Establishing your own VA business can be challenging, especially when you don’t know where to start, who to talk to, or what to do to promote your business. Simply put, there is not one right way of doing it and everyone is going to have success in their own ways, but we have created a list of our top secrets for what has helped our VAs. From establishing your community to finding that perfect photo-editing app, we’ve got it all here for you.
Tip #1: Grow Your Community
Being a VA can be lonely sometimes, even if you’re working as a part of an agency or partnership in business. The ability to work from home can be both rewarding and isolating if you aren’t careful. It’s important to grow your community both inside the VA world and outside of it, in order to maintain stability in your life. For example, if you only surround yourself with other VAs, then you might get wrapped up in the business and end up facing burnout, which is why it’s also good to have friends and family that aren’t a part of that field to push you out of your comfort zone and encourage you to take breaks and spend time on yourself. In contrast, if you only surround yourself with non-VAs you can face the challenges of feeling like no one understands what you’re going through or how hard you actually work.
Growing your community can happen in many different ways:
Travelling to new places
Making connections on social media
Health and fitness classes or at the gym
In other events or parties
If you have another job (maybe being a VA is your side hustle)
Your neighborhood (i.e. apartment complex, local coffee shop or cafes)
Tip #2: Familiarize Yourself With Everything New
The best way to market yourself and your services to clients and to stay trending is to always stay in touch with what is new. Whether it’s fashion trends, music, social media trends, editing apps for photos, and so on — using these current favourites can offer you an advantage over other businesses. You’ll seem more relevant and more “in-touch” with society, which is always appealing to people seeking inspiration and help from others.
Ways that we recommend keeping on top of current trends are:
Listening to podcasts
Engaging on social media
Listening to the radio for new songs or artists
Reading magazines for fashion trends
Reading blogs (you’ll find tons of great advice and growing trends on these)
Tip #3: Don’t Let Relationships Grow Apart
It’s important to never lose contact with your clients, friends, family or colleagues. Even if the client has decided to move on, or your colleague no longer works at the same place as you, you never know what networking opportunities people can provide you with, so it’s always good to keep doors open.
Ways to continue communicating with ex-clients after they’ve left:
Follow up emails
Follow them on social media
E-newsletters
Tip #4: Use All The Tools In Your Tool Box
Since most of what VAs do is all online, we are able to use a wide array of different tools when it comes to creating the best possible version of our work. One thing that many people get stuck in their head is that they have to stay loyal to certain apps or websites just because they signed on with them first or because they think you can only use one; luckily, that isn’t the case for us. Whether you’re looking for the perfect app for creating Instagram stories, or scheduling in social media posts, there are a variety of apps and platforms to choose from.
Ultimately, what you have to look at is the cost factor and what each different tool brings to the table. (Hint: there isn’t one that does it all, otherwise that would have been our tip #1) Understanding what works best for you comes with trial and error but is well worth it in the end.
For any follow up questions or comments, don’t hesitate to reach out to us using the contact us page on our website. Also be sure to follow TVL on social media to stay up to date with all things travel, lifestyle and business tips!
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