Hi there. I began working as a "VA" in 1987, with a fledgeling part-time business to help support my family. It was called Elite Secretarial & Bookkeeping Services. Eventually I went "back to work" and worked for many years in the administrative field as an office manager.

In 1999, I decided, after a year of planning and organizing, stocking up software, hardware and establishing my first clients, that I would take my business full time and renamed the business Elite Office Support. My business has flourished over the years, and Elite Web Studio, a full-service web design business, has evolved as well from Elite Office Support.

In February 2003, Virtual-Professionals.com was born, an organization formed to support and promote Virtual Professionals worldwide. Virtual-Professionals.com supports and promotes ALL virtual professionals (professionals working worldwide), not just virtual assistants.

For many reasons, I was unable to continue operating Elite Office Support on a full-time basis, so I referred most of my clients to other VAs and forwarded this URL to Elite Web Studio, since I was getting so many hits on Elite Office Support's site. Forwarding this to my Web Design site was not particularly useful since the majority of people wanting to visit the site were looking for VAs. The idea of a VA Listing site was born when I was trying to decide what to do with the domain. Though I no longer accept new clients, I still have several clients I work with on a regular basis helping to support their businesses around the world.

I have spent a considerable amount of time and effort in my tenure as a VA working to bring about recognition and find ways to promote the industry. This website seemed like a terrific opportunity to promote the industry and help boost business for my fellow VAs.

For the time being anyway, this site will be used for the promotion of the industry. I do not guarantee that it will always be so. I still offer VA services on a very small level and will continue to. There may come a day when I resurrect the site for the promotion of specifically my own business, but for now - it's to share with you.

Best regards,

Susan M. Totman, MVA