Outsourcing tasks to a Virtual Assistant from BPOVIA
After reading Timothy Feriss’s 4 hour work week, I’ve decided to try out the benefits of outsourcing your personal tasks to a virtual assistant. This book is basically about how you can work 4 hours a week so that you have time to enjoy the more important things in life. It is about liberating yourself from the useless and least productive tasks and focusing on the most bang for the buck. He advocates checking email irregularly. In particular, what he has done is to get a virtual assistant(VA) in India, who reads his email, respondson his behalf, and also does the most mundane but time-consuming things for e.g. the VA can research up people who he was going to interview, do a marketing study, or even the simple things like arranging for a cheap plumber to come to his house, or planning a simple dinner.
I’ve decided to give it a try. It was a quick sign up. My VA comes from BPOVIA, based in Nanjing, China. Her CV looks impressive. She is a uni grad, and can speak English, French and Chinese. That said, you know never to trust these things. So i signed up for a cheap package, to try it out. They bill by hours, $10US an hour is the avg. Here are the tasks I set her.
Her english seems alright. Its not the queen’s english but it is good enough. She just finished her first task and it is alright. She did indeed check out the fares for SQ and Thai Airways for me, but she forgot to include the infant fare (instead of 4 pax she got a quote for 3). That said, we’ll see how the second task goes.
My main intention is to get her to scan in my hard copy photos. I’m going to send it to her in china to scan. Its much cheaper than if you were to do it here. The photo shops here quote you $2 a photo. If you were to do it yourself, it takes about 1 hour to do 30 phtoos. She said she will charge me a flat rate of 7 hours for 300, which is decent in my opinion. Well, we’ll see how she fares on the first 2 tests first.
Its good that the VA is Chinese. There’s plenty of translation to be done nowadays and perhaps, getting a chinese VA to do it is right up her alley.
If this works out, I can just see how effective having a VA would be. Without compromising secrets, you could get the VA to do basic research through google (which is what we often do anyway). You can do a quick translation of powerpoint slides (unrestricted ones). YOu can even get the VA to scan the Chinese media(i.e. media report) for you.
Will update as we go along.
I’ve decided to give it a try. It was a quick sign up. My VA comes from BPOVIA, based in Nanjing, China. Her CV looks impressive. She is a uni grad, and can speak English, French and Chinese. That said, you know never to trust these things. So i signed up for a cheap package, to try it out. They bill by hours, $10US an hour is the avg. Here are the tasks I set her.
Dear _____
I have the following tasks for you. However, before you start, I would appreciate if you could email me to tell me how long you think you would take, and any clarifications if any. I will then give you the go-ahead to start.
I have the following tasks for you. However, before you start, I would appreciate if you could email me to tell me how long you think you would take, and any clarifications if any. I will then give you the go-ahead to start.
1. Prices for Airplane Tickets to Calcutta.
Please find 3 quotes online for me for Economy-Class airplane tickets from Singapore to Kolkata(Calcutta).
Departure Date: xx Return Date: xx
2 Adults, 1 Child (2yrs 11 mths old) and 1 Baby (6 months old)
I prefer direct flights from Singapore to kolkata(Calcutta) but if you can’t find enough, transit is fine.
I would like the cheapest fare available if possible.
Of the 3 quotes, I would like quotes for Singapore Airlines (www.singaporeair.com) and Thai Airways
2. China Construction costs
I’m looking at an investment opportunity in China, specifically in xx, xx and xx province.
Please find out for me the following:
a) The cost of industrial land (RMB per sq meter) for each province.
b) the cost of construction labour cost (RMB per month per worker) in each province
For each of the data that you provide, please give me a link to the website (i.e. proof/evidence).
Her english seems alright. Its not the queen’s english but it is good enough. She just finished her first task and it is alright. She did indeed check out the fares for SQ and Thai Airways for me, but she forgot to include the infant fare (instead of 4 pax she got a quote for 3). That said, we’ll see how the second task goes.
My main intention is to get her to scan in my hard copy photos. I’m going to send it to her in china to scan. Its much cheaper than if you were to do it here. The photo shops here quote you $2 a photo. If you were to do it yourself, it takes about 1 hour to do 30 phtoos. She said she will charge me a flat rate of 7 hours for 300, which is decent in my opinion. Well, we’ll see how she fares on the first 2 tests first.
Its good that the VA is Chinese. There’s plenty of translation to be done nowadays and perhaps, getting a chinese VA to do it is right up her alley.
If this works out, I can just see how effective having a VA would be. Without compromising secrets, you could get the VA to do basic research through google (which is what we often do anyway). You can do a quick translation of powerpoint slides (unrestricted ones). YOu can even get the VA to scan the Chinese media(i.e. media report) for you.
Will update as we go along.
