Episode 6: What 99% of New Virtual Assistants Get Wrong

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What 99% of New Virtual Assistants Get Wrong

If you have been building your portfolio, tweaking your services, rewriting your bio, designing your logo, picking a niche, and still do not have a paying client, this episode is for you.

Abbey Ashley reveals the number one mistake 99% of new virtual assistants make and why it feels productive even though it is keeping you stuck.

It is not about intelligence.
It is not about capability.
It is not even about skills.

It is about focusing on the wrong thing.

The Real Reason New VAs Stay Stuck

Many beginners spend months perfecting the display of their business instead of building relationships that actually lead to clients.

Websites do not get clients.
Conversations get clients.
Connections get clients.
Consistency gets clients.

In this episode, Abbey breaks down:

• The difference between preparation and hiding
• Why focusing on making instead of marketing delays results
• Why action over perfection matters more than a polished portfolio
• The mindset shift that changes everything
• The 4 C Method for Landing Clients Faster

If you are serious about starting a virtual assistant business and landing your first client, this episode will help you redirect your energy to what actually works.

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📌 Free Training: Become a Booked Out Virtual Assistant

 In this free training, Abbey shares the three strategies she used to land clients quickly and build a profitable VA business from scratch.

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Transcript

 Hey, hey, you are tuned into Work From Anywhere with the Virtual Savvy, where you learn how to launch and grow your virtual assistant business because you deserve work that fits your life, not the other way around. All right, friend. Let's get started.

 99% of new virtual assistants get this one thing wrong. And it's not that you're not smart enough. It's not that you're not capable, and it's not even that you don't have the skills. It's that you're doing something that feels productive, but it's actually the number one reason. Most beginners stay stuck.

And if you've been watching videos, saving posts, building your portfolio, tweaking your offer, rewriting your bio, making logos, picking a niche, researching what services to offer, and you still don't have a paying client, this episode is going to explain exactly why. If you don't know me, I'm Abbey Ashley and I've helped over 7,000 individuals start, grow, and scale their own virtual assistant business from scratch.

And this is the same mistake I see made over and over again. I'm going to show you what the 99% mistake actually is, why it feels so productive, even though it's keeping you stuck. This simple shift that changes everything. And my four C method for landing clients faster.

Let me start out with some context by saying that preparation in and of itself is not a bad. Thing. You have to get your business ready in order to tell people about it. Yes, you do need to choose your services. You do need to decide on your business name and all of the things that go along with it, but I will say that there is a difference between preparation that moves, moves you forward, and preparation.

That becomes a hiding place. This is why one of our core values here at the Virtual Savvy is action over perfection. And we're gonna talk more about that in this episode , which brings me to the number one mistake that most new virtual assistants make, and that is that they focus on making instead of marketing.

And what I mean by that is that so many new VAs can spend so much time really just making their website, their portfolio, their services, their logo, whatever it may be. Perfect. It's, we will spend so much time and energy and effort just tweaking, doing the little tiny tweaks or feeling like I need more education, more education, more education.

When in reality, if we were to truly embrace action over perfection, we could say, okay, I know maybe these things aren't perfect. Maybe my portfolio is not a hundred percent perfect, but I can accept it as a draft one, right? Because everything is a draft one. I can accept it as a draft one. And I can move forward with going ahead and telling people about my business.

The thing is, is that all of those decisions, the assets, the portfolio, the logo, et cetera, they're all a display, right? But displays do not get clients conversations, get clients relationships, get clients really outreaching and applying to jobs with value first. Those are the things that get. Clients. So when we spend all our time on the display, then we're not really focusing on the things that are going to move the needle forward, and that is the connections and the relationships.

It's kind of funny, isn't it? 99% of us can be focusing so much on the display. But if no one is seeing the display because we're not actually getting out there and bringing people to it, then we're really not doing much of anything. But I get it. And honestly, this is a very common mistake. So if you've been doing this yourself, don't beat yourself up.

