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I began my VA journey with a focus on database management. One day, I was on this board looking for inspiration, and followed the profile of another member. That led me to her website, which contained a number of interviews with business owners. One of those interviews was about the transcription business, which I was only dimly aware of. My initial reaction to doing transcription was negative, but slowly changed over the coming days. It became a challenge to become accepted by a company. Not long after, I achieved my goal and happily got into the swing of things. Some projects are more enjoyable than others, but I generally learn something. That's the best part. Moral: be open-minded and flexible. You never know where it may lead you. Sheri

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, (3 years) 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 have launched 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.

I know most of us tend to market ourselves on Facebook or Linkedin but I'm noticing that as I build my Instagram profile it's leading new clients into my sales funnel. It's been a great way to build my list. 1. Here's a really cool FREE REPORT you can download on 21 powerful ways to get more clients on Instagram. 2. Go here and read my blog post as I tell/show you how I used many of the ideas in the report above with my own Instagram account. 3. Follow me on Instagram QUESTION: Are you using Instagram to get clients and/or market your business? If so share your Instagram profile with us so we can follow you and tell us what you are doing.

I have been reading up on taxes recently because I came across an app to download on my phone called Stride Tax. The app contained several articles including one that was the top 3 commonly missed deductions. Disclaimer, I did not write this article. I am sharing one section of it. I do hope this information helps someone. The article talks about deducting a portion of your cell phone. business related insurance, and meals for your business. The section I am going to provide for you is the one about meals. Let me know if you need either the cell phone or business-related insurance information and I will post it for you. Another disclaimer, I do not do booking keeping for a living. But I am the one that has been keeping track of the receipts for the last 15 years or an affiliate business that my husband and I do jointly for the last 15 years. Because of this tedious experience I have been figuring out the tax rules and regulations off and on and they are constantly changing. It's good to keep up with the information and be up to date. I know it's not my favorite subject either but until government stops making us pay taxes, yes I am dreaming on that one, it is good to be updated on all the rules and regulations. Hope this helps you. June 15th the quarterly taxes are due. Business-related meals When you’re getting a business off the ground, chances are you'll be networking often--and that can get expensive. You'll rack up a pretty big bill by meeting just 5 potential clients over coffee each week. If your food or drink expense has a business purpose, then it’s partially deductible. Meals are limited to a 50% deduction, so the $20 meal that you shared with a business contact will get you a $10 deduction! Careful! Meal expenses are a highly scrutinized item on your tax return. Be sure to keep diligent records of all of your business-related food and drink expenses! This means you've got to keep your receipts and should even jot down a few notes on the purpose of the meeting. The goal is to give an auditor no reason to second guess the legitimacy of your deduction.

Hello out there! Just joining the party. Been following Tawnya for years. Not sure why I didn't signed up for this before! I've been a VA since 2012. Always looking to up my game. I love to network. Open for discussions, questions, chit-chat. I'm also a MilSpouse so any other Military VAs out there, would LOVE to connect! You can find me online on FB (@OfficeMuse), Twitter (@Office_Muse), and website (www.OfficeMuse.com). Looking forward to meeting y'all!

Hi everyone, I am Rhonda and I live in Chicago, I am the mother to three kids (two boys 24, 26 and a girl 14) who as always I love and adore with all my heart (at times) and I am a newlywed to a wonderful man that gives me the world daily if I asked. I actually got into the VA business by accident. I was doing the back end office task for a friend in her 501(c) 3 anyway and had recently quit my full time job because I didn't feel wanted or appreciated anymore and thought that I would get another job right away (never do this). I like that I was able to help her and I started networking in my circles of people that knew me from Network Marketing and helped several individuals get setup with Facebook, clients, etc. I wanted to be more professional with the service so my VA service is called Fly High Virtual Services, http://flyhighvirtual.weebly.com I have been in business for one year (yea) and that name was chosen because once you were an unknown person on social media sites now you are flying high within that realm of endless possibilities. I focus my business on the administrative side of things for now, offering items such as calendar management, email management, social media setup and maintenance and maintenance of blogs I don't do setup as that takes it to another realm that I am working on and trying to figure out how to do. When I am not doing virtual service work I am watching television as I love the CSI franchise series. I just love how they solve murders and people never get away with anything along with the technology used to solve the crimes. I found this forum by searching on Facebook for Virtual Assistants when I needed to know what was the options that I could and could not do within the realm it is awesome and I have learned so much from the takeaway and freebies of the group. I look forward to interacting with everyone and hope that everyone has a great time on this forum.. My motto everyday that I open my eyes is Negative out, Positive in.

