Virtual Reality When it comes to getting help, business owners are finding it pays to go virtual.

About two years after starting her organization business, SOS, Cara Brook was feeling burnt out, spending more time at her computer than with clients. She knew some entrepreneurs who used virtual assistants, and she decided it was the best way to get help for her home based business.

"One of the things I was stuck on initially was how I was going to find the money for something like this," says Brook, who projects 2008 sales of more than $100,000 for her Stamford, Connecticut-based firm. "But paying somebody about $35 an hour to do some administrative tasks frees me up to charge $125 an hour for what I do."