The reason why we do it, honestly, is because it's controllable. We can control what our website looks like. We can control what our next rendition of our logo or doing a rebrand looks like. That all feels very controllable, but it feels really uncontrollable. If you put yourself out there and you get rejected, it feels really.

Uncontrollable if you do a discovery call and it's a no. So I get it right, and that's all part of being a business owner. But it is my job as your coach, as your encourager to tell you that it does take bold action in order to have big transformation. And so. I'm gonna break it down simply how you can take bold action so you can start getting real clients and not focus so much on the display.

The behind the scenes, it all starts with what I call the shift. Instead of thinking, how do I become the most prepared va? How do I make sure I'm a hundred percent ready? What you need to start asking is how do I start building relationships? With my ideal client. That's it. That's the question you should be asking if you are a new VA and don't yet have your first client.

So what I wanna do is I wanna share with you my four C method for getting clients, because honestly, this is the number one focus that you should be having at this point in the game. And sometimes, let's be honest, it could feel really scary and really overwhelming. But how? How do I go out and get clients if I haven't yet introduced you to my four C method?

Here's how it goes. The four Cs are clarity, connection, consistency, and clients. Now, this first C is probably where you've been spending most of your time, and that's okay. We're gonna do it and then we're gonna move forward from it. The first C is that clarity, deciding who you are. And who you will serve, what services are you going to offer and who are you going to offer them to?

For most virtual assistants, we can get really caught up on choosing a specific. Niche, like should I be a real estate va or should I be a VA in the health industry? Or all these different paths, right? For most VAs, 99% of us, I'm gonna tell you, I want you to start off just being a general virtual assistant, offering those general services to any small business owners.

We forget sometimes that small business owner is in and up itself a niche. It's an ideal client, right? We're not talking to moms, we're not talking to grandparents. We are talking to. Small business owners, that is a niche. And so a lot of times I see people niche down too soon, and what happens is that limits your pool of people that could potentially use your services.

With the over 7,000 people that I've trained, I've seen it time and time again, and I'll tell them, you don't find your niche. Your niche will find you. Once you start working with clients, you get paying clients, you get some confidence, you dabble a little over here, you dabble a little over there, you'll think, oh my goodness, this is it.

This is what I love doing. I love working with this specific type of business owner. And now that you already have relationships possibly with those business owners. It's easier to find those types of clients, but a lot of times what people will do is they will niche down really, really narrow in the very beginning, and I would caution you against this.

So again, that first C is clarity. You need to know who it is that you're gonna serve, what services you're going to be offering them. Yes, you do need to know your prices and your packaging, but then it's time to start moving on to the next C, which is. Connection. You cannot start the connection game too soon in your business.

In fact, even if you're still working out some of the details of your pricing and your packaging, the legalities, all the setup of your business, go ahead and start connecting. Go ahead and start attending some local networking meetings. Yes, I see you out there. You need to be doing that. Go ahead and start telling your friends and family.

Something's coming. I have a new business that's about to launch. Go ahead and start teasing that in your social media. Right? Go ahead and join some local entrepreneur. Facebook groups and start building relationships with people because again, this is how you start building those connections that will lead to client.

It's in this connection phase that I want you to try a few different things, maybe try a little bit of LinkedIn, try local networking, try applying to job op. Opportunities inside of our free Facebook group, the VA Savvy's, a link to it below. Shameless plug. We do have jobs that are posted in there almost every single day, and the group is free to join.

, But you want to try a few different methods inside of this connection portion of your business. And decide which are gonna be my main outlets. Some people discover LinkedIn and they just love it, and that's gonna be their platform for connection.

Some people discover Instagram and they start building relationships through Instagram dms. Some people love live networking, right? There's so many different ways to get clients, but I want you to experiment a little bit and see which one you really love, which one works. If you end up getting a client, my biggest recommendation is to do more of what works right?

But go ahead and start testing the waters and find where am I finding the best connections? Where do I feel the most comfortable reaching out and building real relationships that needs to happen in this connection phase. So once you've done that connection phase, it's time to move on to the third C, which is consistency.

