In broad terms, Virtual Assistants consist of either individuals or companies who work remotely as independent professionals, and use technology to deliver a wide range of products and services to clients. They’ve been around as a service for quite a while, but have only recently found a broad title for their services.

Not simply an administrative assistant!

Over the past 6 years or so the Virtual Industry has evolved from the traditional roles of PAs and administrative assistants to more specialised virtual roles that are usually experienced employees from a corporate environment that have set up their own virtual offices. These specialists include virtual project managers, virtual marketing assistants, virtual content writing assistants and virtual web content owners, to name but a few.

It is impossible to say how large or small the virtual industry is, however it is estimated that there are somewhere between 5,000 and 25,000 virtual assistants worldwide. So there is very likely to be a virtual specialist to suit your needs!

With technology and internet speed reducing the barrier to working remotely individuals and small business owners are outsourcing work and building their teams that include one or more virtual assistants.  Small web agencies have employed the ‘bodyshopping’ model of building virtual teams for quite a while, and this is now translating into more traditional office environments too.

Your aim as a business owner or entrepreneur is to not work in the business, but on it!

No matter what industry or how big or small your empire is, VA’s can give back your freedom so that you can do more of what you love to do, and spend less time on those tasks you ‘have’ to do. Think of a Virtual Assistant as a partner, someone who wants to see you succeed as much as you do and provides the support to help make that happen.

Here are five key benefits a Virtual Assistant could bring to your business:

Time

A virtual assistant can save you so much time by taking on the tasks that you never liked doing or just don’t have the time to. This means that you have more time to concentrate on the more important, revenue-generating aspects of your business, and probably what got you doing what you do well in the first place.

The Cost Factor

Employing a full time staff member is costly, time consuming and can put a lot of extra work and pressure on you and your business. Virtual Assistants work virtually for you, meaning we work remotely from home offices and collaborative coworking office environments, which means expenses such as computer hardware and software and office overheads don’t apply. You only pay the VA for the hours actually worked for you, and even better you don’t need to cover payroll taxes, super, or any other tax (apart from GST if applicable).

Take the stress out of you day

A VA will take the hassle and stress out of your day by providing those tailored services that meet your needs for a successful business. A VA can take control of your emails, appointments, manage projects, employees and clients. This leaves you free to concentrate on what you love to do, what you do best and what is important to your businesses success.

Balance your work and home life

It’s what we all drive towards – a perfect balance between work and home life but sadly the reality isn’t always that. A VA can take control of aspects of your business, putting their skills, expertise and years of experience into use and freeing you up to finish work on time and still have a life.

VAs might just know more than you do

As business owners themselves, VAs are very savvy at keeping up with the latest trends and technologies, and at developing streamlining processes and simply just know how to get things done more efficiently – because that’s their job.

Finally, from our experience, to work well with a Virtual Assistant you need to make sure you set out clear guidelines from the start of what role the VA will take in your business.  It also greatly helps if you’re confident utilising technology, are comfortable delegating, and have good, timely communication.

Liz James is one half of Love2Assist, a virtual assistance and virtual specialist provider based in Sydney, Australia and Galway, Ireland.

This coming 9 May (Thursday) is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Events are being organised organically in each city to mark the day, and Sydney has something special lined up for us to flex our empathy muscles.

So this coming 9 May, come to an evening of lightning talks at A11yBytes - a11y being the shorthand for “accessibility” (11 characters between a and y), and bytes because – ok, ok… You get it. It’s a community event focused on raising the profile of digital accessibility.

A11Y Bytes. 9 May. 7 lightning talks. 6 pm. Mr B’s Hotel at 396 Pitt St.

There’s a great line-up of diverse and mind-widening lightning talks around social inclusion, technology use, gamestoring and more. This isn’t just for web geeks – it’s for anyone who wants to learn what accessibility means in this day and age, and how systems and technology can affect and enhance life. The heart of accessibility is not about guidelines or codes or regulations. It’s about people, and life, and how we live, how we access information, and how our lives are affected by the technologies of today.

So what are you doing on 9 May? Grab your free ticket to A11yBytes, bring a friend, and come learn something new over a beer or two, and flex those empathy muscles!

Please take 3-5 minutes and take our survey to help us give you more of what you like from webBlastSYD.

As an incentive, EngineRoom Chippendale the co-working space for digital services, is offering two free weeks on the Shared Casual community desk, worth $100, to everyone completing the survey. For a few moments of your time, you’ll have the opportunity to discover the value of co-working for yourself.

It is important to us that webBlastSYD reflects the evolving membership. Please tell us a little about yourself, what you think about the event, and what you’d like to see at future events.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Each person was asked 5 questions, and each question was automatically separated out into 20-30 second video clips and published on the Vimily site. The amazing thing was that everyone knew they were there, recording, but they created no interference to the event, surreptitiously taking part in and encouraging the discussions on the floor but not disturbing the vibe of the evening.

if you’re interested, talk to Katrin after you’ve had a look at the vids to see if they’ll work for your event.

It’s a change of seasons, and with change comes an opportunity to network with like-minded professionals working and interested in all things web-related.

