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We won’t give it our all if we are not personally interested in our client’s business. #vatip 
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Hi and welcome to The Business of Being a Virtual Assistant. I’m your host, Tiffany Parson, and you are behind the scenes of everything that happens in my office. I was sitting here and needed to record an episode. I’ve got so many text messages I’ve sent myself, different topics we could talk about.
But I really wanted to talk to you today about choosing your niche and why it is important.
What got me stirred on this particular topic is I was catching up on The Profit. The Profit is one of my favorite shows. Another one of my favorite shows is Shark Tank. I learn a lot of information from both of those shows. But I was watching the latest episode of The Profit. It’s the one where the company is Faded Royalty, I think is the right name.
I catch up on my shows on Hulu because waiting through the commercials is hard. You know, you want to know what’s happening right away, so I catch it on, not YouTube, on Hulu. If you’ve got that, check it out.
But anyway, watching that episode and basically what the host, Marcus Lemonis, was drying to get the business owner to do was really narrow down who he’s serving and what is his brand. You know, when people think of the name of his company, what should they think?
It got me to thinking about not necessarily our brand, because for us, we are our brand. What you present becomes your brand. I don’t talk a whole, whole lot about that because I really want you to encourage you to be your authentic self and that will automatically become your brand, your stamp because you are you. If you don’t ever change, then you don’t have to worry about the brand changing because, again, you are you.
I have this heater on. I’m going to turn it off because I think my hair is blowing. If you can’t see it, I can see it and it’s totally distracting me. This is what happens when I record in a different spot.
Okay, so anyway, okay, so wanted him to narrow down because it’s a clothing line and it was kind of all over the place. It made me think about the services that we provide as virtual assistant business owners and sometimes we can be all over the place.
When you first start, being all over the place is just fine because you’re trying to figure out what is your place? What do you like the most? As you’re getting clients on Upwork and different places like that, then you may have a hodgepodge of things that you do and even a hodgepodge of clients that you serve.
But what I want you to think about on today’s episode is narrowing down the business owner that you serve.
Not necessarily the type or ideal client, but what is their niche? What is their industry? For example, I like the idea of working with local businesses, people with local type businesses. Not necessarily people in my specific city and state, but those people who have local type businesses. For example, real estate agents, hair salon owners, lawn care businesses, and there was another one that I had wrote down. What is it?
Anyway, those type business owners because they may not realize how they could use a virtual assistant. They may think they have to have an assistant in the office. They may not think of what a virtual assistant could bring to the table. Also, those with local businesses may not realize how important doing things online is.
If you offer social media services, website services, blogging services, research, you do Facebook Twitter, Instagram, graphics, what have you, if your services are all related to something that an online business or someone who’s marketing online would need, then you may be like me and want to serve people with local type businesses, or maybe you want to serve clients who already are set up online.
That was the fourth one. Yes, clients who are already set up online. For example, someone who owns an online boutique. Oh, and a fifth one. Now, it’s coming to me. Digital – not digital. Direct sales business owners, so those who are in network marketing, party planning. That is another category. These are just some things that I’ve been playing around with to decide what type client do I want to aim at.
This is why it’s important. This lets you know who you’re actually talking to when you’re writing blog posts or when you’re doing a newsletter or when you’re creating a Facebook ad. It lets you know who you’re talking to so that you can talk back to them in the way that they talk.
If we serve everybody, we serve lawyers, we serve online boutiques, we serve life coaches, we serve wellness and fitness coaches, then we’re all over the place across the board. Yes, we can be specific and talk about, you know, social media management. But think about this. What if we could narrow it down even more and have it social media management for coaches, social media management for fitness experts, social media management for those in direct sales.
This sets us apart from someone else. It also gives us a place to go to further research the niche or industry that our clients are in.
If we’re all over the place, which I have been – I have served every type client that you can think of and the different type businesses. But this is what I’m finding is that my interests are leaning more towards the type businesses that I’ve named.
Now, just because you service real estate agents, doesn’t mean you can’t work with a life coach. But you just need to know who the one person you’re talking to. If you talk to one, many will hear that same message and they will see how it can apply to their business.
Even though you may be narrowing yourself down, you can still serve someone else in a different type industry if you’re interested in their business. Now, here’s the other thing about why serving a particular industry or niche is important. The sun is changing so I’m going to switch this way.
Because you want to be interested in your client’s business.
