Hi! I am a new VA trying to get my business off the ground and found this amazing site and am very happy to be a part of this welcoming forum. I've been trying to figure out if my website should have a section of samples of work that I've done in the past. Nothing with anyone's personal information on it and if so, what should I use i.e. newsletter, a spreadsheet? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from the experts and offering any advice that I can. Thanks!

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Create Your Vision Virtual Office Assistant/Event Planner

Hi Nikole,

I'm a newbie as well and currently in the planning/development phase and hoping to launch at the end of the month. I do plan to use samples of my work on my website. As you said I would shy away from anything that has personal information BUT I would but I think samples would depend on the type of services you offer and the market you're catering too. I see that you're an event planner (so am I), I don't necessarily think you need a spreadsheet to show your skills in that.

Use samples that show your proficiency in the niche that you're marketing too. For example if you want to do blog posts or newsletters/email marketing, then you can share copies of articles you've written or newsletters you've created. That's what I plan to do at least.
Hope that helps.

Thanks! I feel like my head is spinning with everything that needs to go into getting my business started and since I am a detailed person by nature, I am trying to make sure I have everything right while I'm in my launching stage. Thanks so much for your help!

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Create Your Vision Virtual Office Assistant/Event Planner

I am actually in the process of building a YouTube channel for my business. You may want to consider doing a video explaining what you do. That will not only put a face to your name, but it will give the client more detail, and you're more likely to bring him/her in that way.

Another idea is to make a PowerPoint presentation using MovieMaker (it's part of the standard Windows package and is easy to use) and show some samples there. It's less of a pain than playing with the website, especially if it's a Wordpress website like ours that has only so much room. Give it some color and character.

If you take this route, definitely use the Audioswap feature on YT, unless of course you have your own music. YT is dead serious about copyright infringement, and unless you buy licenses for the songs you'd like to use, it's not worth the fight.

If you have an ongoing project (eg volunteer somewhere), seriously consider doing a vlog. Potential clients will want to know what happens next. I used to volunteer in a cat rescue shelter and make presentations of cats up for adoption and occasionally one of lives that were saved. eg there is a couple in South Africa who is raising tigers who are sick or injured and can't be in the wild. Their names are Enzo and Ozzy. Enzo and Ozzy have fans who tune in every week to see what they're up to.

Maybe teach some things you're offering. There's one out there called ExcelIsFun, taught by a professor who teaches at a Wisconsin community college. You'll learn Excel inside out, upside down, I guarantee.

One thing you're going to find out about me--I'm long winded.

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Liz DeCamp
http://veteranofficesupportservices.com/ We are a proud veteran-owned business!

Liz, thank you so much! Don't worry about being long winded, the more info the better :-). All of this information is so overwhelming but has me so excited with the possibilities out there of creating a great and lucrative business! I am looking forward to obtaining my first client! This forum has been really helpful with the questions that I need answered. Thanks again!

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Create Your Vision Virtual Office Assistant/Event Planner

You're more than welcome! I've found most of my answers in this forum as well. Everybody is great and willing to help you along.

I pm'd you more info because I don't want to hijack the thread.

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Liz DeCamp
http://veteranofficesupportservices.com/ We are a proud veteran-owned business!

Originally Posted by Nikole

Hi! I am a new VA trying to get my business off the ground and found this amazing site and am very happy to be a part of this welcoming forum. I've been trying to figure out if my website should have a section of samples of work that I've done in the past. Nothing with anyone's personal information on it and if so, what should I use i.e. newsletter, a spreadsheet? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from the experts and offering any advice that I can. Thanks!

Hello Nikole! Welcome to the community and I would be more than willing to help you out as much as I could. Well, I am a newbie here as well (about a week old or so) and I have learned a lot from this forum. I would definitely agree that you should put a section of samples of work in your website, in some websites they call it portfolio (for designers at least). You can create a vlog about what your business is all about - what you actually do; you can also ask for a previous client's testimonial(if they agree to be interviewed or at least a 2-3 sentences statement with name initials & location wouldn't hurt I guess). Hope this helps. All the best!

Good morning Liz. Thank you so much for all the detailed information. You and people like you are the reason that this forum is a blessing and will make anyone trying to get into this field a success! I'm glad that you looked at my website. I made sure to put it on my information because I was hoping that anyone who responded to my post would look at it and offer advice. I suspended the price page and I deleted my pricing on my services page. Honestly, the pricing part of this has been my biggest problem and I cannot seem to figure out exactly how to do it.

I did try looking up the 13 free forms on google but only saw bankruptcy advertisements, but I will keep looking. I downloaded the How to create a welcome packet last week and I have that which includes the contract and the questionnaire for clients and I've revised them according to the information that I've researched and to fit my needs. Thanks for the information about the MyTime, I just signed up for this and also for the Hootsuite of which I am going to register for this morning.

I do have a LinkedIn page and I am going to check yours out this morning. I also will look up the YT video regarding the page looking like a CEO's. I would love to invest in a coaching class and definitely plan on doing so in the near future, I just don't have any funds at the moment to invest (although I know it will help but times are rough right now and this is why I'm trying to get this business up and running and at least one client).

Lastly, I hate to hear about Ozzy having severe health issues and may be put down. I read an article about them and I'm hoping that he will recover. Thanks again for everything!

Nikole

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Create Your Vision Virtual Office Assistant/Event Planner

Thanks harrysmith for the info! I love this forum!

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Create Your Vision Virtual Office Assistant/Event Planner

Thanks, Nikole. I'm glad this is helping.

One more thing I discovered is that pawn shops have great bargains for office equipment. I just got a JVC video camera for $129 (same model online is almost double that). The guy threw in a free 16 gig memory card because he says they don't use them anymore. I figure it would be a good starter card. I fully intend on writing it off as a business expense, since I did get it for the business and plan to make some videos for my YT channel soon.

I also found a playlist on YT that teaches how to set up PayPal.

I'd been watching Enzo and Ozzy but then googled them. Michael Jamison decided to get Enzo after being targeted twice by armed robbers. I'm sure two full-grown tigers beat the heck out of ADT.

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Liz DeCamp
http://veteranofficesupportservices.com/ We are a proud veteran-owned business!