Congratulations!
You’re here because you’ve finally decided that yes, you can create a freelance business that brings you BOTH financial and lifestyle freedom.
Working from home used to be something specifically for a very small section of the population, but it’s not true anymore. With telecommuting on the rise, and the more and more companies using the Internet as a way to create a global team, virtual work is fastly becoming mainstream.
The following post will give you the steps you need to create a thriving business. There are lots of links and resources in this post, and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a note in the comments.
Here’s how we’re going to break it down..
- PLANNING: Have a solid plan for getting the RIGHT clients
- SETUP: Set up your online presence the right way
- MARKETING: Create an endless stream of possible clients with your marketing mojo
- CLIENT WORK: Create a professional onboarding process for your new clients
Planning
Your plan should include:
- Your ideal client – Who you are going to help – get really specific about their ideas, problems, preferences, etc. This doesn’t mean you ONLY work with these people, but it helps you craft offers and messaging that are more powerful, then if you tried to talk to anyone and everyone.
- Your ideal work environment – How much you want to work, what hours you want to keep, and what sort of office you need. These are small but crucial details that will help you set boundaries, both in your work/life balance, and with your clients.
- Your idea financial goals – How much do you want to make each month, and therefore how much you need to sell in order to meet those goals. This can feel scary, but without goals, your statistically lower your chances of success.
- Your offers – What skills will you offer to your clients and how much will they cost. For many people just starting out, an hourly retainer is a great way to arrange your services.
How to Get Your Freelance Gig Started Without Writing A HUGE Overwhelming Business Plan or Wasting Tons of Money!
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Setup
Here’s the bare bones of what you need:
- A Facebook Business Page – Creating a website can take a while, so we recommend you start with a Facebook business page and fill out all the about and services sections so people can find information about you there
- A LinkedIn Profile – Another necessity is a profile on LinkedIn. Create a title for yourself {VA, Tech VA, Virtual Assistant, Executive Assistant, Project Manager, etc.) and then fill out all your work history, even if it’s not directly related to what you’re going to be doing
- A Website – We recommend WordPress. You can get a hosting and domain for about $110 a year and then create a website using a free theme. There are tons! If you have some money to spend, we recommend looking at the Genesis Framework.
Marketing
There are lots of ways to get clients, but here are our top 3:
- Facebook Groups – We recommend joining these 20 Facebook groups and then responding to requests for hire. There are a lot more details to this strategy, which we outline in Sign a Client in 30, so you may want to hop on that. In addition, one of our partners, Miranda Nahmias has an entire course dedicated to Facebook prospecting.
- Subcontracting & Networks of Freelancers – When you start to network with other freelancers, you quickly start to see JUST HOW MUCH work is out there. You can build relationships with other freelancers in your industry, and offer to subcontract when they have overflow. Create Your Laptop Life™ has two networks – our paid mentorship program, and our free public Facebook group. We’d love to have you!
- RFPs through IVAA.org – We recommend you get a trial subscription, and then you can respond to clients RFPs, which are requests for proposals. Other sites like Upwork and Elance are similiar, but we don’t see the quality of jobs there that we do on IVAA.
Client Work
The most important things you need for onboarding clients:
- A way to create quick and easy proposals – We LOVE 17hats. It makes creating proposals, contracts, and invoices a cinch. Not only that, but it has time tracking built right in, plus workflows, email templates, and all kinds of other goodies. If you can swing it, do not pass go. Just GRAB it. If you don’t have a budget for something paid, we recommend using a Google doc to create a nice template, and then sending that. When they’ve approved it, you can use Paypal invoices.
- A set of documents for welcoming them and setting expectations – A How I Work document will give your clients clear expectations about what to expect in terms of payment, communications, and hours. Outline everything from your average email response time, give them a general idea of how long certain tasks take, and how they can best reach out.
- Feedback to get great testimonials – A successful business THRIVES on testimonials. Even before you have your first client, we recommend that you have a feedback form (like Google forms) …again 17hats can do this as well… that asks them questions that create automatically beautiful testimonials!
Tools
Below we’ve outlined tool packages for freelancers with a FREE only budget or MODEST INVESTMENT budget.
FREE
- Planning – Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Sheets
- Setup – Facebook Business Page, LinkedIn Profile
- Marketing – Facebook Groups, Free Website at en.wordpress.com
- Work – Paypal Invoices, Google Docs
MODEST
- Planning – Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Sheets
- Setup – Facebook Business Page, LinkedIn Profile, Hosting with WebHosting Hub {ask us how you can get a free year!}, Genesis Framework on WordPress {ask about our Design & WordPress classes}
- Marketing – Facebook Groups, IVAA.org, Acuity calendar for discovery call bookings
- Work – 17hats connected with Paypal or Stripe
Skills
Some of you might be saying, but how do I get the skills I need? I can do admin work, but I need more tech skills. If this is the case, here’s our down and dirty advice.
- Offer to help someone for free (like a fellow freelancer) and learn on the go. It’s one of the fastest ways!
- Take one of our skills classes and learn ONE thing first, and then move on to something a bit harder.
- Sign up for free trials of programs you want to learn. Study, study, study, and watch all the tutorials and use your trial to get as much experience as you can.
- Go into Facebook groups and write down a list of all the software platforms you hear mentioned. We can give you a few right off the bat to tackle…(classes we currently offer can be found at here)
- WordPress
- Clickfunnels
- Mailchimp
- ConvertKit
- Web Design
- LeadPages
- Active Campaign
- Ontraport
- Infusionsoft
- Canva
- Photoshop
- Trello
- Asana
- Basecamp
- Microsoft Suite
- Google Drive
- Dropbox
- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
- Edgar, Hootsuite
Mindset
95% of a successful business happens between the ears. Some of the best ways to get in the mindset of a successful freelancer is to do the following….
Read books that have to do with online marketing, design, start ups, and freelancing. Here’s a few recommendations that we love…
- Rework, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
- The 4-hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferriss
- Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg
- #girlboss, by Sophia Amoruso
- The $100 Startup, by Chris Guillebeau
- The 7 Day Startup, by Dan Norris
- Virtual Freedom, by Chris Ducker
- Remote, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
- Dot Com Secrets, by Russell Brunson
Get a mentor! There’s no other way to fast track your success, than to hang in the company of people who are doing what you want to be doing in the next few years. That is the whole mission and vision behind Create Your Laptop Life and we’d love to have you join us!
Noel says
Thanks for these great tips on how to start a successful VA business. I’m a guy and don’t consider V.A. as a work suitable for women only. I’ll learn the ropes and would like to be the first successful V.A. hahaha… that’s my ultimate dream and will follow the tips mentioned here to have that dream a reality.