3 Tips to Help You Find Your Target Market

When you decide to get started as a Virtual Assistant, it's generally because you have administrative skills that you have acquired over a series of jobs, and you want to start to work from home for one reason or another.

But it's important to realize that once you are home, sitting at your desk with your new business cards staring back at you, that you will need to market your business in order to build up a client base.

Many VAs make the mistake of thinking they can help everyone. When you don't focus on specific groups of people to connect with, you end up blurring the message you are sending out, and quite often you won't be heard.

By getting specific about who you can help, you can craft a more specific marketing message that you put out there, and you will be able to speak directly to certain people, and they will have a much better chance of hearing your message.

Here are a few tips on how to determine who you should be targeting:

1. Who do you want to work with? Think about who you have worked with before. Men? Women? Corporations? Small business owners? Married? Single? Give your ideal client a description. You know the types of people you have worked with before, so think about who you found easy to work with, who you enjoyed working with (and why!). When you own your own business, it is very important to work with clients that suit you, and that you can work well with. For me, I work best with male and female small business owners who are married with families, because we have a common ground and similar values.

2. Does what they do interest you? Think about the things you like to do - if you have a hobby that you enjoy, you may consider looking for clients in that industry. If there is an industry that fascinates you, you may think about getting clients there. It's important to have work that will motivate you to get going each day, and by looking specifically at industries or areas of interest that appeal to you, that can really make things easier. For instance, if you are interested in the travel industry, you may want to tailor your service offerings for independent travel agencies, so that you can do what you are good at, within an industry that is interesting to you.

3. How can you help them? Perhaps one of the most important pieces of targeting a market to provide services for, is to determine exactly how you can help them. You will want to think about the ways you can help your particular industry or clients with their business. Maybe you can help them with specific projects that require expertise knowledge like financial analysis, or maybe you provide project management services so they can focus on working with clients. Whatever it is that you offer, get very specific about how you can help them. Build a service package that appeals to their entire business, so they can see that you are the best person to work with them.

There are so many things to consider when looking for your target market, but by asking yourself these three questions to start, you can do a quick assessment of many industries to see if they might be the right fit for you.