Wikipedia:

A Virtual Assistant (typically abbreviated to VA, also called a virtual office assistant) is an entrepreneur who provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients from a home office.  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 phonecall 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, et cetera.

My definition:

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an experienced administrative inidividual with the goal of bringing assistance to others that help them obtain more time in their day to focus on growing their business and, ultimately, their income.  A Virtual Assistant is there to support your everyday needs from such a simple task as scheduling a phone call with your banker to a huge project as creating a web presence by designing a new website.  In all capacities, a VA should be willing to do what it takes to get the job done via phone calls, e-mails, snail mail, fax machines, text messaging, instant messaging, etc.  The technology to ensure the job is taken to completion is endless.

Life Simplified is exactly what the name is; here to simplify your life by taking on the tasks that you don’t have time to focus on.  Life Simplified works diligently and efficiently to support your needs and to provide you with the feeling of security that the job is being completed and completed on time.

Feel free to contact me for more information:  christyw@your-life-simplified.com

Just a little about myself.  I have been an Executive Assistant for over 16 years and plunged into the Virtual world 3 years ago after experiencing a tough situation with my 2 year old son in daycare and had another one on the way.  I knew that I didn’t want to stop working but also knew that I didn’t want to have my children in an environment that I was not comfortable with.  I wanted them with me and so I found a position as an employee as an Executive Virtual Assistant.  After my second son was born I decided to open my own virtual business and give it a try.  Well, over a year later I am successful and happy with the clients I serve.  I also have the blessing of being the one who drops my son off at school and I’m the one sitting in the line of cars waiting to pick him up (sometimes with my bluetooth in my ear and on an important call)!    As I busily work on contracts, client management, calendaring, email management, and much more my children play around me and ask me to take breaks to get them juice, to wipe their faces, or to just race the cars around the table “one more time”.  They smile and allow me to get back to my work.  It’s the best of both worlds.  I get to work and provide for my family at the same time raising my own children.  What more could I ask for?  Thank you, God, for the blessing you have provided.