I rented out my Virtual Assistant

I did a fun experiment yesterday. My GF needed something done, so...

...I rented her my virtual assistant.

My take home message: a VA might be useful for most people, but the threshhold to hire one oneself is pretty high - at least here in Germany.

It just feels too "weird".

Well, if you ask me: I don't care how weird it might be to others!

It gets the job done for me and saves me hundreds of hours of work.

(Over four thousand hours until now, to be more exact)

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What I decided: I'm not going to try to convince sceptical people into hiring a VA and becoming massively successful. That's wasted energy.

Only teach those who are open minded enough to jump on this innovative train.

Timothy Ferriss (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, perhaps not so innovative any more. Who knows how many years it has been since Tim Ferris has written the 4 Hour Work Week Book!

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I plan on outsourcing my job research to help me find a job faster even if it's just a day

To be honest, I am fed up of writing dozens of application letters and not getting many job interview invitations back. The times may be hard but damn it - I'm running out of time and patience!

As I take hours daily to research firms and enterprises for job opportunities, I decided: I am going to outsource this whole job research.

At a job interview (Photo credit: Arroz y Asado)

This does not mean I am going to let someone else apply for me.

No, that would be very bad and will bite me in the arse someday.

What I aim to get outsourced is the actual research of

1. Where are all those enterprises?
2. Do they have job opportunities?
3. What is the contact information?

Then, my job will be simply to call, write and apply on each of those positions.

Because I am looking for positions in Germany, outsourcing the process might be a tad tricky for English-only-speaking virtual assistants.

But at least it's a fun challenge!

I believe there is much to gain from this project, namely finding a job faster - even if it's just by a day.

Nobody will be able to say: I didn't try everything!

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Superquick Update - Oh Noes: My VA has a few days of vacation!!

Just joking, it's actually a good family reason he has, and he has deserved a break for all the awesome work he does.

Did I mention that in the meantime, he manages yet another virtual assistant (transcriptionist from the Philippines, actually) for me?

So he is a hiring manager too, now. Killer-awesome.

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What is the problem if my VA takes a few days off? No problem really, only that on my own, I rarely get any work done :D

Will have to bite the bullet and do some work on my own. It's actually a good thing I am not too dependent on the productivity of my one virtual assistant.

You should always be able to figure out how your business would survive even if you are not there any more.

Peace and out.

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How awesome is my VA?

I had a disheartening discussion about outsourcing some days ago. I was serously considering stopping my business out of moral reasons.

I asked my virtual assistance for his honest feedback for some really critical questions.

Example: How can I not know that if I hire someone in India or Pakistan, that I don't support anything illegal?

And the like.

My VA gave me some very solid answers. Very solid.
He wrote about 1800 words of text. With some very valid arguments. Of course, not all related to this one question, but many other critical points.

In short: my faith in my business model is restored.

He took about 5 hours for this research and writing. This cost me less than 10$.

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Is outsourcing just impossible to do ethically? Should I give up?

Until now, I was pretty much excited 100% about making a site about outsourcing. Recently, I run into a pretty serious and spririted debate, with the result that I should not do it.

That was disheartening. I planned on this site for almost half a year. I have tons of value to share. I really meant well, I really did.

But still, there is a risk that I might do some damage that I cannot undo. What if I support bad stuff when doing outsourcing?

In the end, I'll be accountable. Even if I only wanted someone to send me the weather daily or answer emails. Or anything.

Is it as bad as I think now it is?

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There is NO way I'll give up without a fight. I'll find the way to blog about outsourcing. Effectively and ethically.

And when the success comes, all the critics will know better.

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Synergizing with a virtual assistant. I blog, he illustrates

Now we are talking. Together with the resarch from my VA, I built a pretty huge webpage today in the new site builder from SBI.
He helped me pre-format the article in word. I copy pasted it into the builder, thinking of some unique information I cannot outsource along the way. Like a striking page description.

You can see the page here.

How does the teamwork continue? I point out which formatation I don't like - he fixes it. I ask him to illustrate the post with diagrams and graphics - he is on it faster than the speed of light.

Damn I love outsourcing :)

He has already started on a new project. In order to get more illustrations, we'll outsource the research again to even more providers. They'll jump on the team, he will give them the instructions, and I'll review the final results.

Easy? Easy.

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Working together with a virtual assistant that does transcription work for me and orders my thoughts

Yesterday I experienced serious writer's block. Nothing unusual for me.

Writer's Block (Photo credit: Elemento Zeca)

My solution: "call up" my virtual assistant. Actually, I didn't really call, but just used an application from Catch.com to record a message.

I was 1.5 hours long..! But at least it got me over my writers' block.

Simply telling what projects I was thinking about, how I wanted items be ordered, while dictating pieces and parts of future articles for transcription was surprisingly easy.

I was very eager to find out that my VA had successfully worked through the gibberish to yield some nicely polished stuff to work with.

This essentially replaced my writing work with a polish-and-put-the-best-stuff-together work. Which is way easier.

Writer's Block: 0 - Virtual Assistant: 1

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