Virtual assistants sound great—and they are for most entrepreneurs. But VAs aren’t right for every situation.

For one thing, working with a free agent requires changing your mindset.

VAs are independent business people. Like you, they make their own schedules and have other clients, so you must build in enough time for work completion.

You must be comfortable delegating responsibilities, confident they will be taken care of without supervision.

Since you can’t physically show a VA your project, you must become accustomed to explaining your needs clearly by phone, fax or e-mail. “If you need face-to-face contact to feel comfortable, a VA may not be right for you,” says Angela Allen, vice president of the International Virtual Assistants Association.

And for another, cyber assistants work as your equal and “partner,” rather than your subordinate. “It’s an interaction rather than instruction,” says Miguel Berger, a Realtor who hired a VA. “If I have a road I want to follow, she may have suggestions that really help.”

Those factors might be drawbacks for some small-business owners, but for others they just add merit to working with a VA. As Berger notes, “I haven’t found any real downside. I pick up the phone, and I don’t have to worry about the work anymore.”