Nowadays, virtual assistants are the people many business owners are raving about. If you own your own business and need help with everyday administrative duties, but have yet to find someone to help you, a virtual assistant is just what you’re looking for. You might be wondering what a virtual assistant is, however. The Alliance for Virtual Business provides the best definition of virtual assistants, a definition that includes how they work and what they can do.

“Virtual Assistants (VAs) are independent entrepreneurs providing professional administrative, creative, managerial, technical, business office and/or personal support services. VAs use the most advanced means of communication, and the newest and most efficient and time saving office products and work delivery, regardless of geographic boundaries. Virtual Assistants work from their own offices, on a contractual basis, and abide by an established Code of Ethics requiring integrity, honesty and due diligence.”

By this definition alone, you can already tell that a virtual assistant works exactly like a regular employee, one who works somewhat like a telecommuter and without one particular job description. Virtual assistants can perform a multitude of tasks, which makes them widely known as jacks-of-all-trades and skilled multitaskers. They can do everything from accounting work, writing, marketing, responding phone and e-mail inquiries, setting up appointments for you, to research, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Basically, whatever you need to delegate, they can handle it for you, and you can also train them for the tasks which need a little extra skill for them.

The reason why virtual assistants are capable of all these duties and more is that they usually have a solid background in business and invarious industries, with most of them holding a college degree. As you can see, virtual assistants are no mere “assistants.” They are valuable additions to your business, and at the very least, you can also encourage them to contribute ideas to your business.

Probably the main attraction of having a virtual assistant is that it frees you from the mind-numbing, time-consuming administrative tasks which are indeed important for your business to stay alive, but certainly a headache to do if you have other major projects to pay attention to as well. Things like scheduling meetings, answering phone calls, notifying suppliers, and updating your directory of contacts don’t require your exclusive attention; when your virtual assistant knows exactly what you need and are looking for, he or she then becomes something like an extension of you, able to do the work you would normally do exactly the way you would do it.

Virtual assistants abound on the Internet, and you can easily find them by doing a search on search engines like Yahoo! and Google. Of course, you can always turn to an online staffing agency. These agencies, one of which is SimpleBackOffice (www.simplebackoffice.com), already have virtual assistants waiting to be deployed to help you with your business. You simply have to inform such companies about your criteria and the type of work you need to do, and you will immediately be directed to the virtual assistants who can accomplish the tasks you require. These agencies will also help you find an immediate replacement in case your partnership with the original virtual assistant doesn’t work out.

In order to find the right virtual assistant for you, you must already have a list of duties that you are willing to delegate and will therefore need your potential virtual assistant to perform. You should also have a list of requirements in the virtual assistant you’re looking for, as well as a set of questions that will help you determine who you can best work with. You can find out what the skills and software proficiency the applicants for the job possess, how many hours a day or a week they will be able to work with, the communication options you will be using, and if they require any training at all in order to do the work for you. You should also learn more about his or her working history as a virtual assistant. You can also specify if your virtual assistant should be based in your country or in other parts of the world; virtual assistants are everywhere and no matter where in the world they are, there will always be one who is most suited to the tasks you will set. The process is akin to screening a full-time employee for working in your company, except for the fact that you are able to cast your net a little more widely with the world of virtual assistants available at your fingertips.

Don’t forget to talk about pricing and payment options as well. Virtual assistants generally charge fees that are lower than the ones you may normally pay a regular full-time employee, and they don’t need you to set up additional office space, purchase equipment, or provide them with medical benefits and social security. Rather independent business owners who work on their own might balk at the additional cost of hiring a virtual assistant; if you’re one of these people, take the time to consider the the cost versus the benefits a virtual assistant will give you. If your assistant will work for you for 10 hours each week and you pay him or her $15 per hour, that’s $150 out of your pocket, but ten hours added to your schedule, which leaves you plenty of time to work on aspects of your business that make you money, certainly more than $150 a week.

Once you find your virtual assistant, you can begin training him or her for the tasks you require. This type of training need not be a complicated process; you can train your virtual assistant simply by detailing exactly the type of work you need done and by testing the various software you’ll be using to communicate. You can also run a quick trial period for him or her to get a handle on the duties first, and also for you to get to know your virtual assistant better and determine if the work he or she performs is up to your expectations.

Remember that since you and your virtual assistant are communicating over the phone and the Internet, you will not have a chance to supervise every aspect of the work being performed. Micro-managing is hardly advisable for a job on a virtual basis, and many virtual assistants tend to be independent workers with little need for constant direction and supervision. In order to ensure nothing but the highest quality of work, what you can do instead is to request daily reports on jobs that have been completed, including the number of hours it took to finish each task. When you notice that your virtual assistant made a mistake on a particular task, all you need to do is inform him or her about the mistake and request that corrections be sent to you as soon as possible.

You may be worried about sharing the details about your business and operations with someone you don’t even know, let alone seen. Virtual assistants make the same leap of faith as you do, trusting that their skills will be put to good use and that they will receive fair payment and treatment from you. Virtual assistants are entrepreneurs like you, and one of their foremost priorities is to ensure that they do a good job, which will reflect well on them and the kind of work that they do, making sure that their services will be in demand and respected.

With their skills and trustworthy qualities, it’s no surprise that virtual assistants are in higher demand these days. Learn how to let go of everyday tasks and hand them off to a skilled virtual assistant, one who is a perfect fit for your company and your personality, and start building your business the way you want to.