I don't think you are crazy, I am not much into the new age but my daughter and some of my best friends are.

I went with eSSIST Me. I knew I wanted to start the virtual assisting company, and one night... laying in bed, while trying to write out the things I wanted to accomplish... it just hit me . I ran to the computer, did a search for the business name to make sure it wasn't taken... did a site search... .com was taken so I went with .net instead.
I think though, I initially wanted eSSISTANCE... I'm kind of happy it didn't pan out because I like the latter a lot better.

Ciboney is the name of an indigenous group of people who lived in the Caribbean before the arrival of Columbus. Most of them died out when the Europeans came to the region but there are a few who live in the region and in Florida. I thought the name would give tribute to one of the original groups of people of the region. The name is uncommon and I always have people asking about it and by my response it brings awareness to this indigenous group of people.

__________________
Carlana Charles - Ciboney Virtual Solutions
Web: http://ciboneyvirtual.com Blog:http://ciboneyvirtual.com/blog

Speed-E-Skills... Well, I wanted people to know that I offer my skills in a timely fashion. LOL Plus, I wanted people to make the e-connection (like e-mail, e-commerce, etc.) My dh thought it was clever, and I liked it, so it just stuck!

Hi,

I have really enjoyed reading about how all of you named your businesses.

We brainstormed a number of ideas but when we went to register our business name most of them were already taken or were too close to other business names or domain names were taken. So we ended up with "Online Personal Assistants". The concept was just to make sure that people could ascertain that we were a virtual business just by our name.

I guess there were many options but in the end this was available and I thought that it was perfect for the image I wanted to portray. We decided that it possibly created a 'pigeon hole' effect due the the "Personal Assistants" but in my previous experience as a PA I didn't just answer the phone and provide diary management, the job is a lot more involved than that, so we moved past that thought.

In working with our Graphic Designer on our logo and branding for our business cards, I decided that I wanted to have something with the initials "OPA" or "OPAs" in there somewhere. After a little explaining to him what it was that I did (took him a little while to get his head around the whole VA concept), he came up with a design that I really liked.

He did the "OPA" in a black circle that was us, ("O" in green to highlight the online, "PA" in white), then a larger circle that represented the client base that we service.

We ended up choosing green for the colour of the larger circle as we thought that it was a fresh colour to go along with a fresh idea (to many people it is a fresh idea anyway).

The end result is that I am really happy to have a professional look on my business cards with services provided on the back of the card to really grab a prospective clients attention and so they don't look at the card later on and think "What is it that she does???"

As for a tagline, we came up with "The cost effective way to have a professional PA!" but I am still working on this and may change it......I'm still unsure about this one. After recently reading some material from a VA site I think that this may be focussing on the cost benefit rather than the value of having a highly qualified person assisting them with their business support requirements. Also, I think that it may add to the pigeon hole effect of PA services when that is not as far as our services go.

Any feedback on this would be appreciated.

Anyway that is our story. We have carried on with the branding and logo past our business cards and the design of the website reflects this so we are happy!

Debra

You are all so amazing. I am still trying to figure out the name thing. I had read one post on here somewhere about the individual wanting to say the name proud as she told her boss. I think that is great! I want that same satisfaction.

These stories are so interesting and I love seeing your creative minds at work.

I was employed as an executive secretary for many years and this was even before the term 'personal assistant' was widely used, and I guess I still have old fashioned ideas. I wanted to incorporate the word virtual as to me it represents being there for a client but not exclusively theirs; I wanted the old fashioned secretary word rather than personal assistant for similar reasons and I wanted online in the name somewhere to really hit prospective clients between the eyes that even though I am operating a business from a remote country area, in this wireless age I am readily available.

It's not an exciting or catchy name, and I don't have a tag line yet, if ever, but the domain name was available and the business name was available so I went for it, now I am in the process of doing my logo and stationery items.

