Type "Virtual Assistants" in an internet search box and you will be greeted by every kind of business ranging from providers of fully serviced office spaces to typing bureaux.

The term was first used in the USA to describe people who offered one or more business administration services remotely. The USA is a very large place with many small communities separated by miles of highway and not much else. People still start businesses in such places, but they can't always find help, (a book-keeper for example) in the same town. There might be someone 500 miles away who offers book-keeping services using the phone, the internet and email and never meets any of their clients. The two link up and form a remote team.

The arrangement has advantages for both sides. The service provider can fit the work around family and other commitments, the service receiver doesn't have employment costs and doesn't have to provide space and equipment.

This type of arrangement still underpins the term Virtual Assistant, but things have moved on. There are now people using Virtual Assistant's from the other side of the world and the type of work done has expanded. There are now many people in the IT sector operating as Virtual Assistants, (one of our Clients has been working with a SQL programmer in Guatemala and we ourselves regularly work with people all over Europe and Scandinavia). There are more male VA's now too.

So, in a nutshell, a Virtual Assistant is a highly qualified professional who offers one or more skills to businesses on an outsourced basis.

Such an arrangement can be ideal for someone with a small business that has grown significantly and is doing well, but simply doesn't have the space or money to employ high quality, specialist administrative staff.

Which brings us to....