Comments on: The Personal Outsourcing Olympics: Bangalore Butler or American Assistant?

By: John Peters

John Peters — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 04:47:39 +0000

I am interested in receiving recommendations for VA capable of performing book editing and formatting as I am planning on self-publishing a book. Thanks. – John Peters

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:14:53 +0000

Like with any of these services they are only as good as the people you have working with you. When they move on or are promoted you oftentimes have to start over. This is what just happened with uassistme. The implications for a business are significant. I feel the answer is to be adaptable. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow so you constantly have to be flexible and continually recruit and guide to make sure the best possible fit for your business is in place now. If they aren’t, then quickly look for a replacement solution.

We also have started to use Fiverr for some micro-tasks. This is a whole new way to expand your services, but obviously also requires an additional level of management on your end.

Having been into outsourcing for over a decade now I’ve come to the realization there are no easy answers. There are some things that you simply can’t outsource and you must do yourself while there are others that you must delegate. The key is to know the difference. Although this is coming from a guy who finally figured he needed to hire an outsourcer who manages his outsourcing team.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:34:12 +0000

Karl, that is a BRILLIANT idea! The thought of wading through a sea of misunderstanding has been one of the things that has made me hesitant about using a VA. But “meta-outsourcing”…! PLEASE let me know if you have any luck finding a high-level VA who can do this, and where you find him/her.

By: Sammy

Sammy — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:46:41 +0000

I think they keep changing call centers, so the staff is losing their touch. The quality just isn’t there and I can’t afford to have anyone make mistakes, I’d rather just do it myself.

Try out a few American assistant companies out there. Most of them charge hourly, but you can find a few like Red Butler that are by tasks. I’ve read a few threads about them and just signed up, so far so good.

By: Rudy

Rudy — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:26:03 +0000

Hey Markus!
You should try uassist.me! I have been using them for a quite a while already and so far the experience has been awesome.
Before that I tried Asksunday, Taskseveryday and Getfriday…I was about to give up when I found uassistme.