by Jeannine Clontz and Lauren Hidden

This book has been around for a while—it was first published in 2006—but the information is all still relevant. Jeannine Clontz is a respected businesswoman who served as President of the International Virtual Assistants Association and Lauren Hidden has owned her own virtual editorial services business for over ten years, so these are authors who know the world of which they speak, and as such, are able to offer advice and guidance in areas not always explored by other “How-To Freelance”-type books. Sure, you’ll find more typical discussions of topics such as how to decide if this is the career for you and the financial investment you’ll need to start up your business, but what made me a fan were the more “experience based” topics like how to get rid of clients or turn down jobs. As someone who has gained a reputation as an expert in the area through speaking engagements and writing Clontz, especially, understands the topic of business ethics through and through. What types of jobs are you not willing to do? How far will you go for a buck? Again, not your typical how-to fare, but in a business in which the projects and jobs we take on are all a result of our choices, these are decisions we’re all going to have to examine.

Another invaluable part of this book is the resources referenced and given throughout. Not only are helpful Web sites and resources handed out like yummy candy in each chapter, there’s a whole section in the back on contracts. Not on what they are or how to implement them, though that’s all explained, too—no, what we have here are actual template contracts for subcontractor agreements, work for hire agreements, editorial retainer agreements, client retainer agreements, non-solicitation agreements, confidentially agreements, and even a business plan. These are great not only to show you how to do the contracts, but to teach you specifics of what you need to look for even if you DON’T go with a formal agreement.

Though I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself a Virtual Assistant in the truest sense of the word, a lot of my projects aren’t strictly writing, so I’ve often thought about just calling myself a VA and embracing the bigger picture. I read Entrepreneurial Freedom: How to Start and Grow a Profitable Virtual Assistance Practice by Jeannine Clontz and Lauren Hidden in the hopes of trying to pinpoint exactly what being a Virtual Assistant entailed, but as it turned out, not only does the book encompass pretty much any type of freelancing work you might be doing, it makes an often misconstrued profession seem absolutely construed.