Transcription
Anyway, welcome everybody to episode 2 of season 4. We are talking about how to onboard your clients like a pro, setting the stage up for your success. And for this second episode, our topic is what to do after the client says yes. This is the onboarding basics.
Episode one, we talked about how to conduct your discovery call. I gave you some discovery call templates that you can use. If you want to check that out, I will link the video somewhere here or in the description down below. For this episode, let's talk about when your client or what to do when your client says yes.
But before we dive right in, if you're new to my channel, hi everyone. I'm Mia. I am the founder of Executive Virtual Assistant Philippines, co-founder of Next Level Assist, and I have some other work aside from that. I'm also connected with other virtual assistant assistant companies. Everything will be in the link in the description down below if you want to check out their job openings and if you want to apply with their company.
Prior to being a virtual assistant or an executive virtual assistant, I did not have any experience in the freelancing industry. My experience revolved around call center work as well as owning my own business which is wedding and events planning. It's still on. You can definitely still check out my wedding planning services. It's MJ Weddings and Events. Link will be in this the description below as well.
You know what? I really cannot figure out how to avoid this glare in the glasses because I want to record my videos with my glasses because it's so hard to read my script guide. See? But it's just it does it's not working. But anyway, see it's so I'm so blurred.
So, your client said yes. You have done the discovery call. Now, you have a great connection with your client and they already want to move forward. They want to say yes. Let's work together. What to do now? Stay up until the end of this video because we're going to have like a small introduction on what to do next after you have successfully onboarded your client to your virtual assistant freelancing or remote work services. But we'll start off with me walking you through what to do after your client says yes and they want to start working with you.
This part of the client journey process is not something that a lot of freelancers, virtual assistants or remote workers really talk about. They usually start with how to look for clients and then jump right into what the what you should do while working for your client. But this part is really very important because this is you setting the stage up for success for both you and your client. This is where you actually show your client, okay, these are my expertise. This is how I'm going to help you. This is me being the most professional um persona that I have. Um so this onboarding call is actually very very important.
So first thing that you have to do is you have to make sure that you lock it in. How do you lock it in? You provide a contract, you provide an invoice and a welcome kit. It doesn't have to be complicated. It can be very simple. It can be um a client dashboard via notion or a Google do document or a Google Drive folder to welcome your client as your welcome kit.
But let's talk about the contract. The contract is actually very important. I'm going to have a detailed video on how to create your contract as a freelancer or an independent contractor contract. So, watch out for that. If you haven't subscribed to my channel yet and you want to find out what to include in your contract in your remote work or independent contractor contract, subscribe to my channel so that you will be alerted once that video is up. It's going to come up in a few weeks.
So sending the contract, your contract should include the scope of job that you're going to deliver to your client so that both of you are clear as to what your deliverables are, what you're going to do for your client. So that your client would also understand that if this is already beyond your scope, then it's something that might be an additional cost for them or it's something that they're asking a favor for you or it's something that you're really not required to do because it's beyond your scope. So it's very important to detail in the contract the scope of work that you're going to deliver for your client.
Next are timelines. These are very timeline is very important. When I talk about timeline, your contract shouldn't be uh what's this an an open contract meaning the contract should last for 6 months or 1 year and then there should be a time to review that contract and renew that contract. Why? because the end of the contract is actually the time for you to ask for an increase, for you to ask for a bonus or probably for you to really check where you guys are at and probably end the contract. So the end the timeline of the contract is very very important and critical so that you can grow. It's an opportunity for growth for you with your partnership or within the business.
Next is your working hours. You should also include that in your your contract so that it's clear what work hours um you are required to deliver to your client and when they should expect you. And of course you have your boundaries. Your boundaries should include your paid time offs and other um what's this clauses that would change the details of the the contract or that would entail an addendum. addendum of the contract. So you have to make sure that you include that and you should be very transparent to your client.
Now that you already have your contract, how will you send it to your client? You can actually already use Google Docs because Google Docs already has a feature for signatures um to make sure that it is valid that your contract is valid. Both of you, your client and you should be should have a signature in that contract. Aside from Google Doc signature, you can also use Hello Sign or Panda Doc or you can also use our local software created by Filipinos for Filipinos and that is Sign Secure. You can check them out. Um, a simple PDF with digital signature can also work, but you can definitely make use of Google Doc if you don't want to use Hello Sign or Panda Do or Sign Secure.
