Tips to finding clients for your virtual assistance business

We’re often asked how we started our virtual assistance business and how we managed to find enough clients to take our side hustle full time in a little over 3 months. Finding clients for your VA business is understandably the most important step in this process because no clients = no business.

Below we’re sharing tips to finding clients based on our own personal experience. It’s important to note that there may be other ways too so the best thing to do is try them all and see what works for you.

Share your business with family and friends

This was the first thing we did. We told all our friends and family what we do and if it wasn’t something that they needed they were sure to pass the information onto their friends and family. Our first few clients were actually friends and family of friends who needed our assistance in their business.

Speak to your current or previous employer

Once you’ve handed in your resignation, your employer may need to go through the hassle of finding and training someone new to replace you. Let them know that you are still willing to assist with all or a few (if that is all that’s possible) of your functions remotely as an outsourced service provider. Instead of paying you your full salary they can pay you less as you’ll no longer be employed by them (it’s a win win) and it’s something we did too, our previous employer was one of the first clients we had on-board.

Get yourself online

Setting up our online presence (website and social media) was one of the first things we did. We made sure it was perfect, we had our website built by a professional website company that we had been following for some time, we had seen the quality and style of their work and knew we wanted to work with them. We also had a photographer take some professional photos for us.

This was the only setup cost we had. It doesn’t need to be the most expensive, if memory serves correctly, the website company was running an amazing promo and the photographer was someone we knew. 

It was a great place to refer people to if they wanted more information and it was a great way to start engaging with potential clients. It also leads us to our next tip.

Google Ads

We honestly cannot recommend this enough! If you’ve got a kick-ass website chances are your hits are going to convert. We allowed ourselves some “marketing” budget and this was one of the first paid marketing campaigns we did. 

Align yourself with an accredited association in your country

When we came across The Virtual Assistance Association of South Africa, we must admit we were a little hesitant at joining but it has been one of the best things we’ve done! It’s opened doors to so many opportunities through their website that they market (it’s like extra marketing we don’t need to do or pay for) Also, if a client is looking for a South African VA specifically that’s where they can find you! This is how we landed our first international client!

Collaborating 

Reach out to other VA’s that offer the same or similar tasks to you and let them know what you have to offer. If they ever need some assistance with overflow work that you’d be more than happy to help! We only have so many hours in a day after all.

These are all the steps we took when we just started out to get enough clients to go full time, as we mentioned there are so many other ways but this is what worked for us. Don’t forget that as a business owner you constantly need to be marketing yourself and networking with others. In time, you’ll find that word of mouth and client referrals will also help you pick up more clients - provided you’re creating value and serving the needs of your clients! They’ll be raving about you in no time.

Sometimes all we need is some direction.

If you've been searching for the right tools and support to assist you in launching your virtual assistance business we may have the answer!

We've been hard at work putting together our wealth of knowledge and experience with starting our own VA business and now we're ready to impart this on to you.

Register your interest here for updates on when our online course will be going live.