If you are working as a 9-to-5 employee and there are some tasks that you DON'T enjoy doing, what do you do? Can you ask your boss to transfer you to another department where there are more fun chores, which makes one think why apply for that job in the first place? Of course, you can't avoid bumping into activities that don't strike your fancy.

But if you are working from home running a home based business, although you are the sole proprietor of that business, you don't have to just make do with yourself all alone enduring activities that you despise. You can actually outsource it - which is where the virtual assistant industry comes in, but you know about that already.

Now I'll let you in on a secret on how to make the most out of this pre-holiday prep tip - aside from your regular virtual assistant, if you can afford it, seek the help of a number of virtual assistants that specialize on various business tasks that get more demanding during the holidays. Get an extra customer service representative to get more client inquiries or orders taken. If you are a virtual assistant yourself, especially, if you are specializing on concierge tasks, get extra on-call help either for more research activities or other chores that you get more of during the holiday season. Gift research and holiday vacation travel arrangements are some of these.