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I'm sorry, for some reason I didn't see this before now. Yes, I used Canva. I'm quite enjoying Canva, although I still think Photoshop is better. There are some things you just can't do in Canva.

Hello Danielle, Thank you, it works perfectly the way the video shows.

Thanks Tawyna and Danielle! She will only be running a few group coaching programs. Not a lot of products at all. She does have a wordpress site. I will definitely check these options out. Glad to be back in the community

Hello, I hate to admit this but I have been a VA insider since June and have yet to start my business. Part of the reason is that I stand in my own way and overthink things but the other part is feeling really lost on where to start. I cannot purchase the VAC program at this time which I know would help me. Where should I begin in VA insiders and VA networking to actually execute steps on starting my business?

I am definitely backing away from this for now. I need to earn some real wages first. This is something I could come back to but honestly I really hate MLM type stuff. According to them I can earn a lot, as long as those I recruit don't surpass my level. I've never been very good at getting ahead w/stuff like that anyway. I'm going to reach out to some people I know. I also made some flyers to put up wherever I can. So hopefully I'll find some real clients/work soon. I'll be posting & writing new posts for my blog as well.

Hey there! Welcome to VAnetworking.com --> The Social Network for Virtual Assistants. I am so excited that you have decided to join the friendliest social network on earth for Virtual Assistants. Let me give you a quick intro of who I am. I am Juli and I have not been in the Virtual Industry that long, (1 year) but by being your moderator, I can relate to some of your challenges that you might possibly face that I might have gone through. I was unemployed looking for way to pay off my student loan debt and how to make money at the same time. I saw an AD on my local TV explaining how to make money online, that educated me a bit on how to make money online but through one of those freelancing sites. I was still not satisfied with only working from that platform so I went on Google and found ways how I could make money online, and this is how I found the forum and joined. Fast forward a year later I have a business in place and I am about to launch my website. So I have gone through the path that you now are on. Enough about me and more about you! One way to get to know you better on the forum is through your first introduction to us. I will outline some tips on how to get you started on the forum. First you can do a quick introduction about yourself and this can be done by clicking here http://www.vanetwork...al-Busi-f4.html If you are like me and don’t like to talk much about yourself here is a breakdown to use as a guide to ease those introductions jitters: Your Name: Your Website URL (if applicable): Years in Business: Description of your Business, including any specialties: On a more personal note: What City/Town/State/Country are you from?: Are you married? How long?: Any kids and how old? Hobbies & Interests: How did you hear about us? We love to know how you heard about us so please let us know! i.e. Google search (what keywords did you search?), article in magazine (name of mag?), word of mouth (who?), etc. Please feel free to browse around and get to know others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to private message me or any of the other moderators here or contact us at our help desk Until then, can't wait to see your growth here and your accomplishments. Best wishes.

What do you think?

Thank you, Amber. It does help.

Site Builder is where my website is. And I really love it. So, while I can't use the images from there some place else, it suits me for now. The customization is amazing for free. I've got exactly what I need. I've done a lot of comparison. And some of the cheapest sites have poor customer service, some of the more high-end ones are too expensive, and I just can't stand WordPress. I know lots of people find it useful & simple. But I can't customize it the way that I want, not with the free version. So I've found what makes me comfortable. I need to be able to manage, maintain, and also not be frustrated w/the design. I can't be productive if I'm sitting for an hour trying to figure out how to get things to look the way I want them to. I don't like tons of time spent "troubleshooting". It's a serious drain on my energy.

Thank you Marco. But I find a big differences between the U.S. and Spanish markets.

Hey Brittany - great start on your site and congrats on having it live! Since your site is very white, I'd definitely 2 colors that you want to go with your brand and have those pop. Since you have pink in your logo, definitely go with that and then one more to really make things stand out. I think it will liven it up a bit. Since it looks like you are a solo VA, I would change some of the wording to "me" or "I". You kind of have both singular and plural and it can be confusing to users. So it's better to stick with one or the other. If you are the only person people will be dealing with, then just go with that. And lastly, I'd add a picture of you - it makes it more personable and people can relate more to someone they can "look in the eye". Good luck!

Thank you so much ladies for the great feedback! In regards to coding, I wanted to learn how to design and build websites so I could do that for others. I've done some searching though after I saw what you said, Tawnya. This is something I definitely don't need to know prior to getting my website live. I'll put that on the back burner for now. Thank you!

Hi Hannah, welcome to VAnetworking! I definitely think you could niche yourself and work in the medical field.

Thank you. A UPS Store mailbox is a very good idea.

