How to Manage Multiple Clients

It's great to be your own boss, isn't it? ... or are you? Virtual Assistants often work with many clients at the same. It's a more common model to have many clients than it is to just work with one or two clients (once your business is established of course!). So what do you do when everyone needs something at once? As much as you are your own boss in your business, the clients are really 'in charge' of your time on a daily basis. So how do you handle more than one 'boss' at a time? Simple ... scheduling, clarity and good communication. I have often warned VAs of being 'at the ready' with their clients - it's easy to form an employer-employee relationship with someone that you work closely with, and it's important to guard those boundaries as a partnership instead. When you work with a lot of different people, they all have different requirements and different schedules and different deadlines. Here are a few tips on how to do that: Block time in your schedule to work on a client's work. Gather projects that need doing and do them all at once, so that you can concentrate on their work alone. It's not necessary to tell a client that you are working on their pieces 'Thursday from 10 to 11 am', but you should let them know when you will deliver the completed task/work to them. Be clear with lead time and deadlines. It's up to you to make sure that they know how much lead time you need for tasks and projects, and then you must hold them to those deadlines and lead times as much as possible, in order to honor the relationships you have with all of your clients. If you have a client who sends you last minute requests, it can throw off your schedule for all of your other clients, who may be respecting your deadlines. Schedule production calls weekly. It's important to have regular communication with your clients for the ongoing tasks you have on your schedule for them. By having a quick weekly phone call you can work out any details for the upcoming week, and everyone is on the same page. Protect your boundaries. Boundaries are very important when you are working as a solopreneur. You have to be sure that everyone around you (including you!) protects those boundaries, so that you can get the things done that you need to get done, when they need to get done. If you are like me, your time is precious and you want to maximize it. So be sure to set your boundaries for turnaround time, deadlines, phone calls, or whatever else, and stick to them. Be proactive. When you are not working on client work, you should still be thinking about your clients. Be sure to let them know that. If you come across something that you think might be of interest to them in their business (it can be a newsletter style, a branding example, good wording for a sales page or other marketing materials, etc.), be sure to forward it to them to let them know that you are working on their business outside of 'task time'. They want to know that they are important to you, and that you value them. Good communication, clarity and scheduling will help you to achieve a smooth schedule and you will be able to handle many happy clients every day. And of course, that will make your real 'boss' (you!) happy too!