by Linda Gometz

Created on: July 05, 2008   Last Updated: September 02, 2011

There has never been a better time than now to have a home based business. One of the fastest growing home based businesses is that of operating a Virtual Assistant Business. Companies are always looking for ways to reduce their overhead and increase their productivity.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the average small business owner spends up to 40% of his or her time on routine administrative tasks. Services offered can and do range from call center support to transcribing documents and everything in-between.

But there are other opportunities available to the home based Virtual Assistant. Students and others can benefit from the services of a Virtual Assistant by having to spend less time on research. Newlyweds and new parents who do not have time to send out personalized announcements can assign the task to a Virtual Assistant. The home based Virtual Assistant can also organize wedding or baby photos and save them on disks, send them out to family and friends, or publish the photos online on a personal website.

In a recent survey published by the Virtual Assistant Networking Forum it was learned that 96.8% of all Virtual Assistants are women and that 69.3% of these are married, 76% have children, and 59.2% have college or trade school training. And to state the obvious, 82.5% started their home based businesses after being in the workforce for quite some time*.

Many women today are shunning the idea put forth in the 1980's. Two-income families are still the norm, but leaving the home each day in pursuit of the dollar is no longer attractive. Women who offer businesses and individuals their support as a Virtual Assistant have the best of both worlds.

There is, however, more to running a home based business than simply providing services. There are organizations that provide resources and education to help the home based business woman run smarter businesses. It can be daunting when making the transition from employee to business owner. Some questions to ask are: Am I a self starter? How good am I at making decisions? Do I have the physical and emotional stamina to run a business? How well do I plan and organize?

Of course, like any other business, a home based business is dependent upon a successful marketing campaign. Word of mouth is one way of getting the home based business before the people who can benefit from its services. Family and friends know people who can benefit from a Virtual Assistant. Other marketing strategies

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