As a budding virtual assistant, you have a desire to reach out to potential clients in order to grow your business and reach your financial goals; but if you are like most VAs, you are having a hard time developing your virtual assistant portfolio. If you are new on the scene, you may not have enough content to fill a portfolio to make it worth prospects’ while. Even if you have some experience, you may feel trepidatious about putting your work out there, since some or all of it may be confidential. There may not have been a formal agreement of confidentiality, but you don’t want to create a portfolio filled with your clients’ paid projects without asking them. If you are facing these or other obstacles when developing your VA portfolio, here are a few tips to make those obstacles a thing of the past.
New Virtual Assistants
If you don’t have anything to put into a virtual assistant portfolio, you will need to correct that. Start by keeping a meticulous and regularly-updated social media profile. One will do, such as a Twitter, but the more you keep up with, the more attention you will get from potential clients.
Whatever you hope to be hired for as a virtual assistant – writing, graphics, multi-tasking, travel booking, calendar keeping, bookkeeping, podcasting or all of the above, showcase that you do those things on your social media profiles. Show your personality behind the VA and, if you do it right, you might be able to get by using your social media accounts as your virtual assistant portfolio.
Pretend Clients
Another trick you can use to build a virtual assistant portfolio when you don’t have many professional samples to speak of is to create a series of mock clients. Pretend these clients hired you to be their virtual assistant and gave you specific projects to complete. Create these forms, flyers, brochures, filled up calendars or other examples you can contrive and put them in a PDF or list them on your website to show those who may wish to hire you.
Virtual Assistants with Some Experience
If you have been a virtual assistant for any length of time, you may have samples to put into a virtual assistant portfolio, but you may not know if you can use them to highlight your work. The best move is to ask for permission to use the samples in question. If the person isn’t keen to put their business out there, ask if you can black out certain parts, such as any identifying information, from calendars, lists or any other elements you may decide to use.
Testimonials Work, Too
Keep in mind that the purpose of a virtual assistant portfolio is to showcase your work and to let others know that you can do what you claim you can do. Potential clients will want to see proof of your abilities eventually, but to get your foot in the door you just have to show them that you’re capable and reliable. Instead of actual proof, you can fill your VA portfolio with all of the positive reviews you’ve earned.
If you can come up with testimonials that hail your skills, reliability, personality and that state that you are such a joy to work with, you’ll probably get more attention from potential clients. If you can fill your portfolio with both samples and excellent testimonials, that’s even better.
The important thing to remember is that your VA portfolio will surely grow as you gain more experience. For right now, use these tips to keep your portfolio looking its best. Don’t just shove anything in your portfolio. As a virtual assistant looking for high-paying clients, you should be very selective about the samples you show to prospects. With enough time and enough attention-to-detail, your portfolio will perform and succeed at attracting the types of clients you wish to work for.
Once you have succeeded at developing an impressive virtual assistant portfolio, put it on your website, link to it on your social media accounts, blog about it and mention it to your email marketing subscribers. To maximize your chances for success, you must maximize your marketing reach; and showing your virtual assistant portfolio to anyone who will look, watch and listen is the best way to do just that.
With these tips and a desire to succeed, start gathering samples, reviews and anything else you can think of to show off your skills and wow potential clients, wherever they may be.
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