Good help may be hard to find ”“ and these days very hard to afford.
Lauren Ambrose of Wappingers Falls says she has a solution: Hire her as a “virtual assistant,” aka a remote employee, which is part of a fast-growing trend.
“The benefit of a business owner using a virtual assistant is getting the work done at lower costs,” said Ambrose, who worked for six years as an office administrator in Manhattan and for a real estate business in Wappingers Falls until the birth of her child last June led her to open a business so she could work from home. “A virtual assistant, as opposed to an in-office assistant, doesn”™t have a full-time salary and health benefits. You use them and retain their services as needed, but you”™re not paying for down time if there is no work,” she said.
Her duties range from Web research and phone communications to newsletter creation, data-base management and photo editing. “The list just begins there. It”™s a broad range of things that I do,” said Ambrose. Her service is called Virtual Assistant Lauren and her clients include real estate agents, attorneys and other professionals.
“Oh, yes,” Ambrose replied when asked if she was seeing an increase in business. She said that initially few calls came in but in recent months, as her reputation and business model has become more familiar, she has gotten so busy that she herself needs an assistant. “It is getting to the point where my friend, who is also a new mom, is going to have to help me.”
A virtual assistant is defined as a business owner who specializes in providing ongoing administrative support by working with clients in a continuous, collaborative relationship.
Like other service providers, virtual assistants work remotely in their own offices and, via technology, deliver services and communicate with clients.
Edward Ginsberg, owner of Ginsberg Real Estate, is a client of Ambrose”™s virtual assistant business and recommends the service.
“She approaches each task with enthusiasm and competence,” he said. “The work is completed in a timely and efficient manner.”
There is a Web site devoted to the virtual assistant industry, run by the International Virtual Assistant Association. According to information on the site, the industry was founded by Christine Durst in rural Connecticut in 1995 because “she believed the Internet could open her door to global business.” Attorney Michael Haaren is credited with co-founding the association and the Web site said it now has 600 members in 16 countries.
Ambrose said the business model is catching on quickly with “thousands” of virtual assistant services nationally. And, she said, the trend appears to be growing as costs rise and business looks to save money.
A company in South Carolina touts on its Web site that it outsources virtual assistants to work offshore. Virtual Assistant Inc. is a Charleston-based business process services company with delivery offices in the U.S. and the Philippines. “By having our virtual assistants work from our offices in Southeast Asia we are able to offer significant cost savings to our clients compared to similar USA-based service providers,” the company”™s Web site reads.
Ambrose said she charges an average hourly rate of $20, although fees vary from $15 to $25 an hour “depending on what is needed and how fast they need the job completed.”
Ambrose can be reached at her Web site, www.myvirtualassistantlauren.com.
