Why Your Virtual Assistant Business Needs a Professionally Designed Logo

I began 2008 thinking it was time to start treating my business like a real business. That meant it was time to start investing real money.

How did I come to that conclusion?

Well, in 2007, I had listened to a free teleseminar with Kathleen Gage where she talked about how to make real money online... One of the things she said was that people were often impressed by the amount of money she makes. (Kathleen, it was a long time ago, so please forgive me for my rough paraphrase!) Her response to that was, with everything she invests in her business, she expects to make a lot of money.

Of course, spending money blindly isn't going to help you either. You have to know what things are important to spend money on, and what things you can get away with doing on the cheap.

Your logo is worth spending money on, and that was my first big investment of 2008. I was using a logo I had created with my limited Photoshop skills, and it certainly didn't convey what my business was about. So, I contacted Lara at Designed by Lara. She created a beautiful logo that I felt captured the professional, but fun, approach I take to my business.

You can see it below, but it looks much nicer in action here.

Everyone says a logo is important because it helps build your brand... but I realized very quickly that a good logo also affects how YOU feel about your business. Kind of like how my day can't start until I wash my hair and put a bit of makeup on. Knowing my logo looked good made me feel like I was really ready for business, and I wanted to work even harder at making WAHM Articles succeed.

If you're thinking 2009 is the year you want to start making some real money from home, maybe it's time to invest in your logo too.

If you're thinking this is the year you're ready to get your virtual assistant business off the ground, the Virtual Business Startup System comes with some professional looking logo templates you can use to get your business off on the right foot.

Next time, I'll share another of my wise investments. And if you're thinking of starting a virtual assistant business, you'll really like this one!

My Personal Best (and Worst) of 2008

2008 has been quite a rollercoaster year for my Virtual Assistant business! At the beginning of the year, I still considered myself on sabbatical from the VA business I launched in 2005, and I wasn't even sure when I would be ready to return to work.

The end of 2008 finds me with an exciting year behind me.

• I'm involved again as a member and volunteer at VAnetworking.com, the very best place for successful and aspiring VAs online.
  
• I have amazing new clients, exciting new ideas of what a virtual assistant business can look like, (no more cookie cutter websites and businesses for me!)
• I'm a lot smarter and I have a much better sense of my direction than I did 10 or 11 months ago.
  

I also began this year with a renewed desire to treat my business like a "real" business. No more playing around and staying in the safe zone. I decided if this was ever going to become the business I want, I would have to be willing to invest real money, make strong commitments. I was ready to take risks - when I made mistakes, I wanted them to be big, but my successes would be even bigger.

This month, I'm taking some time to reflect on what I've done, what worked well, what was a miserable failure, and where I want to be by this time next year.

Over the next several days, I'll be sharing my best and worst moments of 2008 with you here. But before I start spilling all mine, I'd like to ask you about yours!

Here are some of the questions I've been asking myself. How would you answer them? If you'd like to share your answers below, I'd love to read them. I think we can all learn from each others' experiences.

What was your best decision?

What was your biggest mistake?

Best money spent?

Worst time waster?

What do you want to differently in 2009?

Writing a Tagline for Your Virtual Assistant Business

Does your new Virtual Assistant business need a tagline? I always thought mine did... my first online business had one that was kind of catchy (I thought): "Write solutions for your small business."

It was even easy to come up with a tagline for this blog!

But it's been two years since I've owned WAHM Articles, and I still can't come up with anything I really, really like! But, maybe I've been banging my head against a brick wall for nothing. Here's a different perspective on whether or not you should have a tagline for your business.

What Do Taglines Do? by Colleen Davis

Are taglines really that necessary for a business?

That’s a difficult question to answer because there are so many different companies who approach the subject in a wide variety of ways. Some companies are known for their taglines. Who doesn’t know that Nike’s tagline is Just Do It? They managed to make their tagline such a major part of their business that they were able to embrace it as part of their brand name.

But other businesses have taglines I’ve never even heard of. There are some large companies that actually do have taglines but so rarely use them that I have to question if it was worth making one to begin with. For other companies they might have a tagline that was initially big but eventually faded from their company’s identity until most people around today really don’t know what it is.

So should you consider getting one for your company?

Taglines give you a chance to further shape your brand name. Your company name, logo, and tagline will likely be the three most important factors in forming a strong brand name. The more ways you have of getting people to remember you the better the odds are of getting your name widely known.

Consider the impact a tagline might have on something like custom business cards. A catchy, perhaps funny tagline might be just what your business cards need to give them that extra edge. When people see the tagline they’ll quickly remember who you are, or they might learn something more about your business, though that depends on the tagline.

Some taglines are made to specifically describe some aspect of the business, or some part of their company’s goals. Others, like the Just Do It tagline, are more about evoking a specific emotion or feeling rather than describing anything about the company itself.

One test you can use to consider whether or not a tagline is needed is to figure out just how strong your corporate identity would be if you didn’t have one. Could you get custom business cards that have a strong enough brand name already that you don’t really need that extra touch? If you feel that your brand name is capable of standing on its own already, or if you feel your logo is enough, perhaps you could just ignore taglines altogether.

If you are going to make tagline be sure that you keep it short and to the point. Taglines are a lot like logos in that they’re meant to help a person better remember a business. If you start to get too long or complicated with your tagline than no one is going to remember them.

The best taglines are typically only a few words long, and this helps them stick with people. Often they’ll create some strong emotion or be funny enough to help a person recall them.

It can be rather difficult to come up with a good tagline, which is why I would suggest really considering whether or not you need one before you do anything else.

For more information, you can visit this page on business card printing and custom business cards

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

So what do YOU think? Does your VA business really need a tagline? I'm beginning to think that maybe no tagline is better than the wrong tagline.