My husband actually helped me brainstorm my name.

I personally wanted "Your Virtual Office", but he thought it sounded too much like software, so we settled on Your Virtual Aide. Thinking back, I should have insisted, because I like Your Virtual Office better!

Kathy
Your Virtual Aide

My husband too helped me with my name. I actually was already working as a VA without a website because I was just helping out people I knew. After three different clients mentioned my 'awesome' work, my husband decided I should have a website and call myself the "Awesome Assistant". So I did.

Sue Canfield
Awesome Assistant

I am branding my company with my actual name. I did this to help establish creditability. Hey you never know, Ford did it.

:-)

What a great thread!

I posted my story here already today, but just to have it here too...

In 2001, I decided it was time to go virtual. I had been brainstorming for days on what to call my business and kept thinking to myself, "They're getting ME, just virtually."

My maiden name is Allin (pronounced like Allen) - so I thought Virtual Allin...which then dinged* in my head VirtuAllin - Me, virtually and it kinda sounds like I'm virtuous! LOL

Another site I had to dream up a name for (kind of a dead project, too busy) was a site a couple of VAs and I were putting together. We wanted a name that said we were at the forefront of helping other VAs... I thought and thought and I knew I wanted it to have a 'V' in it for virtual. I finally went to Thesaurus.com and put in words for 'forefront' and leading, etc. I ended up with Virtual Vanguard - now, I still love how that sounds! <grin>

I feel very uncreative. I was working for a government contractor. When you work with the government, everything is boiled down to acronyms, so while I wanted "Leanne's Administrative Consulting Services," LACS is a bad acronym. I knew I wanted part of my name in the company name. My family teases me about Walker Admniistrative Solutions because the acronym is WAS, but infinitly better.

My husband's practice is called Dental Excellence and so it was just easy to come up with PA Excellence (PA for Personal Assistant as I'm also wanting to offer local services).

As an aficionado of all things retro, kitschy and mid-century, we knew that we wanted our business name to reflect our tastes, interests and personality.

The first name I chose was Sputnik Secretarial. I chose Sputnik because of the era (naturally!) and as a play on words: Sputnik was a satellite. Sputnik Secretarial would act as a satellite office to its clients. The only problem was that my husband thought that Sputnik, being a Russian spacecraft, might turn off some in the American business community (not that we wanted to court the nationalistic anti-commie crowd, but we didn’t want a name that could be construed as controversial in even the slightest way, either). As a result, Sputnik Secretarial morphed into Space Age Secretarial – the concept being that the entire idea of a “virtual” assistant is very retro-futuristic. Instead of arriving via hovercraft or jetpack, though, we arrive via laptop!

On an appearance and branding level, as with our own home, we’ve found that designing with a retro 50s motif never goes out of style – and felt that the same would be true of the outward appearance our business. And, being non-designers (who love and ogle all things design related), creating a cool look for our business (all without having real graphics/design training) just seems easier with the assistance of retro fonts and illustrations. Our website and marketing materials aren’t ready for their close-ups, but we thought that a fun, kitschy look and name would appeal to the types of clients we want to attract, namely creative class professionals. Plus, staid corporate sites packed with stock business photography just aren’t our thing.

We also decided that having an “A” name wasn’t as important as having a name that stood out. The same with the word “virtual” – I have a hard time differentiating between all of the virtual assistant businesses with the word “virtual” as their primary word. We figured that Space Age Secretarial would be memorable. And, hopefully, in a good way!

~Melissa (and Curt)

My practice name was actually something I overheard at a family reunion; "...you should ask Viki, she knows how to do all that computer stuff." Voila! Ask Viki! was born!!

V

__________________
Need Help?Ask Viki!

My name came to me quickly. My niche is paralegal services, even though I provide administrative services for all types of companies. The Virtual Paralegal seemed to fit exactly what I was trying to accomplish.

I am in the process of trying to come up with a name. The process is driving me a bit crazy.

I have a couple of ideas. What do you think?

Azna Administrative Services

Virtually There

Is Azna your first name? I think Azna Administrative Services is good and your logo can include AAS Virtual Services as well. I am The Virtual Paralegal and I use TVP in my branding logo.

Originally Posted by dawndmd

Is Azna your first name? I think Azna Administrative Services is good and your logo can include AAS Virtual Services as well. I am The Virtual Paralegal and I use TVP in my branding logo.

Sigh. Don't think I am crazy, okay? Azna is the name of the Mother God She is believed (by me) to be the activator. If you ask her for assistance you will get it. I will need all of the assistance I can get to be successful, so I decided to call on her.

I noticed that there was a thread that discussed putting the right energy out there to drum up success for your business. That thread and the presence of a Goddess ( I noticed the name immediatly)leads me to believe I am not the only new age lady on this site.

AZNA
http://www.angelfire.com/me4/angelichealing/azna.html

I decided on Oakville Admin. I initially went looking for a short (5 letter) domain name and found "oakaa.com" available so I registered Oakville Admin Associates. After a couple of networking events when people asked me "what was the Oakville Admin Association?", I decided to drop the "Associates", so now I'm just plain old Oakville Admin. While the name sounds kind of boring and pedestrian, it does have the advantage that if someone local Googles "Oakville" + "admin" or "virtual assistance" or "secretarial services", I come up near the top in Google and it seems to have worked to my advantage. I have many clients some ongoing, some one-off projects that found me that way.

I do have Oakville Admin Associates and Oakville Admin registered with the province, so if I become a multi-va practice or associate with others, I can still use that.

I recently registered YourVirtualTimesaver.com which is forwarded to oakaa.com and I'm using that in my marketing. I also registered oakvilleadmin.com and that is the url for my web space that is hosted on IVAA.

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Julia

Great question. It took me quite some time to come up with my biz name. I started thinking of catchy types of puns that I could use based on the name ie: VA Genie .... Poof! Your admin is done.

It carried on for a while with others and eventually I came up with the idea that a VA is always in their clients Back Pockets and are available when they need them.

Then the decision to go with VA in the name or Business Solutions or Business Services or Office Services, etc. You get the idea.
Well, I had to roll the names off my tongue and I actually - no lie - picked up the phone pretending to answer a call just to see how it sounded and felt.
Okay sounds stupid but it was fun at the time.

__________________
Internet Marketing Specialist
Back Pocket Business Solutions

I had to choose my name almost on the spot because I was going to do some freelance writing for a company who requested I supply an EIN. I had just begun thinking about starting a VA business, so I figured if I was getting the EIN I should probably just jump in and attach a business name to it. I chose iQuill Virtual Solutions. I intend to focus on writing, document preparation, design services, and author assistance, so I wanted something that hinted at writing and I'm an office supply freak and collect fountain pens (I managed an office supply store for a few years, so I blame my obsession on that!), so 'quill' popped in my head. I added the little 'i' at the beginning to support the technical/internet aspect, and now my logo has a feather quill above the words with a droplet of ink where the dot on the little 'i' goes. I was going for a high quality old school meets technologically advanced efficiency feel...not sure I succeeded, but I'm digging it so far nonetheless.