A Business Plan
Do you really need one? You do…but that doesn’t mean it has to be a full-fledged business plan! I know that I should do a formal one, but where’s the time? For now, I have a note book that I carry with me everywhere that I jot notes down in, goals, things that I would like to accomplish. It’s a personal preference, but you will find that the more you write down, the more you will see your practice unfold. It helps work out all the little details in the beginning, so that when you stumble across them down the road, they just need to be fleshed out.
You can find more information on business plans here.
A Business Name
How are you going to operate? Choosing a name is difficult, and I know many people to take months to figure out the name they want to do business under. It’s important. You want something catchy, something that no one else has, something that people will remember. There’s a lot to go into picking a name. I struggled for months with picking a business name. I decided that I was going to market locally at first and then expand nationally, so I wanted something that people could relate to in my area. Hence the name, Valley Virtual Assistants, as I live in the Roanoke Valley.
Get together with friends and other VAs that you’ve met online and brainstorm on a name. Do you want to keep your name local? Do you want to include your services in your name? Don’t stress over the details, but do realize that once you pick a name, you’re “stuck” with it. You’re not really, but changing a name and re-branding is tons of work, and you want to focus more on billable work than re-branding yourself. After all, isn’t that our pitch to clients?
Licensing
Check with your city or county office about obtaining a business license. The Small Business Administration offers a list by state of where to go to obtain your license. You can operate under your own name, or a d.b.a. (doing business as). If you plan on getting a business checking account (which I recommend), you will need to have the d.b.a licence as well.
In my county, the cost for the business license is a $50 yearly fee, and then an additional $15, one time fee, for the d.b.a. Please save your receipts for this as it is considered a business expense. Once you get the d.b.a. you can get your Federal ID number and open a business checking account. You don’t have to have a separate business checking account, but I have found it to be extremely helpful when working on my books. I can take my “paycheck” from there when and if it’s available.
Once you have that license, you’re in business…legally!
Accounting
Now that you have your first business expense, you’re going to need to set up an accounting system. It doesn’t have to be a grand plan at the moment, but the more organized you are in the beginning, the easier it’s going to be down the road. Set up a filing system for your receipts. I have one file folder on my desk that I have that I put all my receipts in and then at the end of the month, I go through and enter them in to my ledger and then file them in an expanding folder for the month.
You probably don’t need a program like Quickbooks right now. I covet having it, but it’s not an expense I need to incur right now. So what I use is an Excel Spreadsheet that keeps track of everything and then spits out and income statement for me every month. You can download a copy of that spreadsheet from my website. (Look for more “goodies” in the upcoming weeks on my site.)
The best advice I can give you for your accounting is keep on top of it! Waiting until the end of the year will prove to be a nightmare for you or your accountant.
Web Presence
Because your title includes the word “virtual” you should probably have a website, although it’s not necessary. I tend to think that everyone is like me in that if they can’t find it online, then it doesn’t exist. Thank goodness this isn’t the case, because I’m working on websites for clients that don’t currently have one. But see a website as another marketing tool.
Websites don’t have to be costly. Domain registrations are under $10 a year and can be registered through Internet Based Family, GoDaddy.com, Yahoo! Small Business, among others. (There are the cheapest that I’ve found while looking for my domain, and personally, I went with Yahoo!)
Building an actual website doesn’t have to be costly either. If you are proficient with Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver, you can build it yourself. If you’re just not that great with those programs, or don’t have them, there are many website builders out there that are included with the hosting. The best site builder that I’ve come across is Internet Based Family. It’s very user friendly and provides more templates, pages, and options than you can shake a stick at. Once you register for the site, you can then transfer it over to your own domain. My original site was hosted there and it took me an afternoon to build and I was pleased with the results.
Now, I’ve talked about hosting, but I didn’t really explain it. There are other options if you’re building your site with a program and then uploading it. Yahoo! Small Business offers hosting, along with others. It’s going to be a matter of shopping around and seeing what you need. You won’t need that much bandwidth, so the lesser hosting packages probably would suit your needs. You can read more about various web hosting places at here.
Homework
I’ve left you with enough to chew on for now, and that should keep you busy for awhile. Work on the above and you’ll find that the questions will start coming. When you have one, pop into the forums and we’ll be more than happy to help you, or at least tell you how we handled the situation. And if you’re still hungry for more information, you can check out my blog for more information and helpful tips on starting your own VA practice.
About the Author
Heather Jacobson is the owner of Valley Virtual Assistants. She obtained her BS in Business Management from Radford University and has over 12 years of administrative and marketing experience across multiple industries.
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