About 5 years ago, I started a small software company with the goal of helping distributed software teams to collaborate on complex projects.  At the time, this was a relatively new phenomenon, and outsourcing of services was mostly limited to software development projects and the occasional call center.

As I write this, new industries like Virtual Assistance have taken off where "regular" people who were working offices as administrative assistants, office managers, or even as executives are now putting those skills to use online.

These new "virtual companies" are providing valuable services to other entrepreneurs and small businesses, often without having full time employees, offices, or set work hours.

What's more interesting about these new industries is that they are being adopted not by large corporations looking to save a few bucks on software development or handling customer support, but by new businesses, solo entrepreneurs, and others who don't yet need full time staff, but want to develop a virtual team that can handle their needs as they come up.

Of course, as the number of virtual team members grows, it becomes more and more difficult to manage the tasks, documents, and schedules of team members.   Sending email attachments back and forth with revisions works well for 2 people, but doesn't scale well to 4 or 5 team members or clients.

Over the last few years, software solutions have started to fill in the gap between these new virtual service professionals and the increased need for visibility and communication now that your team isn't in the same office (or in an office at all in some cases).

From virtual telephone systems that can route calls to your cell phone, to online project management tools, document collaboration tools, calendars, and more - you can create a virtual business environment in a day with an array of online services.

As the technology matures, and businesses get more savvy about how best to work with virtual service providers, it may be soon that starting a business and getting the resources you need is as easy as clicking a few buttons.

Now if only sales and marketing were that easy.