To get credible and authority materials on the subject, I spent days reading through a number of websites of VA networks and VAs who have already established their professional and business reputation in the industry. It is not surprising to know that the first few VAs came from developed countries such as the U.S.A, Australia, Canada, and also in Europe where we first saw computer and Internet technology flourish, and make possible home-based work arrangements.

Who first established business as a Virtual Assistant?

There doesn’t seem to be an exact answer for this question because the international VA industry seems to have varying views on this matter. From the International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA) website, it was life coach Thomas Leonard who coined the term “Virtual Assistant” in 1996, referring to Stacey Brice who was said to be then doing virtual administrative, travel, and personal assistance work with the former. Brice went on to establish Assist4U in 1997.

But then, I came upon Christine and Mike Durst’s The Rat Race Rebellion an authority website that basically espouses on the joys, benefits and advantages of telecommuting and working from home. Christine is the CEO of Staffcentrix, a training development company that provides virtual careers training to their clients. There I read Mike’s clarificatory article about the history of the Virtual Assistant industry.

Before founding Staffcentrix, Chris was the CEO of the Internet’s first denominated “Virtual Assistant” practice, MyStaff, which was launched in 1995 from the basement of her home in rural Connecticut. The result of Chris’s earlier role (1993-94) as Virtual Assistant to a Priority Management franchisee, MyStaff grew quickly to international dimensions, with clients drawn from the first wave of businesses in North America, Europe, and Australia migrating to the Web.

Searching some more, I read up on Kathie A. Thomas blog entitled, The History of Virtual Assistant Industry, where she shared that “No-one knows for sure the history of Virtual Assistants or how long ago secretaries and other admin staff started working at home. I’ve heard of a lady that was working at home with a typewriter in the 1970’s.” However, she further adds that she knows of at least 2 networks of secretaries way back in mid-1980’s, one in the U.S., and another in her home country Australia. She founded “A Clayton’s Secretary” in April 1996.

While thinking over the title for this post, I suddenly was struck with the thought that the terms “Virtual Assistant” and “Business Owner” wouldn’t actually come together as referring to only one person.

Did I make sense?

Let me put it this way. How can an “assistant” be the “business owner”? How can everyone’s “assistant” be his or her own “business owner”?

I can offer a very simple explanation. I think that the term “Virtual Assistant” pertains to the nature of work and services of a VA, and not so much on the professional or business relations of a VA to the client. In essence, a virtual assistant’s services aim to provide support, mostly administrative, that is relevant to the client’s business. But being a support for everybody else does not define my status of business and professional relations with clients.

Why is this so?

It is due mainly to the fact that a virtual assistant is a business owner, the owner of his or her very own virtual assistance business. A VA sets her/her fees, standards of performance, and work pace. A VA is not an employee, rather he or she is a business partner, providing clients with the most useful, efficient, and professional in areas relevant to the clients’ business.

The Importance of Holding Out Yourself As A Business Owner

Nowadays, with everyone trying to get a piece of the outsourcing and offshoring action both from the service providers sector and the project providers side, the Virtual Assistants industry especially in countries considered as the bedrock of international VA networks, is now at loggerheads with the burgeoning offshore industry. With the popularity of hiring offshore companies mostly from third world countries, to perform projects involving activities ranging from personal to business, there is a growing concern within the VA industry about the unnecessary and as they say, risks involved in outsourcing work to offshore companies. A recent example is the issue written about by Kathie Thomas in her blog about an article posted in one of Australia’s websites advocating small businesses in Australia, where the author related her experience in seeking the services of a popular offshore company based in India.

The way I see it, the issues confronting the VA industry emphasizes the need to differentiate and emphasize how and why a Virtual Assistant who operates as a business owner largely differs from the so-called Virtual Assistants hired by a staffing company as an employee. The work-at-home advocate in me says there is a whole lot of difference in terms of quality, skills and dedication to work between the two types of VA’s. Having worked at home for three years in a row now following almost ten years of corporate, non-profit and government employment experience, I would say with conviction that one can have as much chances to become successful with a work-at-home business as any 9 to 6 employee or executive would. I am not saying that I have become successful in this VA business at this point, rather, I am saying that anyone who is determined to make it work can actually stay long and have really good chances to become  successful in a work-at-home business.