I tried VA (Virtual Assistant) outsourcing yesterday and it worked great. Services vary quite a bit, so if you try it, make sure you get quotes for your task(s) from many different services and allow a day or to to find the right one.
If you haven’t read Four Hour Work Week, here is a summary.
Use the super cheap service for simple research or administrative tasks (cost= $6 – $8 per hour) then you may want to find a service that costs more but does more complicated work like web design (cost= $10 -$25) per hour.
I had a 35 minute mp3 I needed transcribed. I timed myself and calculated it would take me 5 hours. I sent out for 5 different quotes. The slowest took a day to get back to me and the cost was $100. The fastest response was from an Indian company specializing in transcription. $6 per hour. Can they start on this now and have it done for me when I get home from work? Yes, and even sent the first half after a couple hours. total cost = $40. Outstanding.
Next experiment will be to provide a list of things to do including research on several varying subjects, plan and estimate costst for a trip to Chicago in September, write competitive analysis for several business ideas. The result will be judged by thoroughness, accuracy and most importantly a low cost.
I tried VA (Virtual Assistant) outsourcing yesterday and it worked great. Services vary quite a bit, so if you try it, make sure you get quotes for your task(s) from many different services and allow a day or to to find the right one.
If you haven’t read Four Hour Work Week, here is a summary.
Use the super cheap service for simple research or administrative tasks (cost= $6 – $8 per hour) then you may want to find a service that costs more but does more complicated work like web design (cost= $10 -$25) per hour.
I had a 35 minute mp3 I needed transcribed. I timed myself and calculated it would take me 5 hours. I sent out for 5 different quotes. The slowest took a day to get back to me and the cost was $100. The fastest response was from an Indian company specializing in transcription. $6 per hour. Can they start on this now and have it done for me when I get home from work? Yes, and even sent the first half after a couple hours. total cost = $40. Outstanding.
Next experiment will be to provide a list of things to do including research on several varying subjects, plan and estimate costst for a trip to Chicago in September, write competitive analysis for several business ideas. The result will be judged by thoroughness, accuracy and most importantly a low cost.