One of the things I hear from new VAs as their toughest hurdle to cross is coming up with a name for their biz!!

I'd love to find out more about the story behind the name of *your* virtual assistance practice. How many names did you go through before arriving at THE ONE and what kind of message were you hoping to convey with your company name? Was choosing your own business name difficult or easy?

Click 'reply' to share your own story

__________________
Stuck in startup? Stop dreaming. Start DOING!
Get the Become a Virtual Assistant eBook for just $29

My company name is A Novel Space. I originally wanted to use Novel Time, but the website for that was already taken. I knew that eventually down the line I wanted to work with authors. I realized that I loved books. Reading, talking about, writing. In addition to A Novel Space, I am an aspiring romantic fiction writer. So, when I decided to leave my former job, I knew what interested me, I just had to take the chance.

Anyway, I wanted my company name to somehow refer to my enjoyment of books - noveltime, booktime writers nook and some others that skip my mind were all taken. Finally A Novel Space came up and it was available. Nice thing, because the name starts with an 'A' it comes up high on the list when doing a search - most times.

Haha yes, that "A" trick is also used by yellowbook listers. Good story behind "A Novel Space" .

As for us, we took the name "Agents of Value" mostly because that's direct to the point. In addition, it sounds ethical and professional (reminds me of Bond too). Plus, the "A" there can certainly help us too

Tilda Virtual Services because Tilda is actually short for Matilda. I started my business 34 weeks pregnant with Matilda who was born 4 weeks later. Decided to name my daughter and my business the same name to save time lol. Tilda was also the nickname my then 3 year old gave her because he couldn't say Matilda. I have now used Tilda to brand my hosting and newsletter sending websites too.

__________________
Kylie Short
Tilda Virtual Services - Making virtual personal

When I was brainstorming for my name I had several that I wanted to use but I kept coming back to one name in particular. Well after many days of having all my choices floating around my head I decided to research them. All were taken in some form, including my fav.
Back to the drawing board.

My next step was on reference.com where I entered words that I wanted associated with my company and wrote down all the resulting keywords and definitions.
It became clear pretty quickly that 'Vital' was the word I had been looking for.

I want clients to feel as though I understand the services I provide are vitally important to their business and I treat them as such.

__________________
~Christina-Business Darlings-Magazine for Virtual Business Owners

Modern Marketing is also known as internet marketing which is very different from the old traditional way of marketing.

Modern marketing support is assistance with modern marketing (internet marketing). I am a virtual assistant (which is modern) and different from a traditional marketing assistant who works onsite. Plus, the modern age of marketing has its roots in the 1950's. (hence my retro theme logo and website made to look modern day)

I am a modern marketing assistant who offers Modern Marketing Support.

It took a lot of research for me to learn all of that but once I did, the rest fell into place. When it came to my logo design, I knew I wanted something retro because that's what I like.

__________________
Shari Sultana
Online Business Manager (marketing for retail ecommerce)

My name was given to me by my first client.

While I was running my husbands business in NJ I began helping out a few of his subcontractors with their businesses. They were great at getting the work and getting the work done but had no idea on how to run a business.

Before we decided to move to Florida, I had spoken to my clients and informed them that they were going to need to find someone else. Since I worked remotely from my office already they didn't think it would be an issue if I continued to work for them while residing in another state. They actually joked around about sending their work to to their assistant in Paradise.

So when I was having trouble coming up with my name for the business my girls suggested A Virtual Assistant in Paradise since that is what I was being called already!

__________________
Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
Our business is about making yours better

I brainstormed a long list of words & phrases that were descriptive of my services. I started scratching off things that "sounded off" to my ear or brought questionable context into play. I decided that I'm pretty much "all business" in my approach to work, so scratched the whimsical, cutsie things.

My core services are word processing, data management, and bookkeeping. I truly enjoy getting involved in depth with the client's business and acting in an general business advisory (two heads are better than one) capacity so
I scratched off anything that was too much of a pigeon hole (secretarial, administrative, etc.).

By process of elimination I came up with 3 phrases that I tried out for several days to see how they sounded over time. In the end I decided that "business services" was a tired old term, but the most descriptive.

Since there are about a hundred kazillion "business services" out there I needed something to make it mine. I didn't want to identify with a location and didn't like the sound of either my first or last name in the mix. Two of my biggest inspirations for getting my VA business up and running are my granddaughter, Avery, and grandson, Dameon. Hence, Aveon Business Services. It doesn't hurt that the "A" puts it up there on the lists either.

