A Virtual Assistant is the perfect blend - you get an assistant who can jump right into all those tasks you've either been dreading doing or have been doing until the wee hours. What is your time worth? What is your core competency? Do you find yourself so weighed down by all the administrative tasks that you're not getting any "real" work done? Perhaps you need help with marketing? Many Virtual Assistants are specialists in a particular field such as marketing, website design, bookkeeping, transcription and the list goes on and on.

Once you find and retain a talented Virtual Assistant, they'll take over all of the mundane details that have bogged down your workday and prevented you from focusing on your core competency. They'll discuss your day to day operations, what projects are falling through the cracks and create a plan of action where you both decide what should be delegated, how long tasks should take, hours reserved each month on retainer, etc. They communicate with you via phone, fax and email and they utilize the best technology to ensure their support is seamless whether they're 10 miles or 1000 miles from your office.

There are several qualities you should keep in mind when choosing a Virtual Assistant. First, do they have experience? How long have they been in the industry? Do they have a solid reputation among the business community? Do they have experience in your field? Are they communicative? Do they seem to share your same business values? Are they responsive? Are they tenacious? You may not be able to ask these questions directly to your prospective Virtual Assistant, but they are questions to keep in mind as you visit their website, read their testimonials and even as you run a Google search on their business.

Why, right here - of course! We have a member directory where you can view the profiles of our Virtual Assistants and you can submit a Request for Proposal (RFP) free, using the menu link above. Off site, you can Google the phrase 'Virtual Assistant' and find many organizations and individual Virtual Assistant websites to find the perfect VA for your projects.

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. What tasks seem to take up most of your business day? You could easily hire a Virtual Assistant to manage your marketing, increase your search engine rank, answer your emails when you're on vacation, field phone calls, make appointments, handle your listings, send out postcards, write press releases, design a website, manage your books, create flyers, and much more! You're in business to do business, not be an administrator. Handing off your administrative work to a professional administrative services person enables you to focus on your core competencies. Don't "BE" an assistant, hire an assistant - otherwise, you're paying top dollar for amateur results.

Your Virtual Assistant won't succeed unless you're getting solid results. Therefore, their top priority is communicating with you to ensure you're seeing the results. You should initially work with your VA to allow her to get familiar with your business and your core competencies. Your VA can then make recommendations on how to engage systems and processes that will maximize your free time and increase your bottom line. They will work closely with you to accomplish your goals and they'll provide detailed reports of their time and results.

As with any situation where you're handing out your hard earned dollars, prospective Virtual Assistant clients need to do their due-diligence before choosing their VA. Virtual Assistants are human, too! And like most humans, we come with our own set of baggage - personality, work style, schedules and family issues. When interviewing Virtual Assistants, be sure you've got the right chemisty going. Communication - again - is critical in ensuring you're making the right match. The biggest complaint I hear from prospects is that their other Virtual Assistant just disappeared - Poof! No call, no email and the client is left buried in work, often with no idea how to move forward. Be sure you and your Virtual Assistant cover all of the bases in your initial planning stages and make sure he/she has backup plans in order.