Hello everyone!

My name is Sheila and I am a wife, mother of four, and although I am not new to working remotely I am new to the virtual assistant arena.

I have been following this very informative forum for about a month and finally decided to join. After researching and researching and researching, I finally set an official launch date of August 1, 2008. While I am very excited I am just as nervous and feel like the diver at the end of the diving board ready for that one nudge. I have a wealth of information and just need to release it into action.

I come from 18 years in banking with 12 of those years as an administrative assistant. My skills are set as an admin; however, my passion is event planning. While I am attending school to increase my knowledge on event planning I am also taking classes to fine tune my admin skills as I have been laid off for about year now.

I hope to continue to find answers (and help others as well) to my many questions as I continue to grow my business and emerge from an employee mind-set to CEO.

Thanks,
sy

Welcome to the forum and thank you for coming "out of the shadows"! You will be fine. Just have confidence in yourself and the services you can provide!

Please keep us posted on your progress!

Welcome to the board! I hope the launch of your business is successful!

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Janice Correa-Elite Business Services
"My Business is Your Business!"
www.elitebusinessonline.com

Hello Sheila and welcome! I wish you much success in your new venture! Event Planning sounds like a fascinating niche! Don't become overwhelmed with all the information; take time to process it and work it into your business plan so that it fits like a puzzle! A well laid out business plan will serve you well and the information and resources here and on other sites can provide you a lot to help put the plan together. Have you contacted and received information from the nearest SBA office? You can narrow down your nearest location here: http://www.sba.gov/localresources/index.html. Their services are free and I went to their free training about 2 1/2 years ago well into the life of my business and still found the information very useful (all FREE!)!! Best wishes!

Dear Lisa, Janice, and Nevada VA:

Thank you so much for the warm welcome. Also, Nevada VA, thanks for the information on the SBA. I actually researched their site as well and found a lot of helpful information. I didn't take it as far as contacting the local office but I do have them on my mental resource list all the time. Once my children are back in school I will look into making an appointment to fine tune my business plan.

sy

Hi SY,

Just wanted to welcome you to the forums as you no doubt already know this is a great forum with lots of information and really friendly people.

Good luck on your launch.

To your success.

Kim

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Kim Beckers
Online Business Manager

Hi Kim,

Thank you very much for the welcome. I feel like I have been a part of the forum for so long. Everyone is so helpful and I know this is the right place for me.

Sincerely,

sy (or Sheila)

Hi Sheila, welcome
Congratulations on setting a goal and working so hard to reach it! With dedication to your new business venture you'll do just fine - and we'll all look forward to celebrating your first client with you!!

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Hi Tess!

Thank you so much for the encouragement. Once I land that first client I will dance around like this and share my joy with all of you.

This forum has helped a great deal with the concerns of starting a VA business.

Sincerely,
sy (Sheila)

Welcome to the forums Sheila! I think you're smart to give yourself a year to research and get yourself set up. Of course you may find, like many here, that you have clients sooner than expected!

Best wishes for a successful VA biz!

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Shari Sultana
Online Business Manager (marketing for retail ecommerce)