Monday, September 15, 2008

4 Hour Work Week - Hire a Virtual Assistant From India and Save Time/Money

I got this great idea from a book that I’ve been reading called ‘The 4-Hour Workweek, Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich’ by Timothy Ferriss. One of his time savings and money making strategies includes hiring an online or virtual assistant. Timothy Ferriss recommends going with a virtual assistant from India since they run as low as $4.00 an hour. Timothy believes that getting used to making orders instead of taking them is a crucial step on the road to financial independence. You can delegate the tasks that have been hanging over your head to you assistant in India and concentrate on only the tasks that are important to you. If go with an Indian VA due to the time difference tasks can be completed at night while you sleep. One funny example the author gave using a personal assistance is when he had to apologize to his girlfriend. Ferriss had his virtual assistant from India send a love letter to his girlfriend and deliver flowers on his behalf. Some other more important tasks you can outsource include, “Scheduling interviews and meetings, web research, following up on appointments, errands, and tasks, online purchases, creation of legal documents, website maintenance, posting Job vacancies on the Web, document creation, proofreading and editing, online research for updating blogs, and voicemail transcription.” Virtual assistant uses are endless. Some recommended places to start looking for you own assistant are:

U.S. and Canada ($20 per hour+)

http://assistu.com/client/client_how.shtml
http://www.yourvirtualresource.com/
http://ivaa.org/
http://www.canadianva.net (in Canada)
www.onlinebusinessmanager.com

North America and International ($4 per hour+)

www.elance.com (Search “virtual assistants,” “personal assistants,” and “executive assistants.”)

India

www.b2bcorp.com ($15 an hour). This is a business only VA.
www.yourmaninindia.com ($6.25 an hour). VA handles both business and personal tasks.

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