Greetings and Salutations!
My name is Tonya Allen, I am in the start up phase of my VA Business. I have 15 years corporate admin, sales and marketing experience, so thought it would be advantageous for me to offer those services. I am in the process of building and optimizing a website. Not really sure what my next steps are. Being in marketing, I know the importance of networking and promotions, but not exactly sure what that means for a VA business. Would love to discuss best practices with a seasoned VA.

Hello,
I am Tonya Allen. In the planning stages of my VA Business. Trying to avoid the common mistakes that befall beginners, and would love a sesoned VA to help me in my quest to launch. Currently building my website (95% complete), finalizing pricing strategy and hoping to officially launch within the next 60 days. Would truly appreciate any helpful tips, advice or guidelines that professional VA's can provide. This is my second post, as I recieved no responses to my first request Hopefully this one will recieve a response

Thanks for listening (reading, LOL)

Hi,

My name is Angela and I am the proud owner of Your Humble Assistant Administrative Services. I thought I posted here already, but obviously not .

Anyway, I have over 20 plus years of combined experience as an administrative assistant and customer service representative. I decided to work from home because I was planning to be a work at home mom after my baby was born. Well, I lost my little man at 34 weeks back in September 2009 (he was stillborn) and in the meantime my prior employer hired someone else. Since the loss of my son and my job, I felt the urge to continue my quest to work from home; so here I am.

Thank you for the opportunity to be mentored by some of the smartest people on the planet...

Hi my name is Jennifer Hansen and my business is Tangled Webb Solutions, LLC. I am looking for a mentor who help me learn where to find clients and give me some general advice.

I have been in business for over 6 years and I have worked with clients, but it's been a small scale. I am looking to really create income and grow my business and client base. I look forward to learning from you and thank you in advance for your time.

Jennifer

Hi, My name is Tina Zufelt I have been working on starting my VA business for the past month and would like to get it started by May. I am looking for a mentor who can help me with finding clients and to give general advice.

I am currently unemployed but have over 16 years administrative experience with the past 5 years working as an Office Manager and Executive Assistant.

Hi Everyone,

Don't forget to check out the Mentors in the group and select one that fits your needs. Then send them a PM to see if they are available to mentor you.

Best wishes,
Andrea~

Hello , I am gathering information on starting a business as a V.A However, Im limited to what I should know and what I think i know?... I have alot of ideas to put into action I just need the guidence to show me how to take action on it.. where to start i have a name im working on the wensite by next week.. i know what i need to do for clients but need the help with Logo, pricing, creating of contract or agreement. I would appreciate having a mentor to show me how to do this.

Hi, my name is Sharon. I have over 20 years experience as Executive & Administrative Assistant. I have been reading & preparing to launch my VA business since December. I have my website and logo, and am currently putting together contracts and client packages. I would love to have a mentor to help with the details, make sure I'm on the right track, and how to find clients now that I'm ready to launch.

Hello fellow VA's. I too am in need of a mentor. If anyone is available, please let me know. I am trying desperately to absorb as much knowledge as possible and find a niche. Thanks for your help.

Hi,
My name is Sherri and I live in Southwest Missouri. I am wanting to get started as a VA. I really need someone to mentor me because I don't have a clue as to where to start. I really want to start out just working for another VA to get my feet wet and learn the business. I have been working in the banking industry for the past 30 years and it is definitely time for a change. My plan is to continuing working full time and be available for VA work in the evenings, weekends and holidays. I want to do data entry, invoicing, payroll, mailings,bill pay, bank statement reconciling, etc. I eventually want to learn Real Estate and Bankruptcy VA work. I have experience in Word, Excel, and powerpoint. My goal is to eventually quit my job and do VA work full time. I have always wanted to work from home and I've decided it's time to make that happen. I hope you will consider mentoring me.

Hello everyone. I am Cath in Portsmouth, UK, and very much in the early stages. I've bought my domain name and have a logo and strapline designed. I have a meeting set up with Business Link next week and am mainly spending my time researching and reading until I'm practically cross-eyed! I wonder if it would be cheeky to ask if there was an English mentor available because of the differences in laws/tax/set-up etc?

Many thanks in advance...

Cath

I am available to mentor 2 people - please pm me or send me an email if your are still in need of a mentor!

Hi everyone! I would love to have a mentor. Particularly if anyone is working with bookkeeping. I am few months from my official launch. At this time I am just starting a course in bookkeeping, and I'm hoping to become certified. I am excited but am nervous and definitely feeling like I am at the bottom of a very big hill of things to learn and do. But I'm still excited, and I have a gazillion questions for anyone available.

Hi

I would love the opportunity to spend some time with a mentor. My business is based in Brisbane Australia. Currently I have set up all of the normal starting points (business card, website, logo, facebook page etc).

What I would like to discuss is:

* how to get noticed online (eg: help with keywords, reword main page of website etc)
* what are some marketing strategies that really work
* steps to take my business from part-time to full-time

My speciality is creating and maintaining business procedure manuals or rules & regulation documents, however I do not restrict myself to only these tasks. I have a lot of experience in Excel and Word, also offering Digital Transcription, PA Services, Mail Merge, Data Entry and basic day to day typing.

