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Virtual assistant invoice template for Quality Assurance

[Music] so happy to have you here this is the Savi show where we talk all about growing your virtual assistant business from scratch and I'm so excited that you guys are joining me whether you're joining live or via a replay either way we're super excited that you're here and you're here because you want to learn more about making money from home and that's really exciting because today we have several guests with us three virtual assistants who have been able to scale their own business to five thousand dollars a month or more and I can't wait to jump in and to pick their brain you guys have asked a ton of questions and we're just gonna dive right into those questions so for those of you joining us looks like we already have 20 some people I love it yay make sure that you're asking questions below to give us feedback the more feedback you give us the more people will actually see this video like the way Facebook works and so we want to get this message out as much as you love being a VA or maybe you're just getting started and you're excited I want other people to know that message too so so comments share like this video and I also wanted to let you guys know if you are just getting started as a virtual assistant and you need to know like what are my next steps you're going to listen to this interview these interviews and you're like man I want to do that same thing but I have no idea where to get started you can go to virtual assistant checklist com all one word virtual assistant checklist calm and I'll put a link above this video after it and and you can get my step-by-step checklist for getting started as a virtual assistant so what I'm going to do is I'm going to introduce each of the ladies that we have here and I'm gonna give them a chance to tell you a little bit about how they got started and how long they've been in business and then we'll get into some of the nitty-gritty asking some of those questions that you guys had about how to scale to 5k months okay so just so you guys know as well I can have three people on the screen at one time but there are four of us total so I'll be rotating and and answering the questions as we go okay everybody's so excited hello we have Adrienne here Melinda Sarah Alicia uh plus Leslie Leslie I like my eyes are going crazy um Mila so excited to have you guys here we are gonna get started all right so I'm gonna bring on LK and Lynn first you guys can get to know them here we go Hey ladies here we also have Nicole hanging out in the lobby so in just a moment I'll bring her on as well so she's waiting patiently to answer these questions as well but hey let's just go right in I know everybody's really really eager to hear you guys a story and how you got started so um if you guys just want to tell me basically just a little bit of an intro who you are tell us about your business promo that thing that's fine so tell us about who you are and how you got started as a virtual assistant okay do you want to go first sure what's going on guys it's what I'm - King here I go by LK and I have been in business for about three years that's when I started and it was around the time that I was pregnant with my first son he was brightly three years old he's a terrible 3 and I just didn't want to go back to my corporate lifestyle I wanted to be home with my baby and I wanted to raise him the way I wanted to I wanted him to learn from his mother and I just wanted him to have that time with me that was my goal and I'm happy that I did so I actually found out about da work through Abby she's one of the first that I found and I quickly just dove in I wanted to learn more I wanted to figure out how could I get my stuff at this point and unfortunately I just up and quit my job I did not wait I didn't I gave my two weeks notice after my son was born and that was it for me I didn't work on i-25 while transitioning to be a I kind of just dove in that's just basically as I do plan if you're gonna transition from your 9 to 5 but I did the same thing I was like oh go ahead you say no I agree with you I definitely should have a plan but you know for those of us who are just completely just washed out and tired you know don't let fear hold you back totally I love it so Lynn why don't you tell us how you got spoiled it and I'll bring Nichole in as well as your chattin okay hi everyone I'm happy to be here and hopefully some of the tips I have for a bit of my streak encourages anyone to stick with me but it is possible to make more than five thousand a month I have been an executive assistant personal assistant for corporate executives for the last 15 years and I was made redundant and the company I was with and the person I was supporting I was given an option of either stay within corporate and support someone else or get packaged out I decided to take the package because although I love supporting people I was tired of in a sense of just supporting one person with so many entrepreneurs out there and I have I have I'm a general I'm not a specialist so I'm a general VA and I sort of - I took a year off and you know introduced myself to a B and knowing that it is possible in order to have this as a lifestyle and also I live in Canada so my ultimate goal is to be able to spend three months of the winter somewhere sunny and I need I need a way that I could do that so it's um yes so I just started you know building a website and you know going to meetups and really listening to people on what is you know what's their pain point what do people really need it how could I help and you know and I focus my focus is on corporate that's where I'm very comfortable awesome yeah okay good well I know a lot of people want to dive into especially being a general VA how you've managed to scale to that point so I'm excited very excited to jump into that let's give the Cole a chance to introduce yourself and then we'll start diving into some of these questions hi everybody I'm super excited to be here I I worked in corporate for 10 plus years and I was working for a company a very very large company and I just felt like