asked this question in the past that you lean in and listen to this episode.
There are good clients everywhere. And there are bad clients everywhere.
Upwork has both.
Facebook groups have both.
LinkedIn has both.
Referrals can even bring both.
The platform is neutral. The platform isn’t actually important at all. You have to choose a platform where you will, or already are, spend your time.
There are clients everywhere – the great kind, which is what i want to focus on.
What makes the difference in getting great clients is how you show up, how you position yourself, how confident you sound, what you’re willing to accept…
It’s the conversations that you have on a daily basis which is what clients you will get.
The best clients are not found in secret corners of the internet. They are attracted to VAs who look like professionals. And showing up, having conversations, and being a professional is the key.
Where the Best Clients Actually Come From
Your best clients (I think it’s important to reinforce that, because another VA’s best clients might not be the same as yours).
Here are the places I consistently see VAs find high-quality, long-term clients:
Referrals from past or current clients. Number one. And it’s number one for a reason.
When you do excellent work, communicate well, and carry yourself professionally, clients talk. And when someone is referred to you, you are already positioned as trustworthy. That instantly elevates you.
It’s almost an effortless way to get clients because others are sending potential clients your way. Sometimes you can tell your clients that you are looking for someone, and do they know anyone but sometimes your name just comes up in conversations.
Like when they are attending a networking or business event or going to the same professional groups and they are talking about things they are doing or results they are having, that their colleagues then ask how they are doing or getting those things. And that’s when your name comes up.
Next is your own people. Your own audience. People underestimate this one.
People like former coworkers, business owners in your community, parents at your kids’ school, online connections you’ve built over time.
You do not need to have thousands of followers. In fact I always tell VAs that they do NOT need even hundreds of followers, when you are connecting with the right people.
What you do need is clarity in terms of who you help and what you help them with. And you need to be able to communicate that to people who know you. And you need to make those connections and have those conversations. Knowing people is not the same as talking to them. This can actually be harder than it sounds, but it’s really important to learn to do well. And once you do, your own network can be an amazing source of great clients.
Only when people understand what you do and who you help, can they remember you when they need that kind of help. And the only way for them to understand that is for you to tell them every single day.
LinkedIn. Yep, I said it. LinkedIn. But it’s not because LinkedIn is magical. It’s not. Decision makers use LinkedIn. The CEOs, the founders, the directors.
LinkedIn is very much a professional platform. And it can be the source of great clients for you when you use it well.
You need to position yourself clearly, optimize your profile, and speak to a specific audience. By doing so you can absolutely find strong clients here.
It’s definitely not about randomly adding people or connecting with people and then sending them a message that says Hi I’m a VA, I can help you. That is SUCH a turn off. I get messages like that daily. You need to use any platform, including LinkedIn, strategically. Search and find your people of course. But build your visibility and your authority at the same time. In your content, in your conversations.
When you know how you help, that’s all you need to do is share that. Find your people in strategic communities – masterminds, paid communities, industry groups. When you put yourself in the same room as other business owners – those ones where they are investing in growth, you’re in a higher-caliber environment. Higher caliber is good!
You naturally uplevel yourself to their level. You are building, you are growing, you are looking to surround yourself with people who are doing the same thing. That’s super powerful.
Your best clients are going to be people who are investing in themselves. Like you. Investing money yes, but investing time. Surrounding themselves with others who are bettering themselves too, building, growing, or even just being strategic.
Why You’re Attracting the Wrong Clients
So let’s talk now about why you might be attracting the wrong clients. Because I’m guessing if you are still listening to this episode, that’s an issue you are likely having.
If you keep attracting low-paying or difficult clients, it’s not because that’s all that exists.
Even if you feel like that’s all there are out there. I have heard Virtual Assistants that the market is saturated with VAs. Like the whole market could be! Or that an industry is. Also, not possible.
Because there will always be more business owners than there are VAs. And every single one of those business owners should be getting support for their business – many in the form of a VA.
But, what can be saturated is WHERE you are looking. Where you are hanging out. If you belong to a networking group and there are already two busy VAs in that group you might get stuck with the lower paying or difficult clients as the last one in the door.
