49 Decent Virtual Assistant & Personal Outsourcing Resources

[Editor's Note: In an effort to avoid reinventing the wheel, I've taken this post's introduction partly from an earlier post. Apologies if you've read the earlier material.]

In 2005, NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman injected a bestselling hit, The World is Flat, into the national psyche. The book’s 5th “flatting”? factor is outsourcing. Friedman argues that the practice enables companies to componentize manufacturing and service efforts, thus making each component more efficient and cost effective.

In August of 2005, author A.J. Jacobs (author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically) read Friedman’s book and thought to himself, “why should Fortune 500 firms have all the fun?”? “Why can’t I join in on the biggest business trend of the new century?”? “Why can’t I outsource my low-end tasks? Why can’t I outsource my life?”? He then goes on to write a notable piece of cultural history for Esquire called My Outsourced Life (notable because it later catches on in a big way). In My Outsourced Life, Jacobs outsources everything from worrying and spousal relations, to email and work related research. It’s an entertaining read and one that I recommend.

Jacobs’s piece was re-published as a section of Tim Ferriss’ Bestselling book, The Four-Hour Work Week. But Ferriss doesn’t stop with Jacobs’ anecdotes, he takes it one stop further by showing readers how to effectively hire a personal assistant for $5 to $15 per hour from places like Croatia, India, Angentina, and the United States. Ferriss’ outsourcing advice has been the most highlighted aspect of his somewhat controversial book. And with personal outsourcing being implemented by everyone from soccer moms to busy professionals, companies offering virtual assistance seem to be springing up everywhere.

Getting a remote personal assistant is a huge departure point and marks the moment that you learn how to give orders and be commander instead of the commanded. It is small-scale training wheels for the most critical of [Four-Hour Work Week Skills]: remote management and communication. It’s time to learn to be the boss. It isn’t time-consuming. It’s low-cost and it’s low risk.

-Tim Ferriss

While I don’t fully endorse Ferriss’ commander vs. commanded perspective, I have experienced the benefits of personal outsourcing. The practice doesn’t just free up more time, it strengthens your entrepreneurial muscle, hones the skill of delegation, and allows you to focus on your strengths. After just a week of outsourcing, I developed a heightened sensitivity to tasks not requiring my involvement, and subsequently learned to write rule based (if-then) procedures around such delegable tasks.

Whether you’re a college student, a busy professional, or a retiree, YOU can learn to do this. Here are 49 resources for helping you out along the way!

Guides and Tips for Working with VAs

TheNewlyRich.com’s 5 Tips for Outsourcing to a Personal Virtual Assistant
43 Folders’ Enlightened Outsourcing, Part I: The Psychology
“Nobody’s going to be working for you out of a sense of deference or duty. It’s capitalism. The people whom you’re going to hire are your equals (no matter where they live or how much you’re paying them,) and so long as you treat them that way, there’s no reason to cringe at fully taking advantage of the labor which they are willingly proffering. Once I recognized and worked to get over this daft hang-up, I was ready to start optimizing.”?
ZenHabits‘ Tips for Working with a Virtual Assistant (and Why You Might Want One)
Instigator Blog’s 10 Tips for Picking a Great Freelance Vendor

Ethical Issues Associated with Working with VAs

Negative experiences with Get Friday – Post and comments give some good reasons why VAs don’t work for everyone.
Telegraph.co.uk’s Offshoring: At Your Beck and Call “Then, out of the blue, something happened that threatened to ruin my virtual love affair: I was hit by a pang of ethical unease about exploiting India’s cheap and oh-so-willing labour. Shashi is a graduate in computer science, after all, and vastly over-qualified. To appease my conscience, I contacted Vivek Kulkarni, a former Indian government official who was responsible until recently for establishing Bangalore as the information-technology and outsourcing centre of the nation. “There are two million graduates coming out of our universities every year. All jobs are welcome,” I was reassured by Kulkarni, who now runs his own thriving business-to-business outsourcing company, brickwork.com. That was good enough for me. And suddenly one virtual employee no longer seemed enough: it was time for me to recruit a small army.”?

Outsourcing Facts/History

Personal Procurement Outsourcing: Top Overseas Websites for International Personal Support Services - “For over 10 years, outsourcing has been the domain of huge multinational corporations like Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Person-to-person outsourcing now enables everyday people to squeeze more tasks into their overcrowded daily schedules… Evalueserve, a global research firm based in India, estimates that the personal outsourcing revenues will accelerate 26% annually from US$250 million in 2006 to surpass US$2 billion by 2015.”?

