The more services you offer as a freelancer (virtual assistant or otherwise), the better your odds are of getting hired, right?

Wrong!

While the idea of having someone that can “do it all,” sounds great to a small business owner or entrepreneurs, when they’re actually looking for someone, they’re not looking for a jack-of-all-trades.

I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but stay with me a sec.

If you were looking to hire someone for a specific task – say to build your presence on Pinterest – would you look for a generalist or someone that knows Pinterest inside and out? Someone that also has a proven track record?

(Kristin Larsen and I just launched a brand new course, called Become a Pinterest VA TODAY! that’s available from Black Friday – Cyber Monday, 2016 – you should check it out!)

Take Kristin, for Example

Me? I would look for someone that has the proven track record.

It’s less risk to me and gives me a sense of confidence that the person I hire – the specialist – can do what I need done, without needing me to train them! And in this case specifically, they know WAY more than me, which makes it a double win (because I don’t have to learn something new that I’m not interested in).

Kristin actually cold pitched me about a year ago. At the time, I was over my head with outstanding to dos and didn’t have the capacity to think about it (must be this time of year?), so I asked her to follow-up after the first of the year.

And she did.

So we got started working together. And the rest – as they say – is history! Like we really created history. 😉

My point being, if Kristin would have approached me about taking general VA tasks off of my plate, I probably would have dismissed her. Not meanly, mind you. Just more because I already had a VA and if she didn’t give me any specific examples of how she could help, it probably wouldn’t have brought any to mind for me.

What You Should Do Instead

So instead of cold (or warm) pitching prospects as a general VA or a jack-of-all-trades, you should choose a few (I think three is a nice number) things to specifically offer clients.

Can you offer more?

Of course! I just wouldn’t lead with a list of five, 10 or 20.

Why? It’s OVERWHELMING for the potential client.

And the last thing you want to do is to overwhelm them by giving them too many options and force them into analysis paralysis. You know what it’s like and it’s not pretty!

That’s why when I teach aspiring virtual assistants and coach them on how to format their hire me pages, I suggest to lead with their top three services. Not two, not four, but three. Three seems to be the perfect amount to show a bit of diversification, but not too much to cause that overwhelm.

Having Any Focus Is Better than None

So now your prospect knows exactly what it is that you do.

And you also can initiate conversations with others (over the upcoming holidays maybe?) about what you do. I.e. if I were to go up to my relatives at Christmas and when they ask what I’m doing for work now reply, “I’m a VA,” they’d look at me as if I was nuts. “You work at the VA hospital?” would probably be their follow-up question. 😉

And no, I don’t have a degree in medicine. Of any sort (unless my BS in Psychology counts?).

Even if I said, “I’m a virtual assistant,” they wouldn’t get it. The virtual or internet economy hasn’t quite caught on in Minnesota.

But if I said something like, “I work with tech entrepreneurs to help them manage customer service and email overflow,” they’d be more likely to pick up what I was putting down. Know what I’m sayin?

(And that’s as “hip” as Gina gets!)

Now you can target who you’re looking for, based on the niche or services you’ve decided to offer.

And again, you don’t limit yourself from doing those other things that don’t make your top three. You just don’t lead with them. And you can totally mix-and-match based on what’s working (or not working).

So There You Have It

Niching down or selecting what services you’re going to offer as a VA doesn’t have to be scary.

Or limiting.

But it will make you more profitable. And more referable (and who doesn’t want more clients?).

So I think you should give it a shot. Put your best foot forward by advertising what you’re really good at, not what you can do. You’ll be more successful for it!

If you’re a VA, share your top three virtual assistant services in the comments section!