How to Find Clients

The question I hear the most when talking with Virtual Assistants is “Where do you find your clients?” My answer? “They’re everywhere!”

In this episode of The RocketGirl Show, I'll show you what you need in order to get hired. 

TRANSCRIPT 

I'm Belinda Sandor, also known as RocketGirl. and today, we're going to talk about how to get clients.

I think one of the things that's hardest for new Virtual Assistants is to have a steady stream of clients coming into their business. However, what I want you to know is that there's a way that you can ensure that that happens. So if you can imagine that clients are absolutely everywhere, I'm talking about everywhere in the school parking lot, at the school bus stop, in the grocery store, you know, in networking groups, they're just everywhere you look. There is someone who is a potential client. Now what happens and where I think we get off the rails. When the moment comes to share information about our business, we blow the mission. Alright, now here's the good news you can prepare ahead of time for this, and you can be ready so that you can like nail this. Alright. So let's talk about the three things that get in the way when we're talking to a potential client.

Okay, so here's the first thing. this is actually isn't on the list. When someone asks you about your business, I want you to think about it in a non pressured way. You're not trying to get hired in that moment. What you're trying to do is spread the word about your business so other people can refer you. Alright, so that is really important to think about, alright, because it takes the pressure off. It takes the pressure off. Hello, Sherry, good morning, good morning. um, and the pressure is what pressure and not being prepared are the things that get in our way. Those are the things that derail us.

Okay, now, step number one, I want you to be clear about what you do. Alright, and here's what I mean by that. We encounter someone wherever it is, and they say, "what do you do?" and we start talking, we start talking talking talking talking, talking. We're not even sure what we're saying. We're not prepared for the question, and before we know it, we've um overwhelmed the person we're talking to. They have no idea what we're talking about, because we're new, and usually and we want to impress them. We might use jargon. We might throw some words around further, getting us o getting us further away from where we want to be in that moment. So you wanna be able to talk about what you do in a really clear way. Okay. So what I say is I'm a Virtual Assistant, I work with solo professionals and small business owners. I help them with admin tasks like updating their PowerPoint presentations, Word Press or a website, updates, and email newsletters. and then I saw talking, okay, now this is important, alright.

Now here's the second one. So you can see how that's really different from, when I had a job and I decided to go to my own and I'm not really in business yet, but I'm thinking about doing it, and I have a couple of clients, but okay, get it.

Number two. Be clear about how much you charge. Think about this. What we're selling is confidence. So the more clear you can be about what you do, and the more clear you can be about your pricing, the better. We tend to overthink this. We tend to make this a minefield that no one can navigate through because again, we're with the, you know. well, it's this by the hour, but it might be a project. and since you're my friend and you're a new client, I'll give you the discount, like all the things. okay, You don't want to do that. You want it. This is what I say. it's really simple. People can pre-pay my time in five or ten-hour chunks. I call it the RocketGirl Debit Card. Ten hours is nine hundred dollars or ninety dollars an hour, five hours is five hundred dollars or sorry, a hundred dollars an hour. You can use it in whatever increment you like. I have some clients to buy debit card every couple of weeks. I have some that buy a debit card, you know, a couple of times a year. And then again, with the stop talking, okay. Really simple people get it. They usually say, well, they say one of a few things they might say, "oh, that's more than I thought. Okay, that's fine. We're not a good fit." They might say "what a great idea" that's what they usually say um, and so I want you to be clear, because you can see how powerful this is. This conversation, right versus all this smeary mess trying to, you know, twist yourself in and out to try to be what this person might want. It's much more powerful.

All right, so the next thing and took me a while to figure this out. you want to be clear about how to get started. I remember when I first started out, people would say, "okay, what's next?" and I would say, "Well, you buy your time, you know, buy your debit card, and then we'll get started." And there was this big disconnect. So it took me a while to figure that out. So what I created was a letter, a letter of agreement, Because I don't use contracts and it's basically, you know, welcome to working with me. Here's how I work. Here's when I'm at my desk, all of these different things.

In fact, I just want to mention this to you right now. I'm having a special on something called "The Template Bank". And I don't have URL here, because I wasn't going to talk about that today. but if you go to any of the Facebook groups, it's right at the top. Also, if you go to thevaconnection.com/template-bank you can see it's on sale right now for twenty-seven dollars. It has that actual letter in there. It also has the template for how to talk about what you do. So if you're interested in taking next steps, you can do that. The price is good until tomorrow, after tomorrow night. and then it's going to go up to forty-seven dollars. Hello, Ritzel, you are up late, you are up late. Ritzel is in Malaysia. And it's like, I don't know eleven o'clock at night there. I think. So that so those are the three things.