From conversations with past attendees, we’ve seen everyone from designers, developers, to legal-types, project managers, and entrepreneurs. A great opportunity to meet others outside of your circle and share ideas.

We’ll also be welcoming back the Australian SXSW attendees, who will no-doubt have much to share with us all.

Thanks to our sponsors Campaign Monitor, LaVolta, VirtualOffis, and EngineRoom, who will generously be providing drinks on the night.

Tickets available so register now!

We’ve got a policy of one ticket per registration. Let us know via email, Twitter, or telepathy if you can’t make it and we can free up your unneeded ticket.

So if you want to ensure your friends and colleagues are coming, Tweet/Facebook/LinkedIn or forward them this email so they can register for themselves.

Thanks once again to our brilliant sponsor Campaign Monitor, and welcome to our new sponsors Acquia, LaVolta, and Virtual Offis all of whom will be providing drinks and refreshments on the night.

We’ve got a policy of one ticket per registration. Let us know via email, Twitter, or telepathy if you can’t make it and we can free up your unneeded ticket.

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, friends and spirit … and you’re keeping all of these in the air.

“You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit – are made of glass… You must understand that and strive for Balance in your life.”

– Brian G. Dyson (c. 1991)

We thought you’d like to know that the last webBlastSYD was a top Sydney Twitter trend that night. Considering the Foo Fighters were in town and it was the anniversary of John Lennon’s assassination (and we all remember who he’s “bigger than”) I think that was very special of you all to keep mentioning us. Thank you.

The next morning, we were still in the top ten Trends in Sydney, which was full of you all reporting great times and sore heads and excellent post-#webBlastSYD dinners. I’m still waiting to hear about babies conceived on the night but maybe that’s asking too much!

Look forward to new sponsors, new activities and hopefully, a fresh stack of embarrassing photos tagged in flickr!

See you there!

The last WebBlast for 2011 will be on at the Pumphouse Bar in Darling Harbour on the 8th of December. Come join us to celebrate the start of Summer!

Thanks to our generous sponsors Campaign Monitor, Happener, Microsoft , and Stamford Interactive twho are providing the night’s cool drinks and refreshments, the stage is set for a wonderful evening of catching up with friends from the industry and finding new ones.

So what are you waiting for?  Register Now!

We’ve got a policy of one ticket per registration. Let us know via email, Twitter, or telepathy if you can’t make it and we can free up your unneeded ticket.

So if you want to ensure your friends and colleagues are coming, tweet/facebook/Linkedin so they can register for themselves.

Cheers,

Alan, Joe, and Caryn

If you’re not already on the mailing list you might want to make sure you get on the list as the tickets for this upcoming webBlast, the webBlastSYD September 2011 edition is just around the corner. Sponsored by Campaign Monitor, Happener, Microsoft and Stamford Interactive the spring 2011 edition will be a very warming affair, in part from the drinks and nibbles the sponsors help with but also the fantastic atmosphere created by the attendees. J J Halans has some excellent pics from the previous webBlastSYD in June in case you want to spot yourself in the  crowd.

Everyone is talking mobile this year, and while we’ve been noticing the huge wave of mobile activity for quite some time, it seems the field is quite mature now and the depth of understanding growing. The number of people I’m talking to who are involved in mobile projects has grown rapidly this past year, and I’m sure will continue to take up more of our attention as we get to the end of the year. Interestingly, the number of mobile sites and apps attracting ire has reduced, as more people learn to understand how to construct an experience that makes sense for people using the internet on the go.

All our sponsors this month are very interested in your mobile projects, and your opinions on their mobile projects, so be sure to bring your devices and betas to the party to share and get feedback.Oh and of course the back-channel at @webblastSYD, #webBlastSYD is always open to pre-, during- and post-event discussions as well.

See you there!

Just one more thing…

Oh, and speaking of mobile, one more thing, in the inimitable fashion popularised by Mr Jobs.

As some of you may know, I’m rather keen on two wheeled travel. I decided to put my wheels on the line and join up with 99 other people and raise funds for the very worthwhile organisation, The Black Dog Institute, who are in constant need of financial support due tho the current Australian government’s completely lacklustre investment in mental health. Full details on how to donate are on my own fund-raising site

To fundraise, I’ll be donning lycra and polyester and riding from Sydney to Dubbo, over The Black Mountains.That is 420kM, over three days, over a mountain. Day one: up a mountain, day two: further up the frikkin’ mountain, then over the other side, Day three: no more MoFo mountains thank you, but 115k still to go…. The full details of the route can be found on the organiser’s site, zoo2zoo if you’re interested.

The Black Dog Institute is an educational, research, clinical and community-oriented facility offering specialist expertise in mood disorders – a range of disorders that include depression and bipolar disorder (formerly called ‘manic depression’). The Institute is attached to the Prince of Wales Hospital and affiliated with the University of New South Wales.

Therefore I’ll be asking you to consider supporting my efforts and donate generously to the ride, in order to help the 50% of Australians directly affected by depression and mental health issues.