it was so hard to succeed in any of the successes I was having weren't being necessarily rewarded in what I thought was the right way I actually found the VA world through a podcast janicoo choose gold diggers podcasts and listen to it and I was like man this is totally something I can do I've always had the entrepreneurial spirit I have a photography business so I knew I could run a business and I was working from home anyways remotely for my corporate job it was requiring me to come into the office one week a month which required me to drive two and a half hours to the office fortunately I was able to stay with my family so I wasn't like living out of a hotel or anything but it just came to the point where I was just fed up with jumping over hoops and hurdles and being successful but not being successful in the company and that was really frustrating and I wanted control over my own six and over my own income so I just I talked to my boyfriend at the time and I told him I said you know this is what I want to do and he was incredibly supportive and so I gave my month's notice I think it was like my birthday in June and I gave my month's notice and they ended up keeping me on for an additional six weeks after my month's notice because they weren't ready for me to leave and they weren't ready to transition all my accounts and then oh you know six weeks or whatever it wasn't that I said to them I said I have to go like I'm running this other business I have to go and so then after I jumped full-time it was like sink or swim so I just fully put myself out there talked to everyone and anyone that I could and told them about what I could do and the more people I talk to the more confident I get so it's just been an incredible journey and I'm so fortunate to be part of this community and I love learning everything and reading all the posts and Abbey's hopeful documents were incredible and they really helped me get started especially the checklist and some of the other things that you have available on your site so that's been really incredible well thank you so are you currently a generalist or a specialist and you make a transition like what services do you offer currently so I am more of a generalist I get a lot of my clients through referrals but every single client that comes my way I do a discovery call and we talk about their business needs and then we kind of we create a plan to see if my business fits their business and I'm pretty selective about who I take on - Mike as a client because I want them to fit my personality and I want them to fit my business and work style and it's it's like I said it's been an incredible journey and the referrals that I get are good referrals because they're coming from clients that know me and they know my work style and a lot of my clients have been like friends to me so it's yeah were you picky in the beginning or did you transition like were you like kind of Eddie autumn first and then you transitioned or were you were you picking from the beginning so I was so I didn't little graphic design so I was doing a lot of free designs for a lot of people just to build up my portfolio so in that sense I wasn't picky at all but when it came to my full-time science or by I guess their per time clients but they've been with me since the beginning which is about seven or eight eight months now I was very picky like if I didn't feel good about talking to them on the phone I wouldn't move forward with them but fortunately I've only had maybe one or two that have come my way that don't really fit with who I am and the way my business works so it's pretty much general but as time goes on my one story I can tell is like I got a client they started with me for ten hours a month within the first week they realized that they wanted to up to 30 hours a month and we started with general VA stuff and then they started trust me more and then they get we're giving me more social media and marketing and now they want me for up to 80 hours a month so they think yeah so getting in and starting with clients small is not necessarily a bad thing as long as them just they want you to grow with them and I think a lot of my clients have understood that and and that's that's kind of how I've been growing with with my clients awesome all right okay I would love to hear if you're a generalist or a specialist if that was a transition you made and I'm gonna bring linen to go ahead and tell us about that okay well I am actually a specialist I transition from general VA to an online business manager and that was the best fit for me because I did business management in my corporate field I actually ended up contracting and both of the companies that I used to work for on the side when I transitioned back into online business management so I still work for those companies just as a contractor and I also work for online entrepreneurs and to give you a gist of how I work have four online entrepreneurs that I'm working with and I have five corporate executive level clients right now and it's truly a blessing I definitely suggest picking something that works best for you when you're just starting out general VA is the best way to go because you will quickly learn what you like to do and what you don't like to do and if you really want to get heads up on that you know definitely writing down what you are capable of doing and then out of that list what you love to do and that's basically trial and error I mean you're gonna get clients that you you know get the groove you're like yes you can work together forever and then you're gonna find out that some of those plants aren't so great I have to be honest with you when I started out I was not picky at all I was getting clients left and right and I was grabbing them I was like yes like I got clients and I'm getting paid and it's working out and I quickly found out that no it wasn't working out and I needed to transition to being very picky so now I have a questionnaire and I go through that with my clients to find if they're a good fit for me because I now know my learning style I know how I operate with other people and I ask those questions that can relate them back to me if I know