Virtual Assistant - Information for Anyone Interested in Being or Hiring a VA

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Virtual Assistant Represents The Dream of Many to Work From Home
By Karen Fritscher-Porter

Virtual assistant Kathie Goldsmith enjoyed her job in the corporate world. She was devoted to her career and its cause which entailed writing environmental documents for civil engineering companies. But when she chose to become "Mom" at a typically nontraditional age, she changed her priorities. Wanting to spend more time raising her young daughters (as well as with her husband and two teenage step children), she began researching home based businesses.

Like many people looking for a work at home opportunity, Goldsmith stumbled around. "None of the multi-level marketing opportunities were right for me," Goldsmith recalled. "I dabbled in real estate as a landlord and had to deal with every rent crisis in the book. And I sifted through a gazillion business scams on the Net."

FINDING REPUTABLE WORK AT HOME JOBS
In fact, if you search the Web for work at home opportunities, you'll find some questionable ones. Those are the ones that suggest they can put you to work on "easy street" from within your home and do so practically overnight too (for a small investment, of course).

But as Goldsmith eventually discovered not all work at home business opportunities spell scam. Many work at home professions are reputable and offer fulfilling work. That is, they are not the elusive, mindless, and unreal, stuff envelopes from home type job that unwary work at home job seekers "stumble" upon. Goldsmith realized this when she began to read about virtual assistance.

WHAT IS A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
Virtual assistants like Goldsmith are entrepreneurs and independent contractors who work from their homes or offices. VAs (as they're often called for short) handle administrative support or other specialized business tasks outsourced to them, often from other home based or small business owners. For example, Goldsmith specializes in doing research for businesses as well as writing, editing, handling phone or email customer service, making travel arrangements and coordinating events.

Some virtual assistants even handle specialized tasks such as helping clients to draft and distribute press releases. Yet others specialize with working with particular subsets of clients such as realtors or freelance writers. Sometimes the tasks performed by virtual assistants evolve along with the needs of their home based and small business clients.

For instance, not many non-technical folk predicted years ago that their would be a profession called Internet marketing. Yet there is one. And some really savvy Internet marketers outsource tasks vital to their business success, including to virtual assistants who are stepping in to corner this niche market that needs their administrative and specialized support.

VIRTUAL ASSISTANCE ARRIVES
The virtual assistant profession service industry actually started forming about a decade ago. However, it is still being discovered by many people--from the home based or small businesses who utilize virtual assistants to aspiring virtual assistants. But the word is out about the virtual assistance business and it is snowballing. Virtual assistant Goldsmith did not come early or late to the virtual assistant industry. But she is glad she came.

"The moment I read about virtual assistance I knew I had found the home based business of my dreams," Goldsmith said.

And she is not alone. If you enter the phrase "virtual assistant" in your web browser, you'll turn up hundreds of virtual assistants. Some own established virtual assistance businesses and others are striving to make their new virtual assistant business a success. But they all are part of the "virtual" world that can reach anywhere.

VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS GO GLOBAL
Goldsmith operates as a virtual assistant in Austin, Texas, under the business name Life Balance Virtual Assistance. But like all virtual assistants she actually has the potential to reach clients nationally, even globally. Virtual assistants can do this because they operate and work with clients using communication tools such as the Internet, telephone, fax machine, courier service and postal mail.

About the only limit in regard to client outreach for virtual assistants is how many languages they do (or don't) speak. A VA obviously can't work with someone halfway across the world if they don't speak the language. Otherwise, the world truly is the limit for virtual assistants seeking clients. Likewise, the world is the limit for home based business owners and small based business owners seeking a virtual assistant. And Goldsmith does indeed represent the fulfilled dream of many who seek to work from home, whether they live in the United States or abroad.

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