I recently received an email that asked if it was hard to obtain and retain clients with the current US economy. I find that yes it is, but all hope is not lost. Take a look at the answer:

Yes, I do find it tougher in the American economy, but not impossible. That means you either have to reach out to more businesses, people and maybe even family members to market your services. So far social networking websites have been great to me because the people that I know act as a referral service; joining the local Chamber of Commerce has been wonderful and utilizing meetup groups in my area has created business relationships. Also, I am pitching virtual services to companies that are looking to hire because they are overrun with work, albeit they may be far and few in between, but a very viable possibility. You could lay out your sales pitch to them as a way to save money and then most are open to the idea of a VA filling in for the position of an assistant. This typically happens more with small to mid-size companies or that might just be with me.

I think my greatest start-up advice was:
1. Get a marketing strategy going.
2. Try to niche your services. A common mistake is taking on work that you cannot handle or have no previous experience doing.
3. Get a website or blog up as many people have posted on here ( I did mine, found I didn't like it and started working on it from scratch again in my free time... With kids running around I do not anticipate it getting finished very soon). I do know that I had a great response to my previous website and it was not fancy at all.
4. Do an excellent job with all work orders to create client loyalty and there your business will thrive.

One more tidbit, America's economy is hurting a lot more than Europe, so why not try to get business overseas? Getting paid in Euros or £ (British Pound) is a plus for us because their money is worth more than ours.

I hope our ideas help. I'm not a life coach or VA coach, but I am in the business of helping. ;)

Be well,
Nadia

Virtual Assistants, usually abbreviated as VA's, are a group of professionals that have a variety of specialties utilizing today's technology in order to service the project needs of any individual and/or organization. It is a field that is not quite recognized here in the U.S., but has so many possibilities to grow into an extraordinary field.
While we see there is such a market for this, especially in today's US economy, we do not see enough of corporate America taking part in obtaining Freelancers, or VA's. Let us change this by sharing ideas and making corporate America aware that there IS another avenue to help cut costs rather than outsourcing jobs to a different country. We can help our own economy through this struggling time. I look forward to your suggestions, I will always welcome any type of help and feedback.