Evidently I've been living under a rock. Recently, I stumbled across the small business solution that turned my overwhelming to-do list into something manageable. It's called Virtual Assistance, and it has freed me from the burden of what would otherwise be time-consuming busywork. Simply put, a Virtual Assistant is an off-site employee who provides web or administrative support services, conducting nearly all transactions electronically.

Not only was I surprised to discover this neat lifesaver, I was even more amazed to find that it has it's own association: The International Virtual Assistants Association (ivaa.org). The IVAA website is a great place to find what will most certainly be an indispensable resource for you: Your own Virtual Assistant. Below are the top seven reasons to hire a VA:

1. They are all business. Your Virtual Assistant will support your needs, not the other way around. Since they bill their hours for the work they accomplish - some in increments as small as five minutes - you are not paying for personal phone calls, late arrivals, childcare crises, or sick time. If you detest the forced socialization of a corporate workplace, or listening to the humdrum minutiae of your co-worker's life story, a virtual staff solves that problem.

2. You're in control. Your working relationship is based upon a contractual agreement whereby you state in no uncertain terms what you expect. They either do it or they don't. If you want a web designer who uses Dreamweaver instead of hand-coding HTML, then you specify that. Or, you can entirely defer to your Virtual Assistant's expertise and focus your energy elsewhere.

3. Professional rapport. Your Virtual Assistant is in the entrepreneurial boat, too. They work at home, market their services, prospect for clients, and provide a service just like you do. It's a great way to add to your network base, as they may have found ways to solve problems you never even thought of. Often they have their own network of resources that they utilize for printing, document processing and promotion. Tapping into their resources doubles your own.

4. Cost savings. You can hire a VA from anywhere on Earth. It's as competitive an industry as any other, and you can expect a wide range of fees for various services offered. If you like the fees for web design, but think a particular service is too expensive for document editing or proofreading, you can hire multiple VA's to do different tasks to keep your own costs low. You are not under any obligation whatsoever, except, of course, to pay your bill.

5. Pride in their work. If you are hiring a VA for tasks such as web design, you can easily preview their work. Often the VA service will place testimonials on their site or examples of web pages they have designed. Examine their portfolio pages to determine the depth of their skills and experience.

6. Virtual freedom. No on-site employees means no liability, no worker's comp insurance, and no payroll taxes to calculate. Everyone is an independent contractor. You can utilize a virtual assistant for either ongoing work or on a per-project basis.

If your business is expanding as well as profiting you might find that time can become scarce. You might want to consider hiring someone to aid you with every day office duties. If your business is truly booming, you might find time scarce to even hire someone else. What do you do? Now is the time when you must decide on hiring another employee for your business or a virtual assistant. I want to stress the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant which can save you not only time, money and your sanity.

Got a last minute project? -:

Virtual assistants are available whenever you need them. If you only need help for fifteen hours or seventy hours a month, these assistants can accommodate the needs of your business. These assistants will perform virtually any project you throw at them to include last minute projects which you absolutely do not have time to perform. Virtual assistants are available for last minute projects when actual business employees would not be able to perform such tasks.

Save time and money -:

You can save expenses while paying a virtual assistant merely for their time and materials for specific projects. When assigning specific projects to actual employee's you might have to place aside particular hours and even if the project does not stem for those allotted hours, you will still have to pay for them. With a virtual assistant, you will only have to pay for the time and materials on that specific project. This will save your business money in the long run.

No need to worry about office space -:

You will not need extra equipment nor worry about extra office costs with virtual assistants. As a small business owner, you might not have the extra space of an extra employee within your business this is where virtual assistants prove their weight in gold. These assistants do not need space in your business to work, virtual assistants work primarily out of their own homes. This saves you not only time but valuable space in your business. Virtual assistants have their own equipment as well as workspace in order to aid your business with any project you throw at them.