that they're answering the questions and we're clinging that it's a great fit now you're not always going to be able to find out for sure if that client is a good fit so you bring them on board but it's good to have a system to know you know hey you know if you answer these questions this way this way then it seems that we're good fit if not then it might be best that I transition to you to one of my other you know a family of EAS here in the virtual savage group who might be a better fit it's okay to turn down people because at the end of the day this is your business and I want it very quickly that I had to be very systematic with how I wanted to run my business in order to make me happy because if you're if you're there's no point of having a business if you're you know you're distraught stressing yourself out and personally eliminate that if you can at the amount of hours that I work I work a four-day workweek and I work approximately twenty hours a week and I do have a team now I have a team that I built that helped me along the way so I have I also work with my corporate level teams outside of my regular team so that's justit's just of how I work and I set my my routine up based off of you know the amount of work I have that week so it's one of my clients it's watching like currently I'm in the middle of a launch a physical product launch one of my clients is watching a dog company then that's gonna take up of course more of my time but you allocate that based off of you know your marketing like where are you at with each of your clients so I definitely think it's possible I know it's possible you guys just have to you know take it easy on yourself and and start to really understand like okay well if this for me you know like should I be doing social media marketing or should I be a general VA as you can see Lynn and Nicole like they're killing it and they're generalized and they're happy doing what they do you know you don't nobody said that you had to specialize in one particular thing don't get caught up in the hype yep yeah and that's uh so much a couple key things I want to pull out of what you said one I I'm a huge fan guys and of there's not one way to grow this because you're building a business around you about what you're skilled at about what your preferences are about what the way you like to work the people you like to work with and so there I mean I would be honest with you I would be a terrible OBM I would be sick if anybody knows me personally they would say amen to that because I am I am not the most or I'm a very like visionary big picture person and so getting down to the details like I could barely organize my own stuff organizing somebody else's so that would be a bad fit for me but I think that a big thing is just knowing your own strengths and and really diving into the things that already interests you and I what you said to Anne in the beginning I think that there's not even one way to start so um you know how how Nicole she was she was a little bit more picky from the beginning but okay you were like no like I'm just gonna put myself I put myself out there and to see who comes my way and I think that it kind of depends on your own situation if you're like man I need clients now like I need clients yesterday then and and you don't necessarily have a specific service it's okay to say I'm a VA I have all these services and I'll help anyone who comes my way because what's gonna happen is exactly what LK said you're gonna get some people that aren't a good fit that's just part of the business but I think that if you need money yesterday then just get out there go to some networking meetings and start bringing on clients and you're gonna find very very quickly do you enjoy working with and who you don't enjoy working with and that's okay if you have a little bit more time or if you already have a specialty then it's okay to go ahead and do that from the very beginning and say nope I'm gonna be picky from the beginning I'm only gonna work with the very best the top to your clients and it may take you a little bit longer get those fights but when you get them they're gonna be really high quality they'll likely be higher paying clients and I think that that's okay too and so I think that's like the overall theme of what you're saying is like it's okay if you know either way that you do it you can be successful it's really just about getting out there right getting out there and marketing yourself getting some clients which is what we'll talk about in a second but I do want to hear from Lynn first up about a little bit about your story when you got started and and what your business looks like now I started just over a year ago I'm 13 months into into my journey is VA and I originally started with I'm not gonna say except to anybody because I have a trial pocket I have a trial discount offer on my website and it's a one-month commitment and the idea is just to see if we gel and it's so important for me as a VA to make sure that I'm adding value and I'm providing quality service to people and also I need to make sure that we we our communication styles excuse me our communication styles are are in sync so I would post I would go to meetups and different events in the city I live in a large city Toronto and there's always the free events going on I would just go and actually listen to people cuz everyone in these networking events is in sales mode and no one's really into listening mode so I would go in and try to listen and for perfectly wait for people to oh I'm like sale sale sale sale but when you're in a room with everyone with that mentality it's just not it's it's not it's not a positive place to be you want to have a two-way communication I also started going to local businesses I have because I'm a generous I have some social media and some web experience I would go to local nail salons mom and pop shops and just walk in on a Wednesday and say you know what I've looked at your website and here's some suggestions that I have I'm fairly new to this I'm not gonna charge you for anything but just to have a separate set of eyes and I would drop off things and I wouldn't ask for a sale I was just