March – 2010 – The Gritty Virtual Assistant Blog

Monthly Archives: March 2010

March 4, 2010 – 8:44 am

No One Can Guarantee You Clients

There are people who care about this industry, and then there are exploiters in this industry who only care about picking your pockets.

Look beneath the surface. Are these people even in the business they are trying to teach you about? Do they actually DO the thing they profess to have the knowledge about? How can they be Virtual Assistant experts when they are not even VAs themselves?

Don’t buy into slick marketing and promises too good to be true. NO ONE can guarantee you clients. When they start doing that, those are INTERNET MARKETERS and you had better run the other direction with your money because that’s all they are trying to get–is your money, any which way they can. They will tell you whatever you want to hear because they prey on your desperation to believe it will be true. They know that telling people they are guaranteed clients is what will make those folks salivate–and hand over their money–because that’s what they want and need most.

It is reprehensible and anyone trying to sell you that kind of BS is a dishonest, unethical slimeball.

2 Comments

Like this? Share it!

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Rant & Raves, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (2)

March 3, 2010 – 10:00 am

Dear Gritty VA: How Do I Get Clients

Dear Gritty VA:

Brief question–how do you get clients? I know this is on every Virtual Assistant’s mind in America whom is starting out. I know that the Virtual Assistant business is referral-based, but my God! I know that you can’t just jump up and think you are going to get rich from this (not my intentions). However, it’s one person I did some donated hours for, I have tried working with another client and lowered my prices to accommodate her. Still a no-go on this one. If I would have said it was free for the service, she would have been all over it. I think if I had at least two clients, I would feel like my business is progressing forward. But not having anyone get discouraging at times and you wonder if it’s worth it if your business is solely based off referrals, you know? –ST

Well, first, I had to chuckle because there’s nothing brief about the question, “How do you get clients?” LOL. Not laughing at you, but it’s sort of like asking, “How do we achieve world peace?” It’s a BIG, complicated question with no quick, simple, pat answer. It’s difficult to start a business, as you recognize. For a large number of Virtual Assistants, they are not going to get clients right away. While they’re waiting, there’s a lot of learning and studying they can be doing to better understand marketing and client psychology. Here are a few thoughts to help you get started in the right direction…

1. Stop donating hours. When you give away your value (the very product you are in business to earn your living from), you devalue it in the eyes of clients. Worse, all giving stuff away for free does is attract freebie-seekers. These are not your clients. They will be gone as soon as you take the free buffet away. If they can’t afford professional services, they either shouldn’t be in business, or they should at least not expect you to subsidize their business (to your own detriment) until they can. These are very selfish, self-centered thinking people. You have your own bills to pay and people to take care of. You can’t put your time and energy into those folks. You’ve got to market to people who can already afford you and who don’t expect you to be footing the bill for their business. If you keep giving it away for free, you’re just going to keep getting more of the same. “Why pay for the cow when you can get the milk for free?” applies here. If you’re dishing it out, they’re gonna take it. You are attracting what you are giving. So stop the gravy train and get serious about serious clients.

2. I’m not sure why you think this, but this is not strictly a referral-based business. A business can become mostly referral-based once they’ve established their business, had a chance to get their foot in the networking door, and have clients and others who happily recommend them. If you’re new, you don’t have that right off the bat. But there are things you can do and ways you can network that will better draw/pull prospective clients to you. What will help here is having a target market to focus your message on and give you direction on where to find those folks you wish to be talking with and expend your efforts and energy there (which are limited and need to be conserved for the highest and best possible use). Two of the most important criteria in deciding on a target market are that a) it must be one where the people in it generally are earning enough money that they can afford professional services, and b) there are enough of them that it’s easy enough to figure out where they are (offline and off) and then find ways to interact with them, come up in their search terms and be found by them.

3. Never, ever bargain with or negotiate your fee. All you are doing is teaching clients to devalue you and your support. You start doing that and they forever after expect freebies and discounts and that everything is up for negotiation. You don’t even have to tell me what you’re charging. I can pretty much guarantee that you are undercharging–all these issues you describe are always symptomatic of rates that are too low. They cater to the wrong crowd. On top of that, I’m willing to bet the conversation on your site is all about cost and discounts and freebies and savings and how much cheaper and more affordable than an employee you are, yada yada yada… am I right? That’s exactly the problem. I would tell you to raise your fee. You likely will be ALL kinds of uncomfortable doing that and at the same time you will need to learn how to market differently and change your message. But when you do that, you will begin to attract a clientele with an entirely different mindset and more professional business sense. Those folks are looking for skill and quality and competence, not handouts. You simply can’t waste your time and energy–and money, because that’s what it boils down to–on folks who can’t afford you and would have you harm yourself in order to help them.

