Episode 69: The Top 5 Most Essential Components for Creating Your Portfolio as a New Virtual Assistant

Full Episode Transcription:

(00:07):

Hey, my loves! Welcome back to the Ditch the Classroom podcast. Super excited to have you here with me this week. Whether you’ve been a listener for a long time or you’re new to the show. I’m just so, so, so incredibly grateful for you tuning in.

(01:00):

I wanna invite you, if you’re just now exploring the world of virtual assistance and wanting to learn more about it, I wanna invite you to join my free workshop for how to launch your virtual assistant business. In this workshop, we’re going to cover what a virtual assistant even is, what services a VA can offer so that you can choose services are going to light you up and just make you so excited to work in your business each day. And then we’re going to cover the top three mistakes that new virtual assistants make as well as where to find paying clients so you can replace your teaching income quickly. Now, if you’re ready to take the first step and dive into the world of virtual assistance, you can grab the Ditch the Classroom Toolkit, which will walk you through the first couple steps you need to launch your virtual assistant business and land those first one or two clients. And then if you are ready to go all-in, full force, 100% ditch the classroom within the next six months, and just have your virtual assistant business be your full-time job, then I invite you to join the Teacher Turned Freelancer Academy. Now this program is going to give you the ongoing support, the accountability, the tools, the systems, the everything you need to build this business that will sustain you and your family TTFA includes 10 modules and in each module has bite-size videos and workbooks that will help walk you through everything you need to take your virtual assistant business from zero to 60. So if you’re ready for any of these steps, which I know you are, if you’ve been listening to this show for a while, then go to ariannavernier.com/resources.

(03:18):

Alright, so in today’s episode, we’re going to be covering one of the most important pieces of landing your ideal client. And that is a portfolio to showcase your services and really catch the attention of your potential client. Because when a client puts a job posting out there, they’re going to most often get a lot of people applying. And so you wanna make sure that you’re standing out above the rest. So I’m gonna be sharing with you my five most essential components that you need to make sure you’re including in your portfolio.

(04:01):

So, number one, you should have a short bio and a photo so that your potential client can really put a face to the name and is already making that connection with you. And then your bio should just be a couple sentences about who you are as a person. So again, they can connect even further with you. So that short bio should answer who you are, what makes you different, and why do you love serving your clients.

(04:35):

Number two is, what tasks and services can you handle. You can have these organized, either listed out with your hourly rate or put into package options depending on what services you’re offering. So for example, if you’re offering social media management, you might have like a tier one package where you’re only posting for them two days a week, a middle tier package, where you’re only posting for them three days a week, and then your highest tier package where you’re posting for them five days a week. So social media management really plays well with the tiered package setup. But if you’re doing more like admin services and things like that, you might just list your hourly rate, and then below that, just put line items for what different services you can offer for that hourly rate. So that’s where you kind of have to know, you already have to know what services you want to offer. And for that, you can go to ariannavernier.com/virtual-assistant-quiz, and that’ll help you figure out what services you would love to offer.

(05:53):

Now, number three, the third, most essential component to include in that portfolio is listing out their next steps. So they really understand exactly what they need to do next in order to actually hire you. So you’re gonna walk them through that process. Now, step number one is typically that they’re are gonna book a discovery call with you so they can meet with you face-to-face on Zoom, and you can ask each other questions. A discovery call is as much your potential client interviewing you as it is you interviewing them to make sure it’s a good fit for both of you. Step number two is typically that you will send over a proposal, the contracted and invoice. Step number three is that their life will be 10 million times easier, or their business will be 10 million times easier because you’re taking this off their plate. Now, the fourth essential component is optional, but I do highly recommend it. It’s a really good idea to include testimonials in your portfolio so that your potential clients can see raving reviews from previous clients. Now, if you’re new and you don’t have any testimonials, what you can do is you can offer a few “free” services – and I have that “free” in quotation marks – in exchange for testimonials in the beginning. So instead of getting paid for an hour worth of your services, like actual money, you might decide your payment is just a written testimonial from someone that you can then include in your portfolio and share with other potential clients.

(07:44):

Now, number five, again is optional, but show examples of your work so that they can really get a feel for if the work that you do is going to vibe with their business. Now, things you can showcase in a portfolio are things like social media graphics you’ve created, maybe some websites you’ve created, different things like that are easy to showcase in your portfolio. Now I do wanna remind y’all that in the Teacher Turned Freelancer Academy, which I talked about at the beginning of this episode, I give you a plug-and-play portfolio template that makes it super streamlined and easy for you to create a really stunning, beautiful portfolio to draw those ideal clients in. So if you’re ready, again, to take that step and just dive in, then I again, invite you to go to teacherturnedfreelancer.com, see everything that’s included in the program and come and join us. We’re so excited to have you.

(08:57):

So let’s recap the five most essential components to including your portfolio real fast. Number one is a short bio and a photo, so your potential client can really connect with you before they even hop on a call with you. Number two is listing out what tasks or services that you can handle and having them organized, either listed with your hourly rate or put into package options. Number three is walking them through the next steps of the process. Number four is optional to include testimonials. Number five, optional as well is to include examples of your work. Okay. I would love, love, love to see your portfolios you’re working on over in the Facebook group. So feel free to come join us at facebook.com/groups/ditchtheclassroom. Come and share your portfolio there and I’m happy to give you some feedback on it. And I hope that this episode was helpful and helps you really figure out how to land those first few clients, that way you can start working towards replacing your teaching income. All right y’all, we will see you next Tuesday.