Tips and Tools for VAs

Places to Hire Virtual Assistants

Survey ranking virtual assistant companies – From Tim Ferriss’s blog
Brickwork India - $15 to $25 an hour. “(As of November 2007) Brickwork has a staff of 160 in Bangalore and uses as many as 150 others as consultants, according to its founder and chief executive, Vivek Kulkarni. Brickwork says that it has had 150 clients in the United States and many more in Europe, Australia and Hong Kong.”? – NY Times
Virtual Assistants DFW
GetFriday - $15 an hour, plus $10 a month, though rates are lower for those who have monthly plans (a 40-hour-a-month plan costs $360). “(As of November 2007) GetFriday… has a staff of 140 serving about 1,000 clients.”? – NY Times
Zirga – U.S.-based, native English speakers. 35 tasks (which can be completed by staff in 35 minutes or less) for $95/mo; additional tasks can be added for $30 per block of 10.
AskSunday
Rearden Commerce - Online tool that is an electronic virtual assistant (not a human) using your calendar and recorded preferences
Your Man in India - This is a service for people who live outside India, but need errands run within India. Primarily geared toward Indian expats living abroad.
Executive Solutions Virtual Assistants
Love Concierge - Plans from $99.95 - $400/mo or a pay-as-you-go plan for $15/mo + $40/hr. They’ll do everything from enhancing your profile photos to writing a love letter to your significant other.
Corporate Concierge
Taj Tunes - For $5/per call, send a singing telegram from India
Tasks EveryDay - $7-10/hr
Distant Support - Based in the Philippines
ScriptLance - Programmers
iFreelance
Agents of Value - Based in the Philippines
Workaholics for Hire
DaVinci Virtual Office Soluations
Guru
oDesk
Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk) - Post HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks), which are tasks that cannot be done artificially by a computer and therefore need human input. These are usually tasks that can be completed very quickly and pay generally ranges from a few cents to a few dollars.
Elance
RentACoder – Hire programmers
TutorVista – Hire a tutor for your children
Get a Freelancer
Do My Stuff
American Express Platinum Card Concierge
Craigslist

Places to Find Personal Assistant Jobs

Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk) - Bid on HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks), which are tasks that cannot be done artificially by a computer (each task usually takes just a few seconds or minutes) and receive almost immediate payment though your Amazon account.
Craigslist
Do My Stuff
Elance
Get a Freelancer
Guru
Having Things Done - This site isn’t quite up yet, but you can pre-register
oDesk
Workaholics for Hire

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Photo by Fire Monkey Fish.

Posted on 8 Apr, 2008

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32 Comments so far »

Jonathan from JonathanMead.com said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 2:56 pm

Although I haven’t personally found an application for outsourcing my life, not yet at least, this is a great list of resources. Perhaps Mr. Feriss should feature you on his blog.
Liara Covert said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 4:52 pm

Its worthwhile to ask oneself why certain resources and brands become so popular? Do you aim to redefine, reshape your own success or popularity? You can think of Google and Yahoo or any of the useful resources you list in this post. The marketing strategy has a role to play. Yet, in terms of promotion, nothing compares to word-of-mouth and other initiatives of contented users. Sharing positive experiences of your own will invite hearing about positive experiences from others. Its a win-win scenario.
Danielle Keister said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 5:16 pm

The Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce is a fantastic resource for business owners seeking qualified and competent Virtual Assistant professionals. Of particular interest:

Client’s Guide to Virtual Assistants:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/client-guide.htm

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/how-to-hire-a-virtual-assistant.htm

Virtual Assistant Directory:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/directory/

RFP Center:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/rfp-center.htm

Get to Know Our Virtual Assistants:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/subscribe.htm
Tom Stine said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 6:43 pm

I have thought of a dozen tasks in the past few months for a VA. I’m going to have to go through some of these resources and see what might work. Merci.
Jared Goralnick said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 6:52 pm

So now that you’ve compiled the resources…what are YOU outsourcing?
Evelyn Lim said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 8:07 pm

Great list that you’ve compiled here. Who knows….I may eventually need it!

Thanks,
Evelyn
Gary said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 9:58 pm

Great list. I have used two of the sites elance.com and TutorVista.com .Both experiences were good though needed some patience from my side before I could get comfortable. This is a new different way of doing business but great convenience and value for money. It shows that traditional way or even paying huge premium is not necessarily the best solution. I had used expensive offshore software company six years back , burnt through $ 300000 before abandoning and getting the same job done through elance with a small team from then Soviet Union. My daughter ( 9th grade) has been using TutorVista.com for the last one year with good success. Will definitely give other sites a try. Thanks for the article
Gary
Clay Collins said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 10:35 pm

@Evelyn: Yeah, this list won’t be useful to everyone, but perhaps some people will find it useful.
Clay Collins said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 10:36 pm

@Jared: A blogger’s got to have *some* secrets :-).
grant allen said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 10:45 pm

personally i think it is a very clear definition of outsourcing…..luring to taking one…in fact the writer is correct…..beneficial to others our material our concept their labor and is credited to us(outsourcing countries)…..
Clay Collins said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 11:03 pm

