New VA

[ju...@360admin.com]

Hi everyone. I am going to try this again. I don't think I correctly
posted my first message. I am new to your group. Thank you for
having me.

I am a new VA in Fort Worth. I started my VA office because I realized
I could do the same Administrative, Marketing and Event Planning work
from home. I worked solely for VPs of Sales and Marketing for 20
years and I gained a lot a great experience that I am now going to use
to work for myself. After I researched VAs I knew this was the thing
for me to do and I just did it. eeek! My Husband is for it, but
nervous as I am for financial reasons. I am used to bringing hom a
decent salary with benefits and now... nothing. :) I feel good about
what I am doing and I hope to gain advice from this group and to hear
what you went through in the beginning as well.

I have one client already for 10 hours a week and MAYBE another one
for 18-20 hours per week. My biggest concern is how to get paid. Do
you bill up front, 1/2 and 1/2 or just at the end and hope they pay
you?

As far as a meeting day and time; I am open.

Julia

[Linda Belan]

Hi Julia,

Welcome to our Group!! I resonate your concerns/worries about being nervous not bringing home a decent paycheck with benefits! I went full-time as of May and left a good paying job as well so far I have no regrets though. :)

To save on having to get a Merchant Account to accept payments from my clients, I bill all my clients using PayPal that is hooked up to a service I use called Freshbooks which allows me to track my time I spend on each client's projects as well as send them electronic invoices via email directly from my time logs. On the invoice there is the option you can use to include a link for your client to be brought to PayPal where they can pay you. You can even add your logo on your invoices!

It's simple and easy to use, looks professional to your client, and also allows you to keep track of expenses that you need to charge back to your clients. It also keeps track of who has paid you, who has not, and keeps a running total of amount invoiced and payments received over time. 

You can check it out at https://www.freshbooks.com/subscribe.php?ref=6573d0ee61280-1 It costs only $14 per month and allows you to add up to 25 clients for time tracking and billing. 

Hope this helps!

Kind regards,

Linda...

[lindag...@hotmail.com]

Hi Julia,

Welcome, I am new to being a VA as well. It is tough to get started if
I could be of any help let me know.
Good Luck in your new venture,
Linda Taylor