SVA Forum

CathrynSOS · Joined: 28 Jul 2010 Posts: 2 Location: Oldham

Hi everyone

My name is Cathryn and I am a new member. My company will be trading from the 1st of September 2010 and, of course, I am a virtual assistant.

My website is viewable but still in the making, and I wondered if anyone could give me their thoughts on the same. I am not, as yet, listed on the search engines so the http:// box is the way to access it.

Thankyou to anyone who has a look and makes any comments (good or bad) - I know you are all very busy.

Speak to you all soon.

Kind regards
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Cathryn
Swift Office Solutions
Swiftofficesolutions.org.uk

Sally@Stonetext · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 12:12 pm Post subject:

Couple of general pointers:

I have quite a wide screen and your pages don't fit so you need to either reduce the fixed width size or switch to a % split between the navigation bar and the "body". It may be the top header section that is causing the problem or further down.

Try to maintain consistency between pages in terms of heading font size, general alignment, body font size. Black against the dark grey is hard to read.

Fonts like Helvetica, Arial, etc. are better than Times-based ones for web sites.

Whilst you should be rightfully proud of your higher educational achievements, the photo of you in your graduation gown sends the signal that you are young, inexperienced and just out of college/uni.

Check thoroughly for typos.

Links - red against the dark grey is hard to read.

The swift logo - the resolution isn't good and appears pixelated. See if you can improve the quality.

Uploading dictation option - this should really take you to a log in page so that clients can "upload" their dictation to you, rather than emailing.

Hope this helps. Best of luck.
_________________
Sally
Stonetext Online Admin Services www.stonetext.co.uk
Stonetext Web & Graphic Design www.stonetext.f2s.com

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dawnjlane · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:26 pm Post subject:

I couldn't see anything other than a 'new website coming soon' www.swiftofficesolutions.org.uk

One thing I would say is that there is another VA trading with Swift Office Solutions - www.swiftofficesolutions.co.uk. If you haven't already started trading and done things like busienss cards etc you may want to think about changing your trading name as clients/potential clients may get confused when searching the internet for you/your website.

Dawn
_________________
Dawn Lane VAcertified MAMS MIPA
Your Office Online - www.your-office-online.co.uk
Virtual Business in a Box Ltd - www.virtualbusinessinabox.co.uk
dawn@your-office-online.co.uk
dawn@virtualbusinessinabox.co.uk

CathrynSOS · Joined: 28 Jul 2010 Posts: 2 Location: Oldham

Hi Sally and Dawn

Thankyou for your comments. Sorry Dawn I have taken my website off until I have re-done it.

Dawn - I did check with Companies House and there were no other companies with my company name, hence why I used it, and I am in the process of registering my company. I have later found the other Swift Office Solutions. I have purchased my domain with Swift but not any business cards etc I am unsure what to do now, any pointers???

Thanks
_________________
Cathryn
Swift Office Solutions
Swiftofficesolutions.org.uk

dawnjlane · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 4:06 pm Post subject:

Hi Cathryn

Checking with Companies House will only let you know if someone is a Ltd company/partnership etc. Sole traders don't need to register with them.

A check on the National Business Register also shows the name as not being registered. However, as you have discovered, other people have registered the .co.uk and the .com domain names - both of which are being operated by two different people (one in the UK and one in USA). I also know of a VA in Australia using Swift Online Secretarial (s-o-s.com.au)

Personally, I would look at finding another business and domain name (if you haven't spent money out on logo design, letterheads, business cards etc). You want to be starting out with the best possible foundation for your business and having a name/website that is very similar to someone else may not give you the best start.

I have just started writing a guide for VAs setting up and the first two chapters are available as a freebie here: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.your-office-online.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Dream%2520or%2520Reality.pdf. I'm hoping to complete it in the next few weeks and will publish it for sale on my new website later in August. The two chapters in the excerpt cover things like business name/website and domains/branding etc so you may find it useful.

A quick play on words via Google and 1-2-3 Reg, shows Office Solutions Swiflty are free - if you can afford it, buy all the domain names up so that no-one else can use them. You can always have a one page website pointing towards a new website and domain name.

Dawn
_________________
Dawn Lane VAcertified MAMS MIPA
Your Office Online - www.your-office-online.co.uk
Virtual Business in a Box Ltd - www.virtualbusinessinabox.co.uk
dawn@your-office-online.co.uk
dawn@virtualbusinessinabox.co.uk

caroline · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 5:22 pm Post subject:

Hi Cathryn

Welcome to SVA! It looks like we may have already flagged a potential issue - eek!

Don't panic too much - there are only so many variations on a secretarial theme that you can come up with, so it's not an uncommon problem. In fact, we had another newbie with the same problem a few weeks ago (search "the diamond VA" for the posts).

I may have to do a blog on the main site about this - I'm loving that when these subjects come up we can put them all into one place for reference! And I've opened up the comments too so you should be able to discuss it on the main site.

Enjoy!
C.
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