So you wanna be clear about what you do and talk about it in a way that people understand, you want to be clear about how much you charge. So again, with the confidence, it's clear, it's straight cut, you know, straight, straightforward. And by being clear, you know, people, people won't think that you're taking advantage of them. They won't wonder how much other people are paying. They won't wonder any of those things they'll just like this is how much it charges. Okay, you know, and people will ask me, they'll say, if I buy someone else, me, this the other day, "if I buy one hundred hours, do I get a discount?" no, he was, I thought he was joking, actually, but he was serious. And the reason is because I have other clients that buy a hundred hours over the course of the year easily, I don't give them a discount. I also don't give discounts if people are going to refer me to other people. I don't work for testimonials. I am just super duper clear about how much I charge. And I'm also clear about how to get started.

Okay. so any comments you'd like to add in about that. Good morning. good morning. Good morning. I would love to hear. Now. if you would like some help with this, I am going to have a VA Client Kickstart Challenge coming up really soon. So type challenge in the chat. If you wanna hear more about it, make sure your name is there as well. If it some of you, it says Facebook users, and I don't know who you are. But essentially, if you go to thevaonnection.com, you can join the challenge. There's a banner at the top, and we're gonna be getting started um soon. And in that five-day challenge, I'm going to teach you. okay, Marlene is here. Marlene. hello, hello, oh, and you guys already signed up. I saw you in the the pop-up group. I think I commented on something you said there. There's a pop-up group- Facebook pop-up group that goes with it. And um we're gonna have five days of training. Day one is all about your services. Day two is how to talk about your work, just like I talked about just now. Day three is um how to get the word out. Day four is all about the systems you need, and Day five is a um, a big live Q and A. Alright, so Tiffany says, "can't wait for the challenge." Yeah, Elisa, alright, we'll make sure you're in there. I think you're in there already, but I'm gonna check and Brook here. Not sure why my name isn't showing. there's something with StreamYard. I'm broadcasting through Stream Yard, so we can be on multiple channels at one time. And you have to click some permission thing for Stream Yard to be able to display your name. But Brook, send me a direct message or go to thevaconnection.com and click at the top. Since I don't know your last name, and you can join. Okay. very exciting.

Thank you, everyone, for coming. I love the RocketGirl show. I love doing this with you every Thursday. um, we've got lots of stuff coming up next week, and a ton of cool things planned in the next few months. Alright, so Ritzel, hello, "what's your opinion about when a client says you're expensive and compares your services with people from your location?" That's a good question.

This is the approach that I take. When someone asked me my pricing, I tell them exactly what I just said a minute ago, and then I stopped talking, and a couple of things will happen. One will say. "Your prices are high.", and it could be your prices are high for where you live. And you could say they are. And again, stop talking. People have asked me that they've said that to me, they send you prices around the high end. And like you're right because they are. They are. I'm not gonna try to deny that I charge a hundred dollars an hour or other people charge thirty, forty, fifty, you know, and I just leave it at that. if I don't have to justify my pricing. Yhey don't have to apologize for it. It's just my price. And if you take the emotion out of it and you get really clear, and you'll probably have to practice if you're like me saying your pricing out loud because I very much had to practice it every single time I raised my rates. I thought my business is over. No one's going to hire me, you know, and I had to practice because you don't want to flinch and you don't want to get defensive. It's just. And that's why when I go into discovery calls, and I have conversations with people.

I'm not trying to get hired in that moment, although it happens, and that's nice, but it's just a conversation for possibility, a conversation to see if we're a good fit. And in different instances, some people say, "you know, oh, that's on the high end." Some people say, "oh, that's more than I'm planning to spend." And I say, "you know, I'm not a good fit for everyone." stop talking right. And then other people say. "okay, what's next?" and then I say, "Buy your debit card, and I'll send you that letter." Okay, I know it's, it's hard. and I know you have particular challenges being in Malaysia, but, but you can do it. You can definitely do it. There are people on my team that are in different parts of the world that I pay more than than the local rate. and I know that I do that, and I do it because they deserve it. They deserve it.

Okay, so join the challenge. come, have some fun with us. It's gonna be a really good time and during that time, also, if you want to work further with me, you're gonna learn a ton in the three days. People are blown away by how much they learn. We've done this challenge before, and you can get a steady stream of clients. No kidding. If you do what I say during the week and on the fourth day, if you wanna work a little bit more closely with me, I'm opening the doors to VA school, which is um my signature course where I teach people step by step, how to grow a, a six-figure business being a Virtual Assistant.

Okay, so I will see you later. Thank you for coming. I love when you all attend the shows, and I'll see you. I'll see you around, bye.