But it’s often not just where you are spending your time. It’s often something you are doing that is the cause of the problem.
Again, don’t get down if this sounds like you. Because guess what? When it is you that it the cause of the problem, YOU can fix it!
That’s always so exciting to me. And not just because that’s what I help VAs do (fix the problems or mistakes in their business that are causing them to fail).
You might be underselling yourself. You might be vague about what you do. You might say yes to a bad client or conversation too fast. You might price your services so you feel safe instead of to be profitable. You might be afraid to walk away from a bad client or a bad conversation.
The best clients are not the ones looking for the cheapest option.
The best clients are looking for reliability, communication, clarity, expertise, confidence.
If your messaging sounds hesitant, scattered, or overly desperate, high-level clients will quietly move on. Because they can smell your fear a mile away. So can I when I talk to you.
But like I said these are things that are SO correctible. Easy. It might take some strategy, maybe unlearning a few bad habits, maybe practicing some conversations, but it’s all correctible.
Confidence is not arrogance (despite the way the movies make successful business people look arrogant). Confidence is clarity. When you are confident in your content and your conversations, your best clients will notice – or at the very least your confidence will be reinforced when they go to check you out after they connect with you!
The Confidence Shift
So let’s make that shift for you right now. Instead of asking: “Where can I find better clients?” Start asking: “Who do I need to become to attract better clients?”. Can you see that this is a different question?
Who do I need to show them I am so that they see I am the best person to work with?
Better clients require: clearly stated services or deliverables, strong boundaries so they know how to work with you efficiently, solid onboarding so that they know things will get in motion quickly, professional communication again that fosters efficiency and a good working relationship. And you have to be able to say no. This is a big part of confidence too. Knowing when to say yes and knowing when to say no.
This is your confidence coach speaking! Telling you that it impacts so many areas of your business – your rates, your proposals, how you handle objections, who sticks around, how you get things done, and even your energy levels.
A Simple Action Plan
How do we put this into practice?
First, define exactly who you want to work with. Not “small business owners.” Not “entrepreneurs.” Be specific. Female real estate agents. 6 and 7 figure business coaches. Busy and overwhelmed local tradesmen and women. Wellness coaches who run group programs. Specific.
Second, clean up your positioning. What you say about yourself. Your bio. Your LinkedIn. Your website. Your intro message. Do all of these things clearly say who you help and what result you create for those clients? If not, it’s polish up time!
Third, raise your standards. Yep! Decide in advance: What is your minimum rate? What type of behavior is acceptable to work with you? What are your non-negotiables? You might not even realize it, but the best clients often show up right after you stop tolerating the wrong ones.
Do You Need Help?
Let’s circle back to today’s quote: “Opportunities don’t happen. You create them”.
You can see by everything I’ve talked about in today’s episode that anything that is happening in your business is created by you. The success, the failure, the mistakes. And we have learned today that you can change anything that is going wrong. It’s actually one of the most awesome things about being in business.
What else did we learn?
There is no hidden VIP lounge of clients.
There is only positioning, clarity, and confidence.
You don’t need access to something secret.
You need structure. You need a plan.
And you need to believe you belong in the room where all the people seeking success are. Because you do! I know it, and I love telling you that.
If you are newer in your VA business and you want help setting up your services properly, pricing confidently, and positioning yourself so you attract quality clients from the beginning, my Getting Started as a Virtual Assistant self-study program walks you through that step by step.
If you are already in business, the Getting Started program is still very beneficial because it helps you get those basics, that foundation in place, to build the VA business that you visualized when you first got started. The one you dreamed about that you haven’t quite been able to build yet.
And if you are feeling stuck or just aren’t sure what the next step is to get YOUR great clients, I invite you to book a Cut to the Chase call with me so we can talk about what will help get you there. You can book your call right here!
That’s all I’ve got for you this week. Thanks so much for tuning in to the Ridiculously Good VA Show. I’m Tracey DAviero, The Confidence Coach for VAs, and I’ll see you next time!