@Liara: You are absolutely right. This post has less of a “human face” than many of my other posts. What are your thoughts on this kind of post? Are they helpful to you or do you think they detract from the main thrust of this blog?
Clay Collins said,

Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 11:08 pm

Dear Everyone,

I’d like to reiterate the questions posed to Liara. What are your thoughts on this kind of post? Is this helpful to you or do you think it detracts from the main thrust of this blog? Sometimes I find it helpful to compile a list of resources on a useful topic, but if this kind of thing negatively affects the signal to noise ratio of the content on this site then I’d rather drop posts such as these. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Thank you for taking me to task when necessary: it’s one thing I really appreciate about your very thoughtful comments.

–Clay
Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary said,

Wrote on April 8, 2008 @ 2:54 am

You’ve left Australia out - our VA network is the second oldest in the world and we provide connections with clients (Requests for Proposals and Job Leads), lots of resources for Virtual Assistants, coaching and training, web hosting, chat forums and other resources. We also have information assisting clients to work with VAs through our website and the adjoining blog at http://www.vadirectory.net/blog/

We have Virtual Assistant members in 16 countries, so even though our head office is in Australia our members are spread far and wide catering for a number of langages and many types of services online.
Paul Montwill | Sharingmatters.com said,

Wrote on April 8, 2008 @ 3:14 am

Clay, have you asked your VA to prepare the above list? :)
Jay Sennett said,

Wrote on April 8, 2008 @ 8:07 am

@Clay,

I think this post is fine. It did finally help me catalize why I’m so uncomfortable with Ferriss’ outsource your life mantra. Essentially, outsourcing says there are some tasks that must be done but that are too mundane/boring, etc., for me to do. So I will outsource them!

But outsourcing them suggests for me that I am somehow above these tasks, that I don’t have to do them if I don’t want to. By outsourcing them I remove myself from two possibilities: deleting the tasks forever because they simply don’t need to be done and from the spiritual work that can occur when I am doing tasks “I” think “I” am too busy/important/etc. to do.

In the end, the world/human goal for me is to reduce, reduce, eliminate, reduce so that everyone, everywhere can live happy lives.

Not sure that answers your question!
J.D. Meier said,

Wrote on April 8, 2008 @ 9:51 am

@Clay RE Liara — yes your quality list of resources is valuable.

I think sharing your personal stories of outsourcing would be more valuable and encourate others to share theirs, or ask key questions. I find a lot of people are curious about personal outsourcing, but wondering — who’s done it how, for what, and with what results?

I think delegation/outsourcing is a tricky subject for five key reasons:
1. You don’t want to delegate your “growth” tasks. some tasks you may not like, might be key for your growth.
2. It’s very easy to add to your time versus reduce your time if you delegate to the wrong person.
3. It’s very easy to erode your personal brand (unless you have the right people on the right jobs, which help raise your bar.)
4. You have to have a lot of self-awareness (your strengths, your liabilities, your growth opportunities .. etc.)
5. You get what you pay for (I’ve learned this lesson multiple times.)

For example, I used to delegate creating reports on team status. I hated the task — it felt like minutia. Next thing you know, I lost key insight into the team and it cost me. I no longer delegate reporting on the team. On the other hand, there’s some tasks that are no long my growth tasks, but opportunities for others. I share the reigns, they grow, I grow — it’s win-win.
Deirdre Shockley said,

Wrote on April 8, 2008 @ 10:43 am

You can also add Virtual Assistant Forums, we have a Request for Proposal area, chat times, scheduled seminars, and resources for the Virtual Assistant to grow their business.

As far as the comment above about a person feeling like they are above the menial tasks… I personally enjoy the little tedious tasks that most people wouldn’t enjoy.

http://www.virtualassistantforums.com/

Deirdre
Deirdre’s Virtual Office
http://dvirtualoffice.com
Jared Goralnick said,

Wrote on April 8, 2008 @ 2:23 pm

Clay,

I think these posts are helpful. If you were echo’ing everyone else’s aggregation posts then they’d be silly…but you do a great job on the research and help find the salient points.

A bigger question is whether it’s a good use of YOUR time. Research on a topic like this would be a great thing to outsource :-).

But yes, keep these up!

J
Art Gonzalez said,

Wrote on April 8, 2008 @ 5:07 pm

Although I have got great tips from the 4HWW book, it should be viewed as a means to improve one´s efficiency and impact not as a way to become purposefully lazy.

Proverbs 6, 4-11 lays it out beautifully :

“Give not [unnecessary] sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids; Deliver yourself, as a roe or gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise!–Which, having no chief, overseer, or ruler, Provides her food in the summer and gathers her supplies in the harvest.How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down and sleep–So will your poverty come like a robber or one who travels [with slowly but surely approaching steps] and your want like an armed man [making you helpless].” Amplified Version

Our Lord despises lazy people and the way to be blessed and get the breaks in life (the favor of God) is by being dilligent and industrious.

