In The Two-Second Commute: Join the Exploding Ranks of Freelance Virtual Assistants, readers discover a simple but empowering self-employment solution that is fast becoming an international phenomenon—the Virtual Assistance industry.

As recently featured in Business Week and Time Magazine, Virtual Assistants (VAs) are home-based entrepreneurs—work-at-home moms and dads, retirees, military and Foreign Service spouses, people with disabilities, homeschoolers, and aging boomers sick of the rat race—who are running their own shows from spare rooms and basements, offering business support services to other small businesses via email, phone and fax. It's one of the most explosive industries of our time, with entrepreneurs helping other entrepreneurs around the globe—an incredible symbiosis! And it’s all brought together by the Internet.

But most exciting of all, "VA'ing" is offering thousands of individuals their first chance to stretch their entrepreneurial wings. 

The runaway success of the co-authors' Portable Career & Virtual Assistant Training Program™ (developed for active-duty US Military Spouses and being delivered on military bases worldwide) demonstrates the strong demand for a quick and user-friendly "virtual career" program. The Two-Second Commute: Join the Exploding Ranks of Freelance Virtual Assistants is based on this popular, groundbreaking training, and provides a complete how-to guide that is liberally peppered with tips and pointers submitted by VAs from all walks of life.

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Highlights of the book include:

• Is "VA'ing" For You? Being a VA is not for everybody, and we'll tell you why! A series of exercises and self-assessments helps readers evaluate their entrepreneurial profile, identify pitfalls and potential trouble spots, and begin to self-select "in" or "out" of this challenging new career path before making serious commitments.

• Special Section! -- "Spouse with a Mouse™" [This segment is phenomenally popular in Staffcentrix trainings!] -- Anticipating changes in the household that come with launching and growing a home-based business. Is your spouse or partner ready for you to have a Virtual Assistant business? Includes exercises for couples to help identify and spark discussion of core values and goals of the family as a team.

• Getting That First Client, Launching & Marketing Your VA Business, Do I Really Need a Business Plan?, and Leveraging the Media to Grow Your Business (plus a hilarious communications exercise for two, with toddler-level Legos) are just a few of the areas Durst and Haaren cover with their usual panache, a dash of sass, and their earned-it-in-the-trenches style!

• VA Toolbox:  General Resources for VAs, plus special resources for work-at-home moms, entrepreneurs with disabilities, military and other "trailing" spouses, and “cheapskates” (freebies for small businesses).

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Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1

Why Become a Virtual Assistant?

• personal & professional reasons to explore this industry

Chapter 2

Exploring Virtual Assistance

• virtual assistance defined
• industry demographics
• services, fees, and trends
• why businesses work with VAs
• international outlook

Chapter 3

Reality Checks & Self-Assessments

• exploring important considerations - motives, lifestyle, family, children, etc.
• entrepreneurial self-assessment
• VA readiness self-assessment
• Spouse With a Mouse™ - from our Department of State and US Armed Forces training programs, a special section to help your "significant other" understand what it will be like to have a business in the house.

Chapter 4

Developing a "Service Menu" That You Can Live and Grow With

• inventory your values, interests, and skills to determine your most marketable skills

Chapter 5

Estimating Costs and Setting Fees

• projecting your costs, picking your "salary", setting your hour, and our special formula for calculating a reasonable baseline fee
• comprehensive fee survey (see what other VAs are charging)
• getting paid -contracts, credit cards, invoices, retainers, etc.

Chapter 6

Setting Up Your Business and Your Office

• naming and registering your business
• forms of business ownership
• permits and licenses
• insurance
• home office setup

Chapter 7

Building a Healthy Foundation for Your Business

• defining your ideal client, interviewing clients, partnering with clients
• the art of virtual communications
• SWOT analysis - discovering your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
• the benefits of "niche marketing" - identifying your target market

Chapter 8

Let the Marketing Begin!

• image is everything
• talking about what you "do"
• marketing and email
• your Web site - your "global billboard"
• press releases
• harvesting the local "business crop"
• leveraging the media
• guest lecturing
• our 5 favorite marketing techniques
• the Strategic Marketing Plan - your blueprint for building a successful business through effective marketing

Chapter 9

Pulling It All Together and Keeping It There

• a collection of tips, tool, techniques, and pointers for making your business a success

Chapter 10

The VA Toolbox: Resources and Information

• VA trade groups, email lists, certifications and training programs
• specialized resources for homeschoolers, "trailing spouses", work at home parents, and people with disabilities
• resources and other information for the "frugal VA"

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