How to Double Your Virtual Assistant Income (Without a Single New Client)

Want to double your virtual assistant income without signing on new clients? I get it.

Finding clients all the time is not fun for anyone. Time you should spend building your career or upgrading your skills can be spent chasing clients and doing everything everyone swears has helped them gain clients.

Don’t do it. You’ll burnt out.

I have never had to find clients for my VA business. They have always come to me through word of the mouth referrals. I do my best to maintain a 70% client retention rate because I understand that it is more difficult to sell your services to a new client than an old one.

Having 3 to 4 clients in a month means I am fully booked. That means 150K-400K per month and this is my side hustle. That’s just how it is for me.

So even if I have only two clients in a month, I can still meet my income goal.

How I do it?                        

Strategies, baby, strategies.

That’s what I’ll share with you in this post.

I’d say I’m lucky to have discovered this early on in my virtual assistant career. It has made me proactive when it comes to business and I don’t just sit back and wait for instructions.

I’ve had a client go from calling for a 10k service to hiring me for 100k just because I played my cards right.

Let’s dive right into it.

5 Ways To Double Your Virtual Assistant Income Without A Single New Client

Using these strategies, I get to choose who I work with and what type I work I want to do. Because not every job appeals to me (even if I can do it and someone is willing to pay me for it). Don’t worry you’ll understand why at the end of this post.

1.) Target Clients Who Stand To Gain A Lot From Your Services In The Long Run

It’s like wanting a long term relationship. If you read my blog or emails consistently, you already know I’m head over heels in love with retainers.

If you are a fan of retainers, then you should seriously consider only signing on long term clients. When I see that a brand has a lot of aspects they need help with, I know there’s room for an upsell. Even if they aren’t contacting me about all the aspects they need help with.

For example, if a brand has a website, I know that spells a lot. I can design their landing pages, write blog posts, do on-page SEO, redesign their website, create lead magnets, do their email marketing etc.

Sometimes they don’t know they need to do some of the things in the example above. So that’s where my subtle upsell pitch comes in.

And if they don’t have a website, then are they ready to?

I’m always ready to build one for clients. When I build a website, there’s potential for all of the above services I mentioned above. See where I’m going with this?

This means finding clients that I could provide more solutions to after the initial project and potentially keep working with for months/years. And rather than waiting for them to come to me for these solutions, I proactively propose my services to them.

Why?

Because most times a client may contact you and not know they need a service that works in synergy with what they called you for. And even if they do, they may not know the huge difference it will make for their business if they let you handle it.

It is in your place to let them know how much better the solution will be if they could get the add-on. Now this add-on AKA upsell never ends.

As you learn more about their business, there’ll always be something you can do to help.

I always have a brilliant idea for my clients’ business because I take time to study them.

If you want to double your virtual assistant income, you must go out of your way to find the clients who will gain a lot from working with you for the long haul, and turn down or refer the clients that will not.

Read also: How To Onboard Clients As A Virtual Assistant

2.) Make It A Habit To Learn About Your Client’s Business and Goals

If you have the employee mindset, you’ll be stuck here even if you get number one right.

I had this mindset early on in my business and it didn’t work out well. A virtual assistant with the mindset of an employee almost never takes initiative. They just sit and wait for instructions to be dished out to them by their boss.

I was this way because I was placed on a monthly salary regardless of how much work I did or didn’t do. I was complacent because I felt I would still get paid at the end of the month. It took a lot of growing to realize I was making myself become useless.

If you are really serious about doubling your virtual assistant income, be prepared to bring your best ideas to the table.

I’ve had clients ask me my opinion about a lot of things they wanted to do in their business. Because I built a relationship that brings results. Initially, I felt like my ideas were sacred and since they weren’t paying for my ideas, they couldn’t milk me for free.

I couldn’t be more wrong. When you help a client gain clarity and give advice that actually brings the results they want, you become like a sacred cow. They know you and your ideas are an essential part of their business and it is essentially a win-win.

Look at it from this angle. If you allow you clients make all the wrong business decisions while you hoard your killer ideas, you’ll go out of business too!

That’s why I take time to learn about every business I work with because I want it to grow. I read up, ask questions, search for ideas and even pray for them. Because anything that affects their business positively or negatively also affects me indirectly.

As you build trust with your client, you will soon be discussing their strategic plans, marketing goals, and other information relevant to how the projects you work on affect their business.

I’ll tell you for free, once you understand what a client is actually trying to achieve, you can now move from simply following what they think the solution is, to proposing a solution that may actually serve them a lot better!