Now that you have your contract, the next thing that you're going to send out during this part is the invoice. So, my advice to first-time freelancers or virtual assistants is to make sure that you have a down payment. Don't just start work and then send out your invoice after a month, okay? Or at the end of the month. No, you should always have a down payment. Especially if this is a direct client, you should always require a down payment so that you know that they have the capacity to pay because some clients can also ghost you after you've delivered your work. So you have to make sure that before you start your work, they should already show that they can pay.
Now that you need to accept payments, you can make use of payment platforms such as Wise, PayPal or Payonir. But my favorite of all is definitely Wise. What I like about Wise is that they have very low service fee and high conversion rate when you are converting from dollars to pesos.
Now that you've sent out your invoice, what you can also do or what you send next is your welcome kit. So, this welcome kit can be a very simple PDF or a notion document introducing what's in the contract like your working hours, what your tools are, your preferred communication channels, and what to expect during the first week with your business or with your service. If you want a really formal dashboard, I'm going to give away a notion client dashboard for free. This notion client dashboard is actually created by a very good friend of mine. His name is Mark Inshong. He's an expert in notion. So if you want to reach out to him, you want to get his services, hire him to create a notion dashboard for you. You can check him out. I'll put his credentials in the description down below. But you can also check out the free Sorry, my dog is humping my leg. Hey, stop it. But I'm going to make the notion client dashboard available in the description down below as your free download.
Now that you already sent out your welcome kit, you've already sent out your contract, you've already sent out your first invoice, your client has already settled that invoice, what you're going to do next is to prepare the tools and access.
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Now during the discovery call you should already have the list of softwares or tools that your client are going to use and that you will also use. So if you haven't signed up for any of those tools or software you have to make sure that you this is the time that you start getting access to those tools. Now what you're also going to do is you're going to prepare your Last Pass account. This is the password sharing tool or a password sharing tool. You're going to set up this so that once you do your kickoff call with your client, which is going to be your next step and will be discussed in the next video or in the next episode three. So, you better subscribe to my channel if you want to find out how to conduct an kickoff call with your client.
Last Pass is a tool that you're going to use all the time. Why is LastPass very important? Because this is for security and for confidentiality. This is you showing your client that you are going to take care of their tools, of their softwares, of their access. If they're going to provide you with confidential information like their bank account or their credit card information, everything will be shared via LastPass. It's encrypted, secured, and of course will remain confidential between you and your client. What's nice about Last Pass as well is that they can remove your access easily once they offboard you. So, it provides them with security. Having Last Pass will give them the confidence that they can share these loginins or information to you safely and securely.
Here is the list of the common tools that you should prepare because these are the common tools that you would also ask your client to provide you access on. So that's email platforms like Gmail or Outlook calendar whether it be Google calendar, Apple calendar or outlook calendar. Project management tools like Asana, ClickUp, Trello, Monday.com, notion you also have file storage like Google Drive or Dropbox. Communication tools like Slack, WhatsApp, Google Chat, Telegram, Viber and so on. So these are the list, these are the sample tools that you need to prepare and you need to familiarize yourself with. Okay. And that's the part where you prepare it for during the onboarding process, onboarding stage of your client journey or your client acquisition. Okay? And then the next part would be the kickoff call which we're going to talk about in the next episode.
During this onboarding part, you also have to make sure that you set expectations early between you and your client. So before you start doing any actual work, you have to have a clear conversation about the following. First is is the timeline. What are you going to work on for the first week or what are the short-term wins, long-term wins? What the success look like for your client? I'm sure you've already asked that during the discovery call, but during the onboarding call, you have to make sure that you set yourself up for success and you set the expectations of your client clearly as well. So, talk about the timeline of your deliverables, whether it be project based or if you're coming in as a independent contractor for 6 months or 1 year.
Next is communication. How often will you check in? You have to set the expectation. It's advisable that for the first one month with your client, you need to have at least a weekly check-in. Sometimes I also advise my executive virtual assistants that that I train to have a what's this? A daily check-in for the first two weeks or four weeks with the client because this is the critical part where you get to know your client. You get to know their preferences. Especially for executive virtual assistants because you have a very close um relationship with your client. You need to have that close relationship with your client so that you can be their second their second brain there. You can be their extension. So you have to make sure that you get to know them really well. So you have to tell them that okay this is how often we're going to check in with each other. This is how often we're going to have quick calls, long calls, so on and so forth. And also already set where the communication will happen. Is it going to be a quick call via WhatsApp? Is it going to be a long long haul via Zoom or Google Meet or is it just going to be via email or Slack? So, you have to make sure that you make it clear before you kick off with your client.
