Katherine Jones is doing some secretarial work for her boss - nothing unusual about that, but she is sitting at home in Minster Lovell, while her boss is in the office in London.

Katherine JonesMs Jones is a new kind of PA, following a trend that has the potential to revolutionise our offices - she is a Virtual Assistant (VA). She offers a range of secretarial services from her office at home and being self-employed, she saves companies thousands of pounds in National Insurance, holiday and sickness pay - not to mention expensive office space.

Being a freelance PA demands certain qualities. Self motivation, resourcefulness, confidentiality and professionalism to name a few. "Business people want high-quality, value for money and above all, flexibility from their PAs.

"I can provide support from an hourly to a yearly basis; outside office hours and even weekends where necessary."

Ms Jones is not alone in the VA world as she has approximately 300 cyber-colleagues. As a member of the International Association of Virtual Assistants, www.iava.org.uk ,she can rely on support and friendship of other like-minded professionals.

Ms Jones gained secretarial experience in banking, working for HSBC from 1989 to 1996, then she joined Oxford Instruments as manufacturing engineering secretary and was then PA to the managing director. She set up VA last year and has her own website - www.kjvirtualassistant.co.uk.