Becoming a Virtual Assistant

What is a Virtual Assistant?

The term virtual assistant is popping up more and more these days as the internet has become a means of income for those who are looking to work from home. Virtual assistant is simply a term used to describe a person who provides secretarial type support through online means.

A virtual assistant, or VA, is someone who helps small business owners with various tasks that are needed to help the business run smoothly. The small everyday duties are usually outsourced to virtual assistants as the small business owners find they don’t have the time or, in some cases, the resources necessary to perform them by themselves.

AVA takes those tasks and provides the support that’s needed to get them done for the business owners, who then have their time freed up to do other more important tasks. Small businesses rely on the VA’s, so they can spend more time to market their business and bring in more sales or income.

Virtual assistants are different from those who provide secretarial support in an office building environment. The VA’s do some of the same type of tasks only in a virtual or online environment. Virtual assistants work out of their own home offices and rarely, if ever, step into a company’s business site.

Virtual assistants also differ from secretaries as they can work for more than one business or client. Secretaries generally provide support for one company only. Virtual assistants can have several clients at once that they provide help for and each client will have different duties that the VA takes care of for them.

Another way secretaries differ from VA’s is the scheduling. Secretaries, who work onsite in a building, generally work a set number of hours during the day and a certain number of days a week. VA’s can have a more flexible schedule to work with. In most cases, the VA can decide their own hours; working around their own schedules. This can include evening and weekend hours as well.

Virtual assistants are considered self-employed or independent contractors. There are no health benefits offered to them from the companies or clients they work for. Also, they provide their own equipment to work with. They use their own computer, internet connection, software programs, printers, etc. Secretaries use what the company provides for them.

VA’s also do not have taxes taken out of the payments received from the businesses or clients. They can be paid by check, money order, credit card or even through an online account like PayPal. Secretaries are paid through a paycheck from companies and have taxes, etc. taken out of the gross payment amount.

Because of the flexibility that a Virtual assistant can have by working from their home office; more people with secretarial experience are leaving the commute to a worksite to provide their support from home. They can benefit from that flexibility by working with several clients to bring in their share for the family income. The drawbacks of needing to use their own equipment and not having taxes taken out of their payments, doesn’t suede their decision to work from home. The flexibility, in most cases, overrides those drawbacks. This will help the VA industry to boom for many years to come.