Hi!

I'm just curious...I currently work full time in an administrative assistant role but am trying to get my VA business up and running.

Is this conflict of interest? what if i'm caught by my employer?

What you do on your own time is your own business. Keep your VA business COMPLETELY separate from your 9-5. In other words, don't do ANYTHING related to the VA biz while on your employer's time clock and DON'T solicit business from your employer's contacts.

Many of us work a 9-5 while we build up our businesses and don't tell our employers about them...

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

Some newbies prefer to keep thier 9-5 till they feel they have enough clients on a retainer or at least steady work coming in. The most important thing is do not mix your 9-5 with your VA business. If you can do that then you should be half way there.

Good Luck,
Linda Taylor

I think conflict of interest would be if your employer offers building websites as their business and you would offer building websites as a VA after hours. When you are directly competing with your employer. But as long as you adhere to what the other ladies here said and also don't ever use any confidential information, you should be fine.

I would have to agree with Kiwi. You are competing with you employer.. Actually your job as an administrative assistant is providing you with further skills to have your own. I am an executive assistant, my employer knows I have businesses outside of my 9-5, I guess I'm cheating because I actually do work on my VA business during work hours. But I am careful to make sure that I have NOTHING else to do before I start on "my stuff". Its either work on my business during down time or shop online like my counterparts *shrug*

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

Check to make sure that your employment agreement does not have a clause in it prohibiting you from "moonlighting". If it does, even keeping your VA work separate from your corporate work isn't enough. Some companies that have such clauses have a process where you can show them that your business is not in competition with theirs so you can get an exception.

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Lorri Morin, CPVA
www.virtualsynergy.net

Originally Posted by Office Goddess

What you do on your own time is your own business. Keep your VA business COMPLETELY separate from your 9-5. In other words, don't do ANYTHING related to the VA biz while on your employer's time clock and DON'T solicit business from your employer's contacts. Many of us work a 9-5 while we build up our businesses and don't tell our employers about them...

...I totally agree with your response, Lily.

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

Something I do is basically make sure my work is done for the office first. Since most employees who aren't busy surf the net, you can spend your time working on your business.