If anyone could spare some time to help guide me, I would really appreciate it.

Many thanks
Brigette Garland

Hello Everyone, my name is Khandi from Philadelphia, and I am a single mother of a 14y.o. , and I am looking to get into becoming a VA. I knew that I always wanted to do this and as a matter of fact, I suggested that myself along with 2 of my best girlfriends try to go into business for ourselves as virtual assitants, however they put it off and I guess we didn't share in the same vision (i.e. they weren't seeing what I saw); so, I decided to "Step Out On Faith" and do it for myself.

Although I have experience in various capacities with the administrative realm, I know that there is more that i will need to learn in order to be a successful Virtual Assistant.

I am here because I want to learn everything there is to know in regards to being a VA. I am still trying to find my niche. Thank you for having me.

And YES I am looking for a Mentor

Hello, My name is AnneMarie, I am trying to get my VA business up and running. I've put it off for about a year, and I think that it's time that I focus more time in developing it. I have experience as a paralegal and as an administrative assistant. I am trying to stick within those areas of expertise. I'm very interested in any helpful advice, marketing info, etc.. So if you're mentoring, I'm here, lol Thanks

My name is Carrie, and I am a new Las Vegas resident! I have been doing VA-like projects for quite a few years (as well as being a medical receptionist for the past 5). Now I am going big-time and just "going for it!"

I would love to work with a mentor here in the US to help me network online. You know, show me all the hot spots. What directories work and what are a waste of money? I love facebook, yet I don't know how it would be appropriate in a business sense -- twitter too!

Hello everyone,

I just joined VAF and I am in the process of developing a new plan for a virtual business. I am working on a Bachelors in management and my assignment is to start a business with plans to market, etc. (I liked the idea of this business so much that I am going to do it for real).

I currently work for a non-profit as an administrative assistant and have many marketable skills. I can use some help pin-pointing what skills to sell, and setting a value to them.
I have not created a web-site yet, but this step will be in place before I try to launch the actual business.
I know I will have more questions once I get further involved in the creation of the business.
One idea I have is that I can arrange for business meeting places in sunny S.W. Florida where I live.
I look forward to working with you!
Best regards,
LuAnne

Hello All,

My name is Sharon. I have held administrative assistant positions in both academia and the corporate world. I have wanted to own a business for years but never thought I could do it. I turned 50 and it dawned on me that I better do it soon. I have decided on a business name. I am working on a logo and tag line. I have written an informal business plan. However, I am open to help on every aspect of the VA business. Thanks for your help

Anyone willing to assist with pricing plans? Need help! What is working for you? Thinking that offering a monthly plan is better, any ideas?

Hello Everyone, my name is Khandi, and I am in need of a mentor. I am still new to allof this, but I am a QUICK and FAST learner. I would like to give myself a target launch date of June 2011. And advice that you have I would GLADLY recieve. Thank you.

Hi all:

What a terrific idea - a mentor. I am just getting started and a mentor would be of great help to me. I have 11 years of legal secretary experience. Then I became a real estate agent and the broker. I love selling real estate. Real Estate is in a big slump, especially in Phoenix, AZ. I plan to keep my real estate license active but to fill in with being a Virtual Assistant.

My curret new interest is to be a certified professional virtual author's assistant. I signed up for the course and am slowly taking it. I immediately got busy with real estate so I am only up to lesson 7 out of 30 lessons. I am taking the excellent virtual course taught by Jan King.

My web site is my real estate web site. I still need to do a virtual web site. I would very much appreciate a mentor who is proficient in working with authors.

Thanks ever so much,

Penelope Myer CSP, GRI, LTG, PMN, PLS, SRES
broker/owner
WHY USA Penelope Realty

Hi Everyone, So I am way in the early stages of looking into the VA business. I was a paralegal for 7 years and a Executive Assistant for about 6 years. I want to start a business with an emphasis in legal support (specifically with divorice or personal injury in Colorado) and would also like to offer other general services such as word processing, spreadsheet creation and presentation creation.

My questions are really related to the business side of getting started. I plan on doing this as a part time gig for a while until I can get a good sense of the business and a good list of clients. My questions are 1) what do you suggest as basic start up equipment, 2) should I create a legal entity (I think yes but just checking), 3) what do you charge and how do you do billing? 4) what sites have you used for advertising 5) how do you best communicate and obtain your projcets from your clients. Do you do it through email, do you have a collaboration website and how do you handle security issues. Coming from a technology company currently I understand both the great flexability and use of cloud computing as well as the security risks as well. How do you handle Data Security? 6) Finally, where do you find clients?

Anyhow, I would love a mentor to help me figure out these start up questions. Please let me know if I need to clarify anything.

Thanks.
Dawn Heck

Hello Everyone, It's so nice to have such a priceless opportunity here. Am new in the VA Business and would love to be mentored. My name is Ifeoluwa Onasile and i live in Nigeria. The VA business is so unpopular here in Nigeria and am just a bit confused on how to make an headway. Can someone help me pls???