Quiet Success: How to Start a Virtual Assistant Business as an Introvert

Virtual AssistantIntrovertStart a Business

May 25

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Despite popular belief, introversion holds limitless possibilities for aspiring entrepreneurs. If you're an introvert seeking to break free from the traditional office environment and embark on a fulfilling journey as a virtual assistant, you've come to the right place!

Starting a virtual assistant business as an introvert may seem daunting at first, but rest assured, your quiet nature can be your greatest asset. In this blog, I'll guide you step-by-step through the process of launching a successful virtual assistant business while harnessing the strengths that come naturally to introverts.

From finding your niche to building client relationships, you’ll leave with the knowledge and strategies you need to thrive in the virtual world. So, let's dive in and discover how you can transform your introversion into an advantage and create a flourishing virtual assistant business that reflects your unique personality.

Finding Your Niche

Finding your niche is an important part of starting your online business. You must know who you want to work with and how you can help them before you can start marketing yourself and finding clients. So let's break down a few steps to start you towards finding your niche.

Identifying your passions and skills

The first thing you need to do is decide what you enjoy doing. Easy right? 😉

So, for example, do you like doing tech things such as website updates or building email funnels? Or do you prefer something like social media management?

What you prefer to do is going to play a big part in how you choose your niche and how you market yourself.

Now if you are in the very early stages of planning and starting your business, it’s okay if you choose something now and then find something else that you decide you like more later. You can always grow and evolve.

When I first started my business in 2016, I started out doing pretty much anything anyone asked me to do. I would do social media posts, schedule emails, make graphics, pull reports, update websites, you name it. But over time I found that I loathe social media, hello, introvert 👋🏻 so now I don’t offer that for clients at all. I know a lot of people want help with social media, but if I signed on to do it, I know I would end up hating it and likely resenting my client, even though they’d obviously have no fault in me taking on work I didn’t like, right?

So start with what you know how to do, or can learn easily, but don’t be afraid to decide you don’t want to do something anymore and change your package/plans accordingly.

Researching the market demand for virtual assistant services

I will go ahead and tell you now that there is always a demand for virtual assistant services. Especially in this post-COVID-19 world where so many people started their own businesses or started working from home. We’re needed now more than ever.

That said, you still need to do some research on what the market is looking for. There are a few different ways to do that. I’m going to share two of my favorite ways to do market research as an introvert. Market research is important but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming!

Answer the Public. This is a fun one! You can type pretty much anything in here and it will show you exactly what people are searching for. You only get a couple of free searches here so choose your words wisely. But if you have an idea you want to find some more info on, it’s an awesome tool.
Keywords Everywhere. Keywords Everywhere is actually a Chrome extension that will give you tons of information on anything you type into Google, YouTube, or Pinterest. You can see how many people are searching for certain keywords, other associated keywords, and all kinds of fun stuff. I use this tool a lot when I’m doing SEO research for blogs, but it’s also fantastic for market research. It’s also not free, but it’s very inexpensive.

Something to keep in mind when you are doing your research is that the term “virtual assistant” is super vague and doesn’t really tell us anything other than that you’re virtual. Sometimes you’ll find really good info with that phrase. But ultimately you want to think about what you’re interested in doing, and try to narrow your search topics down. For example if you enjoy social media, you might search “social media virtual assistant” or “social media manager”. Or if you prefer more techy things like I do, you could search “tech virtual assistant” or “tech va” and see what comes up.

Choosing a specialized niche to stand out in the crowd

Now comes the fun part! Choosing your niche. There can be a lot of confusion around this so I want to try to make it clear:

Your niche isn’t just what you do or who you help. It’s how you do what you do.

Let’s say you decide you want to work with social media. Your niche isn’t just going to be “social media”. That’s very vague and won’t get you too far. You want to take it a little further and say for who: Social media virtual assistant for online business owners.

Ok, that’s better. But it’s still a bit vague and we can do better than that. So how about:

Social media virtual assistant for online fitness coaches.
Social media virtual assistant for online pet trainers.
Social media virtual assistant for online mindset coaches.

