31 Things To Do When Business is Slow
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Your Virtual Assistant business can slow down for many different reasons. Perhaps a client leaves, and you haven’t found one to replace them yet. Or maybe your clients have cut back on hours temporarily because of the season or some other situation.
Regardless of the circumstance, if your biz has slowed down a bit, don’t freak out!
Hi there! Welcome to the Desire to Done Podcast! I’m your host, Billie Gardner.
Looking for new clients is an excellent way to spend your time while business is slow, but it’s not the only thing you can do.
In this episode, I’ll cover several suggestions to improve your business and make it stronger and healthier while waiting for things to pick back up. Most likely, you’re just in a “quiet before the storm” situation, and you’re about to get really busy soon!
So take advantage of this slow period and make the most of it!
Here are 31 things you can do when your VA business is slow:
1) Rest – I’m sure you could use a little R & R and self-care. Avoid burnout by taking some time for yourself. Finish a book, try some new recipes, start a new hobby, or just nap.
2) Learn new skills – Learning new things can have a positive impact on your hourly rate. You could also learn new skills to create new services (and get new clients). You can learn skills from Skillshare, YouTube, Udemy, ebooks, books, courses, and memberships. If you want to try Skillshare, you’ll find a link in the episode description for a free 1-month trial.
3) Improve your website (or create one) – Take this time to spruce up your existing site or design your first one. If you want a completely customized website, I recommend WordPress and Divi. If you’re not very techy, I recommend Squarespace or Wix.
4) Create an email list and freebie – If you don’t have an email list yet, maybe it’s time to create one! Design a useful checklist, template, or worksheet for your ideal client and put an opt-in form on your website so they can sign up for it. Then set up automatic emails to funnel them to your services or products. I recommend ConvertKit for this.
5) Clean up your email list – It’s a good idea to delete cold subscribers every 6-12 months to increase conversions and keep your monthly payment down. So if you have an existing list, consider cleaning it up.
6) Organize and declutter your computer – Having organized files can make you more efficient because you’ll be able to find things easier! Plus you’ll feel less stressed and who doesn’t like that?
7) Start a blog – If you don’t have a blog yet, why not start one now? Write posts that will attract your ideal client and direct them to your sales page.
8) Improve your blog – Go through old posts to update the info and add links to your other posts to keep people reading.
9) Create new content from your blog posts – Turn old blog posts into videos for YouTube, social media posts, or a podcast.
10) Become an affiliate – Are there any programs or tools you can’t live without? See if they have an affiliate program and apply! Then you can share your affiliate link in your blog posts, resource page, emails, and social media.
11) Create SOPS – SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedure, and it’s an outline of the steps you take to execute recurring tasks in your business. To sum it up, it’s a checklist of tasks you do for your business or clients. Are there any SOPs that you need to create to make your life easier? Think about the complicated tasks that you do or those you tend to forget the steps to. Jot them down in a Google Doc for future reference.
12) Improve your processes – Do you have any SOPs or client processes that are outdated? Take some time to get them updated, and maybe even invest in a CRM system like Honeybook so you can automate your workflows.
13) Automate your biz – Speaking of automation, are there any processes that you handle manually that can be automated? Think of things like social media scheduling, sending invoices, and creating canned email responses.
14) Start a new social media channel – Are there any social media platforms that you’ve been meaning to try? Learn about them and get on there!
15) Improve your social media profiles – Update your banner, create a social media plan, and create graphic templates to share on your social media platforms. I recommend Canva to create templates and graphics.
16) Utilize your client testimonials – Don’t let happy client reviews go to waste! Add them to your website. Then create cute graphics and share them on social media. Don’t have any testimonials? Ask your clients for them!
17) Create passive income products – Create and sell ebooks, templates, or courses to make some additional income. I recommend DPD for ebooks and Teachable for courses.
18) Try some new marketing ideas – Brainstorm and research new marketing ideas to try. Then go try them!
19) Set new and exciting goals – Take some time to figure out what you want your business to look like in 1, 2, and 5 years. I recommend checking out The Creative Boss Planner. I’ll add a link to it in the episode description.
20) Collaborate with someone – Reach out to someone you know and ask them if they’d like to collaborate with you in some way. Maybe you can create a service or product together!
21) Do some market research – Get to know your ideal clients better and see if there’s something they need that you can provide. You’ll also learn the language they use to describe their problems, which you can use in your copywriting and marketing to attract more clients.
22) Improve your office space – Your environment has a huge impact on your productivity and mental health, so spend some time decluttering and organizing, decorating your space, adding some plants, hanging some pictures, or giving it a fresh coat of paint.
23) Audit your personal and business expenses – Is there anything you can reduce or downgrade? It’s always good to analyze what you spend your money on and get rid of expenses you don’t need.
24) Do a business audit – Is there anything you want to stop doing? Is there anything you want to start doing? Maybe you want to spend less on education and more on hiring help or working with a coach. Do you want to save more money? Get more support? Find a group of like-minded entrepreneurs or a mastermind? Make a plan and then take action. I recommend my membership program, the Introvert VA Club, if you’d like support from other Virtual Assistants. You can go to introvervaclub.com to learn more.
25) Do competitive research – How can you set yourself apart from others doing the same thing as you? How can you make your services or products better? Are there any unique services or products that you can create?
26) Reach out to past clients – Past clients can be an excellent source for work or referrals. See if they need any help or if they know anyone who does.
27) Batch and schedule – You can take advantage of this time to write and schedule a bunch of blog posts, social media posts, or newsletters. That way, when things get busy again, you have content going out automatically!
28) SEO your website – If you haven’t done this yet, I highly recommend it! SEO’ing your website will bring your site more traffic from Google, which means more clients!
29) Set up Google Analytics – If you want to learn more about where your traffic comes from, learn how to set up and use Google Analytics.
30) Network – Connecting with others can bring some interesting opportunities your way!
The good news is you don’t have to go to awkward, in-person networking events to get to know other entrepreneurs. There are tons of Facebook groups and forums out there you can join. You can also look into Alignable and Eventbrite.
31) Show your clients some love – Send a thoughtful thank you card to your current clients and show them how much you appreciate them. It will give you both the warm fuzzies, which is never a bad thing.
Most importantly, stay positive! Getting stressed out and depressed when business is slow won’t help matters.
Ups and downs are just a part of running a business. Make the most of this time to improve your business, increase your profits, and make some needed changes.
Before you know it, you’ll be looking back at this time, feeling grateful that you had the space to do the things you did!
A lot of the ideas I mentioned today can be found inside the Introvert VA Club, like learning how to blog, using ConvertKit for your email marketing, SEO’ing your site, how to use Honeybook, and more. Just go to introvertvaclub.com to see the full list of trainings and resources available.
Thanks so much for listening! I hope these 31 suggestions got you inspired and fired up! If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and leave a review? I’ll talk to you soon! Bye!
