Some of the VA Networks have Requests for Proposal or Job Leads sent in by clients or other VAs.
On a recent forum discussion a new VA was asking about getting jobs that paid higher than $10 an hour. She knew that it was possible but all the jobs she looked at was paying $10 or less an hour and she wanted to know what she was doing wrong.
I gave the following advice:
You’re looking in the wrong places.
You don’t want to be searching job listings at all. What you want to be doing is listing your business with VA directories and networks, business directories and getting in touch with people through business networks locally.
Have you registered with the site connected to this forum which lists requests from clients – real genuine client requests?
There are many others too – you can see them listed at www.vanetworknews.com – there’s a link with VA networks.
You need to be building connections and that can be done via networking both online and offline. Who do you know around you who is in business and might need your services? Who can you give your business cards out to? Speak to everyone you know and see if your local council has a business listing online that you can list with as well. Try groups like Rotary, Lions, Chambers of Commerce who all have business people as members.
And online, develop a signature block as that is your online business card – give people something about you, how to contact you and so on.
Read the archived messages of the list as you’ll learn heaps from them as well – over time you’ll build connections with other VAs and you might even be able to pick up jobs and overflow work as well.
I should add that the clients VAs want won’t be advertising a ‘job’.
Clients will be looking for VAs via a number of different methods to get the work done – they will come to you because they’ve seen adverts, because they’ve heard about you, because they’ve seen you listed in different places – often at the VA networks.
VAs need to get rid of the idea of ‘applying for a job’ – they’re no longer an employee. They need to be thinking ‘business owner’ and business owners need to advertise, network, promote and market to get their clients.
The Virtual Assistant Networks are a great way to learn about how to get clients, how to work with clients, and where to get access to genuine client requests as work comes in.
Ishani Mitra says
I completely agree on the point that VA services are rapidly gaining popularity in recent times. To be successful, one is finding it difficcult to manage all and sundry on their ownand hence leaning towards help as and when required. These freelancers better known as VAs offer the flexibility of hiring them on demand and alsooften come with technical and professional qualifications required to handle all kinds of assistance.