There is a distinct difference between a professional VA and an Indian call centre operator as I pointed out in a recent blog post (http://tinyurl.com/kto7qg)

You raise some good points though Mark. It’s important to point out that a professional VA/client relationship works best with open communication. The POINT of a VA is to free up clients for those tasks their time is better spent on – like business growth and leads. If your time is worth $200/hour why spend it booking travel when a VA can do it for much less and your time is more productively spent working on your business?

Plus don’t confuse a VA with a personal concierge or professional personal organiser (who generally do the onsite running around type things you list). VAs provide remote secretarial/admin support with many specialising in certain niche areas. That is what the definition has always been since home-based secretaries first emerged in the 80s – with the actual term first being used by Thomas Leonard founder of CoachU and the ICF to describe his then remote secretary.

I currently provide VA services for clients in Australia, the UK, Singapore, Canada and North America. These services include traditional secretarial type roles like transcription and document production but have also entailed appointment scheduling, travel arrangements and even buying tickets to Cirque du Soleil in New York.

What a VA can do for you is limited only by your imagination and your ability to communicate effectively.

Amanda

People choose VA’s to free up their time, for convenience, or because someone can do something they can’t.

@Mark – In your scenario, I can absolutely see why you would choose a Personal Assistant rather than a VA. If a client presented those tasks to me in an initial consult, I would likely remove myself from consideration. The small benefit they would receive would not outweigh the cost.

Proper VAs do a great job and are highly professional, but do suffer some image problems (unjustified generally) as there will always be people who think it’s an easy alternative to working for a livng!

I tend to work with local companies because I like dealing with people. Real people wherever possible, so I can get to know them… The Spanish client came about from the business centre I work in – he has a mailing address there but wanted more than just the forwarding, so the owner asked me if I would get involved. So far it’s working really well, I just need a few more…

Your Spanish client is interesting. There are quite a few things you can do with mail forwarding, etc. Personally I’m still more comfortable with my payments coming to my business address. However, I could see some significant advantages if I needed a presence in another country, but didn’t want the expens of setting up an office there.

@Crystal – You are correct. However, the most common perception of a virtual assistant is someone working in a call center from India. Most of the people I’ve met who do high level work market their services directly as a freelancer (similar to what Sara said above) instead of trying to fit everything under the term “virtual assistant”.

Also, sometimes savings comes in being able to request small amounts of work at a time instead of from a very low hourly rate.

Interesting article and as someone who describes themselves as a Virtual Assistant at times, you might br surprised to learn that I agree with a lot of what you are saying!

You see I’m playing around with the term Freelance Administrator instead, because although in theory I can work with anyone in the world I focus on clients in my local area, precisely because I feel that I provide a better service by being able to make an occasional trip to the bank etc if needed. It also means that if needed I can go and collect that pile of documents that need scanning…

Just one observation though, the client I have who I pay in cheques and go to the Post Office for most often is the one based in Spain! He has a mailing address at our office so I open, scan and email his post over – don’t underestimate the power of a bit of planning, lateral thinking and using the right person.

Partnering with a virtual assistant will save you the overhead costs associated with employees – equipment, payroll, benefits, and even coffee breaks. You can save up to 2.5x the cost of a regular employee.

But more importantly, a VA worth his or her salt will work with you to find solutions for your business that help you succeed.

For more information on the industry, I suggest visiting IVAA.org (International Virtual Assistants Association) or VANetworking.com. There are many resources out there, and associations in almost every country, however those two resources are a great start for someone who wants to learn about the Virtual Assistance as a global industry.