If you hate working away from home and if having a full time corporate job means having to stay away from your children, then the job or work of a personal virtual assistant (VA) may be perfect for you. As a VA you don't have to just sit in a stuffy office cubicle and do the tasks that you might not really enjoy doing. Instead you can work at home, earn as much money and hopefully more than you would earn at a desk job, and focus on tasks you do enjoy the most.



The work schedule of a virtual assistant depends completely on the employer. This can include maintaining public relations with the professional clientele, coordinating and managing events, taking care of daily schedules and keeping track of meetings and appointments, paying bills and maintaining documents and many other technical, social or managerial duties.

There are many ways in which one can find jobs as a virtual assistant. The easiest and most effective way of doing so is to apply for employment to one of the placement agencies. They will find work for you that is most suited according to the resume you have submitted, skills you have and work that is available. However, they will also charge a heavy commission out of your salary for this service on a regular basis.

If you want to avoid paying such commission to agencies, you can apply or bid for jobs on a one-to-one freelance basis to companies. And as your business grows, hire other personal virtual assistants to help you.

Note that it is very important to build and maintain a reputation of efficiency and dependency as a virtual assistant, even when you have helpers. This is your only asset against which you shall be considered for more lucrative offers in the future. There are certain qualities of being a good virtual assistant that you must keep in mind if you are looking to be one:

• Punctuality counts when you are working as an assistant for anyone. It does not matter if you are not physically present in the office. This is not an excuse to delay work that needs to be completed within stipulated time. Therefore, be punctual and don't give your employer or client an excuse for being dismissed.

• Since you are a virtual assistant, although you may be free of the fixed work timing of an office environment, you will be expected to be of advantage in other ways. One of them may be allowing access to yourself by your employer at set times or for a certain amount of time during the day. And chances are that as a VA you will have employers or clients who are in different time zones around the world. Therefore, take advantage of using the Internet for email, chats, forums, Twitter and other social media and other means of connecting 24/7, cell phones with unlimited long distance calling plans, call forwarding and voicemail, Skype with message services and other communication channels as much as possible. Plug in and be accessible, bottom line.

• You will come across all sorts of people and will be expected to deal with them with equal panache at all times. Don't let your personal judgments come in the way of your work. Accomplish the job with perfect objectivity, to the best of your ability. This demonstrates an excellent quality in a VA.

• Since your employer or client cannot see you at any time that he or she may like, you need to prove yourself to be dependable and trustworthy enough to be presented with important information and preserving it with discretion. Be alert to who in your environment, online and off, has possible access to your work; this includes keeping your computer, cell phone and daily planner protected in all possible ways.

Outsourcing as a personal virtual assistant can be an excellent means to making money from home, helping business of all sizes start and grow. However, since you don't have someone waiting on you constantly to complete your work, this doesn't mean that you behave lackadaisically at your job. Remember, that you are perfectly replaceable with someone else who is better at it than you are. So hone in on your skills, keep sharp and put your best foot forward!