Keep up the good work and many blessings,

Art Gonzalez
Check my Squidoo Lens at: Quantum Knights
petulant entrepreneur said,

Wrote on April 8, 2008 @ 5:31 pm

These are some very useful resources, good on you for putting them up. But how about automation services? A VA might be cheaper than a flesh-and-blood PA, but what about a virtual phone system like gotvmail or others? In my experience they’ve worked well for replacing secretaries (at least in the way of routing calls), but what do you guys think of them?
Sanjana said,

Wrote on April 9, 2008 @ 1:14 am

Well written post, good information, it will be great if you can also post such informative material in SiliconIndia.com, as I am a member of SiliconIndia, I am sure that such information will be helpful for most of the members.
Daniel | Winning Everyone said,

Wrote on April 9, 2008 @ 7:37 am

Wow. I don’t think I’d be having help from VAs anytime soon. Thanks for the write up. :)
Craig said,

Wrote on April 9, 2008 @ 8:13 am

Hi there,

Great resources! I should also mention the Virtual Assistant Training and Job Center we will be launching in early May. We are working with many Internet businesses to craft relevant training courses that will seriously alleviate the headaches and time it takes to get new Virtual Assistants up to speed. As well, we will be offering a marketplace for you to connect with those VAs that complete our training programs. Check out a pre-launch page at: http://www.vaclassroom.com.
Sarah Greene said,

Wrote on April 9, 2008 @ 3:33 pm

Hi Clay,

Thank you for compiling a list of resources for those wishing to partner with a Virtual Assistant. Here’s a few more:

If you are looking for VAs who primarily support real estate professionals, please take a look at http://www.revaprofessionals.com and http://www.ireaa.com.

If you are looking for VAs specializing in other areas (also including those who specialize in real estate), please check out http://www.ivaa.org.

Thank you.
Frances Palaschuk said,

Wrote on April 10, 2008 @ 10:23 pm

This is a great list of virtual assistant resources for both the VA and the client - thanks for that!

I would like to add a small list of niche areas that are becoming very popular for VAs to specialize in:

* Social Media Coordinator
* Blogging Assistant
* Affiliate Marketing Assistant
* Web Analytics Assistant

Don’t forget to use your virtual assistant wisely. Remember that “wish” list of tasks on your peg board? Well dust it off and talk about it with your VA - you may be surprised at how easy and cheap it could be to implement them.
Kathy Sparks said,

Wrote on April 15, 2008 @ 1:10 pm

Hi:

Here are some additional resources:

The Directory of Virtual Assistants at
http://www.avirtualresume.com

For VAs: The VA Technical School at
http://www.vatechnicalschool.com

How to Find and Work With a Virtual Assistant Successfully E-book: http://www.vasecrets.com

Your Virtual Resource - Kathy
jay r said,

Wrote on April 17, 2008 @ 10:19 am

I must congratulate you for your write ups it helps me a lot to add more my knowledge, so many links that you can go to yet very informative blog. Hiring professional people like virtual assistant takes a lot of effort for business owners in finding the right one. On the other hand, certain virtual assistant feels the same way, cos you know VA job is a multi-tasking job, you need to sort out every tasks that you do for your client. One more thing, it such a great challenge for VA people like me to deal also with the different behaviors of clients and see to it that you are performing well in your tasks effectively and efficiently.
outsourcing philippines said,

Wrote on May 4, 2008 @ 11:45 pm

Hello my friend!you really have an interesting post. Thank you so much for the good inputs, i learn from it. Continue your good post and please don’t stop sharing us your knowledge.
Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary said,

Wrote on May 29, 2008 @ 2:00 am

Amazing, you don’t list any of the Virtual Assistant Networks. We founded and grew the industry for goodness sake and you don’t even look to the professional organisations for find a VA?

Why not try the professionals at http://vanetworknews.com/va-organisations/
Gopal said,

Wrote on August 20, 2008 @ 2:01 am

Yes. I have found this site very useful. Excellent.
Anja Shau said,

Wrote on August 29, 2008 @ 2:40 am

Very nice written and great source of information. Working with VA’s is a great way to do it, but as always you need to make sense of it. Means VA’s can do almost all tasked for you, but it depends on oneself to find a balance.
Since the number of VA’s and VA service sites are growing, so is the need for making sure to find the right VA. Best is to start with small or easy tasks that you don’t like to do, but don’t mind to let other handle for you, speak a VA. Once the VA or the VA service does the job as you like, you can give more to them.
darlene reyes said,

Wrote on August 31, 2008 @ 8:49 pm

More, more, more! Here’s your BIG APPLAUSED!