Client onboarding is basically a phrase someone made up so they could sell you products surrounding that process. Onboarding a client is fairly simple and usually goes in this order: 1. Get them to pay your retainer upfront (usually online through Paypal). 2. Get them to sign your contract (I do this after I get their payment as once they pay it's easier to get them to sign as they want you to start working for them right away). 3. Talk to them on the phone to get pertinent contact information (contact info, passwords, etc.) to help you service them. 4. You can also send them a document stating your business protocols (hours you work, how you'll communicate with each other, how payments are made, holidays, sick-time, etc.) Each VA has different protocols. As you can see, there isn't much process to prepare to onboard a client. The hardest part is getting them to pay and sign that contract.

I am just starting my journey to start my Virtual Assistant Business. I am thinking of doing proofreading and editing. Right now I am in college perusing a Virtual Office Professional Certificate of Achievement. I have two years experience as an Administrative Assistant Intern. I need your advice on what step should I take next. It seems that people on Guru are wanting degrees and three to five years virtual assistant experience. What's your advice?

Hi all! I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Adele. I was a VA for years and then went back into working in corporate America after going through a divorce. Life circumstances at the time just called for that kind of change. I was only a VA on a part-time basis and needed to go back to full-time income -- and quickly! Anyhow, fast-forward to the present. I am now happily remarried and in a much better position. I have decided to take the plunge and delve back into my passion. I assist businesses with their HR, recruiting, and SMM needs. I also assist in a variety of other projects when time allows, such as event and meeting planning and trade show coordination.

I chose Oceanfront VA Services because that's where I'm hoping to be working from in the next few years!

Yes, it's a lot of going back and forth and switching between projects. I found I was wasting a lot of time with admin stuff and emails. I rather focus on a few larger clients. Have you figured out how many hours you could allocate to clients? That might help you out. Don't forget to set aside time for bookkeeping, marketing etc for your own business.

I'm a retired Quality Assurance Manager who started editing part time (I'm a writer as well) and it just grew into editing, copy editing, proofreading and virtual assistance. I'm only wanting to do this part time, as I am writing novels. But jobs and projects and clients have a way of blossoming! So I network with other freelancers to spread out the work I don't want or can't do. I feel like I have friends all over the world now. Good luck in your business! Pat www.editalley.com www.pathauldren.net www.remotegirlfriday.com

I have a client who's Quickbooks online is so messed up I have no clue how to fix it. When I first took over there was years of income that he has put in undeposited funds. I moved all that out into the proper place and now it seems even more messed up. One of his client looks like he has over 300K in credit and another looks like they are behind when they are not....HELP??!! Need an expert!!

Hello Everyone! I am a Virtual Assistant based in South Africa. My journey into this awesome "Virtual World" happen with the birth of my son and the company I was working for at the time didn't want to get a temp so I set myself up at home to do everything I did in the office and that is when the light bulb moment happened Set up an office at home resigned and have never looked back, nothing better than being your own boss, determining your income and getting to be there for your kids everyday. Excited about being a part of this community and look forward to getting to know fellow VA's.

Hi there!! I'm Nancy and I am a brand new VA. My previous profession was in social services and health education and I have incorporated my experience into my new business, specializing with healthcare businesses, non profits and disabled business owners and individuals. My business is heavy on the personal assistance services and from the knowledge I have gathered, noone is providing this type of service to the disabled. Of course, I am also offering business support as well. My website is www.avirtualhelpinghand.com I did it on wix.com which is a platform I am very familiar with and I didnt realize most VA's do their sites on wordpress. Hope it's ok. On a personal note, I am divorced with no children, live in Queens, NY and love meeting new people, travel, cooking, and all life has to offer. This new VA venture has been a strong learning curve for me as I had to learn alot of programs and how to do alot of stuff most VAs do. I am still preparing my contracts and planning to learn a few more programs before I officially launch in about a month...I did send out a few cold email pitches but didnt hear anything back..I will DEFINITELY be taking advantage of the free email templates in the stocking stuffer At the moment, I am feeling very overwhelmed, feeling like I need to "do it all" and am in awe of the skills so many VAs bring to the table. Any support and feedback would be helpful. Look forward to getting to know you all better and best wishes and blessings on your own VA journeys

Thank you so much! I will be attending the VAinsiders call today.

I highly recommend Lastpass and it's free

Yes, they have a great deal right now, hoping to get in on that before it goes away. I was thinking more long-term, hopefully by then I'll be earning money & can take the increase in price.

It's like exercising. If you can find a way to exercise that you love doing ie) playing hockey then you'll do it all the time. Glad you found a website program that works for you as that means you'll use it to it's fullest.

If you use WordPress.org then you can completely customize your website to how you want it.

Looking forward to seeing you on the call. I'll be up early (AU time) for it. It's well worth it. Tawnya and Veronica have made some really solid suggestions.