The process took a couple of weeks and was a huge weight off my shoulders once the final decision was made

I enlisted my family to help me brainstorm. I wanted to stay away from 'secretarial services', but wanted ADMIN in there somewhere. I actually thought of my tagline before I thought of my business name - 'Administrative Assistance To You - When You Need It'. That tagline morphed into my business name - Admin-To-You.

Becky

My business name Sparkle Professional Office Services came about because I wanted a name that represented me.

I like things that sparkle, I am a huge Swarovski Crystal Jewellery fan. I love Diamonds and things that shine. I am an extreme professional and well office services is about what we offer.


To give you an example of my crystal insanity this is a picture of my USB drive: Polished stainless steel and Silver Shade crystals

__________________
Monique Terrell, CEO
Sparkle Professional Office Services, LLC
www.sparkleofficeservices.com

I had been called the "Office Goddess" at my 9-5 for over 2 years when I started my VA business. My hubby said "if you're going to be a VA, doesn't that make you a VIRTUAL office goddess?" The rest is history

__________________
Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

I'm still in the process of coming up with a business name. Most of what I thought of are already taken. I hope I'd think of a name soon so I can already register a domain name.

Since I had been doing business on the Internet for over 8 years under my name saundrajackson.com and several other names I had become the Diva of the Internet by peers. i didn't want divaoftheInternet, and I was often called to consult with others on how to do many things, I naturally went with divaconsultant.com.

Diva is search over 800 times daily on the Internet and has over 47M websites that mentions diva in Google. Consultant is 211 times and over 132M. So I knew what keywords to have on my website and my description and metatags. I could optimize my website using the searched keywords and write articles to generate traffic to my site and my business.

Plus it is a reflection of my personality.

OMG!!! I've heard of adding a bit of bling to things, but that is just OVER THE TOP!!!! (although, it's just cutesy enought that I LOVE IT....does it come in pink )

I thought it would take me forever to come up with a good name and, just like with men, it seemed like all of the good ones were taken. Including the name that I original had my heart set on, Rising Pheonix.

Quick background story...

Three years ago I got laid of from my job. I was with the same company for 15 years almost to the day (I started just before I turned 19). I had just bought my house not even 2 years before and a fully loaded 2004 Tahoe. Then, when I got laid off, my world just kind of crumbled around me so it seemed. I decided to sell everything and move closer to home (my mother and stepfather live in the same town that I do, but I'm not from here). Anyhow, it was like taking a 15 year step backwards in time. I actually made less here than I did at 19 years old. I have a better job now but still make about 40% less than what I was making in the corporate world. The scary thing is that this is one of the best jobs around. I decided that if I wanted to make it in this town (or save enough to get the heck out of Dodge), I needed to get creative. And, decided on this. The way I look at it, this could be my saving grace if I can make it work.

Ok, moving on (sorry). I liked "Rising Pheonix" because it means rebirth, literally rising out of the ashes, and that's kind of what this is to me. It's may way of coming back, so to speak. Unfortunately, that name was taken so I had to do some research. I though of "Renaissance" because (and I didn't know this) it means rebirth in French, but couldn't quite make it work in my head. Then I started thinking of beachy kind of names because one of my goals is to move to FL. I mentioned "Under the Sun" to my Mom just as a brainstorm exercise and she added the "..." to make it "...Under the Sun". I thought about it somemore and then, after researching, found out that Sun is synonymous to Rising Phoenix. The sun rises every morning and "dies" at night when it sets. Just like the Rising Phoenix rises up out of ashes and dies in a ball of fire only to repeat the process over again (hopefully, that won't happen to me...lol). Also, the three dots mean you can put anything in front of it, so it can stand for just about anything.

As for the back part of it, I didn't want to use "secretary" because that's kind of outdated and I didn't want to use "services" because I really wanted to sound like I was a problem solver. So, I decided on Administrative Solutions.

P.S. My tagline is still sort of up in the air at the moment.

__________________
Stephanie
New VA in the research phase

I wish my story was as interesting as the others I've read so far.

I went to an all girl catholic school in Jamaica and the visiting nuns from the Sisters of Mercy would visit once every year to teach latin to the upper high school. I looked forward to it because I was tired of the french and spanish classes. Unfortunately for me the year I moved into the upper school the Sisters didn't visit (their visits became less frequent). So I never got a chance to learn latin.

I took the opportunity to use a language I love from a far and what my business will be to others 'help" but not plain help but "good help".

BONUS PROFICIO

__________________
Tania Knowes
Bonus Proficio
"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible"