Hiring a Virtual Assistant
Everyone I know is busy. Whether it’s work or school or an overbooked personal life, no one has the time to accomplish everything that he or she wants to.
I spent the long weekend in NYC and got back to Chapel Hill last night. As I unpacked, I realized I had no idea what was going on this week. I hate not being organized, but I also hate wasting time leafing through class syllabi and undigested e-mail. Even if it only takes an hour to get organized, that’s time I could have spent doing something I value more.
So, I created an oDesk account and posted a job opening for a virtual assistant to aggregate my class assignments for the quarter into an Excel spreadsheet. It took 20 minutes to create an account and post the job listing. The results were immediate; within 45 minutes, I had:
- Received 41 job applications with an average salary offer of $3.44/hour;
- Hired a contractor from India to put together the spreadsheet for $3.33/hour (with a cap at 3 hours); and
- E-mailed the contractor the relevant files to complete the work.
Sixteen hours later, the contractor sent me the completed spreadsheet in near-perfect condition. He had spent two hours working on it, meaning the final cost to me was $6.66, which I’ll charge to my credit card at the end of the week.
I’m amazed at how smoothly the engagement went and how quickly the contractor was able to turn the product around (I was asleep for part of the 16 hours). Granted, I spent extra time—including a 15-minute Skype chat—making sure he understood the job clearly, but I did that out of a genuine interest in the process. I don’t think I’ll use virtual assistants very frequently (I can’t think of any recurring projects that someone would be able to help me with), but I’ll definitely pay up to use one when the opportunity presents itself again.
