A virtual assistant works independently for a period of time to cater to the needs of his clients, working from home at his own pace and ease. Virtual assistants are normally experts in their fields of work. A Virtual assistant can be a freelance administrator, freelance programmer, freelance web designer, organizer, researcher, typist, editor, co-coordinator, secretary and so on. Clients too enjoy the flexibility of working with virtual assistants as they can capitalize on the services offered by the online workers without having to pay them regular wages and other fringe benefits, besides saving on rentals and transport of staff. Choosing the best virtual assistant: Outsourcing work to virtual assistants is very common these days, but it is essential to know if the virtual assistants are skilled and qualified to do the job. Below given are the practical points, which need to be considered while choosing the virtual assistants: Methods of checking the professionalism and competence: Since almost all the virtual assistants work from a distance, they need to have an online presence in the form of website which provides the necessary information.

The websites provide clues on their professionalism and competence as it can be checked for its content, presentation, explanation of concept, navigation if easy or organized, well written without any spelling and grammar mistakes etc. A website with improper structure and misspelling lets the client know the proficiency in language, the way the concept is explained and whether the virtual assistant is serious about her business or not. Methods of checking the skills, attitude and expertise of the virtual assistant: Once the web presence is checked and satisfied, the attitude, skills and expertise can be checked by calling the virtual assistant over phone or by meeting in person. The response is checked for how well he responds to the enquiries, if timely or not, is he professional over the phone, how good he is in picking a call etc. Checking for professionalism and finesse: The virtual assistant chosen should not only deliver services on time with expertise, but should also be in a position to exhibit business sense. The client should know the modality of work, processes involved, services provided, values and expectations etc for working together.

Checking for personality and professional traits: If a virtual assistant has to be relied on business activities, he should be good enough to handle the business and hence he needs to be checked for confidence, articulation and trustworthiness and to see how well the client can connect with him, if he listens carefully and exhibits interest and curiosity, if he is smart and if he asks purposeful questions etc. Experience in the particular field, testimonials which are presented in the website and pricing - if it is competitive or not, are all-important constraints in the selection process of virtual assistants.

S. Geetha regularly contributes informative articles to web guides on freelance and work from home jobs http://www.careercounsel.info and http://www.myhomebizguide.com