A VIRTUAL personal assistant firm is in the running for one of Britain's top PA awards.

A VIRTUAL personal assistant firm is in the running for one of Britain's top PA awards.

Caroline Melville, who runs Glasgow-based Virtually Sorted, has been nominated in the Management Support Fellowship Awards - a competition normally reserved for "real" PAs.

The South Side firm, which launched three years ago, has become one of the country's biggest virtual assistant services and now works with 40 different companies across Britain, employing more than 10 people.

Using their website as an interface, Caroline hires a pool of secretaries, bookkeepers and typists and acts as a kind of online sub- contractor while a team of PAs work from home.

Now her team of faceless PAs are up for the national award.

Caroline said: "We're delighted with the nomination. It is quite funny to see the other finalists' names and see that they are all PAs for big firms like Shell.

"I don't know if we will win but it does show that the services that businesses like ours provide are being accepted."

Caroline launched the firm in 2005, applying to the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust four days before her 26th birthday.

The trust gave her a loan and helped her with a business plan to get the firm off the ground.

It proved a hit, winning the best new Glasgow start-up in the PSYBT Awards the next year.

Now, as well as the virtual PA service, the firm is also working with an American developer to create virtual PA software.

Caroline said: "When we launched there was the problem of virtual assistants being seen as this amateurish service.

"People had the impression that firms like ourselves employed anyone who could type and answer a phone.

"The whole market has evolved. With the sheer volume of work and the number of firms on board we couldn't work like that. We need people who are up to the standard of a good PA."

And talk of an economic downturn doesn't faze her. In fact, it could be beneficial to her business.

Caroline said: "I think we are in the funny position of being able to take advantage of the credit crunch.

"A lot of firms, especially smaller firms, require someone to manage the office, take care of administration, but will maybe need to revise their plans to hire their own PA. That's where we can come in."

Visit www.virtuallysorted.com for more information.