Virtual Assistants: The Magic of Telecommuting and Distance Employment

Filed in archive Office Solutions on March 3, 2010

Telecommuting refers to people who work for another company out of their own home and communicate with their employers via e-mail and telephone. Generally, freelancers and contractors work in this manner all the time. Some companies hire permanent telecommuting employees. By enlisting telecommuters rather than having employees "come" to work, you save on the expenses of providing additional equipment and furnishings-as well as the potential problems that may result from people coming to your home to work.


Virtual assistants are a fast-growing sector of the online business industry. Many people are choosing to work from home, and making their services available to other companies rather than starting their own businesses. Good virtual assistants are pre-packaged with their own equipment, software, phone lines, verything you have in your home office, and sometimes more. There are thousands of virtual assistants available to help your business, either as permanent employees or freelance contractors.

There are a huge number of web sites dedicated to telecommuting and working from home concerns, including job boards, classified ad sites and professional listings of established telecommuters. These boards generally work two ways:
you can search them for talent, or post a job advertisement and have the talent come to you.

If you need part-time or full-time help on a permanent basis, you might want to consider hiring a virtual employee or two. There are several ways to regulate and manage virtual employees. You can assign them to "work" at specified times, for instance, if you needed someone to answer phones during peak business hours.

There are many virtual administrative assistants trained to perform routine office tasks from a remote location. Just as a typical business secretary would do from the front desk of a brick-and-mortar office, a virtual administrative assistant can answer phones and e-mails, fulfill orders, manage lists and databases, and take care of other time-consuming tasks; leaving you free to run your virtual corporation.

You can also hire a virtual employee on a piecework basis. If your business involves generating projects on an individual basis for clients, such as consultation work, you could hire a part-time virtual employee to work on your overflow and pay them on a per-project basis, rather than an hourly rate.

One benefit of hiring a virtual employee is the ability to develop their skills in relation to your company. Because employees involve a longer time frame and level of commitment than contractors, you can develop a relationship with your employees and eventually, they will be able to manage themselves with little supervision. Be sure to invest enough time and energy in your employees to keep them happy working for you, and your job will be far easier in the long run.

When considering virtual employees, you must be aware there are different sets of tax and terms of employment rules than for freelancers and contractors. Tax issues concerning employees versus contractors are discussed further in the
section on Legal Mumbo-Jumbo.