Finding a VA is easy. Just input “virtual assistants” into an Internet search engine such as Google. You’ll find a long list of sources ranging from VA organizations to Web sites for individual VAs.

Watch out, though, for VA wannabes. Rigorous training and testing is available for virtual assistants, but unlike licenses for a doctor, attorney or Realtor, it’s not required. Anyone can call herself a virtual assistant. Some will be highly qualified. Some, well, won’t be.

You’ll also find Web sites for companies that say its employees are virtual assistants for hire. That may make your search easier. But if you go that route, check the credentials of the individual you’d work with, and make sure you’ll always work with that person. The company’s project manager, after all, isn’t doing the actual work.

Whether you hire your own VA or work through a VA company, avoid problems by making sure the people you consider hiring are certified as virtual assistants through one of the several organizations that train VAs or certify their competency.

These organizations list certified graduates. Just click on a name to call up qualifications.

• International Virtual Assistants Association

• AssistU

• International Association of Virtual Office Assistants

• VACertification.com

Each organization, of course, claims it’s the best. But each emphasizes different areas, and two even define virtual assistants differently.

Angela Allen, vice president of the International Virtual Assistants Association, for example, calls VAs “independent entrepreneurs working in creative, technical and administrative fields”—a far broader definition than the strictly administrative classification that AssistU sets.

Which is really best? That depends on your needs. But as Stacy Brice, president of AssistU, notes, “Credentials from any group are better than none. Certification shows a person has the commitment to work towards high professionalism.”