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Q: I want to pursue a full-time virtual-assistant business. I have over six years of experience as an administrative assistant. Could you give me advice as to where to start and how to break into this business?

A: It takes many new virtual assistants more than six months to land their first gig. Even then, work flow can be sporadic. And there's growing competition from virtual assistants in countries like India and the Philippines who charge U.S. clients less than $5 an hour for administrative work such as data entry and Web design.

The most successful virtual assistants are those who act like entrepreneurs, spending as many as 80 hours a week networking and fine-tuning their business models, building a Web site and marketing their services. "The biggest problem I see is they're business owners, but they don't treat themselves like business owners," says Dawn Goldberg, chief operating officer of AssistU, a Cockeysville, Md., virtual-assistants training organization. Too many aspiring virtual assistants are used to working in offices where others tell them what to do, and expect work will just fall in their laps.

To get started, you'll need a dedicated office space, with a phone, printer, and a computer with high-speed Internet service and all the software your clients will expect you to have. Also, you should set up a professional-looking Web site.

In addition, create a market plan that lays out who your likeliest clients will be, what services you'll offer, what rates you'll charge and how you'll find clients. Joining a virtual assistant's organization, such as the International Virtual Assistants Association, is an easy and affordable way to connect with other virtual assistants who can give advice and perhaps even send some work in your direction.

Training organizations like AssistU will walk you through the steps of setting up your business, promoting yourself and finding clients. But it's not cheap. AssistU's tuition starts at $2,695 for a 20-week course along with some phone coaching sessions.

Most daunting, of course, is finding clients. You'll want to sell your services both online and offline. Joining local business-networking groups like a chamber of commerce can be a good starting point. Also, place ads in classifieds Web sites like Craigslist.