The internet and other new technologies have changed the way many of us work and the titles of our jobs. So, instead of the secretary, meet the virtual assistant.

"VA"s work from home, offering services for businesses which might not have enough work to justify employing their own full-time administrative staff.

It is an attractive way of working for many people as jobs can be done at any time of day.

Jill Spencer is a former conference organiser who lives just outside Looe in Cornwall. She had retired, but when she decided to earn some extra money, becoming a VA meant she did not have to leave her home in its idyllic country setting.

Own timetable

She had made a number of contacts during her career, and was soon providing everything from book-keeping and proof-reading to event booking and research for clients around the UK.

"You can work to your own timetable," Jill explains.

"You don't have to be in at nine o'clock and leave at five. If it's a lovely day you can sit in the garden and do the work in the evening."

Rates can range between £15 and £30, but for many people, the biggest advantage is the flexibility.

"I wasn't looking to earn a fantastic amount of money," says Jill. "You do as much or as little work as you want to do." 

The basic tools are a computer, fax machine and a mobile phone, although a specialised printer might be needed for some types of presentation work.

Anyone with office skills could set up as a VA, and there is a trade body which gives advice on getting started and what equipment to buy and also offers training programmes.

Ideal career

The International Association of Virtual Assistants (IAVA) was founded to alert businesses to the potential of using VAs, and also to give home workers a forum to share acheivements and problems.

The IAVA's Bridget Postlethwaite, who has run a VA business from her home in the Channel Islands since 1997, believes it is an ideal career for many people. While office skills provide a basis, she says clients can often be looking for different attributes in their VAs.

"Companies get a huge amount out of it because they only use a VA when they need one," she says.

"You get perhaps an assistant of a more professional level than you would get if you were hiring someone on a full-time basis.

"If a businessman can be out of the office doing something he actually wants during the day, knowing his VA will be there to talk to him in the evening if he wants, it will make a great deal of difference to everyone's lifestyle."

While there is no doubt of the growing demand for virtual assistants, it seems increasing numbers of people are keen to get out of the office and work from home.

New research by recruitment agency Kelly Services predicts that by 2020 one-quarter of all UK workers will be based at home, with half doing some form of teleworking at one time or another.

Cultural differences

But the UK is more progressive when it comes to new working methods than many other European countries.

In France, for instance, there is a resistance to teleworking because executives worry what the neighbours would think if they did not put on their suits and head off to work.

The number of teleworkers in southern Europe is below the European average.

The reasons for this cultural divide were discussed at the Telework 2000 conference in London last week.

Bettina von Stamm of the London Business School said self-confidence, devolved authority and autonomy were keys to successful teleworking and the British style of management fostered those qualities.

"There are deeper cultural differences in attitudes to what constitutes job status," said Alan Denbigh of the UK Telework Association.

"The self-employed in Finland are generally classified as entrepreneurs, and it's probably no coincidence that this country has the highest percentage of teleworkers in Europe."

 

Taken from an article published by the BBC - 2000

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Virtual assistants give entrepreneurs real help
By Pat Curry • Bankrate.com

David Goldsmith spends his days on the phone and on the road. As president of Customer Edge, he works out of his home in New Mexico and travels the country, leading seminars and acting as a consultant for companies that want to improve customer service.

Like many busy business owners, Goldsmith has an assistant to set appointments, order conference supplies, make his travel arrangements, send out brochures, handle the books and put together his daily newsletter.

Actually, he has three -- one to handle day-to-day matters, one to focus on conferences and one who works on the newsletter. Goldsmith doesn't have the space -- or desire -- to have employees working in his home. His "staff members" work from their own homes in three different states. They are part of a fledgling industry: virtual assistants.

It's a business filled with cutting-edge terms. Virtual assistants design their services for business owners called neo-SOHO's and "netpreneurs," Internet-savvy entrepreneurs working from small office/home office settings. Virtual assistants have adapted traditional skills to a virtual marketplace.

 
Never meeting the boss

They recruit their clients and bid on jobs via e-mail, phone, fax and overnight shipping. They may never meet many of their clients. They have their own associations, certification programs and even a virtual university, AssistU. Run by former virtual assistant Stacy Brice, AssistU is a 19-week boot camp that only accepts about half of its applicants. Only those who make the grade graduate and earn recommendations from the online school.

 
"By the time they finish, they have more than 300 hours of class time, client-simulated experiences and study," Brice says. "I'm the pretend client, and I'm a tough cookie."
Chris Durst, a pioneer in a business that didn't get going until 1995, is a partner in StaffCentrix, a virtual assistant referral business. She helped set up the International Virtual Assistants Association, which has a certification program.

"As a small business owner, one of the reasons many of us go off on our own is that we work best on our own," she says. "If you hire an employee, they bring a whole host of issues -- taxes, insurance, sexual harassment -- and you have to make a commitment to a certain number of hours or days a week. A temp still needs to come to your location and share your space. With a virtual assistant, you don't have to get extra equipment and you don't have to train them. When you say to a VA, 'Watch the bottom line,' who better to understand that than another business owner? VAs aim to please because their business depends on it."

For Bob Farrar, an attorney in Rome, Ga., virtual assistants offered an opportunity to obtain high-quality skills that were not readily available outside an urban center. Farrar has a part-time, in-office secretary who greets clients and does most of his dictation and correspondence work. But he uses a virtual assistant in Atlanta to handle office and case management and a virtual assistant in Orlando, Fla., to keep his books. A virtual paralegal works part-time -- but solely for Farrar -- from her home in South Carolina.

He loves having the support without what he called the distraction of having that many people on-site. "I like to practice law. I don't like to manage an office," Farrar says.

He also appreciates how his virtual assistants feel about their business and what they contribute. "They're genuinely interested in how you're doing. They're not showing up 9 to 5 to get a paycheck," he says. "These are people who are bringing fresh ideas they're learning from people in other states. For someone in a town like Rome, it's an incredible resource."

 

Many virtual assistants grow their businesses from referrals. But a small business owner without connections can fill out a request form on the Web site of AssistU or Staffcentrix. Provide details about the business and the kinds of services needed, such as online research or transcription, and you'll get a list of virtual assistants who meet your criteria.

You can also check the membership lists of the Global Association of Virtual Assistants or the International Virtual Assistants Association.

Many virtual assistants will offer an hour or two of service for free so the business owner can try the situation on for size. Prices will vary by service, but plan to pay $20 to $40 an hour. While some small business owners may save money by switching to virtual assistants, most who hire them never had employees to begin with. The savings come from being able to concentrate efforts on building the business instead of balancing the checkbook and typing envelopes.

"I never thought about figuring out what it costs me vs. hiring someone," Goldsmith says. "I can do administration, but it would take me a whole day. I earn $100 to $200 an hour. It's stupid for me to do things that someone who gets $30 to $35 an hour can do better."

Pat Curry is a freelance writer based in Georgia

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