4. Adding onto the idea of changing your message, you’ve got to frame what you have to offer in respectful ways. You’ve got to hold what you do in high esteem and talk about it in respectful terms. If you use words like “generalist” and “mundane” and “affordable” and the like, you are lowering the perceived value of what you have to offer. You are teaching prospects to look down upon your work and view it as lowly, and thus, not worthy of professional fees. And the industry as a whole has GOT to get off the cost conversation and all the employee comparisons. If you have any of that stuff on your site, take it off immediately. You are creating and attracting the very mindsets you are complaining about now. If everything you put on your website is about how cheap you are, how much they can save, how much more affordable you are than employees, save this, get a discount on that, guess what you are focusing people on? MONEY. You can’t make your marketing message about that–unless you want to continue to attract nothing but people who are looking for savings and discounts and bargains and cheap and affordable. Stop talking about costs whatsoever. That’s the last thing you should be talking about. And if you don’t have anything else to talk about with regard to what you do for your clients and your value to them, then you’ve got a lot more work to do about understanding what you are and what you do.

Marketing and attracting clients is an area of ongoing learning and study. It’s not anything that can be answered quickly or simply in a mere blogpost, but I hope this at least gets your wheels turning. The very best way I can help you is to recommend that you get my e-book, “Understanding Your Value: How to Craft Your Own Unique Marketing Message and Make More Money with Alternative Billing Strategies.” This is a self-study guide that will help you determine your target market, define an ideal client profile, differentiate yourself with your own unique marketing message and value proposition and use value-based pricing methodologies to package up your support in much more attractive, marketable ways.

11 Comments

Like this? Share it!

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Dear Gritty VA, Marketing, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Attracting the Right Clients, Getting Clients, Understanding Your Value, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (11)

March 2, 2010 – 10:00 am

I Don’t Do Pains-in-the-Butt

Seth Godin recently wrote about short-sighted, greedy, selfish consumers in his blog post, “More, more more.” You give them an inch, and they want a pound of your flesh for the rest of your life.

He writes that basically every business owner who wants to provide “remarkable service and an honest human connection” will face the challenge of being abused by a few.

You always have options, as he illustrates: “Put up with the whiners, write off everyone or deliberately exclude the ungrateful curs.”

That last one is my personal philosophy. As Godin so eloquently puts it, “Firing customers you can’t possibly please gives you the bandwidth and resources to coddle the ones that truly deserve your attention and repay you with referrals, applause and loyalty.”

For me, this doesn’t just apply to clients. If someone is abusive, tries to take advantage, is a jerk, an energy-suck, has broken my trust in them or just doesn’t “get it” all the way around, I don’t deal with them anymore. I ignore them. I remove them. I delete them. I block them. I move on. Go bother someone else. I have better things to do.

5 Comments

Like this? Share it!

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Personal Musings, Rant & Raves | Tagged Fire ill-fitting people from your life, no jerks rule | Comments (5)

March 1, 2010 – 10:00 am

Go Easy on Yourself (You’re Not a Robot, Ya Know)

Here’s an article I wrote and published today in “The Portable Business™.” If you’d like to subscribe, go here:

hugself All of us make mistakes. We all have learning curves when we’re trying something new. Every single one of us. One of the best things you can do in business is go easy on yourself. If you are constantly beating yourself up, you will ensure more of the same. Honestly, we are all our own worst critics. But you’ve got to be gentle with yourself. Here’s how you can do that and make things far less stressful for yourself in business:

1. Expect upfront that there are going to be snafus. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Just accept that and acknowledge it going in. No apologies.

2. Give yourself space. Your value is not in how fast you can kill yourself obeying a client’s wishes. Forget that! Establish work request policies and turn-around times that allow you to breathe and do a great job. If you don’t, you are creating conditions that will cause you to make more mistakes and feel worse about yourself and your work.

3. Set client expectations. Thoroughly discuss your workflow policies and turn-around times. Talk about the fact that mistakes are inevitable here and there and how to communicate (including how you expect to be treated) when they are are made. Don’t forget to remind them that smart management policies like yours are what facilitates great work and successful relationships. You simply cannot do good work for clients if you don’t have protocols in place for these things.

4. Fire ill-fitting clients. Get rid of any client who drains your energy, including those who expect you to work with them like an employee. Working with ill-fitting clients sets you up for failure and brings down your professional self-esteem. You can’t afford to work with anyone who can’t work within your protocols, who constantly complains, belittles and is never pleased, or who otherwise doesn’t create positive reciprocal energy in your business.

5. Look at critics as learning partners. There’s usually a positive side to everything. See what you can learn in these situations and view them as opportunities for improvement. When you try something new, there will be people who aren’t happy with the effort. That’s okay. Learn from what they have to say if it’s helpful, but don’t internalize any upset beyond that.

6. Know when to ignore abuse. There’s a difference between constructive feedback and gloating. Be grateful for constructive feedback and thank those people who provide it. You can even glean useful bits from those who only want to point out your flaws to make themselves feel better. Just remember that you aren’t obligated to indulge or engage with those folks. It’s okay to ignore and delete.

7. Que Sera, Sera! Whatever will be, will be. This is life, darling. There isn’t a darn thing you can do about the fact that when you put yourself out there, you put yourself on people’s radars and a few may want to shoot you down. So what. Instead of cowering, congratulate yourself for learning and growing! Celebrate the success of taking a risk! These are the things that make you feel wonderful about yourself. And when you feel great about yourself as a person, you bring even more wonderful stuff to your clients as a professional.

RESOURCE: In searching for a relevant resource related to nurturing professional self-esteem, I came across this book by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander: The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life. Not sure if it fits exactly with professional self-esteem, but it looks like an interesting read.

9 Comments

Like this? Share it!