A Virtual Assistant is a professional individual who provides remote, one-on-one, administrative support.

Like many other professional service providers, Virtual Assistants work remotely, using modern technology to provide their services and to liase with clients.

Virtual Assistants are most importantly experts in administration, but can offer additional services that fall under creative and technical services.

Virtual Assistants can be found in a variety of business backgrounds, but the most important thing is that they have at least five years, real business, administrative experience working in upper-level operations.

With this level of experience, a Virtual Assistant will have the skills and business know how which will show if they are truly qualified.

Glossary of Terms:

Database
An electronic filing system. A set of information, gathered in such a way that a  computer can easily gather and organise selected fields of data.

Desktop Publishing
Combination of text and graphics, used to create flyers, promotional material, newsletters, brochures, etc.

Mail Merge
Merge a customer address list with a form letter to produce personally addressed letters. We can merge any list with any document to create custom documents.

Microsoft Office Suite, Word, Excel, Power Point, WordPerfect
These are software packages that are sold as a bundle. These often include, in a variety of different combinations, word processing, accounting, spreadsheets, e-mail, presentation preparation, personal information managers, Web page creation and database management.

Presentation
Transform your writing in to a slide show, with color, movement, stylized fonts, graphics, and sound. Let others see your presentations from your computer using e-mail or show it on a screen.

Spreadsheet
A table sorted into columns and rows. Can be used for address lists, product information, financial statements. Each value in the spreadsheet can have an assigned relationship to other values. Custom documents can be created by manipulating data.

Templates
A ready made style for a document which can be used to create other documents needing little change.

Word Processing
Create, edit, and print a variety of free-form typed documents such as letters, manuals, contracts or editorial content, using a computer.