Every week we speak with small business owners that say they could really use some administrative help in their business, but they just don’t have the money to do so.

Chances are you can relate to this also. How many times have you spoken with a potential client who has expressed interest in working with you and yet they think they can’t afford you. We’re not talking about small business owners that really don’t have the cash flow needed … we’re talking about quality, credible clients.

How do you prove to them that you are not just another monthly expense - that you can actually help them INCREASE their profits?

PROFIT CENTERS - that’s what we like to call Virtual Assistants that help their clients build their business and increase their profits at the same time.

So … how do you prove to a potential client that you would be a profit center to them and their business?

First of all, learn as much about them and their business as you can. This helps you speak directly to the items that they may be struggling with.

Then, suggest specific tasks that you can manage on their behalf. Remember, by having you take on these items, the client can spend their time doing other activities that are a better use of their time. For example, most people need help with building traffic to their website. They take the time to write articles, research various article banks online and then submit them. By doing the research and submission of articles, they’re wasting their time. Even if your rate is $35/hour and their hourly rate is $150/hour, they’re actually saving over $100 by having you help them with this task. Instead they can spend time making connections with their potential customers/clients, creating relationships, creating new products to sell on their website etc.

On the Multiple Streams Team website at www.multiplestreamsteam.com, we offer a report called “How A Virtual Assistant Can Help You Increase Your Profits”. This report outlines several items that a VA can do for their clients.

Here’s a summary of just a few items:

This article was written for small business owners but it includes great information for VAs also.

It takes time to find a great VA – someone who you will share information about your business; someone that will, over time, “partner” with you to help you in building your business revenue.

More than likely, you want someone that is excited about your business. Someone who can’t wait to help you reach your goals and someone who can offer a wide range of knowledge and expertise in using technology to help simplify and automate tasks.

People “find” their VAs in different ways. You may have been referred to a great VA from one of your colleagues, maybe you browsed around the internet, met someone at a conference/meeting or perhaps the VA found you and contacted you regarding your business. Whichever way you found a VA, there are certain aspects that are imperative to ensuring the relationship is going to get off to a good start.

Through managing the Multiple Streams Team and my own VA business, Victoria Business Solutions, I speak to people every day that know want to hire a VA. They are at different stages of their business, however they know they NEED HELP. When I ask them what kind of help they are looking for, they all have a variety of responses – some that don’t match the criteria of what a VA is and can do.

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