By Karen Fritscher-Porter

With the increasing popularity of the virtual assistant profession, you're bound to see it being promoted all over the Web more and more as the latest most perfect work-at-home career. Essentially, a virtual assistant handles outsourced administrative or other office support tasks as an independent contractor from their own home or office.

And what you'll hear is that virtual assistance is the perfect profession for work-at-home moms. You'll hear that it's a perfect profession for some people with disabilities and or who are housebound. You'll hear that being a virtual assistant is perfect for military spouses. You'll hear that virtual assistance is the perfect career for wives of traveling preachers, wives of traveling salesmen and spouses whose spouse relocates with each reorganization or merger of his or her corporate office. You'll even hear that being a virtual assistant is perfect for the corporate employee who wants to tell his or her corporate boss to take their job and...well, you know how that ends.

And the reason you'll hear that being a virtual assistant is perfect for all of these types of people will be that virtual assistance is a job you can do at home in your pajamas. And it's a mobile job meaning that if you move, you still have the same job. You'll have no boss looking over your shoulder. You can set your own hours. You can set your own rates. You can even give yourself a raise and take your lunch hour whenever you want to. Plus in theory you can spend more time with your family---even if it's just to tell them "Be quiet. I'm trying to work."

Does all that sound great? It is all true.

But don't forget that there are two sides to every story.

The truth is that you could make all of the above claims for many entrepreneurial endeavors that you operate out of your home, not just that of the virtual assistant profession. Read the above statements again and substitute the words freelance writer or graphic designer or home party salesperson for the phrase virtual assistance and virtual assistant and you'll see it's so.

So before you give your two-weeks notice and register that catchy name for your virtual assistant business with the county, do your research. You'll want to research at least two things to start with in-depth: 1) What is a virtual assistant and how do you become one; and 2) How do you open, operate and market a home business.

Being a home-based business owner as a virtual assistant possibly can be the perfect career for you. But it's not something to jump into lightly without thought. You will find there are many virtual assistants, possibly top-notch in the field, already in the profession. So when you do jump into the virtual assistant profession with your own business you want to be prepared to address all the angles of being a virtual assistant and home-business owner. That way you too can become a sought-after virtual assistant and successful business owner and achieve your personal, even financial dreams.

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Read more articles by Karen Fritscher-Porter about being a virtual assistant at http://www.virtualassistantinfo.com. Also, if you're planning to become a virtual assistant, click here to get your 100% free 17-page Guide to Creating an Effective Website for a Virtual Assistant.