Will a Virtual Assistant Replace me?

A Virtual Assistant “is an entrepreneur who provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients from a home office. With a full range of options to choose from, you can customize your remote receptionist service to meet your exact needs. Your calls can be screened, announced and seamlessly connected to you or your employees anywhere. They usually work for other small businesses, brokers and consultancy groups. It is estimated that there are as few as 5,000-8,000 or as many as 35,000 Virtual Assistants worldwide; the profession is growing in centralized economies with “fly-in, fly-out” (FIFO) staffing practices.

Common modes of communication and data delivery include the Internet, e-mail and phone call conferences, online work spaces, and fax machine. Professionals in this business work on a contractual basis and a long-lasting cooperation is standard. Typically 5 years of administrative experience in an office is expected at such positions as executive assistant, office manager/supervisor, secretary, legal assistant, paralegal, legal secretary, real estate assistant, information technology, et cetera.” (Sourced directly from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_assistant)

The assistant role no longer has to be strictly in the office. There are a ton of virtual assistant companies that have sprung up over the last few years. All one needs to do is Google the term “Virtual Assistant” to see how popular this idea is becoming. There was an article written in 2008 by Marci Alboher called “When the Assistant is an Entrepreneur” that brought the virtual assistant world to my attention.

Whether you need an assistant for the strict operational support function or a person to help with your venture capital firms, a virtual assistant is worth researching. So, yes…it is possible that I could be replaced by a virtual assistant unless I become one myself.