Taking the first steps into entrepreneurship is an exciting time. One of the most liberating times of my life was declaring to the world, ‘I work for myself!’
The excitement is enough to propel you forward for a while – building your website, deciding what services to offer and what rates to charge – it’s all super fun and pretty darned satisfying!
When I was getting my business started, I had a lot of clarity around what kind of work I wanted to do, what I wanted my workday to look like, and the kinds of hours I wanted to be available. The missing piece of the equation was deciding what kind of clients I wanted to work with.
There are so many folks out there who need demo virtual support – Lawyers, Real Estate Agents, Online Entrepreneurs, Executives, and Stay-at-Home Momprenuers, to name a few. So many options, so many industries and so many personality types to take into consideration.
Deciding who your ideal clients are is a pretty important decision – it can influence HOW you design your website, HOW you write your copy, WHAT you decide to set your rates at and WHICH kind of services you focus on. I now realize that figuring out who your ideal clients are should probably happen before you do all those other things. Lessons learned, right?
Here are some quick steps for identifying who these ideal clients are.
Step 1: Identify how you want your work week to look.
Some of the work I do with my CYLL clients is to help them identify the hours they have available currently – right now – with the other job they might have, with their current family obligations, and with the energy that they have available to put towards starting their journey into entrepreneurship. If you can identify what time and energy resources you have available, that is one half of the equation!
If you can identify 5 hours per week that you could put towards client work and business development, you are golden. Mark it down on your calendar. In my experience, you will need at least 5 hour per week to do client work and take care of and grow your business. At least!
When you have done this, write down the details. Be descriptive, be specific, be tangible and be realistic. Have you identified time in the evenings? Weekends? During the day when your toddler is napping? Is it consistent timing every day or every week? Or it is flexible timing, dependent on other factors?
Is the time you have available to work with clients consistent every day? Or is it whenever you have spare time, or when you are not travelling?
Step 2: Identify Your Role & Title
The next step is to identify your favorite part of your current job! What do you love doing? What are you doing when you realize 3 hours have gone by without you noticing? Time flies when you’re having fun, so what are you doing when you notice that time had flown? If you can identify the work you actually enjoy, and to just the work you are good at, then you have the second half of the equation.
Make two lists. The first one is for identifying your favorite tasks, activities, and responsibilities. Be creative! The second list is to identify the tasks that you would be thrilled to delegate to someone else.
Note: You might end up with a few tasks on your ‘favorites’ list that you look back on and don’t feel thrilled to see there. If this happens, these are probably tasks or activities that you are good at, but don’t necessarily love doing. Move these over to the second list. Just because you are good at something doesn’t mean you should be doing it. When you don’t love your work, it shows!
Choose one thing you want to focus on. Then choose two other things you can offer RIGHT NOW based on your current skill set. What kind of VA roles could you do with what you have to offer RIGHT NOW?
The start thinking about the kinds of people you would like to spend time with. Who do you want to learn from? Who do you want to support? What industry would you enjoy working in? Health Coaches? Artists? Business Coaches? Drop Shippers? Online Marketing Agencies? Momprenuers?
Step 3: Do the Math
Ideal Work Week + Ideal Role + Industry = Ideal Client
Once you know what time you have available, and where that time physically lies in your calendar, and you combined that with the tasks and activities that you actually enjoy doing plus the industry that you want to work in, you can start to get a picture of who your ideal clients are.
EXAMPLE:
Ideal Work Week: You are available in the evenings, and during some weekends, for approximately 5 hours per week. This availability lends itself nicely to project or task based work – work that is not time sensitive, and has flexible deadlines, since your availability is not during regular working hours.
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Ideal Role: You enjoy doing online marketing and customer engagement work using Mail Chimp, Constant Contact and Survey Monkey. You also enjoy designing newsletters and doing event planning activities, and you are interested in working with holistic nutritionists.
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Ideal Client: You have a few really great options for you client base! You have the skills and experience to market yourself to clients who need to following services: A need for support engaging their customers, and a need for support planning and executing events: In-person or online, building an audience, and nurturing client leads.
Have You Identified Your Ideal Clients Yet?
Do you have a clear idea about the time and energy you have available to get your business started?
Do you have some ideas about the types of clients you want to work with?
If you need guidance or have questions about what steps you can take to get your virtual assistant business started, don’t hesitate to join our Facebook group and post your question there! You can join here.