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Vox Pop: Have you tried outsourcing your life?
Merlin Mann | Jun 25 2007
A lot of my friends have been reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, and, to varying degrees, several of them have started trying on some of his more audacious ideas, such as checking email once a week, finding an "income muse," going on an extreme information diet -- a few people I know are considering outsourcing pieces of their personal and professional lives. For reasons I can't fully explain -- and will, for now, just write down to Tim's engaging style -- I also found this outsourcing idea weirdly fascinating. You identify the tedious tasks in your life that don't represent the best use of your time, and assign them to an overseas worker who can complete them for a few bucks an hour. This apparently can be virtually any kind of mundane task, from booking a dinner reservation to doing research on a company to -- heck, why not? -- answering your email. So, while I know lots of people share my theoretical interest in this, I wonder how many of you have tried it, and how many of you are using outsourced help on a regular basis. What's your experience been? Does this work? What sorts of task are most amenable to long-distance assignment? By the way, if you haven't read the book yet, here's an excerpt from Tim's chapter on outsourcing. Comments are open for your stories. I'd be grateful if you can try to limit your comments to firsthand experiences hiring and utilizing outsourced employees or in regard to evaluating the quality of their work. Thanks. 61 Comments
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 I have to agree with...Submitted by Sue (not verified) on June 26, 2007 - 3:03am.
I have to agree with Karalyn that you need to have a lot of communication with your VA. I just started my VA business after 28 years of Executive/Administrative positions and it surprises me how little information people want to give up when it comes to their business. The only way your relationship with your VA is going to work out is by partnering with them. The relationship between the two of you is totally different then the relationship you have with a secretary/assistant in the same office with you, and the relationship your going to have with someone you just hire to type a few letters for you. VAs are not just typist, appointment schedulers, and personal shoppers. VAs are small business entrepreneurs who can provide you with insights on how to see your business from a different perspective, help you with low-cost marketing, and help you organize your working habits so that you may not always need to outsource, just to name a few. If you don't outsource to the right person, you could end up spending a fortune because your hiring several people to do work for you, instead of really finding the right person for you who can handle the majority of it for you. My advice to everyone is to sit down first and write out exactly what your final vision is, including mock up drawings, on that particular project you are thinking about outsourcing. Write down what you need done now and what you think you might want to try in the future pertaining to this project. Then send this to the VA you're thinking about hiring to give them a chance to look it over and give them the opportunity to ask you questions about the project. You need to remember that no one can read your mind so by providing quick "rough" drafts of what your thinking really does help. Sue Rogers Rogers Executive Administrative Services http://www.easmyworkload.com http://virtualassistants.easmyworkload.com » POSTED IN:
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