One of the best things about running your own business is that you have control over who you work with (and who you don’t!)
Those days of working with grumpy customers at your 9-5 are over! Pretty exciting, right?!
Before you start working with any clients at all, you need to know who your ideal client is.
It’s an important foundational piece that you must have in place if you want to love the clients you work with. It also has other benefits which we’ll be covering soon!
Figuring Out Your Ideal Client
What’s an ideal client?
An ideal client is someone who not only needs the services you offer but is also a joy to work with.
When I was a Pinterest manager, my ideal client was a female blogger. Her age was between 20 and 40. She knew the power of Pinterest. She either wanted to get started with Pinterest or already had a Pinterest profile that she managed herself.
She blogged regularly and wrote amazing content. She trusted my expertise and implemented my suggestions.
And her side interests were clean eating, minimalism, and fashion.
Why is it important to know who your ideal client is?
There are many benefits:
1) It will help you distinguish who you want to work with and who you don’t, so when clients come a-knocking, you know whether to say yes or no. You don’t want to fill your schedule with demanding, “hair on fire”, boundary-crushing clients. You want to fill it with happy, chill clients who appreciate your help and respect your boundaries.
2) It will help you figure out where to promote your services. For instance, you don’t want to waste your time promoting on Instagram if your ideal client doesn’t hang out there.
3) It will help you write the copy for your website and marketing. You’ll be able to tap into those pain points your ideal client has because you know them inside and out. You can then offer a solution (which are your services) to show them you’re there to help them and that you know what they need.
For example, your ideal client might be struggling with keeping up with her social media or creating beautiful graphics for their website or maybe it’s staying on top of their bookkeeping. Your services are like Asprin. They’re looking for someone to take that pain away, and the thing that will do it is your services!
When your ideal client lands on your site or reads one of your social media posts, you want them to say, “This VA is talking directly to me! They get me!”. If you can get them to say that it means this person is excited to learn more about you and your services.
4) It will help you enjoy your work even more. When you work with people you like it makes work more fun! Right? And we all want that!
How do you figure out who your ideal client is?
You’ll want to get inside your ideal client’s head. This will take some guesswork sometimes, but as you work with more clients you’ll learn more about what you’re looking for.
Here’s a sampling of some questions to ask yourself to figure out your ideal client:
- What are their pronouns?
- How old are they?
- What’s their personality like?
- Are they married?
- Do they have kids or pets?
- Where do they live?
- What are their hobbies?
- What books or blogs do they read?
- Where do they like to shop?
- What industry do they work in?
- Who’s their ideal client?
- What’s their yearly income?
- What social media platforms do they prefer?
- What are the top 3 concerns on their mind when they wake up in the morning?
How do you find answers to the questions I listed?
- You can look for people online who fit your ideal client profile and check out their social media platforms and website to find answers.
- You can guess.
- (my favorite way) You can reach out to people who match your ideal client profile and ask them questions. You can gain a lot of great insights this way, and you may even score your first client!
Just don’t stress about it! Not everyone is going to fit your ideal client profile to a tee and that’s ok! It’s really about getting an idea about who your dream client is so you can find them and speak directly to them.
As you can see, it’s really important to figure out who your ideal client is before you start working with clients. Doing this step will make running your business so much more enjoyable and will set your business up for success!
Want to bypass the research and start building your VA business today? Join the Introvert VA Club and you’ll have access to my 10-step program called the Passion to Profit Plan, plus a library of tutorials, and support from me and other VAs!
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