A one-time pitch or networking meeting isn't what's going to actually move the needle in your business. It's just showing up each and every day. I really suggest that you create some kind of a rhythm for yourself. Maybe that is a daily marketing checklist, or maybe you have a weekly day where that entire day you spend marketing.

When you're a new va, guys, 90% of your time that you're devoting to your business should be on client acquisition, not moving back to the clarity phase, not being behind the scenes. Making the most mistake that most VAs make tinkering on their business. You need to be building genuine relationships. And let me encourage you in this, this phase does not last forever.

Just like the clarity phase didn't last forever. This phase doesn't last forever. If you ask any established virtual assistant who has been doing this business for 5, 10, 15 years, where do most of your clients come from? They'll say referrals. Referrals are the number one way that established VAs get their clients.

But you can't have that in the beginning, right? In the beginning you haven't worked with clients yet. And so this grind, this like, oh, I'm gonna grind away to get my first client really is a phase. So just know that take heart in that. Yes, you should always be marketing a little bit, but this like. Oh, 90% of my time is spent on marketing is not something that's gonna last forever.

So just know it's that first client hump and you just gotta get over it. I love to tell the story of Cherri. Cherri is one of our savvy system students, and she was putting in the work. She was putting in the effort, day in, day out, applying to jobs, doing all the right things, and it felt like crickets. It felt like.

It was absolutely going nowhere, and I can't sit here and tell you why some of our students make one post and get one or two clients within a week or two, and why some people have the same story as Cherie, why it's a little bit quieter, even though they're doing all the right things. But what I can tell you is that Cherie's story is that she didn't give up.

I went through tons and tons of discovery calls before getting my first client, so. You know, if you're in that stage and you're struggling to find a client and you're getting on discovery calls and being rejected, like, hang in there because it's hard. But I think Abbey, there was a, a, a call in the savvy system that I watched that was like, it's really a numbers game.

Like eventually someone will say yes, and so just keep going and you get better over time. Like, I mean, my first proposal was. I, I, it's embarrassing, honestly. I'm like, how did I try to charge her that much for that? You know? But I learned something every single time. You learn something and you grow and you get better.

She kept moving forward. She kept tweaking. She kept building relationships. She kept marketing and six months into building her. Business. She landed her first client. After that first client, she landed a second and then a third. And now Cherie is one of our top students running her business full-time and actually just hired her daughter to be a subcontractor in her business as well.

Don't give up. Keep showing up with consistency because that's what's gonna lead to the fourth C clients. Now, clients, as I mentioned earlier, could be your biggest lever for growth. Once you get over that first client hump, which is what we like to call it, that's because once you get over it, it's like, this is real.

I can actually do this. Right? It's like that aha moment. If this whole system actually works. Once you get that first paying client, then what I want you to do is yes, continue to market, of course, continue to build connections with consistency, but I also want you to serve your current client really, really well.

And once you've worked with them for a couple weeks, I want you to ask them for referrals. It's really easy to do. You can simply say, I love working with you. You are literally my dream client, and I would love. To work with more people just like you. I have, you know, five spots available, three spots available, whatever it is that you currently have in your schedule.

I have these open spots that I could fill and I would love anybody that comes to mind that you think I would be a good fit for. Sometimes your clients are even willing to make a post on your behalf saying, Hey, my VA is listening to take on two or three more clients. If you're interested, I can send you her information.

So you wanna make sure that you're taking really, really great care of the clients that you do get. But also don't be afraid to ask for referrals when the time is right. I hope that you've enjoyed this . I know that it is so easy to get stuck in that preparation mode, feeling like I have to be more and more prepared, but I would really challenge you don't make the mistake that I see 99% of VAs making, getting stuck in that preparation mode, creating the display. You've gotta go out and get clients, build relationships to come and see the display, see the thing that you've been working so hard on. Alright, that's all I have for you today. 

I'll see you in the next episode.