Virtual Secretary Online

I came up with administrative partners really while be a smart a** to my manager. When I was finishing business school, I was going to look for a position that was a bit beyond an executive assistant role, but since I had over 13 years of executive experience I couldn't get away from it. I was thinking of ways to make what I do sound like I was really more involved than I was so I asked HR if they could change my title to administrative partner. Basically they said I could call myself whatever I wanted on my resume but get over it, you're an executive assistant.

So I tucked it in the back of my mind and when I decided to be a VA, it was the first thing that came to mind. My only wish is that I would have named it Virtual Administrative Partner, so I am contemplating adding that to my business name.

__________________
Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Principal
administrative partners, llc
www.administrativepartners.net | http://adminpartners.blogspot.com

What a great question Tess!

Our company is Time for Life Concepts. My partner and I spent weeks trying to decide on a name. We knew that we have the potential to start one place and go another, so we didn't want to limit ourselves with the name and wanted to give ourselves room to expand. We also wanted to make the name about what we value most. Time. We knew we wanted to be available for both business owners and the everyday person who needed some more time to do the things they enjoy in life and who want more time to be with those they love. We have diverse backgrounds and various overlapping experiences so we decided to use that to our advantage in the services we offer. We came up with pages of names, narrowed them down to four and them met with friends, family, co-workers etc to see what they thought. We initially had decided on another name, but only one person who we spoke to liked the name we had chosen over Time for Life based on where we want the business to go. So it was unanimous and the rest is history.

__________________
Rikki Green
www.timeforlifeconcepts.com

My partner and I came up with our business name before we even had a business. My partner (my sister Jennifer) and I wanted something that reflected who we are and what we can do. The J2J came out pretty easy just based on Jennifer and Julie. Then we wanted a word that could work in any industry. She really liked media, but I thought that would limit us and confuse many. One of my favorite words is creative, so born was J2J Creative.

I wanted to create a name that was a play on words. I wanted it to be fun and creative and also something that would stick in your mind. I had heard on the radio one day, a host: her name was jane daniels. I thought thats so creative. She changed jack to jane to make it feminine. So i thought what would signify a hard worker that has many talents and can help just about anyone. A Jack of All Trades. So I started Jane of All Trades: virtual business services.

It was late 1996 when I was toying with the idea of a 'secretarial service' - this is before I started researching and came across the fledgling industry of virtual assistants.

My first name was 'nancy's secretarial service' - real original right?

I was just going to contact local clients and former employers...you get the idea......then I found a post by Liz Folger of Bizymoms.com she mentioned the words 'virtual assistant' and my life changed forever!!! - I think I found it hidden in some old AOL forum....

Then.......I saw an OLD movie in the sale bin at BlockBuster...it was....

His Girl Friday...and it hit me!!! VIRTUAL GAL FRIDAY...that was 1997.....

So..I have been and still am Virtual Gal Friday! It works, it's me ;-)

Nancy
virtualgalfriday.com

It took me a while to come up with a name. At first I considered having VA in the name somewhere, but I have a number of local customers and didn't want to discourage any future local business. So that's how I came up with the first part "Lee's Office Assistance" then I couldn't help but add the "n' Stuff". How often have you read a job description and in the last line of job duties it generally will say "and other duties as assigned"? Well that is where the "n' Stuff" comes from. I've actually started using that on my business cards where I have a small list of services that I can offer to customers. I list "n' Stuff (other duties as assigned)" as the last item and people are starting to remember my business card because of that little addition.

Clever, Leanna! I sometimes think the "'n'stuff" part is what VAs are really all about ... we do the Person Friday chores, whatever they may be. Hard to get people to understand that though, and I think your way of saying it is a smart solution.

__________________
Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

CrackerJack Support is kind of an inside joke between myself and Deborah (business partner). We were brain storming and looked up "professional" in the thesaurus and found "cracker jack". Since then would couldn't get it out of our heads and just had to use it.

Jamie
http://www.crackerjacksupport.com