What is a Virtual Assistant?
Simply put, a virtual assistant is someone who provides business support to business owners but does not necessarily perform these services in the owner’s office. This is the aspect that makes us “virtual.” Although some VAs do spend time in the offices of their clients, most do not.
Most virtual assistants work with a wide variety of clients from across the country they live in or from around the world. Being that the work is virtual, the possibilities are limitless when it comes to location.
Virtual assistants also charge for their work on an hourly basis. Every virtual assistance business is different in that they may have hourly packages setup or retainer rates but most just charge a flat hourly rate for their services.
Most VAs work from home and have their own home office setup. This allows flexibility in the hours that you would work and it also allows you the comfort of working in your home.
There are various types of virtual assistants. Most VAs are focused on the administrative aspects of assistance and they provide services such as word processing, editing, proofreading, document creation, scheduling, event management, file organization and other similar tasks.
The next type of virtual assistant would be what I call the ‘web savvy’ VA who does administrative based support but also has experience in the operations that are required to run an online business. The tasks that are included here include shopping cart setup and maintenance, website maintenance, autoresponder management, blog posting, etc.
The last type of virtual assistant would be someone who considers themselves more of an online business manager. This person would work with their clients in a business partner role and provide a mutually beneficial relationship for them. What I mean by this is that this type of VA would be much more inclined to evaluate the operations of a client’s business and suggest ways in which he or she could improve their processes.
