August 2005

Becoming a VA while overseas

LaRae McMullen

by LaRae McMulle

Becoming a Virtual Assistant was almost a necessity for me. I am a military spouse, and have always worked as an administrative assistant until we got stationed in Okinawa Japan. Although I searched for jobs, everything that was available was not in the line of my ideal career. I wanted something that I could be proud of. I wanted to go somewhere with my career. I just wasn’t finding it.

Then I remembered about a growing industry called virtual assisting. I decided to research it on the web. Starting a business was not something I thought I could do; but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted it. I ran across an article for Virtual Assistance U.  Being that I am overseas, I wasn’t sure I would even be able to take the course. So I contacted Janet Jordan and told her my situation.

Thanks to technology and the internet, she was able to accommodate me. Being located in Okinawa, I am 12 hours ahead of Janet who is in Texas. I joined the next class available. While my classmates do the course at night, it is morning for me.

Business Continuity Management

I set out to find as much information as possible. When it came down to marketing, I felt like I would not be able to do as much as I would like, but Janet and I came up with some inventive ways. I spend more time advertising through email campaigns and press releases than by personal networking.

I do some work for friends who are located in the United States. They enjoy working with me because they can communicate instructions to me at the end of their work day, and when they get up in the morning the project is finished. While they sleep, it is day time for me so I work. It is almost an unrealistic turn around for them. If they were working with an on hand staff, the project would not even be started until the following day.

I have found some tools helpful in my practice being overseas. Since the phone bill can get pretty expensive for both me and my clients, I use a meeting room by Voxwire instead of the telephone. This way my clients and I can communicate in real time by voice.

I also have a toll free fax number. When a client sends a fax to me it comes to my email. This eliminates any international phone rates for faxing.

Advantages of working with an international VA:

There are some great perks for working with an international VA. Some clients travel quit a bit and a lot of them travel internationally. Working with a VA gives them the flexibility to have an assistant with them always. If I have a client who is traveling to Japan, I am able to work with them all day while they are there. They may have forgotten some important presentation information or handouts for a meeting. They can simply send me an email, or call me and I can get that done for them and email it back. Everything is taken care of seamlessly.

Although at first glance being overseas and running a VA business seems impossible, thanks to today’s up to the minute technology, location poses no threat. In some instances it is a plus!

About the Author:

LaRae McMullen, GVA, is a military spouse and president of LaRae's Virtual Assistance. Her VA practice is currently based out of  Okinawa Japan, and specializes in web design, desktop publishing and data processing.