giving them something without expectation the key is I have more experience than they do I'm not an expert but I can deliver something so I probably had a total of about six or seven clients since I launched right now I have and most of them have been all corporate clients I've had dock dentists lawyers financial excuse me people in the financial industry and now I have one main client and I work 23 days a week for them was I have one day as as an overflow and I'm I will be moving forward um in order to expand but right now I'm still I'm still fairly new it's only been it's only been just over a year and I think I had mentioned that I just invoiced eight thousand dollars last month or I expect I actually worked about 32 hours that week but anyway so the business is there and there's so many people that need help it's just a matter of listening and solving a problem and then willing to pay them willing to pay oh so so guys view is golden nuggets here I love this so much so well one quick question so right now you don't have a team then right it's all you right now it's just me and I do subcontract some work out through your website through Facebook I've hired a couple subcontractors some VA Saudis yeah yeah okay just a quick turnaround thing yeah I love it I love it okay so the biggest thing that I'm hearing here is oh and this is just so golden it sounds like your entire strategy is like I'm gonna give more than I more than I take right like I'm gonna yes can you show up to meet up groups when you're showing up to live networking it's I'm gonna listen I'm not just gonna go and talk about myself I'm gonna listen I'm gonna listen for problems I'm gonna listen to people love to talk about themselves is huge so I'm gonna listen there I'm gonna go to these like the storefronts man that talk about boldness guys I mean if you you think oh there aren't any businesses out there that need my knee that need my services liz is going to to corporate clients to the dental offices in her area and and once you start to get those clients word does start to spread as well and I think that that's a big thing a lot of times we're like oh where am I gonna find all these clients you don't have to necessarily find all the clients once you get out there and you start you start working with people I guarantee promise you the client you'll start getting referrals ok so it does marketing does afternoon basically as soon you get the hang of marketing marketing gets easier because you have referrals coming in but so golden oh my goodness I love this so much ok so I'm gonna bring on Nicole and LK and I want to know from you guys if you are doing packages or hourly how that's working out in your business right now bring on the call here first all right so are you are you package are you hourly how is that working for you so my packages are hourly so I have a ten twenty or thirty and a forty hour a month package seven of my clients are that and then I have one graphic design client that it's just project based and we charge by the graphic design and it's a different contract that I have set in place with them but most of my clients are ten and thirty to forty hours a month clients now I do set it up that hours don't roll over to the next month and if they exceed the number of hours then they go to my base rate of fifty dollars an hour so if they purchase 40 and they go over to 40 anything over 40 is the $50 an hour and not the discounted rate of the the forty hour a month package which has been working out really great for me and my clients all those all see the value in what I'm offering them so I've never had an issue with getting paid or negotiating my prices our rates so did you start at fifty an hour or did you work up to that point um so when I first started my packages were a little bit lower I did increase them at the beginning of this year some of my clients that I started with are on different packages and I need to slowly transition them to the the higher rate package I didn't want to just flip them up to the higher rate but anyone since the beginning of the year is are on my new rates and so I am higher than I was I'm starting at I started at 40 so I think that I mean some of us are like oh my goodness I can't imagine charging $50 an hour but there is something to be said about chart when you charge that rate there there's a value associated with it it's like okay I'm paying this much because this is this is a high quality person this is person that's going to get stuff done and get it done well so I think that you do you know start to attract the clients that are willing to pay that they're actually at what I found they're usually more I enjoy working with those people more not that you know it's more more established businesses can generally pay the $50 an hour 40 whatever and so when Mort establishes when you're a more established business you already have some systems down there's already some things going it's not like they're wanting you to just create something out of thin air like I had some clients starting out that I think we're like $20 an hour clients and they were like I want to I want to like have a sales funnel and I'm like okay what do you want to sell I don't know I just I heard I wouldn't have a sales funnel we need to make one and I'm like yes okay oh like I was not a sales little person I had never ran an ad in my life so I was like okay I can research some stuff and we can try that but like they were just they were just throw out random stuff because they didn't they didn't have a plan of their own and so those people weren't necessarily as okay I would love to hear from you you know packages hourly was it a transition how did that work out for you so I did when I started at the a I said do hourly and I'm just gonna be honest guys Nicole you are better than me I hate hourly so much like it's just not go with everything I can't stand having to having to record my hours sending in my our time she that's just way too much for me especially since I wanted to put my business on automation so what I do now is packages and I do everything with packages for when I'm working with smaller entrepreneurs I have a set package when I'm