Here’s a tip that I know personally sets me apart from other virtual assistant business owners. I work with clients and I am personally interested in the type business that they have. What that means is if they were not my client, I would still be interested in the information that they provide.
If I’m not interested in rocket science, it’s going to be very hard for me to work with someone who’s doing rocket science. If I’m not interested in tax laws and, you know, changes with different things and taxes and 1099s and W2s and 1040s and all that stuff, then working with a CPA would not be a good fit because I’m not genuinely interested.
What does it mean when we’re not generally interested in our client’s type business? It means we’re not giving our all. Subconsciously, we won’t give our all because we are not personally interested. You’ll just do the task, check it off, and move on.
I’ve had clients that I really was not interested in their business. I did the task that they hired me to do. Check it off, done. I did it to the best of my ability. However, I wasn’t really into it. I was just getting it done, just checking it off my list.
When you’re really interested in your client’s business, you can bring more value to the table.
Maybe you learn something about their industry, maybe an update, something that will be helpful. You’re able to connect the dots. Facebook has a change, Twitter has a change, and you can see easily how that could help your client’s niche and you could communicate that. Not individually per se, but on a blog post, in your newsletter, on your Facebook page, wherever you post online, something that will be helpful to the industry that you serve.
I want to challenge you to start thinking about what type business do you want to serve? I’ve even thought about social media for funeral homes, life insurance agents, politicians. Why? Because these are people that are in fields that get stuck when it’s time to come online and they don’t know what to do. I’ve seen some really interesting posts from people in this industry and I’m like, oh, you know, they need a little help.
So I want you to think about what type business owner could you be of service to? What type businesses are you naturally interested in?
When you’re not working with clients, you’re just having your regular day, if you lean towards fashion, you really like that, maybe someone who has a boutique, an ecommerce store, something like that. You could be of service to them. How? You could help them upload new products onto their website. You could help them set up their website.
There is something called Shopify that is designed for ecommerce type websites. You wouldn’t have to know WordPress. You wouldn’t have to know about a shopping cart. You would just need to know Shopify.
Let’s say you provide services for online boutiques, so those setting up online boutiques on Shopify. It could be specific to a set software. Maybe you also enjoy social media, so you can show them – you can do their posts maybe on Instagram or Facebook and see how all of that goes together.
Now, yes, granted, you could offer that same service to someone who was in lawn care. Maybe they do sell something on their website. But are you going to be interested in the lawn care? Are you going to be interested in what they provide in comparison to someone with an online boutique?
Maybe they’re transitioning from Etsy to Shopify, and you’ve been shopping on Etsy forever but lately you’re finding a lot of your favorite boutiques have Shopify websites. I think I mentioned Shopify last week as well. Can you tell I’ve got an interest in Shopify too? Anyway, this could be something that you incorporate in your services.
Now, if you don’t know how to utilize that tool, you don’t know about Shopify, you don’t know about setting up a website, you’re not sure about newsletters, autoresponders, different things that I have mentioned and you’re like, oh, that sounds neat but I don’t know how to do it. My philosophy is, and I’ve mentioned this before on previous podcast, is that you start with the skills that you have right now so that you can start making some money. While you’re doing that, you research and learn what you need to for what you want to do.
Now, we provide some of the learning and skills in the Virtual Assistant Business Owners Circle. If you’re interested in that, go to TiffanyParson.com and click on the link. Go to the free webinar. That will give you some more information, so just sign up for that on the website. I’ll also be sure the link is included in the show notes.
But this is how we can offer more value, be of service, and be interested in our business three years from now, five years from now, ten years from now by serving those people who are in industries that we are naturally interested in.
I want to hear from you. Come over to my Facebook page. Let me know what type industry, what type businesses are you looking to serve in 2018, and what is your service? I’d love to know that as well. I’ll look forward to chatting with you more over on the Facebook page. That’s where I am every day. You can also tweet me and I’ll get that as well. But I am on Facebook every single day.
Anyway, I look forward to your comments, your questions. You let me know. My Facebook page is Facebook.com/TiffanyParsonBiz and then on Twitter @TiffanyDParson.
Thank you so much for listening and getting a glimpse of behind the scenes. I’ll be back in the office next week with the right lighting and all that good stuff. But I didn’t want to wait. While this is fresh on my mind, I wanted to share it with you. You have a wonderful day as my sun is moving again. I don’t know which way to go. I’m going to close out the podcast. Thanks again. You have a fabulous day.
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