Virtual Assistant Bradford: Why People Buy From People

Chloe Weatherhead graduating from the University of Bradford in 2002

This week I had the pleasure of running two workshops as part of the University of Bradford's career week, and it's left me thinking about something I come back to again and again.

I moved to Bradford from Rochdale back in 1999, when I started at the University myself, and the city has been home ever since. Now that I'm self employed and have so much more control over my own time, I try to stay connected to the University whenever I can. There's something grounding about going back to where it all started, particularly when I get to spend a morning with students who are just beginning to think about what comes next for them.

The advice I gave the seventy or so students who came along to my sessions was, if I'm honest, exactly the same advice I give the self employed people and small business owners I support every day. People buy from people. If they don't know you exist, they can't possibly work with you, whatever it is you're offering.

It doesn't matter whether you're self employed or on a payroll. It doesn't matter if you're taking your first steps in a career or you've got twenty years behind you. If you don't show up consistently and remind people that you're there, they'll forget you. Quietly and without any malice, you'll simply slip from their mind.

Showing up is only half the job though. If you're not pleasant to work with. If you're unreliable, or you cancel at the last minute, or you make people chase you for answers they were promised days ago. If working with you makes someone's life more complicated rather than easier. Then it doesn't much matter how talented you are or how good your offer looks on paper. People won't want to work with you, and they certainly won't tell their friends and colleagues about you either.

I think this lands particularly well with small business owners and self employed people because so much of what we do depends on relationships rather than marketing budgets. Nearly all of my own clients have come to me through word of mouth, which tells you everything you need to know about how much trust and consistency matter in this line of work. Nobody recommends someone they can't rely on, and nobody goes out of their way to mention someone who made their week harder rather than easier.

It was good to be back in front of a room of students again, even if most of them are right at the start of a journey I'm now twenty odd years into myself. Whether they end up self employed, freelance, or happily employed somewhere else entirely, I hope a little of what I said sticks with a few of them. Show up. Be decent to work with. Make things easier rather than harder. The rest tends to follow on its own.

If you're a small business owner or self employed person who'd like a bit of that same consistency and reliability working quietly in the background of your business, I'd love to hear from you. It's exactly how I've become the Virtual Assistant Bradford business owners tend to recommend to each other when someone needs an extra pair of hands.

Andiamo!