Can a Virtual Assistant Help You Grow Your Business? What VAs Provide their Clients and How it Has Helped Their Business by Lesley Spencer Pyle

As a home based entrepreneur, most of us look forward to getting to the point where we need to out-source work. If we are out-sourcing, we must be busier than we can handle and looking to lighten our load. If that's the case, you'll want to take a look inside the opportunities available to home business owners in hiring a virtual assistant (VA). If you have not heard of a Virtual Assistant, they are "highly skilled professionals who excel in their given area of expertise. They provide extensive marketing solutions, administrative support, proofing, editing, website design, bookkeeping and many other specialized services for entrepreneurs, small businesses, authors, and others who want to bring their business to a new level.
"VAs work globally taking advantage of all the many benefits the Internet offers," Diana Ennen, author of Virtual Assistant - The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA says.

"A VA can help a client's business grow in so many ways. One of the main reasons a person hires a VA is to just take over the daily administrative tasks so they can focus more on their clients and customers, thus making more money and growing their business. But once the immediate tasks are taken over by the VA, they can start to move into more of a partnership.

A VA can become the second in command for the client. When the trust grows over time, the VA starts to work with the client's customers, also helping to make even more money and allowing for their business to grow," Carolyn Berg, Virtual Assistant/Owner of Cyber Office Solutions, LLC (CyberOfficeSolutions) says.

Another way a VA can help a client's business grow is research. Most business owners do not have time to do research on the internet or make updates to databases, etc. A VA can handle research as well as help search new business alliances and opportunities. "Carolyn Berg has been my Virtual Assistant since December 2006. She handles many responsibilities that allow me to develop and market my business. She maintains my online newsletter, creates campaigns, makes calls to clients, creates marketing packages with desktop publishing and overall, keeps me on track. She is always willing to assist me, and she has made some great suggestions toward building the business," Tom O'Brien, owner of Tom O'Brien Productions (TomObrienProductions), in Washington, CT shares.

A virtual assistant is not only an assistant to other business owners, they are business owners themselves. They understand the ins and outs of running a business and know what is involved in owning a home based business. "VAs have a unique way of looking at problems from a business standpoint. Many of them have had their own growing pains and dealt with them which is a big advantage to businesses who use our services," Candy Beauchamp, CVA, CRESS Off Assist (OffAssist) says."I use three VAs in my business. I have my main VA who performs administrative tasks for me, another who does my accounting and a variety of others I bring in for special projects such as designing a brochure or doing research. If I was doing all of this work, I would never have time to see the number of clients that I am able to see and consequently wouldn't be able to achieve the income that I now can. Beyond that, they have added capabilities to offer services to my clients that I either don't have the skills to do or don't have the motivation or time to do. VAs have given me back time and created a broader range of services that I can offer to clients," Brad Farris, Anchor (AnchorAdvisors) Advisors, Ltd, in Chicago, IL, adds.

In today's world, you don't have to be in a big office building to have an assistant. You simply need to look online for the many talented VAs out there. I've found using VAs to be a great way to help manage and grow my business.

Helpful Resources: Virtual Assistant - The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After Va & VA the Series Workbook and Corel WordPerfect Office Ready, Virtual Assistant Solution Pack by Diana Ennen (VirtualWordPublishing) (Ivaa) (VanetWorking).

About the Author

Lesley Spencer Pyle is the founder and president of the HBWM.com, Inc. Network which includes Home-Based Working Moms(http://www.HBWM.com)and HireMyMom.com (http://www.HireMyMom.com). Pyle has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Family PC and many others. She has 4 children ages 18 months to 14 years and has been working from home since the first baby was born! Copyright 2008 by Entrepreneur.com Inc. All rights reserved.