No tax and benefit worries -:

You will not have to pay business related taxes, insurance fees, benefits or vacation time for virtual assistants. Virtual assistants are independent contractors therefore; you do not have to worry about providing any of these things to them. You do however have to pay them for their services and the agreed contract price.

Make sure you research for the best virtual assistant for your business -:

Make sure you perform your research for the best virtual assistant for your business. You will want to interview while asking many pertinent questions. How much will you charge by hour? Can I pay you per project? What types of services does the virtual assistant offer? Ensure you enter everything into a contract. This will protect not only your business but this will protect the virtual assistant as well. Legal is the best way to go.

If you are on the search for a virtual assistant, you must look for some particular things. If you are seeking an assistant for clerical duties as well as other administrative measures for your business, you must seek an assistant who has performed in an upper level position within the clerical field. You want an assistant with a high-level of expertise which will greatly become a benefit to your business.

Virtual assistants are independent contractors and not business employees. You want to inquire about the training and certification of the virtual assistant. If you need competent and professional help from your assistant, there are qualifications which you must look for.

Certifications are nice however, as a business owner, you should not place too much stock into certifications. It is not difficult to become certified through many ludicrous professional associations as well as programs. Certifications can prove misleading therefore, why it is more important for you as a business owner to concentrate on the training of the virtual assistant as compared to the numerous certifications which they might contain.

You want a virtual assistant who is literally in business for themselves. This shows commitment and a desire to succeed and you can rest assured that they will show this toward your business as well. You also to view if the virtual assistant has poor communication skills or long periods of unavailability's.

Ask the virtual assistant how long he or she has been in business. Do they work on a full-time or a part-time basis? There are questions which are very much pertinent in forming the decision of hiring a virtual assistant. Is the assistant confident? Is their business thriving? Request testimonials from the virtual assistant. You want to view if customers have been satisfied with their services. Testimonials speak volumes for the quality of work the virtual assistant more than likely gives as well as offers.

Lastly, you want to inquire about pricing. Most virtual assistants typically charge anywhere within the price range of forty dollars to seventy-five dollars an hour. This may like steep pricing however, you must understand that you do not want a ten dollar an hour virtual ads working for you and your business. You truly get what you pay for and this rings true with virtual helper.

In letting the price of the virtual assistants soak into your brain, you must think about how your services are not cheap. You feel that you offer quality products and services and that customers receive a great bargain for the quality of the products and services which you offer. Now, aim this mind frame toward hiring a virtual assistant. Get the picture?

As a business owner, you want someone you can work well with as well as someone who can offer great customer service while representing your business. You also want someone who is going to stick around therefore seek quality and value when searching for a virtual helper and the investment will prove worth it as you view not only the increase of your profits but the success of your business.

In the present business world, the significance of hiring a virtual assistant is becoming more evident. Why? Consider this; you can get them to accomplish a lot of tasks without costing too much. In fact, virtual assistants are considered to be one of the most efficient workers out there.

Outsource Your administrative assistant needs to an online virtual assistant will allow your company to save a lot of time and money. Most transactions are done with the aid of the internet technology. This means that there would be less operating costs such as electricity and transportation expenses. Even if you are separated y miles or even countries away, works can be done and sent in a click of a mouse. This faster and innovative working method allows your company to get a more efficient service than usual.

The significance of hiring a virtual assistant can also be gauged with the amount of work that can be accomplished at a short period of time. When you hire a virtual assistant, you are only getting him to do a specific task. And you will only have to pay him depending on the task that he is given. Unlike having full time employees when there are inevitable times of idleness, this per-project basis allows your company to utilize a more efficient workforce.

Perhaps the greatest economic importance of virtual assistant is the avoidance of expenditures used for employee benefits. This is because an online assistant does not require additional benefits such as insurances, paid vacations and other privileges a conventional employee receives. This explains why companies are still able to save a lot despite assistants receiving higher payment. Some companies implement additional bonuses to further motivate the assistants.

This new trend in business process outsourcing really is a big step in today's corporate world by creating a multitude of possibilities even to the smallest of companies.