How can you collaborate with other virtual assistants?

How does this help you add new clients to your client list?

When you feel your workload is already at its limit yet you want to add to your income, collaboration can work to grow your client list without overtaxing your workload. Imagine having someone to help you out with ongoing tedious tasks or when a big project comes in. Collaborating with another virtual assistant and adding a sub-contractor to your resource list is just what you need.

There are other virtual assistants you don't have a full workload and would love to have some additional work and income. There is a whole community of virtual assistants who are sub-contractors looking to work with you. They get paid a fair, but affordable, rate and provide high quality work. My good friend, Colleen Schultz, has been a subcontracting virtual assistant for years. She writes a lot about subcontracting, how to become a subcontractor, and how to find a subcontractor. Visit her website, Savvy Subcontracting (http://www.savvysubcontracting.com/), to find out more.

I've been in both positions - both as a subcontractor and as a virtual assistant in need of a collaborator. It's always been a win-win situation. It allowed me at one time to have nearly three dozen clients at one time and that year my income quadrupled.

Some real-life examples of collaboration:

1. While traveling one year with my laptop only a client contacted me to find out if I could update her contact spreadsheet, print out labels, and mail them to her in another state. Since I was traveling, did not have a printer, and was unfamiliar with where to find one in the area, I contacted a fellow virtual assistant. She gladly took on the project, updated the spreadsheet, printed and mailed the labels to my client. I happily paid my fellow VA 75% of the invoiced work, keeping 25% as my management fee. My client was happy with the results; I was happy to make a little money while traveling; my fellow VA was happy to make some extra money. A win-win!

2. My social media clients want all their blog posts pinned on Pinterest. It's a fairly easy task but can be time-consuming. I need to focus my efforts for them on their Twitter and Facebook posts. So I've hired a sub-contractor to do all the Pinterest work for me. I created a simple procedures document for the sub-contractor to follow and check weekly that the client's Pinterest board has been updated. The client pays me for the entire social media package and I pay the sub-contractor a set monthly fee for updating the Pinterest board. I'm able to take on more clients and use my sub-contractor for the Pinterest portion of the work. Another win-win!

There are many ways you can work together with other virtual assistants to grow your client list. Contact other VA's and brainstorm some ideas. Another resource if you're looking for a Virtual Assistant to collaborate with can be found at VirtualAssistants.com. You can post a job for free on their Job Board and other Virtual Assistants will forward their resume and interest in working with you on your project.