You get the idea.

Yes, you could work with all of these types of businesses at the same time. But most likely their needs are going to be drastically different. So if you can hone in on one group, really be specific, and master your technique for that group, you’ll be golden! ✨

Building a Solid Foundation

I cannot stress to you how important this section is. And while I’m not an expert in financials or legal, I am happy to share what I’ve done and what’s worked for me.

Setting up your virtual assistant business legally and financially

The best thing I can do for you regarding business legality and business finances is refer you to the resources I’ve used.

For financial information, I can’t recommend the book Profit First by Mike Michalowicz enough. This book 100% changed the way I look at my business finances and actually taught me how to pay myself.

Because you must pay yourself!

He walks you through how to break down your income into 4 important categories: Profit, Owner’s Compensation, Estimated Taxes, and Operating Expenses. He goes over how much you should be putting into each one. What to do if you don’t have enough set aside for taxes. All the fun things. So go get it. Immediately.

For legal stuff, I recommend checking out Braden Drake over at bradendrake.com. He has all kinds of cool things over there including another great book called Unf*ck Your Biz. It’s gold. He also covers profit and taxes but he has a wonderful Contract Club too that is perfect for when you’re getting your client onboarding set up!

Creating a compelling brand that aligns with your introverted personality

Branding can be so much fun! It’s so important to have a strong brand foundation right out of the gate. I’m not just talking about your brand colors and logos, although they do play a part too.

Right now we’re talking about building a solid brand foundation that includes identifying your ideal client (different than your niche!) and figuring out your brand messaging. This includes what you do and also how you want your clients to feel. Once you have that, you have a super strong foundation that will earn you lots of trust with your audience.

My friend Michelle Knight over at Brandmerry, this is her jam. Check out this post all about personal branding to get started.

Attracting Clients as an Introvert

I know if you’re anything like me, the idea of marketing yourself freaks you the f*ck out, right? If it makes you feel any better, I have a degree in marketing! 😂 but, I digress. It’s not easy for us as introverts to put ourselves out there. For me, social media is pretty much completely out when it comes to my business. Yes, I have links to IG on things and my bio has ways to contact me. But honestly, I rarely post and if I do it’s definitely not about work. So let’s look at some ways you can market that don’t require you to always be “on”.

Effective marketing strategies tailored for introverts

SEo

By far my favorite is SEO, search engine optimization. It’s practically set it and forget it. Spend some time researching the keywords that your ideal customers are searching for, add them to your site, use them for blogs, and within no time, clients are finding you for a change! Learn more about setting up your new site with SEO here.

Pinterest is amazing for the same reason SEO is amazing. It’s almost set it and forget it. Now, you do have to consistently add content to Pinterest. But it’s not nearly as complicated as using Instagram or Facebook. You write a new blog, you make a pin image, write a short keyword-filled description, and voila! You really only need to pin 1-2 times a day, typically. This is changing all the time. And the best part is Pinterest is a search engine (like Google) so if you choose your keywords wisely, people will be able to find you on there, rather than you finding them! 🙌

Content Marketing

This is another fun one and it works hand in hand with SEO. That’s content marketing. Which is using content, like blog posts, podcasts, and YouTube videos, to share what you know and get your brand and expertise out there. This one is great for introverts because it allows you to make one core piece of content, like a podcast, and repurpose it to use across multiple marketing channels. You could even use it on social media if you enjoy it but don’t want to write brand-new posts every day. Repurpose a piece of your core content and call it a day! Learn more about content marketing right here.

Email Marketing

Lastly, we have email marketing. This comes into play once you have some ideal clients on your email list. Don’t worry if you don’t have that yet. They come in time. But once you have your list started and full of the perfect clients, you will send them regular emails to keep them engaged. That way when you’re ready to sell something, they’re ready to buy!

