I work from my home in the suburbs of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Most of my clients at this point are from the United States. It’s exciting to know though that as a virtual assistant I can work with clients from pretty much anywhere in the world.

There are issues to be aware of though in this amazing virtual world. One of the biggest issues is that of time zone differences. Alberta is in the mountain time zone, which for me means working with clients on the east coast, west coast or anywhere in between isn’t too much of a problem. But if I were to work with an Australian client, we’d certainly have to make sure our procedures took into account the large time lag between Australia and Canada.

As a client looking for a virtual assistant you should definitely give some consideration to what your needs will be. Do you need to be able to speak on the phone with your assistant? Do you need quick turnaround on certain projects?

Other issues come into play when contracting work out virtually. Virtual assistants and clients need to be careful when communicating to be very clear and to realize that even from one coast to another there are likely many differences in vocabulary and word usage.

One other important thing to try and remember about working in different locations from your client/virtual assistant is that extreme weather conditions may cause problems. You may be busily working on a document and trying to get ahold of your virtual assistant to do some revisions and not realize that they’ve been hit by a terrible store which ripped out their power and internet. You may find yourself watching weather reports with a lot more interest when you have connections in far-ranging locales!

Do you know of any other concerns to consider when establishing virtual working arrangements? Love to hear from you!!