When most people hear the term ‘virtual assistant’, they assume that it’s a secretary who chooses to work from home. &nbsp; Definition&nbsp; A virtual assistant, more commonly known as a VA, is a self-employed / freelance administrative assistant or PA (to name but two forms of VA support), who works remotely – normally from home, for various international clients.&nbsp; Due to the demands on the life of a professional; in these sometimes difficult economic times, particularly those who own their own business, a VA is a necessity that some people just cannot live without. &nbsp; Why hire a VA?&nbsp; There are those who will wonder why a small or small to medium size business just doesn’t hire somebody to work for the business on a part or full time.&nbsp; The answer is simple – money and convenience. An office based administrative assistant, whether on a part time or full time basis, costs money. It’s not just the salary costs, an employer also has to think about: recruitment fees; national insurance; employer’s tax; pensions and other overheads. That’s a considerable amount of money to be paid out by a business that may not need support all of the time. A VA may work for multiple clients, but a business is able to hire them to work for you purely for the number of hours you need. A VA is usually able to accommodate the number of hours a client needs – this may be more one week and less the next, dependant on the fluctuating needs of your business. This means that you are only paying for the actual number of hours support you need, without all of the additional overheads.&nbsp; VAs have a variety of different skills; meaning that businesses may choose to work with more than one VA at a time. There are so many things that VAs are able to do to support clients, that is why I’ve decided to write a second article, which&nbsp;will focus solely on these – watch this space!&nbsp;

So, what is a virtual assistant VA?

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