What is a virtual assistant and how have they helped your business?

Virtual Assistants are essentially people who perform tasks for you, but you pay per hour or per day instead of employing them. For example, you may want to know who are your competitors selling widgets on the internet, so a Virtual Assistant could be given this task and will come back to you with a list. You will usually advise how long they should spend on the task i.e. two hours, so that you are both happy with the arrangement.

A Virtual Assistant is basically an assistant who works for your remotely (or virtually) from his/her location handling most tasks that an in-office assistant can do for you.

I joke and say a VA can handle most of your business tasks except bringing your morning coffee everyday because they might just be in another country.

On a more serious note and as a bonus I have attached several free video interviews on my blog with successful entrepreneurs who outsource and make use of virtual assistants in their businesses. Click to learn how they do it!

http://www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com/Michelle-Salater
http://www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com/Julie-Auslander
http://www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com/Tracy-Matthewman

Owen McGab Enaohwo
CEO
HYVA L.L.C.

Hello Nick. Great question! A virtual assistant is someone that you hire to help you manage your daily tasks, whether its for your business or your personal convenience. If you are using one for business, then it would help you cut costs since a VA is an independent contractor. That means you don't pay any employee benefits. Having a VA also lessens your overhead expenses -- no need for office space and equipment.

Having a VA also means that you have more time to do things that you want. Similarly, a VA does things that you don't want to do like boring data entry stuff, research, etc. Here is a link to some of blog posts about VAs and what tasks they can do for you: http://www.thevirtualonlineassistant.com/guide-to-hiring-a-va/

I agree with the many definitions above, as for how a VA can be utilized:

* Customer service (for example, live chat or email for your web clients)
* Handling of repetitive tasks like data entry or research, as Nica mentioned

In our web design and SEO business we utilize virtual and traditional assistants for the handling of non-crucial tasks; tasks like entering content on our client's sites, doing basic keyword search, repetitive tasks like service configurations or copy-and-pasting massive amount of content. After these less-technical jobs have been performed, our in-house teams can take over the more creative and technical aspects of each task.

I agree with everyone! To make it simple, a Virtual Assistant is someone who will do tedious job for you..someone who will do what you don't want to do.

You can visit my site at http://vaintl.net

A virtual assistant is a self employed individual that provides administrative or technical services to clients that works from home. One of the reasons why people hire virtual assistant is to help them manage time. Having a virtual assistant can help you improve workflow and boost business productivity. It is also a great way to save cost where virtual assistants are independent contractors that do not requires you for any employee related taxes, insurance or benefits. You can also check this blog for more information on how virtual assistant can help your business.
http://www.staff.com/blog/hiring-a-virtual-assistant/

Keep in mind that some of us have hired VAs who also live in our neighborhoods and when the opportunity presents itself, they can do other personal assistant work from our offices.