Next is talk about your deliverables. Always make sure that you be specific with your deliverables. In your contract, you have your scope of work where you can get your deliverables. So make sure that at the beginning or during this onboarding you already have a list of initial deliverables that you will prioritize for the first 30 days, 60, 90 days so that you have a plan so that your client can easily see progress and success as early as 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks or 4 weeks. You can actually include these expectations in writing either in your welcome kit or in an onboarding document or via email. But what I suggest is you can do this during the kickoff call or you can prepare this list and present it to your client during the kickoff call. But you can also include it in your um welcome kit.
Next thing that you're going to prepare during this onboarding process or onboarding stage is your checklist or your onboarding document.
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This is where you're going to prepare the folders and workspaces. So if you don't have any project management tool, you can use Google Drive and create folders and workspaces. If you have ClickUp, notion or monday.com or asana or Trello, this is when you prepare the the workspaces or the folders or the drives that you're going to use together during your working relationship. Next is if they already provided you with processes. If they already onboarded you with some of their processes, you can review these processes and see what you can improve on. If they don't have any processes yet, especially with your deliverables, you can start creating SOPs that you can also include in your welcome kit. You can do all of these things like I mentioned in a notion, a Google doc, or a project management tool like ClickUp, notion or asana. It really depends where you guys are going to work together. Now, you're going to send this list to your client saying, "Here's what to expect from me during our first week or during the first two weeks of our working relationship." You can include this also in your welcome kit.
Now that you've already sent your client the contract, the invoice, the invoice has already been settled, you've provided them with the welcome kit, you've included everything that we just talked about in your welcome kit, and you've already negotiated the contract, and you finalized it, you signed it, and you have your down payment with you. Then you are going to schedule your kickoff call. Take note, never schedule a kickoff call if a payment hasn't been made yet. So, it's very critical and it's advisable that you always ask for a down payment.
Now, what are you going to cover in the kickoff call? We will actually talk about the kickoff call in the next episode or episode 3 of season 4. But let's have a quick introduction of what to include in your kickoff call. first is this is where you're going to talk about your tools, loginins, and access. This is where you're going to enumerate everything or every tool that you're going to use. You're going to walk through with your client how they will give you access. And you have to make sure that once you end that kickoff call, you already have access to all of the necessary tools that your client needs so that you can work and deliver all of your deliverables for them.
Next is this is when you're going to align weekly tasks and also connect with each other on your chosen communication platform. This is when you will also clarify all of your immediate priorities and tasks. You can have at least three or five tasks that you can start off and talk about during the kickoff call so that you can hit the ball running with your client and you can also already show them what you are capable of. Okay. And then this is where you will also ask any questions or any concerns that you need to to talk about. This is when you do that during the kickoff call. So if you want to find out or if you want to dive deep into how to conduct a kickoff call, make sure that you subscribe to my channel because that's going to happen on our next episode be uploaded by Thursday next week.
A professional tip for you when doing any onboarding call, kickoff call, or any type of call with your client, make sure that you record everything. You can use tools such as Fathom or Fireflies. My favorite note-taking tool is Fireflies definitely.
So now you know that after the client says yes that they will start working with you then comes structure clarity and you showing your leadership skills and your executive presence as their remote worker independent contractor of course as an executive virtual assistant. This onboarding part or onboarding stage in your client's journey or on boarding journey is your client's first experience working with you. So you have to make sure that it is smooth and that they will stay with you longer that this part will already give them like the idea of okay what an amazing onboarding experience. I definitely want to be working with this person for a very long time. So you have to make sure that you set yourself up for success and prepare for this onboarding stage.
Now that you know how to properly onboard your clients, start creating your notion dashboard or you can actually use the downloadable templates that I have prepared for you in the description or in the caption section down below. And don't forget next week's episode is all about how to conduct your kickoff call with your client. So, if you haven't subscribed to my channel yet, hit that subscribe button and learn more. How to be a successful and premium remote worker, virtual assistant, executive virtual assistant, independent contractor, freelancer. Everything that you can do working from home, you will find it in this channel. Thank you so much everyone for watching. Again, this is Mia and I'll see you next week.
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