Editor's Note: (This post begins the third in a recurring series of Bootstrapper profiles on bootstrapme.com. If you have a bootstrap entrepreneur you believe we should profile, please get in touch)

When Denise Aday, Plano, TX, started her first business earlier this month, she decided to stick to what she knew.

Aday, who launched Aday VA Solutions, a virtual assistance service, in early August, believes she has long had the entrepreneurial urge.

"It's always been there. That seed," she said.

However, when she found herself laid off from a job at a local hospital non-profit three months ago, she decided there would never be a better time to start.

Today, through her website, she offers much the same services she has to various employers during her six years in bookkeeping and office management and combined 16 years in administrative support.

The difference is that today her office is her home computer and her employer could just as easily be in the next city or halfway around the world.

Aday is not alone.

A September 15, 2003 BusinessWeek Online article reported that:

...thousands of business owners...are turning over administrative tasks to virtual assistants. These helpers are self-employed, home-based workers -- usually women -- who do anything from word processing and bookkeeping to market research and meeting-planning for clients who live far away or travel frequently.

CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST