How To Gain Trust With Potential Clients Even When You Are Just Starting Out
Let’s chat about how you can gain trust with a potential client, even when you are just starting out in your business! I think this is a question I think a lot of new virtual assistants and freelancers might have – I know I sure did when I was starting out.
However, when I think about why I was asking myself that question, it was coming from a place of fear and comparison, and even some insecurity. How would someone possibly trust ME if I have never had a client before? How can I expect someone to not only trust me enough to want to work with me, but actually pay me for that work (and pay me well)?
It’s interesting to me because this is just a common theme I see with entrepreneurship in general. I have been an entrepreneur for 5 years and have worked with and built relationships with SO many other business owners in that time, and these thoughts and feelings are really common no matter what industry you are in. Imposter syndrome is a real thing, and it can be super limiting.
But we seem to forget that when you are just starting out in the corporate world or at a 9-5 or something that is maybe more “traditional” to society standards, we have to gain trust from potential employers as well.
For example, I graduated from college with my Masters in Education, and went on to teach in the classroom. But when I was fresh out of grad school, I didn’t have any real classroom experience. Sure, I had student teaching which was a plus, but if you are a teacher or were a teacher, you know that student teaching is really nothing compared to the real world! I digress.
However, I still applied to jobs as a first-year teacher, and when I was hired, I wasn’t hired because I had all this experience (because I didn’t), I was hired because I was eager to learn, I am a hard worker, I had the knowledge and the skillset outside of actual hands-on experience, to still do a great job.
They hired me for ME.And that is the same when you are starting out as a virtual assistant.
Here is the deal, I am not going to end this blog post here. I want to give you tangible ways you can build trust with potential clients, but I did want to start off this way to help you make the mindset shift that experience isn’t always the thing that makes someone the best fit for the job, it’s all the other things about you that do.
So I am going to give you three tips or strategies on how to gain trust with potential clients, even if you are just starting out and hopefully this post will help you not only with a mindset shift, but actually take some action.
The first thing you should do to gain trust with potential clients is:Take Your Business Seriously
Honestly, this is a huge miss for people. And I think a lot of time it’s because people are afraid to fail or they feel like “who am I to be doing this” and they just let these self-limiting thoughts downplay their business.
And example of down-playing your business can look like saying “Oh it’s just this little thing I do on the side” or putting off doing any of the tasks you need to do for your business for “when you have time” instead of actually making the time..
Look, even if your business is a side hustle, which you know I am a big fan of, it’s still a business and it deserves to be treated as such. I guarantee 100% of your ideal clients don’t care if you have a 9-5 or work outside the home in addition to working as a VA. But they do care if you take your business seriously because that means you will do great work.
Saying things like “Oh it’s just this little thing I do on the side” may seem harmless. But our thoughts and how we speak are SO powerful. Truly. And just because it’s a side hustle or part-time, doesn’t mean you can’t be, or aren’t are, wildly successful. How about instead, we say something like “I run my own business as a virtual assistant, part-time”. I feel like that statement takes you from this hobby mindset right, “Oh it’s just this little thing” to “No, this is a business” and taking ownership of that.
No let’s go back to the timepiece. When you are running your business part time or in addition to a full-time job,, you likely have very limited space to actually run your business. This is where you might fall into the trap of putting things off until you “have the time” instead of making the time.
But fun fact, if you don’t make the time, you will never have it. Something will always come up and be more important than your business. So create a schedule! When are you going to spend time on your business, no matter what? Then, write it in your planner or add it to your calendar, and schedule it like you would any other meeting. You are SO good at showing up for meetings an appointments when other people need you to be there – show up for yourself in that way too!
So maybe you are thinking “Okay cool Kate but how does this gain trust with my potential clients?” It’s simple; when you treat your business like a business, other people will too. And other business owners will wildly respect that because it helps them see that if you take your business seriously, then you will take their business seriously too, and if they are hiring a virtual assistant, they want someone with that quality and understanding.
Okay second thing you can do to gain trust with potential clients:Present Your Business Professionally, and With Intention, on Social Media
I know not everyone uses or wants to use social media as a way to find potential clients but I highly recommend it as it is how I have built my own business and I think it is very effective because everyone is on social media, and it’s a free marketing tool. But if someone comes across your page and the last time you posted was months ago or there’s no way to find out what services you offer, how can they start to trust you enough to hire you?
If you are using social media for your marketing strategy, your profile is your first impression. When people click on your username, they are going to read your bio, scroll through your posts, watch your stories, check out your highlights, etc. And if they like what you are putting out there, they will hit the follow button. That is the first little sprinkle of trust they give you.
So you want to make sure that you are being intentional with what and how you are sharing on social media.
I could do an entire episode on how to start marketing your business on Instagram, and maybe I will, but for now let me give you these three quick tips:
Clean up your bio. Make sure to include your name, what you do, who you help, and how people can contact you whether it’s a link to a landing page or inquiry form, sending you an email, or something else.
Have your services and rates posted somewhere that someone can easily see them. This could simply be a carousel post you have pinned to the top of your profile even! I am a big fan of making your rates public because then there are no surprises for your potential client.
Have a posting strategy and plan. Planning your content ahead of time will help you be consistent! I actually have a content prompt freebie AND a content planning spreadsheet that is only $9 so I will both of those in the show notes if you need a place to start!
Start Collecting Testimonials
Okay and lastly, start collecting testimonials! If you have had one or two clients, make sure you ask them to write you a testimonial because that social proof is huge. And if you haven’t had a client YET, I would recommend doing a little work for someone either free or at a lower cost in exchange for a testimonial. Now I wouldn’t recommend giving someone like a month of services for free, that’s a lot of work, but maybe help someone clean up their email inbox one day, or create Canva templates for someone… something that is more of a one off task that someone needs help with and then they can give you that feedback to share with future clients!
Just because you don’t have experience YET, doesn’t mean that you wont be great at what you are doing. And take it from someone who has hired VA’s for her own business! I am not necessarily always looking for the person who has the most experience. I am looking for the person who I vibe with the most. Who appears to be a hard worker, is organized and detail oriented, and who has a willingness to learn… because I can teach them anything I need to have done. It’s the WHO that matters most to me.
And remember friend, action breeds confidence. When you take action and you realize all those “what ifs” and limiting beliefs aren’t actually fact, your confidence will continue to grow. One step at a time, you will get more and more confident in your abilities, and I promise if you are just willing to learn… you are going to go so much farther.