But employees still found ways to take care of personal business on company time… or simply do the crossword puzzle, chat at the water cooler, spend unauthorized time in the break room, or phone friends. Today, you can add to that list: take calls on their cellphones, surf the web, and answer personal email. It all goes on at work, right under the boss’s nose, whether the boss likes it or not.

The real question is, Is the employee getting a fair amount of work done, accomplishing his/her tasks in a timely manner, and turning in a quality performance?

If the answer is yes, then the boss is freed from the role of kindergarten monitor, watching to make sure that everyone is working at his/her assigned task and not goofing off. In the end result, what matters is the quantity and quality of work that is turned out, not how many trips to the coffee machine or water cooler or rest room or break room the employee took. And so it no longer becomes essential that everyone work in one place where the boss — or an office manager — can keep watch over them to ensure that they are not goofing off but are buckling down to work

And as those walls come tumbling down, so do the traditions of having everyone work from exactly 9 AM to exactly 5 PM. Because, face it, some of us do our best work at 5 in the morning or 9 at night. And it’s tough to force a cookie-cutter rigidity on a free-spirited, odd-scheduled type person who performs best when left to work his or her own hours.

With the advent of the internet, email, the worldwide web, and all the rest of our electronic world, it is no longer necessary for two people working on a project together to be in the same physical location. With a few exceptions, most workers can work on a project jointly yet be across town, across the country, or even halfway around the world from each other. They can pass files and pictures and other data back and forth seamlessly and instantaneously.

The stage was set for the virtual office.

As boss of a virtual set-up, you can hire the best person for the job regardless of whether that person lives around the corner or across the globe. You don’t have to spend time supervising an office staff, or hire an office manager and pay him or her to be sure the workers aren’t goofing off. You pay your workers to do a particular job, and it doesn’t matter if they work from 9 to 5 or 5 to 9 or three hours in the morning and six hours at night, as long as they do that job and do it right.

And that is the virtue in “virtual.”

Firstly, India is endowed with a good percentage of professionals in distinct fields. This can actually be accredited to the education system in India which lays a lot of emphasis on the production of well qualified professionals.

The other reason to explain India’s success is the liberalization of the communication sector which has ensured a creation of competitive players who are there to guarantee reliable internet and telephone services. The Government has also been very keen in the support of the above sector

Another point worthy noting is the culture of the Indians. They are said to be industrious by nature.

Indians are known to respect work ethics so much, and this has ensured that when trusted with the responsibilities of satisfying their clients, it is hard to get a disappointment from the Indians.

As a result of the high population in India, there is a high demand for labor. Indian firms are preferred for being affordable; this means that the companies from the west are able to cut their costs significantly outsourcing in the country.

There is a great awareness in India and too much information regarding outsourcing. There is a market characterized by perfect competition because there are many corporate and individual players involved.

As a result of this competition, India based firms are in the business of offering quality services at an affordable cost. A lot of firms are investing on manpower training to effectively serve the markets in the west.

The major recipients of Indian’s services are English speaking countries in Europe and America.

From India, you can be assured of the services such as transcription, customer service, information processing, personal assistance, website services, desktop publishing, etc,

Since the first job is always the hardest to get, you may require being a little bit patient.  You can also use the following strategies to acquire clients:

Use freelancers link services.

There are a number of online companies that actually link freelancers to the employers. There are both reputable and fake organizations that you can get on the internet. You have got to be aware that the sites that ask you for set up fees at the onset may not be so reliable. Try to get a reliable institution that can give you free membership for a start. If you see it working after a while, then you can get yourself going to a higher level by upgrading. The reliable ones include getafreelance.com, elance.com, scriptlance.com, odesk.com, etc.

Try internship with little or no pay.

You can actually increase your competitive edge by approaching an established virtual assistance outsourcing company to hire you for little pay to get experience or provide the recommendation letter in the end. If you prove to be good for a start, you are likely to get hired by the same company as one virtual assistant.

You have got to build your curriculum vitae in this.

A contract with a Virtual assistant is purely a business contract as opposed to an employment contract that you give your staff.

One good thing with a Virtual Assistant contract is that you can base it on a given period or a given task.

With your employee, the contract is sometimes defined by the labor laws. You are required also to pay not less than the Government’s recommended minimum wage, and there are laws relating to the termination of the contract.

Since a Virtual Assistant is an equivalent of your employee, there are certain qualities that he or she must have to be very effective when relating with you.

1.    A Virtual Assistant has to be easy to get a long with. He or she must understand that you have your own work schedule and ways of handling specific issues affecting your business. The VA must follow your orders.

2.    The VA must be honest. He/she should not try ways of  dodging you when the work is required, A good virtual assistant must be able to say he or she may not be able to meet your deadline when circumstances warrant

3.    The VA must be able to meet deadlines. Your schedules in business should not change to fit in the shoes of the VA. He or she must adapt to your schedule

4.    A good VA must also charge reasonably. The services that he or she is offering must be commensurate with the pay given.

5.    A good VA ought to be innovative. Though , the VA may not tamper with your business strategies, he or she should be in a position to add value to you in whatever he or she is doing.

