News article taken from The Business Journal, October 2007

For new businesses, a Virtual Assistant can be cost-effective…………

To read the full article in pdf format, go to
www.vanetworking.com/images/media/VANA-Oct-07.pdf/

Over one in three (36%) start-up businesses have a preference for a ‘virtual working’ environment, according to new research from communication management specialist Yac. Yac surveyed 512 of its customers, specifically those just embarking on setting up in business, for their views on the office environment they wanted to create.

Those businesses opting for a virtual office tended to be in the service sectors, and most identified the flexibility of such a set up as the primary benefit (81%), enabling them to work from anywhere whilst still being connected to their customers via the phone and email. The lack of overheads such as premises was also a key factor (69%), as was being able to offer staff a more varied and flexible working environment (62%).
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A recent report from The George Washington University states:

“…the virtual assistance industry is growing at a staggering rate and is expected to be a USD130 BILLION industry by 2008, but it could be larger.”

In many instances now, Virtual Assistance is viewed as an “emerging technology” and is included in listings beside major industries such as electronic banking, e-commerce, and even portable IT devices.

Virtual Assistance has been identified as one of the top ten technological breakthroughs that will have a huge exposure by 2010 at the latest.

Other sources indicate that Virtual Assistants will be perceived as a widely accepted means of business support by the year 2008.

With this encouraging news from the US, it’s important that the concept of Virtual Assistance is rightfully recognised as a viable business option throughout the UK.

Virtual office company, Time Etc, from Birmingham have carried out an interesting survey which has produced some shocking results.

They state that over 60% of small businesses DON’T answer the phone! Bearing in mind that 7 out of 10 callers will not leave a message, this is a huge amount of potential business going to waste.

200 calls were made to businesses in the Birmingham area and the following statistics were recorded:

* 38% of calls went to voicemail
* 7% of calls were not answered at all
* 14% of calls were engaged

In fact, only 82 calls were answered for the whole survey!

OUCH !!

Don’t let your own business become a victim. Contact PA-as-you-go today to find out how we can help.