working with corporate level enterprises I have customizable proposals that I create for them and you know that's just how I do it it's they know what I'm giving them they know what it what they're coming for me for it again I'm I have a specialty okay so this goes back to I specialize Nicole she's general so she can definitely do that absolutely you know for me personally I have to make sure that you know you know you're coming from me for system strategy building your systems or policies or procedures getting your business order you know working with your T's or team development and leadership that's what you're getting from me and you know that so there's no need for me to clock on the hour because this is what I'm giving you and for those of you who are general da's if you want to transition into packages you know you can also do that um Nicole it works better from the coach to her hourly you know she might transition to packages you know differently but it's all in what you want to put you know how you want to operate your business and personally packages are from me I cannot stress that enough I love be specific about what it is that I want to offer to them they know what they're coming to me for and there's no need for me to have to you know tally up all of my hours and I think depending on what type of via you are again like you're in social media net social media marketing things of that nature you can create packages easily because people think that for whatever reason again this goes back to educating your clients that social media marketing is just you putting a picture on Instagram and it's getting likes and we all know that that is just not the truth it takes so much work to really hone in on your audience target audience right you have to know what your what type of company the person you're working for has what type of people are attracted to what what services your client is offering so therefore you have to customize write their social media and you know it's so much more than just posting a picture so think about packaging is that our hourly um it's definitely something that could take a lot of stress off of you but then again like like Nicola saying if you're just that type of person who really likes to just you know okay this is how many hours I spent and then if people over these hours you have to hit my you know my $50 an hour mark that's perfectly fine too because her clients know her works right and I also go by the three six nine twelve method when I'm first bringing on a client again because I am specialized I specialize in a specific area my first three-month contract is for only new clients because I feel like the first thirty days your onboarding that client yeah it takes thirty days to fully on board a claimed because onboarding is just not just sending the contract it's not just having to pay their first invoice it's really getting to know your client how they work how you work adapting to one another then that next sixty days you're starting to getting the flow of things by that time they know if they want to sign that six nine or 12 month contract with you based off of how well you guys are adapting to one another and then once you once you have you know sent that new contract out to them they know for a fact that okay let's go on let's try to let's do a six month contract and from then on all my current clients are either on a six nine or 12 month contract depending on the project that they have for me so you know really they're you could do it any type of way there's no wrong or right way to do it the only wrong way is to charge less than twenty dollars an hour [Laughter] okay so I'm going to I'm gonna bring Lynn back in because I know that Lynn and LK both work with some corporate well actually I think all three of you work with some corporate clients but I want to have let's see mm-hmm okay I'm gonna bring Lynn back in because we have a question here Janice like someone else asked if a Mila asked how do you convince clients who are new to the idea of a VA because it sounds like both of you have worked with people who are not in the online space so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this how how do you how do you convince clients who are new to the idea of a VA I think that many people still want the staff to be there in the office for whatever reasons such as being immediately contacted all or something like that so do either of you have something that you walk in and and or you're talking with a corporate client for the first time and they're like wait I have no idea what a virtual assistant is or maybe in a networking meeting that you go to so people who aren't familiar with the world so I'm sorry Lindy you mind if I go first no go ahead so that's a great question um I always tell my mentor Eve that you need to educate your client all the time I mean it is a grown experience every time I walk into a networking event and I do I go to military bases I work you know with the military I also go to you know hiring events you know where people are going to hire and and looking for people because they don't understand the quality that you bring it's gonna save them money in the long run right you have to educate them listen I'm gonna I'm gonna act like Abby is like the corporate person hi Abby how you doing my name is LK so listen this is the services that I offer I'm on my business manager and I can help you take your business to the next level I understand that the convenience of having someone in the office with you is fantastic however I make myself available to you during my business hours as well as my entire team not only that but you don't have to worry about hiring me you know giving me my my PTO time my sick leave you know having to bring me onto the health insurance all of that I take on that on my own business so I'm saving you money you know it's all about educating that client you have to let them know what you're giving them and how you're saving the money I always make sure you know what you're doing I think people are like probably like writing down they're like okay you know yeah that was awesome Matt and you're golden Lin I would love to hear from you