Keeping a virtual assistant is not only a status symbol but it's also become a necessity for the burgeoning online business. Professionals and entrepreneurs are helping business houses as virtual assistants lessening their work loads.

A virtual employee can assist you in varying business tasks like tracking expenses, ordering lunch and breakfast, assisting in document preparation, etc. All these and many other works are accomplished at rates much lower than what you pay for an on-site assistant.

The most basic advantages in getting virtual assistant services are-

·         Low cost involved

·         Free trial periods are there to satisfy yourself

·         On some projects, their entire team works

·         Your work is being done even when you are asleep

The selection process of a virtual professional is quite tough and one need to be very skeptical about various things while hiring them. You must ensure that they possess all the needed resources to execute your tasks. Moreover, it is good to verify their educational background and previous experience in a particular field.

Though, the charges of a VA are higher but if you will calculate the overall cost of a full-time employee you will realize that this cost is nothing in front of that.

Are you too much busy in booking airline tickets, ordering food for you, or calling your family? Why don’t you hire a virtual secretary who will do 10 more errands like these at around $ 20-30 per month.
 
The world has open immense  opportunities for outsourcing official errands.  These opportunities are in the form of virtual assistant services. The websites of these services are making it easier for countries to outsource their official errands overseas.

There are different types of unusual tasks handled by the professionals of virtual assistant services:

•    Attending the phone calls on behalf of you.
•    Making word, excel and power point documents
•  Arranging traveling, reserving seats for dinner, doing research for your child
•    Ordering some of the personal and professional items online on your behalf
 
One can find these assistants working in time zone shifts and are available from 9 AM to 6 PM. The best part of having these assistants is that you need not invest in office infrastructure, resources, employee benefits, payroll, etc.
 
The ease of handling duties with low cost involved have mushroomed the growth of virtual assistant companies in the world.

With outsourcing becoming the buzz word to control costs and add quality, all kinds of businesses are seeking outsourced support services known as virtual assistant services. 

The advancements in communication technology and spurt in online business are providing  the right eco-system for virtual assistant services. 

Thanks to the wizardry of the internet, Virtual Assistants Services came as a life jacket for many businesses boosting efficiency and cutting the cluttered systems.
 
Now there is no looking back as far as the Virtual Assistants industry is concerned. Virtual assistant firms have also won the confidence of industries by providing crucial support to thousands of clients all across the globe.

Benefits of Hiring Virtual Assistants
1.  A larger pool of talent to choose from 
2.  Savings in infrastructure Costs 
3. Savings in Hardware Costs such as computer and other equipments
 
Since small business owners are the worst hit in terms of capital, staffing, technology and marketing they are taking virtual services as a the oxygen for sustenance. 
Businesses can find VAs of all specializations. While some of them prefer to work in niche areas that too for specific industries there are generalists also who work in a variety of fields.
 
Whatever be the needs of a business, a virtual assistant takes out the stress of lot many business owners and make their business run efficiently and profitably. 
Already many small businesses have found their survival mantra in outsourced Virtual assistant services. Seeing the tangible gains in business profits made by their peers more SMEs are coming on board to avail the remote services. 
Top 7 services

According to a recent business survey, there are seven value added services sought by SMEs across the world,

• General Virtual Assistant Services: Internet research, email management, and Data entry.
• Social Media Consulting: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs and social bookmarking
• Content: Content for websites, sales pages and landing pages.
• Content marketing: Email marketing; article submissions; ebook development.
• Blog setup: WordPress, TypePad, and Blogger
• Web Design
• Web Maintenance

It will be no exaggeration to say this hot list will keep expanding as big corporations too join the race to find more virtue in virtual services

All businesses, be it big or small, hires virtual assistants to ensure rapid success. According to an entrepreneur who benefited by hiring a virtual assistant, “My business transformed so much that I started getting more time to look into business development in addition to sparing more time for my family, relationships and reading activities”.

Businesses gain more by streamlining the administration. Therefore hiring an able administrative assistant makes sense. The virtual administrative assistant is the counterpart of erstwhile office secretary.

The only difference being the new type of assistant will not make a physical presence in your office. Rather the contacts between the boss and assistant will through phone or the Internet as against face to face interaction.

A virtual administrative assistant also scores from a cost point of view. Once the administrative assistant starts performing from a remote location there is nothing to worry about investments in hardware, space and stationary.
Positive feedback from businesses who gained from virtual workers are too many. Their references are catalysts in adding more clients to the virtual services sector who crowd the sector with expectations of managing their business resources with small budgets and good savings. No wonder, they will be the ones who say that a Virtual Assistant is the missing link in any business that is waiting for a take off.