Deep Dive Into The Top 5:

Ok, now let’s dive into the 5 places in a bit more detail:

• If you know anything about my story, then you know I landed my first 2 clients of Hiremymom.com, I just love the site! Now I haven’t been on there in the past couple years since I don’t do VA work anymore but I know Lesley (the founder) is busy behind the scenes making, even more, improvements to the site. You pay a quarterly or annual fee to view job listings. I will say rates were on the lower side but when I was first starting I was OK with that. The clients I got were willing to teach me some very valuable skills! In fact, I was recently interviewed about my success using Hiremymom.com, check out the article here.  
• The next is Upwork.com, now I hear a lot of negative but forget all that. There are MANY freelancing sites out there but other than hiremymom.com I find this to be a 2nd best. My tip is to make sure you are looking for clients looking to pay $$ to $$$. When they list a job they choose the rate range, the $ is the lowest and clients just wanted cheap work. I almost always use Upwork.com when hiring for clients and it’s crazy how few proposals I get for VA work. Or ones that submit one and then never respond to my messages. 
• Virtual Assistant facebook groups have really grown in popularity over the past couple years. And many clients join them to look for a VA. I know in my FB group I always post for clients that are hiring a VA and I often get very few responses. Use the search field on FB, put in Virtual Assistant or even entrepreneur groups too. I see a few times a week people posting wanting names of VA’s. Just know with FB groups they often limit promotions, so check the guidelines to see what’s allowed. But when someone asks specifically, for sure respond to that.
• The next way is to network with Online Business Managers and Strategists like myself. I am always being asked for referrals! But since I have my Virtual Assistant training I point potential clients to the directory. I just don’t’ have time to connect individuals 1-1 anymore. I suggest you create a spreadsheet, and Google Online Business Managers and other similar terms. make a list of ones to reach out to, email them asking if they ever need VA’s to recommend. Just know they may want to see a sample of work or testimonials. Think about how you can build trust so that OBM knows if they recommend you, that you will do a great job. Or think of web designers, business coaches, anyone that may have a need to refer to VA’s. LinkedIn is another good place to research for these types of people to connect with.
• My last tip is social media in general. And this is different than Facebook groups. I’ve seen on numerous occasions individuals post on Facebook, Twitter, etc. that they are hiring or looking for names of a great Virtual Assistant. I will often use search fields on social media platforms to search, you can type in VA, Virtual Assistant, then add hiring to it. In fact, you don’t even have to be friends with someone to see their post. It just depends on their privacy settings. I have used this method myself, but again if you find a potential client here and you don’t know them they may want work samples, a testimonial, or some other way to learn more about you. 

There’s WAY more information I could share about finding clients but it would be really long to read! This is plenty to get you started. Once you find these clients you need to know how to submit quality proposals, how to follow-up, address their needs (rather than go on about how great you are) and more. And once you start getting clients, many of them will come through referrals of those you’ve worked with and know you and your work.

Have questions on where to find clients? Maybe you have some other excellent places to find them, please share below in the comments 🙂