Harnessing the power of testimonials and referrals

Referrals and testimonials are the bread and butter of online business. Because you know anyone can say anything online, right? So testimonials provide that social proof that people need to feel confident buying something from you. You can get by without it, but trust me when I say, people are looking for it. So get in the habit of asking for testimonials from your clients!

Time Management Techniques for Introverts

Running a successful business, especially with multiple clients or if you’re still in a 9-5 job, means you need top-notch time management skills. Let’s dive into some time management techniques especially for us introverts.

Creating a structured schedule that suits your introverted nature

I will be the first to admit that I don’t love strict schedules. If the weather is nice on a random Wednesday, I want the option to take the morning off to go to the park with my pup. That said, having a schedule is important to make sure you get everyone’s work done on time, right?

So I like to have days that are specific to certain tasks. For example, Mondays are for general admin for my business and my main client. I check emails, run reports, check in with her, etc. Tuesdays I use for projects. If we have something big and specific happening, I’ll put that on my calendar with a time block. Otherwise, I just go through ClickUp to see what we have next on the list.

Wednesdays I usually take for my content creation days. Thursdays are for projects in my own business and other client work. Fridays are to play catch up with anything that didn’t get done.

When you’re thinking of your schedule, it’s important to note that you’ll sort of have two to work with. Your schedule for client work. And your schedule for working on client work. Make sure to carve out time for your own work. It’s just as important so that you have a consistent inflow of clients.

Prioritizing tasks and setting boundaries

Next up we have setting boundaries! I can’t stress how important this is, especially as an introvert. If you don’t set boundaries and enforce them, you will find your energy completely drained 100% of the time. And that’s no good for anyone. Not you, your clients, your family, or your dog. So whatever this looks like for you, set them and actually follow them.

This could look like no client work after 4pm. Not answering emails or messages over the weekend. It could also be boundaries with your family not bothering you during working hours. Set up boundaries that work for you and stick to them.

Let’s also chat for a sec about prioritizing tasks. I’m sure you’ve heard of the book Eat That Frog by Bryan Tracy? I haven’t read this one yet but the whole eating the frog bit stuck with me. 😂 Basically it means do the hardest thing on your list first. That way you can’t spend all day putting it off and you’re not trying to do it at the end of the day.

Along with that, I think it goes without saying but I’ll say it, prioritize your tasks in order of importance! Most of the time for me, this is by due date. But it may be that you need to complete something due in 2 months today so that someone else can work on their part of the project. That’s cool. Just take a look at your list every day and work on the most important, or hardest, thing first.

Harnessing the power of focused productivity

One last thing I want to touch on in this section is focused productivity. I have a very bad habit of getting distracted. So focused productivity helps a ton with that.

I use the Pomodoro method for this. This just means that you set a timer for 25 minutes and work, super-focused, for that time. When the timer stops, you take a 5-minute break. Then reset the timer for another 25 minutes.

It might sound counter-productive to stop working that often, and it might be, depending on your work style, but I find that I get a lot more done in that 25 minutes than I might if I worked 45 minutes or an hour without a quick break. And in that little break, I can do a Duolingo lesson or scroll Facebook for a second which knocks the edge off feeling like I need to do either of those things every 5 minutes.

Conclusion

Wow, we covered a lot in this post! I hope you found it helpful to start your own virtual assistant business as an introvert. The most important thing I want you to remember is that even as an introvert, you absolutely can have a successful business. You don’t have to be super outgoing or post a ton of content on social media.

I encourage you to embrace your strengths and start the kind of VA business that you’ll enjoy. Don’t take on tasks or projects that you know you won’t enjoy. You’ll just end up hating the work and likely resenting your client. Focus on things you like doing now and I promise you’ll evolve and find even more you enjoy.

Good luck with your new business adventure, bestie!

xx,
Delana

PS: If you’re looking for more info on the systems and tools I used to start my virtual assistant business, I invite you to check out the Virtual Assistant Spark Starter Kit.

This free library gives you access to the tools and processes I used to start my business when I had no idea what I was doing! 😉I’ve taken some of the guesswork out for you so you can get `started today.