A Virtual Assistant is a person (sometimes office
staff) who is willing to provide services that can be rendered
electronically. As real office staff, s/he can be an Engineer,
Secretary, Typist, Computer Programmer, etc.. They are also referred
as "Virtual Service Providers" if they have been organized as a
group and in an independent office. "Virtual Staff", "Cyber
Assistants", "Cyber Consultants" are another names for Virtual
Assistants.
A Virtual Assistant may be a part-time or
full-time worker in his/her "Virtual Business" which is also called
as "e-buiness" or "e-job". S/he can also be a home office or a small
business owner.
SVA - Specialist
Virtual Assistant:
Specialist VA is the same as above except that s/he
can offer more sophisticated services in the area of his/her
speciality. This also means that s/he can offer lower prices with
higher efficiency and quality.
Task:
Task is simply the work to be completed for a
certain fee. Tasks can vary from very specific Engineering design to
collecting information or a document in a foreign country. The only
limitation is that the nature of the task should allow it to be
completed without requiring physical contact of VE and
SVA.
Some other words to refer to the "task" in cyber world
are "e-work" and "e-business".
VE - Virtual
Employer:
A Virtual Employer is an individual or a company
who needs certain tasks to be completed by the help of SVAs. Most of
the time, a VE undertakes a project as a whole and subcontracts
portions of it as tasks to third parties. In some cases, VEs look
for an SVA for their personal needs such as resume writing, advice,
preparation of drawings for a new house, etc.
The Virtual
Employer may be a small entrepreneur, home based entrepreneur, home
office or small business owner as well as a large corporation.
Sometimes a person in e-business acts as both "Virtual Employer" and
"Virtual Assistant" especially in case of large tasks requiring
services under more than a single category or a
subcategory.
Virtual Referral
Services:
This is simply helping to get SVAs and VEs together
by having correct and sufficient information on both parties along
with the description of the virtual
task.