how do you face those objection uh one of my strategies started my business day one is I only want to work with clients in my own City and that is because our relationship is built on trust and although I work virtually I maybe once a month I might make myself available and it's my choice to go into the office and say hello and meet suite staff and just connect or attend events in the city I find it I can add extra value if I'm planning an event I know you know I know venues I know local restaurants I know so it's building that relationship with someone who's going to pay me a decent salary or a decent hourly wage and and knowing I guess given them the peace of mind knowing that they could come and knock on my front door if they wanted to or I am available to them so it's a so I just I prefer to work with local people I love that you know um I think a lot of us think that one of the I lost it there's like so many comments but one person said you know I love I love hearing the whole idea of being generalized in the beginning and how people can be successful with that because I've heard so much like you have to have a niche you have to have a niche you haven't it and so there's a couple of things I'll say to that number one is that uh you know riches are in the niches that whole like thing I do agree that there is something to be said for having a niche especially when it comes to the the online world like course creation like I you know I'm a course creator now I've kind of transitioned a little bit away from services and I do more courses and coaching I think for that it's so important to be you were super specific about like who you help and and and having a really specific audience but when it comes to services especially when you're first getting started I do think it's that it's okay and even a good idea to be more generalized and then you'll and then you will likely find yourself in some sort of a niche in some sense and when I'm hearing Lynn it's actually I think a lot of us haven't really thought of this I don't know if I've even thought of it this way but in a sense you'd like what is a niche a niche is you are the go-to person for that thing right so a lot of us think like okay well then I have to be like a Pinterest manager and that'll be my niche or I have to only you know work with photographers and that'll be my niche but I mean you are the go-to person in your city and that in a sense is what you've made your niche to be is that I am the virtual assistant for where do you live again Rana I am the like if someone needs a VA in Toronto you are the person you know and so in a sense you have like created a niche for yourself and and I think that that whether you choose that in the beginning or whether that happens over time I I just I do think that it is cool to eventually do that but again it's not the only way right because I think Nicole's over here like I I'm kind of helping you know whoever and and I I think that knowing that there's not one wrong way to do it the biggest thing is just you know deciding what you're gonna do stick to it stick to it long enough to see it through I think that that's a lot of us just we get frustrated in the very beginning because we're having a hard time finding clients and just just stick to it and try a couple different marketing it's something marketing wise isn't working for you let's tweak it don't give up but tweak it and and and and keep going forward so I'd love to I want to respect everybody's time so let's do this let's have each of you I would love to hear like talk a little bit about the marketing aspect maybe where you found your first client and where you're finding clients or like if that if your marketing has changed at all so where you found your first client and kind of where you're finding clients now I will hear that from each of you and then here's what we're gonna do guys I know that there's tons of questions in the comments I will go through and for the next you know for the next week I'll go in and I'll be answering questions so even if you're watching a replay definitely keep answering asking questions I'll answer them and if any of the ladies here want to you know come visit this thread in the next you know 24 48 hours I'd love to have you guys commenting below too so that way we can continue to answer your questions cuz I know you guys have a lot of them and we definitely want to help with that so let's ask that question really quickly Lynne Nicole whoever wants to go first where did you find your first point and does your marketing look different now okay I'll go first my first ads Kijiji and Craig lists and it was just I'm offering these services I need to meet people person and I think most of my clients came from came from ads I had placed and also from my website I've been so busy I haven't updated my website since I launched I could help them and other ones I wanted to help them but they weren't in my mom they were looking for freebies and that freebies doesn't work for me you need to pay me so and now I I have my one client who's on I just renewed them for an annual contract and I'm focusing on other entrepreneurs and eventually I'd like to build a business and its focus on entrepreneurs in the financial corporate industry awesome so you got your very first client if it cut out there for a second you got your very first fight your when you put you actually put an ad out on Craigslist so like what did you put that under I haven't I actually have not tried that method I've looked for other people looking for vias and done like proposals to them but I have never done the strategy of putting out and add myself so where how did you how did you do that I think it was in miscellaneous um and I was very clear I'm a professional virtual assistant I have Corp I have a corporate background I'm interested in helping entrepreneurs or pretty much anybody but serious inquiry someway and sometimes people read the ad and they were looking for like physical therapists or like people to go to their home and it's just like no this is you know that's not what I do this is business so but yeah I think I received about four clients awesome yeah I love that and I know