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October 20, 2008 Newsworthy

Online outsourcing | Marie Tucker, a virtual assistant in Bowdoinham, launches Maine's first virtual assistant association

Photo/David A. Rodgers Virtual assistant Marie Tucker is looking for other Maine VAs
By Samantha Depoy-warren

When Marie Tucker first learned about virtual assistants after reading a blurb about them in a book, she was amazed at the abundance of information available online about beginning a virtual assistant business. But, while rookie VAs could get guidance from the world’s top VAs via the web, Tucker found herself needing suggestions on running a VA business at the local level. Tucker soon discovered that Maine does not have an area VA association. So, she’s starting one.

Tucker, who founded Girl Friday Services of Maine from her Bowdoinham home in July, is one of thousands of virtual assistants nationwide who provide administrative support to clients around the world on everything from mail merging to data entry to designing business cards, brochures and websites. Working primarily on a project-by-project basis, Tucker currently has contracts with nine clients spanning the East Coast from Maine to North Carolina. In September, she launched the Maine Association of Virtual Assistants, a network of the state’s virtual assistants.

The Maine Association of Virtual Assistants, Tucker envisions, will be a place where “virtual assistants can network and learn from each other, support each other’s businesses and help each other grow and develop. I want our membership to be a source of inspiration and guidance for emerging virtual assistants,” she says. Tucker’s research on sites like Elance.com and Skillwho.com, where VAs frequently connect with their clients, revealed 27 self-described VAs in Maine and another 24 freelancers who Tucker says do VA-type work.

The home-based nature of VA work means it’s impossible to know the number of VAs working worldwide. Linda Selden, president of the International Virtual Assistants Association, says her group, which was incorporated in 1999, has over 1,200 members, the majority U.S.-based, including 10 from Maine. But the association’s monthly electronic newsletter has a subscriber list of over 10,000 and, while not all of those readers are working VAs, Lauren Hidden, IVAA’s acting marketing manager says there could easily be a minimum of 10,000 VAs nationwide, “but there could be way, way more.”

It’s also unknown how many state-specific VA associations there are, says Hidden. For example, Hidden is a member of the Delaware Valley Virtual Assistants Association, which serves VAs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

In addition to serving as a clearinghouse for those looking to hire a virtual assistant in Maine, Tucker envisions the Maine association as a network through which Maine VAs can connect with each other to outsource work, share job leads or simply get advice and support in growing their home-based business. Because Maine VAs like Tucker have clients around the country, she says they aren’t competitive with one another.

Eventually, she envisions the network having a mentoring program to match experienced Maine VAs with those emerging in the industry, and even hosting an annual conference with speakers and training sessions. But the association’s paramount priority, she says, is to bring awareness and credibility to the profession, which representatives from the IVAA say began in the 1990s with growing access to the Internet but has exploded in recent years as the Web becomes the world’s biggest business park.

“We can help promote each other’s business, and the best way to do that is to first educate people about what a VA is,” Tucker explains. “If you can hire a VA and free up two hours of your time a week, that’s two hours you aren’t sitting in front of the computer and two hours you are out there meeting with clients and bringing in new revenue.”

 

Reader comments

From Kathrine Farris

I think this is GREAT! I have recently learned about and join the world of VAs, to be amazed at the number of resources available, yet discouraged at the lack of local networks/support. I am glad to see someone stepping up and taking the lead! Great Job Marie!  

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