What does this all mean to you? It probably means that you can expect to spend a vast amount of time online simply performing maintenance tasks on your website which can quickly get out of hand in terms of time consumption. In this case, you may need to start thinking about hiring a virtual assistant to help you out because if you spend all of your time performing web maintenance you will not have any time to update your webpage which can mean a lack of overall performance.

Most virtual assistants are capable of performing website maintenance as they are well versed in the Internet business climate. You may consider actually hiring a virtual assistant who has special job skills and qualifications related to web maintenance especially so that you can be sure your website is running even without your own time investment so that you can continue to work on its productivity instead.

If you own a small business Twitter can be an easy, quick, and cheap way to let your customers know that you are open to business and have many great offers heading their way. Plus, since most people access Twitter via their cell phones you have immediate access to most of your consumers which means you may see many of them stop by if you target your twitter messages for the weekends when you know people are already out spending their money from their paychecks.

Need a better reason to join Twitter to advertise? Well according to ABC, Twitter is read more often than any other news organization in the USA surpassing the Wall Street Journal and New York Times last month. Thus, while a regular small business may not be able to afford a New York Times advertisement, you can spend less and reach the same size audience on Twitter.

Additionally, the population of Twitter visitors is only going to soar as Nightline on ABC is going to release a web show component called ‘NightTline with Twitter’ so now is the time to act!

In fact, Microsoft actually stated it would be ready in time for the ‘shopping holiday season’ which means that you may expect to see the new operating system on sale by the Thanksgiving holiday with leaks around the internet stating an October 23^rd release date.

While virtual assistants have time before they have to update, since it is unlikely that most clients are going to rush out and buy the new operating system with updated Office programs, eventually the switch will have to be made. Therefore, this Christmas you may want to add the operating system onto your wish list just in case you have a few clients who expect nothing less than the best when it comes to updated computer technology.

For virtual assistants who want to see the new format and changes of Windows 7 before making the large purchase, you can head over to the Microsoft website to download the Release Candidate 1 fro the site as a free trial so you can see some of the differences. The format will seem similar to Windows Vista but there are a few slight improvements that may make your life better or worse depending on how adaptable you are to change.

Of course, Microsoft is famous for pushing back release dates so there may be no need to get worked up yet. However, beware that there is a new operating in the works and it is probably something you will have to budget for in the future.

Employees are expensive

Everyone needs someone who can lend a hand, but for a small online business owner the costs of hiring an employee may be well out of bounds. However, a virtual assistant works as an independent contractor so instead of worrying about tax law, insurance, and other benefits the only thing you have to be concerned about is the straight pay.

Stress relief and potential vacation time

When is the last time you took a vacation when you really got time to relax? As a small business owner you most likely are afraid to ever log off online for fear that something will happen while you are gone. Well, there is no need to worry if you hire a virtual assistant because they can watch your store while you are away.

More time for expansion

Since you have someone to assist you with the busy work that may have taken up most of your morning you can now turn your time and efforts towards development and growth. You may be amazed to see how much more you can get done since you can toss your mundane tasks to the virtual assistant.

Second pair of eyes

Most people forget that virtual assistants are trained professionals who are used to managing their own business because not only do they manage clients, but their own as well! Thus, once you get to know your virtual assistant they will get to know your business as well, and if you treat them correctly, will probably work hard offering helpful tips and suggestions as you go to improve the overall effectiveness of your business!

If an employer or service asks for money, RUN

First off, if you want to make a profit you should be aware that you should never have to an employer anything. In the real world you would never pay for a job and you should not expect to online either. If a client wants a deposit or payment from you then you know you will get scammed if you stick around.

Utilize social networking sites

Craigslist, Monster, LinkedIn, etc are all great social networking websites that can help you get the word about the services you provide and help you find job opportunities. You want to make sure to build a strong profile on each of these sites so that you represent yourself and your qualifications well.

Bid on freelance sites

You may also want to consider looking directly at freelance websites that are designed to help virtual assistants find freelance projects online. Elance, GetaFreelancer, and Guru are excellent contractor/provider sites that allow people who need virtual assistants to find those who need jobs.

Join an organization

Finally if you want to get the word out about your services as a virtual assistant consider joining an organization such as a virtual office temporary worker or a direct virtual assistant agency. Letting an agency find jobs for you will also help certify that you are a professional to potential clients.

First, you want to advertise at every opportunity. Your local newspaper can be a great place to start because you never know who could be looking to contract a virtual assistant in your area. Also post ads on online job boards and everywhere you can to spread the word that you are a virtual assistant along with your contact information.

You also will want to create business cards and brochures that you can leave in prominent locations around town such as a business bureau or any local business clubs such as Rotary or MENSA. If you are not sure what is in your area go to the Business Networking International website and take a look at your local listings.

Finally you will want to create a massive advertising campaign in which you mail your information to businesses both through snail mail and email to let potential employers know about your skills and services as a virtual assistant. At the same time you will want to join an official virtual assistant group which will not only help add to your resume but also show clients that you are serious about your career as a virtual assistant.