Here's a link on how I recommend VAs get clients quickly. Others do social network marketing too and find good results with that. I just find this type of marketing doesn't happen overnight like responding to an RFP. Some do their networking in person at local networking meetings (chamber of commerce, BNI, etc.)

Almost 90% of us here work independently. Check out some of the signatures in the posts and you will find us.

Im really excited about this new adventure. I have always been interested in cyber jobs and want to work from home. My jobs have been alright. In the long run working from home will be satisfying and better for my family and health.

I've done something similar with clients in the past. I bluntly asked them, how much could you afford monthly for a Virtual Assistant? Once they gave me the amount I wrote up the best services I'd offer them that would help their business the most that month (give them the best bang for their buck).

Why should I hire a VA instead of an on-site person?

Tawnya and I were talking and I mentioned that I was doing a webinar about "How to Make Sure you've Got a High Converting Website". She was really excited for me and asked me to post here about it since so many VA's need their websites to get more clients. It's free and there's a workbook attached so if you'd like to check it out, here's the link. https://markofapproval.com/offer/5-step-website-plan-webinar/ I'm also posting the replay for those who signup to the webinar, so if you can't make it, no worries. It starts at 8am EST on Friday 7th April.

Hi Danielle, I just saw your post on the VANetworking form asking if anyone has had experience working on Wix websites. Actually I have had experience. Of the drag and drop website builders I have used including WordPress, Wix has come a long way over the last few years since March 2014 when you posted about Wix and I haven't had any trouble with it. I have had compliments from others who have seen the websites I have designed and created in Wix. Most of them can't tell whether it is a Wix website or a Wordpress website. However, I am aware that most people aren't aware of the differences between Wordpress and Wix and some of the other website builders. It seems like it's all cosmetic -- as long as they think the website looks good, had images and colours, and provides the information they are looking for, they seem to be happy. I have also tried GoDaddy, eHost, Web, Hostway and some other different website builders which offer their own site builder and Wordpress as website building options. Some of these are not very versatile with too many limitations. Weebly and Squarespace are comparable with Wix. All have their own pros and cons. It depends on a person's preferences. I am actually looking for a Wordpress specialist to join my team in my own VA business. My business is My Essential Office Assistant. I would be open to your feedback. If you would like to partner with me or know someone who would be interested, please let me know.

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.

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.

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

I wondered if anyone out there started a VA business after retirement? I have many years of administrative experience, retired recently, and am now considering becoming a VA for extra income. I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions.

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

We have a ton of free tools at our resource site www.VAjot.com

Some great free tools I like are: Project Management: ClickUp, Trello and Asana. Clickup being my #1 as it combines the best of both Asana and Trello. Graphics: Canva - the free version is great for social media graphics and a ton of other things. Productivity: Google Drive and Dropbox Email Marketing: Mailchimp (up to 2000 subscribers), Mailerlite (up to 1000 subscribers) There's lots more, but that's a start. Hope that helps!

I am a long time virtual assistant with 11 + years of experience and I am offering an unpaid internship opportunity. Learn more and apply for this internship at https://alyssaavantandcompany.com/internship-opportunity/ Thank yoU!

I did actually. And it gave me the downloads for the home occupancy form amd the business license application. Thank you so much.

Hi I have also been following Tawnya for years and we me now being a full time VA and this being the year of pursuit for me I am jumping into this platform. I look forward to seeing you on the platform and chatting with you and others. Enjoy your day!

Hello Everyone! My name is Anita. I just created my business as a virtual assistance. I have not created my website yet, because I just registered the business. Let's get started and have a great time doing what we do best!

If you use Chrome with LastPass (www.vajot.com/lastpass) to keep track of your passwords they is a small bug and here's the fix. I logged into it this morning and my Vault was empty and I could not get my passwords to show up. Anyhoooo, I phoned them and here is the temporary fix until they fix the bug: 1.Clear local cache - Click on LastPass icon > More Options https://snag.gy/i1gorQ.jpg > Advanced > Clear local cache 2.Refresh sites - Click on LastPass icon > More Options https://snag.gy/i1gorQ.jpg > Advanced > Refresh

Hello everyone, My name is Nikki Marcus and I am currently just beginning my business (NikkiVirtualized). I am very excited to be here and learn more about each and everyone of you and The VA Business as a whole:)

I think you are totally right that now a days Facebook is all about money if you want to reach your audience. Organically a very small number of impression you may get but for getting the large audience you need to run ads on Facebook. Anyway the process also varies in industry to industry, we tried to reach our audience through ads but we did not become able to succeed on converting any of the audience!

