Comments on: The Onion : Americans outsourcing their jobs. http://www.burrhitchcock.com/2009/04/23/the-onion-americans-outsourcing-their-jobs/ blogging the personal interests of one Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:04:48 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: admin http://www.burrhitchcock.com/2009/04/23/the-onion-americans-outsourcing-their-jobs/comment-page-1/#comment-14 admin Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:46:28 +0000 http://www.burrhitchcock.com/?p=149#comment-14 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.

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