Granted, some clients may be strong headed. I’ve had one like that. I kept telling her what needed to be done and she kept telling me what her friend did and why it was important to do exactly what her friend did. Even if it wasn’t going to bring in the results she needed. We did it her way and oh well, she realized I was right when she had spent too much time, money and energy on the wrong things.

Take the time to really listen to what the client responds with. Find out what their goals are.

Is it to increase sales?

Save money?

Deliver an amazing new product to their customers?

This does take practice. You might not have really thought too much about how specifically your services drive business results. But the great news is that you can learn just by asking the right questions and letting the client do the talking.

Some clients might claim they are too be busy to give you the information you need to get your job done.

That sucks.

I always ask for a brand fact sheet. If they don’t have one, I ask for a voice note on WhatsApp. This way it takes little time and effort to have it done and I can listen to it multiple times.

Whatever you do, be sure to make things easy for them.

3.) Proactively Use Your Skills to Help Your Clients Reach Their Goals

By understanding of your clients’ goals, you can continuously determine how your skills can help them reach their goals. Not just on the initial project, but with future projects. By practicing points one and two above.

These results aren’t impossible or something only “gurus” can pull off.  Providing real value doesn’t mean you have to spend weeks/months making it happen.

I can use one hour or less to complete some tasks because of practice/experience. They aren’t paying for one hour, they are paying for the time I spent perfecting my skills so I can solve their problems in little or no time.

So don’t let the idea of being an expert cause you to freak out.

Don’t forget that the basic skills you have now will seem almost magical to anyone.

Most people can’t use canva, design websites, or write copy.

Things that may seem embarrassingly basic for you can actually be mind-blowing for your clients.

For example, I could tell a client they desperately need to have a welcome email autoresponder and that would sound like a very huge task to them.

But it is something that takes me an hour or less to set up and earn 5 figures per month. In return, it saves them the stress of doing everything manually and helps them connect with their customers which ultimately increases conversion.

When their investment in working with you generates a return on investment for their business, it makes retaining your services a no-brainer.

4.) Raise Your Rates

If you’re doing points 1-3 above and are still struggling to get by financially, then maybe you need to raise your rates. This one way to easily double your virtual assistant income without getting a single new client.

I can hear you saying “But Rose, no one will pay more”.

Honestly, I have made peace with the fact that not everyone can afford to hire me.

You see, pricing has been a major problem since I started my business. Impostor syndrome made me price myself so low I had to constantly think about getting clients to keep up with my income targets in my business.

Needlessly to say, I was burnt out from over working myself in my 8-5job and VA business. This went on until I realized something had to give.

I was growing resentful about the work I was doing and felt cheated all the time. At a point I almost quit.

After I had a long chat with my husband, I raised my rates, I doubled my virtual assistant income and got job satisfaction.

Since making that decision, I have not had to worry about getting more clients to meet up with my income goals.

See, pricing your services is a tricky thing. While some people will not hire you because you are too expensive, others won’t hire you because you are too cheap and they feel cheap equals substandard.

A client that might have been fine with paying you 100K for a job will pay the 35K you asked for but pay another VA the full price.

It’s largely a mindset thing and I won’t bore you with the details in this post.

Want my advice?

Charge your happy price!

5.) Offer High Value Services

The kind of services you offer as a VA affects your earning potential. Sometimes you need to specialize in offering high-end services to earn more. For example, a VA who offers website design services will earn more than a VA offering data entry services. This is why I encourage VAs to constantly upgrade their skills to stay relevant. If you’d like to expand your suit of skills or learn other skills like website design, course creation etc. check out my courses.

How To Remain Top Of Mind If A Client Eventually Leaves

You might do everything in the book and the client will still move on from you. Be sure to stay in touch and maintain an open dialogue with your client about their goals. These follow-ups might be as simple as bringing information or ideas that the client might find valuable to them. That way you’ll be the first to come to mind when something comes up. Or perhaps when their friend is hiring.

I told you I have never had to find clients, right? Because I get referrals from clients all the time. At least 85% of all the brands I’ve worked with came via past and current client referrals.

Final Words

You can easily double your virtual assistant income just by targeting clients that need your services for the long haul, learning about their business and goals, connecting their business goals with the skills you have to offer. If  you do that as well as offering high-end services and then increasing your rates. So you don’t end up trading hours for naira.  As the client relationship grows, the work done can grow to many times the size of that initial project you were hired for.

Over To You

Do you use any of the strategies I shared above to double your virtual assistant income? Are there any strategies you use that I don’t know about? Kind share with me in the comment section below and I would be happy to try them out and upgrade the information in this post.