that you do a lot of live networking events too especially since you concentrate so much on local so I absolutely I love love that Nicole how did you get your first client and has your marketing changed since that point yeah my marketing has changed dramatically I think from when I first started I need nothing about the VA in the world so coming up it was just a China so it's just me it was me talking to people it was me reaching out to people and telling them you know what a VA is what a VA does you know there's a lot of people who don't understand the industry don't even know that it exists so when you say reaching out to people would that be like local people like who are these people yeah so first it was my immediate circle like my family my friends my business owners that I knew in my immediate circle asking them if they would ever consider it just trying to get feedback from them some of my first clients were local they're not my clients anymore when I started transitioning more to different companies so a lot of my companies right now are startup companies out in California I'm on the East Coast one of my companies around the west coast I started marketing differently so a lot of my marketing came through referrals just doing a really good job for my clients and my clients or if I meet other clients and they're refine to referring me to other clients since the beginning of this year I've talked to five or six referrals and I've signed four of them so that's super exciting for me I know that some people are afraid to get referrals because of pricing and what I want to tell people is don't be afraid of that like my clients understand and value me so they don't tell their referrals like what they're paying me or what the rates that they're paying here and I make sure that I always have my updated brakes on my website because a referral is going to go to your website probably first before they talk to you because they want to check you out but word-of-mouth referral is for me the best marketing strategy because your clients are are highlighting you you're your strengths and what they love most about you and they value who you are and the time that you give them back so at the beginning I was just trying to get clients and being very selective about who I was working with but now I'm getting the right clients referred to me and I don't have a whole lot of marketing that I have to do because I know that sounds crazy but they just keep rolling in and it's you know they're rolling in so fast I can't keep up with them and I'm trying to build my team too I also was very fortunate to be on the askgaryvee show with Tim Ferriss I don't know if anyone saw that posted I think it was this group but I guess it asked questions about how to grow my my company as a VA and Tim Ferriss is a huge he promotes VA the VA world and is a five hour work week or four hour work week or whatever it is so I got so many warm leads from be just being on that show so my my journey is a little bit different because I was fortunate to have that opening but I think just getting out and talking to people and putting your name out there is the most important marketing I didn't have a coffee chat with somebody yesterday and I told her I was going to say it's they - I was like the one the one thing I can say and I know we don't have a lot of time left is don't be afraid of my no like I talked to anyone and everyone and any meeting that I go into I prepare myself or it's not gonna be a right fit so if it's not a right fit it's no big deal right and then we move on to the next person and I think having that mentality has helped me be competent when I'm talking to new clients in Discovery couples because I'm able to show people my value and how I work with other people and it reflects through my other clients so that makes any sense I think that yeah but the whole know thing especially I mean when you're first starting out it may take you 10 knows to get a yes well that's okay then get 10 knows and then get your at your yes and then get another tendo's and then get your yes like that's okay and it's actually pretty normal now the more you get going like like Nicole said you're going to get you get your first clients you do really incredible work for them I mean just doesn't mean that you have to be an expert but just be attentive to their needs just be a good hard worker just give them excellent work they're going to start referring you and those leads are going to already be warm leaves they're already I love the idea I'm a huge fan of having pricing on your site I know people go back and forth on that I love having pricing on your site or at least a like packages starting at just to kind of go ahead and weed out the people who can't afford you and and and then going from there so I just so much good information here I mean we've talked about live networking events we've talked about going like door-to-door to businesses we've talked about referrals we talked about your look your your network your friends and family we've talked about Craigslist but now - Craigslist ad I mean they're there so there's there are so many clients out there and I know the VA world is it seems it seems really big but guys we we are really on the cusp when there's people who still don't know what a virtual assistant is and when you take into consideration how many small business owners there are right now but how many are starting every single year - guys we are onto something here so do not give up keep going okay we're gonna hear from you and then we will wrap up the show your current marketing efforts and how has that changed oh I'm new to do okay so my first client actually came from the from a group that's no longer open now she could she shut down the group but it was actually a fellow veteran I did time in the service and so I knew how to get those type of clients and she was starting up her business and she's actually absolutely phenomenal and um that's how I got my first client it was that simple my marketing has definitely changed because I definitely changed my business around however word-of-mouth is my number one way of getting clients to be honest with you my corporate