Virtual Assistant - perfect for Work at Home Mums

Start a home secretarial business

Virtual assistants are a fairly new concept - secretaries at the end of a 'phone. For many women, having children means they have little option but to leave the workplace, often permanently because bringing up children - not just the youngest, but right through from pre-school to needing Mum to drive them to swimming classes or football or whatever does not fit comfortably with going out to work and will occupy perhaps the next fiteen to twenty years.

Even when the children are grown up, getting back into regular employment is going to be difficult. Ageism may now be illegal but try telling that to a potential employer! Also, office practices and techniques will have changed, perhaps requiring re-training to get back into the swing of things and up to speed again.

There is one way that a stay at home Mum - or indeed anyone with secretarial skills who wants to stop the daily commute and work from home can do so - by becoming a Virtual Assistant. Note that this isn't an easy option! Bringing up kids was never easy and combining it with a home business will always be demanding. Not just for Mums either, many men may decide to work at home and they too will find that it requires a different sort of discipline from the structured 9 - 5.30 they may be so desparate to leave. Of course, it also brings its own rewards as well, but you have to work for them................

So, just what is a Virtual Assistant? Think of one as a secretary at the end of the telephone. Say you have a self employed builder, plumber, electrician - you name it. Often a one man business which certainly needs a secretary but could never justify the cost of employing one full time. A VA would offer her/his services to people like this, offering to take over all the worries associated with small business book keeping, quotations and invoices, typing up letters to potential clients, answering the 'phone and so on, all from the comfort of home.

The business rational is that each of those small businesses might take up an hour or three each week so one virtual assistant can handle the needs of a number of clients. You as the VA need to keep a record of the time spent working for each client and them bill them at month's end at normal commercial rates. Your client can get on with his business, making money doing what he knows best, while you run the back office side for him efficiently but at a fraction of what a full time employee would cost him.

How do you get started? Probably word of mouth, the usual postcards in local shops, advertising in church and parish magazines etc. Keep your ear to the ground for news of people starting up their own business and let them know how you can help them.

I would strongly advise you to launch your own web-site. It doesn't have to be particularly sophisticated - probably five pages would sufice - but it gives you immediate credibility and it will be invaluable in your marketing. Often, people just don't understand the VA concept but by refering them to your own web-site they can read all about you and your skills, but more importantly, about how you can make their own lives easier and their business more profitable.

And that web-site needn't be expensive. You could build your own professional SBI website with everything needed, including tuition, the name registration and a year of hosting for just $299 (say, £150.00). Or, you could have one built for you for not a great deal more - a great time saver and it will be tax deductable!

We love success storys so if you are or are thinking of becoming a virtual assistant why not let us know how you are getting on? You can contact us here and we may be able to feature you on this site, as an inspiration to some of our other readers - and the publicity won't do you any harm either!

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Looking for more help?

www.virtual-assistant-advice.com A friendly information site for prospective or existing virtual assistants and those wishing to use their services. Great information for WAHMs, independent contractors, how to start a home based secretarial service, transcription from home and much more.

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