Hello here are two of a million questions I have.
Those of you who have full time practices, does this mean you have at least 40 billable hours per week. If not what do you average in billable hours per week??
About how many clients do you have?
If you did not have any referrals when you started (friends, family, past employers) did you find that it was absolutely necessary to network at the local chamber of commerce or similar events to find success. To be honest the thought alone makes me nervous. I was hoping to find clients through mailing campaigns, yellow pages, forums. I will go to these events if it is necessary, just wondering what the veterans thought.
Thanks
Soaking up all the info I can
Deanna

Hi Deanne
I consider myself full time, but I don't count a traditional 40 hour week as full time - that's *not* my goal. I think the French got it right when they reduced the work week I consider 30 hours or more full time.

Currently I have 8 active, permanent clients (there are 3 others who pop in now and then for litlte whatnots), 5 of those 8 are regular part time which means I work for all five of them at least a few hours every week. Of those 5, 3 take up the majority of hours with anywhere between 10 and 40 *each*. I'd say that on a yearly average it works out to 30 hours a week. But this is just a guess-timate .
Some weeks I do clock twice that much...summers tend to be slower as my client's businesses also slow down naturally.

Because I was out of the country I didn't have a choice about where to find my clients. I *had* to start online. I used Craigslist (and a few other free online classifieds). I found a few listings that sounded interesting and drafted up an email, made sure my personality shone through, included info on my education, abilities, experiences (but I'd never once worked in the corporate world), etc. and wrote a little about why I wanted to work as a VA.

That's not to say those events you're considering aren't worth it - I think the more you network with people the better it is for you in general - people will surely remember your face, etc. if you present yourself well and have memorable marketing materials for them to take with them. And if it makes you feel nervous (which is totally understandable) then I say all the more reason to give it a shot! It'll help you grow all the more.

As the industry gets more and more saturated, it is increasingly important to find unique ways of getting your name and your business known. It would seem to me that if you really want to make a serious practice out of this then take advantage of every opportunity that is presented to you (*that does not include paid events*).

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One note: the hours listed above are just for the VA services I provide and does not include our custom programming and design service hours (which my husband and I handle together) Although it does include various things I do to help clients manage certain membership and directory sites they own. Hope that helps!

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I think every VA's hours differ somewhat. My goal was not to work full time, but to contribute to our household income in a meaningful way. If that meant working 10 hours, or 40, I wanted to add something to our income.

It's leveled out now to about 10 hours per week. I have only 2 long term clients and the rest are small projects that I receive through referrals or networking. I reduced it to 10 hours a week because I raised my rate, and I'm now bringing in what I feel I'm worth. I also have two other businesses, and my design business is suddenly booming. This is fine with me, because that's what I'm in school for!

Coming from a marketers perspective, mail campaigns have a VERY low return on investment. I think something like 1 percent. In the VA biz, networking is key. Almost all of my clients are referrals. Very few just come to me on their own. I am not involved in any type of local networking group, though I do often have "brainstorming" meetings with a few local guys and gals who have lots of connections. This is mostly to see who can connect with whom, and help each other out. So far, I've gotten zero business for my VA practice through those efforts, but lots for my other two businesses.

Forums and networking groups are AWESOME. Check out meetup.com for some great local groups. I also network on MySpace, and have gotten several small jobs through my profile there. I would link to it, but I don't think I'm allowed to.

Hope I helped!

Brianna

My hours are never stand up to the typical business world of 40 hours per week. Thats why I love being a VA, now that doesn't mean I don't sometimes put in 40 hours sometimes, because I do. On a normal week, I put in 30-35 hours. I have four clients, two being several times a month, and the other two being weekly.
For me, in the past couple of months, I have slowed up tremendously, especially as I am not homeschooling too.. So, during the summer, I will be more hours in, as I have more time.. My hours in a day are taken before I know it..