Hi, I just wanted to say hello to you all. My name is Louisa and I officially launched Workflow Virtual Assistant in June of this year. My website address is www.workflowva.com and I can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I have over 15 years admin and PA experience and becoming a VA seemed like a natural progression to achieving a work life balance, especially as I had my son last September. I originally thought of becoming a VA back in 2007 when I was made redundant from a role but the timing wasn't right. In terms of the other questions... What City/Town/State/Country are you from?: I grew up in Lancashire but now live in Northampton, England. Are you married? How long?: Yes I am married, we got married on Christmas Eve Eve in 2014. Any kids and how old? My son will be 10 months old on Sunday. Hobbies & Interests: These days it's about spending time with family and friends. How did you hear about us? I remember coming across this site quite some time ago, most likely from Google! I look forward to getting involved in different discussions with you all and getting to know more about you.

Hi Elizabeth, Welcome to this fantastic site! You have come to the right place for encouragement, advice and VA resources. As a VA matchmaker, I can tell you that the QB Online Pro adviser certification is going to be so valuable for you! I receive bookkeeping requests consistently and QB Online Pro is in great demand. When you are certified, do send me an email as I will connect you with another VA who needs this service on her team. In the meantime, I encourage you to start slowly with marketing your business. Do what is most comfortable. Are you on FB? if so, create a FB business page and start posting there. Use the icon in your signature and draw people in with value-centered posts. Also, here on VA Networking there are people who need advice in bookkeeping so do peruse the site and help others out. I found that just being helpful opened up new relationships that helped to grow my business. Post back here with questions. Tawnya and her fabulous VA, Danielle offer great direction and focus. Check out Tawyna's programs here. She offers great free videos to help you get started. I look forward to hearing about your journey and chatting with you again. Best, Janine

Hi Everyone!!! My name is Michele and i just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I am a mom of 3. My youngest is on the Autism Spectrum. And as she got older, not to mention her father and myself divorced after 14 years of marriage that should've ended at least 10 years ago Lol. Her needs began to require more and more of my time to the point I finally had to leave the workforce. My background was in marketing and sales coordinator which required internet research on things like the company, their niche, the best way to reach their audience/customers and most of all..walking then into the social media age. And I was good at it! I don't have any issue in saying that. So after a couple of years of the "What am I going to do and how can I do it from home" phase I discovered Virtual Assistants and Social Media Management. In those years I did try many different things. The 1 thing I still do and am proud of is my website. www.boholifestylefashions.com A short description is basically a surge that offers Alternative services for Weddings, Ceremonies and Anything out of the norm. And my website "the Bohemian Closet" where you can find and purchase jewelry handmade by me and a guide to the Bohemian Lifestyle and all that it entails. This is something I love and am very passionate about. But it wasn't and still isn't enough to supplement the income list when I had to retire. So we live on social security benefits. Then I discovered I could use my website, which averages 200 views per week to become a Virtual Assistant and still be able to continue thevoriginal purpose of my website when I launched 2 years ago! I currently advertise 6 different companies on there but the traffic and the sales are not matching up. If even half the visits I recieve weekly resulted in either sales of my items or for the companies i advertise for i would be doing pretty darn good. But that's not the case. Then I found you...vanetworking.com!!! Even tho I just joined over already gotten so many tools to help turn my traffic into sales! I'm very excited for the future for the first time in a long time a d I want to say thank you! And thank you to the people I've encountered on here so far. Everyone is so generous with help and advice. That's rare! Well that's me and my story. Thank you for reading.

Though I am not a writer but its really good to read about the writer's thought before they start any writing.

Hey everyone, just wanted to share - I have a really great all in one desktop and I am moving right now. Spending roughly 30 days in a hotel and then going to my parents to visit until we get settled in our house. My computer has been awesome and I have been able to plug in at the hotels. I have a laptop for when on the road but I am so thankful for an easy portable desktop.