Episode 84: How Do I Find Clients and Get Paid as a New Virtual Assistant?

Full Episode Transcription:

(00:07):
Hey, y’all! Welcome to another episode of Quick Tip Thursday. If you’re new here, we just started this series and we’ve upped to two podcast episodes a week. So now every Thursday, we’re going to have this quick question that I’m gonna answer for ya’ll. A popular question that people have submitted about what it takes to become a virtual assistant. So today’s question is: how do I find clients and get paid as a new virtual assistant? Now, as far as finding clients, there are four places that recommend looking for potential clients in your virtual assistant business. My number one is Facebook. This is where I’ve landed 90% of my clients. This is where many of my students have landed their first clients. And it’s just the best place to look. Specifically Facebook entrepreneur groups. So there are so many businesses out there who are part of these entrepreneur, Facebook groups, looking for help and looking for people to take things off of their plate in their business.

01:55):
And so this is where you can go join. Network with people and land those clients. The second place I recommend finding clients is on Instagram, especially if you’re offering Instagram services. This is a great place to look and connect with clients. If you have a specific niche that you would love to work with, for example, businesses in the wedding industry, then you can go and start interacting and connecting with them and then eventually open up the conversation or they’ll see your posts of what services you offer. And they’ll probably hire you. Third place I recommend finding clients is LinkedIn. If you’re wanting to work with bigger businesses, I recommend going here. They may have a little more rules as far as when you work and what their rate is. So you do have to kind of balance that to see if that’s what you want.

(02:51):
If you’re wanting more smaller businesses, I recommend going and looking for clients on Facebook and Instagram. But if you’re happy with the bigger business, then LinkedIn is a really great place to look for clients. And then number four, a place that a lot of people overlook is connecting with your local businesses around you. So many of them need help from virtual assistance and probably don’t even know that virtual assistance exist. They think that they have to go hire an employee and pay a shit ton of money when they really don’t. They can outsource to an independent contractor like you. So if you just go pop in and or you see maybe their social media is lacking or their website is kind of crappy, you can reach out to them nicely and let them know about what services that you offer as far as finding clients.

(03:41):
Again, one really important thing that you need to make sure you’re doing is networking. So in Facebook groups, on Instagram, and LinkedIn – go and provide value where you can answer questions. Post questions, getting businesses interacting with you. You never know who’s gonna come find you based on you networking with them. For example, I once had a client, she wasn’t my client yet. She posted in a Facebook group asking a question about websites. I commented and just answered her question. She went to my profile, found my website, looked at it and just decided to hire me instead of building her own website. So definitely, definitely one of the biggest things I recommend is network each and every day in your business, provide that free value. And you never know who will come to you. Now, as far as getting paid, when you have a potential client who has said, they like to move forward – first of all, celebrate – and then you’re simply gonna send them a contract and an invoice.

(04:47):
So I recommend sending invoices through Stripe. I don’t really recommend PayPal because if there is ever a dispute, PayPal tends to always side with the, the buyer or your client. And doesn’t really give you the chance to show proof of like what happened and that you actually did the work. So I do recommend Stripe. Both of them have fees that they charge for invoicing through them. But you just write that off in your taxes each year. It’s not very big at all. And you can factor that into the rates that you charge. Also – big caveat here – makes sure that you get paid before you begin working. I never recommend working and then getting paid at the end because you can get burned that way. Now, if your client’s a little iffy and maybe it’s a big package you’re offering, you can offer a payment plan.

(05:37):
So you can, you can offer 50% upfront that they pay. And then 50% halfway through the, a project that way they feel a little more comfortable and know like, “okay, she’s finished this work for me. I’m comfortable paying the rest of this amount”. But you at least need to get that deposit upfront. Okay? Never, ever, ever work for free, always get paid upfront. All right. So to recap, your four places to find clients are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and local businesses. Always, always, always make sure you’re networking with your clients, with your potential clients. And when you need to get paid, I recommend Stripe. They’re the best place. I love them. They send the money to your bank really quickly. They’re amazing. And they’re free. They just take that small percentage out of your invoice, which again, you can just write off in your taxes. All right. Do you have a question that you would like for me to answer on Quick Tip Thursday? I would be so happy to answer them. I’m open to anything in the virtual assistant world. I’m happy to answer it for you. I invite you to go to our Facebook community, facebook.com/groups/ditchtheclassroom and post your comment there. You can put #quicktipthursday and I’ll make sure to see it and answer your question in one of these episodes. All right. Y’all I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I will see you next week.