Where Do I Find Clients?

One of the most asked questions we see in our Facebook community is “where do I find clients”? And that makes sense. Without clients, our businesses wouldn’t exist. But the answer isn’t a one size fits all type answer. It will vary from person to person. It will also vary depending on what stage of business you’re at – just getting started and finding your first clients or are an established phase in a grow phase.

Some things to consider include:

1. What type of clients do you want to partner with?
2. Where are they hanging out (both online and offline)?
3. How many clients do you actually want or have room for right now?
4. Once potential clients connect with you, how easy it for them to understand how you add value to your business.

After almost 10 years of my running my own VA/OBM business I have reflected on what worked for me, plus chatted with some of our Inner Circle members about where they have found their clients. I have shared that below for you – I hope you find some nuggets of gold in there that will help you start or grow your client base.

Adrienne

When I first started out, my first clients were past workmates. The services I offer in my business are the same things I had been doing for them in my last job (Operations Manager of a recruitment company). They already knew I could delivery those services because I had demonstrated it, just in a different context. I also made it super clear to them that I wanted (and needed) more clients, so they actively told people about me and the referrals started coming. Often small business owners are hanging out with other small business owners, so I was taping into their networks without even being in the room. I did a good job, so they were happy to refer me on to others.

I also networked my butt off! I was in all the Facebook groups, all the LinkedIn groups and went to as many in person networking events in my local area as I could afford. Was every group right for me? Nope. Did I feel confident going to every networking event? Absolutely not! But I kept showing up in the spaces I was drawn to so people got familiar with me and my little business. I also invested time in connecting with people in our industry which led to lots of referrals from other VAs.

When my business hit a growth stage, I also joined the committee of a local professional women’s network that focuses primarily on in person events. As someone who offers event management services in my business, this gave me an opportunity to show my event skills in real time which led to more work for that arm of my business.

Now this last tip won’t be for everyone, but I also started putting my hand up for speaking opportunities, both at events and on podcasts. It is one thing to read what a VA or OBM does on a website but speaking opportunities gave me the chance to explain it to people in an interactive way. I could debunk myths about our industry, give examples of the type of work I did and let them connect with me in a deeper way. This did and continues to lead to lots of enquiries for my business.

Laurissa

Most of my clients have found me through Instagram. I didn’t start with a huge following or fancy funnels - it’s really been about showing up consistently, sharing honestly about my experience, and talking directly to the people I wanted to support. Over time, that built trust, and people reached out because they felt I got their world.

My niche is allied healthcare, and that clarity made a massive difference. Once I focused on supporting healthcare practitioners (and later neurodivergent and chronically ill folks within that space), the right people started finding me much more easily. Referrals have also naturally followed from there.

What didn’t work for me was trying to be “everything to everyone” or relying heavily on cold pitching - it felt draining and misaligned. Getting clear on my specialty and letting Instagram be a relationship-building space rather than a hard-sell platform has worked far better for me.

Lee

One of the best things I did before I first started actively as a VA was to actually do a few small jobs for friends before I launched in exchange for testimonials to help build my profile. These were small individual tasks that didn't take a lot of time but helped me refine my processes and communication components and importantly gave me testimonials to add to my forward-facing spaces (website & socials). When I launched my business, it was as a generalist VA.

Once I was actively looking for clients, I found local in-person networking, word-of-mouth, and local community Facebook pages was a great place to start while I was building up my client roster, as was networking in online spaces such as Seed.

Looking for support?

If you are starting or growing your business and need someone to brainstorm your plan of attack, feel free to check out our mentoring options here.