If you're just starting out in business, you've probably already been told by a number of people that Networking is an essential activity to get involved in. It's a great piece of advice and, even though it might fill you with absolute dread, it will provide a huge number of business contacts. Whilst not all of these will be directly relevant to you and your own business, referrals to third parties happen all the time and this really is the whole point to getting involved in Networking.

The idea of hiring a Virtual Assistant in some parts of the world, particularly in the United States, is an everyday fact. However, the concept is still relatively new in the UK but an increasing number of individuals are starting to choose this line of work as their full time career.

It is at this point, I don't doubt, that many of you will be sitting there asking yourself what a Virtual Assistant - or VA - actually is.