A Virtual Assistant is someone who is in the business of providing ongoing, one-on-one administrative support. A Virtual Assistant's focus is on supporting each client collaboratively with a big picture view of his or her business as a whole. She or he becomes involved directly with your business operations and getting to know and deeply understand you, your goals and what you are trying to achieve.

Virtual Assistants typically charge a monthly fee. Support generally consists of a collective group of ongoing administrative tasks, functions and roles that are integral to keeping your business organized and running smoothly. Virtual Assistants are the best fit for clients who don't have the time, space or large enough workload to warrant hiring employees, but still want and need someone to be their administrative right hand.

A secretarial service is a business that is primarily focused on one-time or occasional projects sold individually. It's sort of like when you drop off a job at your local print shop. You don't work together in any ongoing capacity, although you might be a frequent or repeat customer. They aren't intimiately involved in your business to any degree, and while you might get to know and like particular vendors, they aren't intimately involved in your business to any degree and there is no relationship beyond each transaction. You might seek out this type of service when you have an immediate or special project that is beyond the scope of your existing administrative support resources.

This model is similar to a temp agency, there being no real difference except that the workers are virtual, rather than onsite. In this model, the business attracts the clients, and workers (or VAs) are farmed out to perform the work. Right now, these businesses pay their workers as independent contractors. However, it is foreseeable in the near future that they will be required to classify their workers as employees and deduct and pay appropriate taxes.

In this model, project work is often involved although some agencies offer a sort of "pseudo" relationship on a retained basis. Drawbacks here are that workers are commonly underskilled and underpaid. This, in turn, often carries with it a high turnover rate. Workers are beholden to the company and not the client. Most are only interested in making "a little extra money" and not running their own business, and therefore offer business owners no real investment or commitment. Also, many of these companies are incorrectly paying workers as independent contractors (called "misclassification of employees"), which may hold tax and legal problems for them in the foreseeable future.

A personal assistant is another kind of service provider that is often confused with a Virtual Assistant. While personal assistants may or may not work on an ongoing retained basis, their focus is on personal or concierge type errands rather than administrative support. For example, If you want your dry-cleaning picked up, a birthday gift purchased, a wine researched or restaurant reservations made, this is exactly the kind of professional you need. It is not typical of Virtual Assistants to provide this scope of personal service as it is personal, not business, support.

Sometimes also called virtual consultant or virtual associate. This is a generic, umbrella term used to denote any kind of professional who happens to work virtually. So while web designers, bookkeepers, Virtual Assistants, etc., may all fall under the uncategorized term of virtual professional, not all virtual professionals are Virtual Assistants, which are specifically and explicitly administrative support experts.

A freelancer is someone who provides a service on the side on a part-time basis and often has not formally set up an actual business. A freelancer's interest and commitment is more along the lines of "making extra money on the side" to supplement their primary employment income. The caution here is that if they aren't in a full-time, committed business, their interest, commitment and continued support beyond the project is often transient as well. It's difficult for business owners to establish any kind of meaningful, long-term investment in a freelancer because the minute the freelancer's life/interests/priorities/circumstances change, he or she may disappear or become unreliable.

A telecommuter is simply an employee who works for a company from home (virtually) providing services or performing duties for the company's clients or customers (not their own). Companies employing telecommuters are responsible for adhering to the same tax laws and legal reporting obligations as they are for any other employees.

A drawback to working with telecommuters is that they are working for someone else—not you. You have no real relationship with them. Their loyalty is to the company paying them, and the minute their interests/priorities/circumstances change, the equity that has been built into their knowledge of your business and operations can instantly evaporate and you will have to start over with someone new. Additionally, you won't commonly find the higher calibre of skills and knowledge, not to mention commitment, in a telecommuter that you would in a Virtual Assistant.