My husband was looking over my brochure and marketing materials, and he brought up a question, he asked me if I had to be "bonded" in order to have my business? Hmm, well I thought, No at first, but then after thinking about it more, I have to wonder? Do we have to be bonded?

I am also a Notary Public, and I do have a bond covering my notary, but I know that doesn't apply to my VOA business.

Can anyone out there help me with this?
Thanks!!

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Tina Thelen
Virtual Office Assistant

Tina,

It would depend on the services that you offer. A bond is a financial guarantee that you will honor a business contract. Look at your client base and determine whether being bonded would help you or not. Being that you are already bonded for your notary service I would check to see if you can get it extended to your VA business. At the very least you can say you are bonded.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

This is an interesting topic, I never heard of bonding for your VA business, only E & O Prof Insurance. Thanks Lee for that information.

Years ago I was bonded when I started my errands/concierge business. It protects your customers if one of your employees is accused of theft. I didn't have any employees but I did it because people would ask me "are you bonded"? It wasn't expensive at the time and it was easier for me to just tell them "Yes I am bonded.

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JoCarole
http://www.shoreofficeservices.com

I always thought that bonding is a type of insurance that is issued for the purpose of guaranteeing a client that if there is some loss that the client will get monetary reimbursement. As a VA, unless you are physically handling things of value for your clients I don't see why you would need to be bonded. Examples might be - if you have a local client and you run errands and they give you money to go purchase items for them, then you may need to be bonded because this protects them if you decide you'd rather keep that new iPad for yourself.

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Pam Blackman - The Process Coach
Get more done in less time by streamlining!