level clients are always sending people over to me and that is in itself overwhelming because I can't take on too many corporate level clients however I have a whole team of other people I can refer them to so definitely a word-of-mouth my next theme is I go to local job fairs I also go to different around my area because again I live in the Atlanta area there are events going on every single time so with Lynn I'm always going out there I also do interviews with other people to get my name out there the whole thing is people to get your get yourself out there I know there's a lot of introverts I get it I am NOT an introvert I am an extrovert however I lived with the introvert my husband is and I'm always telling him maybe you just have to go for it it is it is very scary at first but trust me you just want to just push yourself out put yourself forward and have confidence in what you're offering people will see that and they will want to work with you as long as you're giving value and Abby said rock that clients world I'm telling you give them what they're asking for plus more and I promise you other clients will start flowing in you know and develop a system to keep that consistent income coming in you know don't just settle for one client even if that one client is five K right you know keep finding clients keep developing those relationships and keep putting your name out there whether it's Facebook Ads Instagram ads whether it's going to local events whether it is word-of-mouth you know everything works together and depending on what it is if you're a general v8 there are not a lot of DA's here in Atlanta Georgia that I know about not going to events they're not putting themselves out there they may be there right but nobody knows because you have to get outside of your computer you have to take yourself to these events you have to put yourself out there and that's key you know get yourself out there get out of your little shell I to have to climb into my shell at light and cover up you know to re-energize myself for the next day but do what you need to do energize yourself and kick popping you kick behind or kick ass the next day okay I'm not even gonna sugar out of it get out there and kick some ass that's that's just how it is and I want you guys to know that you know it is scary I know some of you guys are like I work a full-time job and things of that nature how do i market it's so easy you know what I'm saying on the weekends when you're going to the PTA meetings with your kids talk to the PTA board you know talk to your local school board trust me that everybody needs someone's help you know and they definitely meet generalise days you guys take so much stress off of everybody else know your worth you know go out there and tell them what you do I actually am developing my own VA business can you believe it what is the VA I'm a personal assistant you know I help people to take the stress and take their time back to do what they love you have you have heard that before and I know it sounds cheesy but that's exactly what you do you know and and that's okay you know get out there and put yourself out there don't be afraid that's my number one marketing tip is don't be afraid get yourself out there and stay relevant you know keep educating yourself keep growing and that's what I do every single day I'm always learning on Sundays is my learning hours I sit down I continue to learn in my field I continue to educate myself I continue to you know response you got you guys teaching me so much believe it or not I'm always listening to it Abby had to say I'm always listening to Susan mature I'm always listening to my mentors because they're always teaching me something new so you know if you need a mentor if you need a business coach if you need you know to take a course if you need to do however it is that you learn if you're one of those people who need to get your hand held if you're one of those people who just like to give me a course do your learning style and keep educating yourself because your clients are gonna use you and build you and you're gonna find out that maybe I'm not just the general da maybe I am ovm you know maybe I am a project manager you know your clients will help you you know mode what it is that you want to do so don't be afraid to get your stuff out there and that's basically all I have to say about it oh my gosh I'm loving LK Lim Nicole thank you guys so so much I know that this has been just incredible I mean we live in we had 60 people watching live and I don't make hardly any of them jump off you guys answered so many incredible questions I know that this isn't the end of you guys's question so let me tell you if you are like I I want more I want more information we are going to I'm personally going to be in the comments answering some questions referring you guys to some awesome articles for a lot of your questions and we're gonna we're gonna dive in and get into this topic if you are still on in those beginning stages and you really you're like man this sounds amazing but I don't know entirely what my next steps are what should I be doing I need like a step-by-step process then go to virtual assistant checklist dot-com virtual assistant checklist calm and you'll be able to see let's see I think I have a link for it there we go virtual assistant checklist calm you'll you'll get my step-by-step checklist for getting started in your own virtual assistant business but the same time will be in the comments we will be answering questions so make sure that you're commenting share this with anybody else that you think would be a good fit as a VA guys thank you so much again to our guests to our bas who are killing it out there they are making a difference in the world they're making a difference in their families and they are such an inspiration to all of us so thank you guys thank you all for joining and this is the savvy show we'll be doing this every single Thursday on the virtual savvy Facebook page right here every Thursday you can find us at 10:30 a.m. central and they'll always be a replay if you can't make it life thank you guys so much let's we got a we go you got a dance it out right