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Winslow Girl Virtual Assistant
www.winslowgirlva.com
Taking Virtual Assistance to the Next Level

Brianna, You can absolutely link to your MySpace profile but thanks for bringing it up...the forums are meant to be a place for all members to network...the whole 'no links to other forums' thing is more about maintaining some kind of limit on links to other forums and blatant non-VA business links that are really adverts for something else entirely. If there's something that a member feels is a helpful link in illustrating a point by all means share a link
I'm sorry if there's any confusion about this...and truthfully, once the forums get a little bigger we'll lift the existing ban, but it was put in place as a direct result of a few members abusing signature links by using them as advert space for products and other forums.
In any case, if ever in doubt, just ask!

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Ah, thanks Tess! My profile is at http://www.myspace.com/virtual_solutions. The key to networking on MySpace is to keep your layout professional, while also offer a little free advice from time to time.

Brianna

Here are my responses

Those of you who have full time practices, does this mean you have at least 40 billable hours per week. If not what do you average in billable hours per week??

- My business bills on average about 60-80 hours per week. I have a team of myself, two virtual assistants, a transcriptionist and another technical person.

About how many clients do you have?

- We have between 35-45 clients on our roster.

If you did not have any referrals when you started (friends, family, past employers) did you find that it was absolutely necessary to network at the local chamber of commerce or similar events to find success.

- I suppose I was pretty lucky in getting and finding good clients. I used Elance in the beginning and then I started working with a virtual assistance firm while I grew my business. Once I was established and 'learned the ropes' I started getting referrals from my own clients and the VA firm I was with helped get me some introductions as well.

Thanks, ladies. I have been wanting to ask the the same question... about how to acquire reputable clients in my area or worldwide. Very helpful and interesting viewpoints. Thanks!

I, too, have a full-time business.

My business has been billing 100 hours per week. My team consists of myself, three executive assistants and a bookkeeper. All of the executive assistants have varying capabilities. I've been putting in approximately 20 hours per week billable (not to mention the business unbillable hours). The other assistants average between 8 and 25 hours per week. It works for all of us to work "part time," but still run a "full-time" business.

We currently have 21 clients. 9 of those clients have been with us as long as 3 and 4 years ago. We had a lot of new clients come on board the past two years. We have clients that take up as little as 4 hours a month to 10 hours a week. One of our new clients says he will need 20 hours a week. (NOTE: I never believe the estimates of my clients, as they are usually working on the old fashioned estimates of having an in-house assistant and they do not take into consideration the unproductive time for in-house personnel.)

With regard to referrals, most of them have been word of mouth from my current or past business relationships (and friends). I did join the local Chamber for one year and basically did not get any clients or referrals from that crowd. I would attend meetings and go to the monthly dinner parties, but most people were not interested in networking. Most of them were there for the free food and alcohol and partying. Not what I was looking for.

A suggestion would be to get in touch with your local "Small Business Development" chapter. Some of them even provide free consultation services with business experts. I still find their free consultations useful after 4 1/2 years of business. You can never learn too much.

I did not find placing ads in the local newspaper, or sending out mailings was helpful either. We purchased a mailing list for $600 and had an awful experience. Not one lead. And hundreds of the flyers were sent back with bogus or wrong addresses.

I just thought of another suggestion. Do you have a local business newspaper? Boulder has the Boulder County Business Report. Newspapers like this just LOVE promoting new businesses. You can contact them to see if they are interested in writing up an article about your business and even getting your picture in the paper. And, it's FREE!

I still find word of mouth to be the best approach. Be bold. Ask your clients if they know of other business entrepreneurs that they could refer to you. They are your best cheerleaders as they are currently working with you and know your talent. And, don't forget your network of friends.

There is also an online networking "place" where I'm now networking with past employers, co-workers and friends. It is called LinkedIn.com. Might be worth a try. I'm meeting one of my previous employers for lunch next week.

Just get out there and make yourself known.

Thanks again,
Michele Guarino
A Second Office