Hi Melissa, I think it looks great! The only thing I'd recommend is maybe have "FONTS" and "IMAGES" stand out more, like maybe make them capital to really help separate the sections. And I'd get rid of the color name and just leave the hex codes to make it a bit neater. Then you can align the text neatly. Hope that helps! Love the logo. Cheers,

I'm Susie the newbie. No clients yet, only a website. An email from Tawyna said to go through the 'find your niche' training, however, I cannot locate it. Help, please. Thanks! So overwhelmed.

Thank you so much. that helped a lot. and if I remember correctly, you said most clients do not like retainer pricing right?

Hello Danielle, No, I really follow The Virtual Assistant since 2013 and receive since then emails with newsletters, I do not know why now is when it actually seems that I have entered the community. I can not even download the 10 Free Resources for Virtual Assistants, because the system tells me that my email is already registered. When I introduced myself in the forum, that's when I saw the facebook group and then I did request my entry.

Hi Nancy, welcome back! I think your website looks great as well! I would just recommend the same things as Tawnya did above.

Awesome idea and way to keep yourself motivated. You could go take some pictures near the ocean and incorporate it into your website and branding. Could keep your colors ocean like or nautic. Sounds like a lot of fun to create actually!

Hmm good question. What services are you going to offer? You really don't need much to start up besides a computer and internet. You probably want to get a contract written up at the very least. I'd also recommend outlining your operating procedures such as, how clients can reach you, when you'll be around etc. There is a sample contract here: http://vanetworking.con/free. You probably already have access to it. You can take that one and edit it to make your own. You'll also have to figure out how you want to be paid, what system you will use. Maybe PayPal? And also your rates and packages. What have you done so far?

Let us know when you publish it live and we can take a look. The chances of a potential client finding it right away are slim so I wouldn't worry about it being online.

Can you share a link to the ad on Linkedin?

Dare to be different and you won! Way to think out of the box Marie

Hi y'all, I'm Jess. I'm 31 almost 32 years old. I'm engaged to be married in June. I started my VA business "Jessica Roush Virtual Assistant" in June of 2018. I'm a general VA so I do a variety of tasks. Three that I'm most passionate about is content writing, editing and proofreading.

Welcome Jessie, Have you considered joining the VAinsiders? Becoming a member of the VAinsiders is a yearly membership which offers training tracks, job board posting, monthly group coaching, and other discounted perks. A minimal cost for great access to information, valuable knowledge provided by others in the group sessions, etc. which comes in handy when you need guidance. All the best, Angela

I hope this isn't a crazy question. Well I actually have a couple of questions 1. What is considered billable vs. nonbillable hours? 2. I was reading throughout the forum about charging clients in fifteen minute increments. How would this be calculated if say a job is thirty minutes? Thank You.

I don't use Infusionsoft so not much help here. Let us know if you come across a solution.

Thanks for your responses Danielle and Tawnya. I wasn’t able to get on the group coaching call yesterday but I will try to get on the next one on the 28th. I do have the VA checklist so in the meantime, I will work on that and try to work off of it each day so that I am making some progress and headway and won’t talk myself out of doing it. I’ll make sure I hop back on the Forum if I have any questions reading the checklist. Thanks so much for the encouragement. I really need it!

Sounds like you're talking about hot spots. I suggest you google the term hot spot html. Then you can get an explanation of how to do it step by step.

Great idea @markofapproval We've often been asked by attendees to get this done with our #VAVS seminars . Unfortunately at the low price of $37/ticket it is not in our budget to add this option but a good service offering.

If I don't have someone to personally recommend to prospect, I tell them to post an RFP at VAnetworking's job board. I explain that it's free to post there as well. I always make sure to use my affiliate link, then I get a $5 referral. I'm not sure of the best way to find VAs to outsource to. I have VAs contact me on my website all the time about working together and I usually take a look at their website to see if its someone I'd be interested in working with. Then I keep their contact info on file with what they do. I've posted RFPs myself and have found a few good connections for outsourcing as well. Maybe we should start a thread in the forum in the VAinsiders area and put our information so we can all learn a bit more about each other. Maybe something like: Name: Contact Email: Website: Who do you work with: Specialties: Or something, and we can create a little database on our VAinsiders Forum. Maybe Tawnya has some ideas on that.

Thats awesome! I started on a freelancing platform, was a bit frustrated with the limitation there so I started my business on my own.

Hello everyone, I wanted to introduce myself as I am the new moderator of outsourcing/subcontracting/multi VA business subform. I have been in business since 2008 and I have worked with several teams subcontracting as well as hired a few subcontractors myself. I look forward to assisting everyone with questions and resources within the forum as threads come in.

Why not? We, Filipinos, have proven a lot with the BPO industry. Evidences are publicized as well.