January 29, 2008

• Other outsourcing/virtual assistant services

  I just read an article in the print magazine Fast Company (February 2008) about how Pfizer used outsourcing to shave costs and increase productivity. They farmed out things like PowerPoint slide program creation and research. This freed up their skilled staff for more essential and profitable activities.
  Here are two resources. Why should the big companies [...]

December 31, 2007

• Virtual Assistants: Hire a Virtual Assistant in China?

  Virtual Assistants and Outsourcing in China
  At this very moment you are probably using something and wearing something that was made in China - perhaps your shoes, a shirt, or your iPod. Manafacturing outsourcing in China has been going on for decades.
  But what about hiring a virtual assistant in China? Perhaps you need someone to create [...]

September 24, 2007

• Do you need a virtual assistant?

  I was on a phone conference a few days ago with a non-profit organization that I do consulting work with from time-to-time. The organization is going through some changes and challenges so I mentioned the topic of outsourcing some of their work. The goal? Save some money and more importanly - save time that [...]

August 5, 2007

• Outsourcing and Virtual Assistants

  In a previous post, Bill O’Hanlon listed several resources for finding a “virtual assistant” and outsourcing some of your business needs. I (Ryan) highly recommend taking a look at the websites that he mentioned, especially Elance and Brickworks.
  Two years ago, when I first hired an overseas outsourcing ompany, I used a small web-design firm in [...]

May 6, 2007

• Finding a virtual assistant

  There are several sites that specialize in listings for virtual assistants (those people who work from afar to help you accomplish your business tasks).
  Here are some:
  International Virutal Assistants Association
  http://www.ivaa.org/IVAA/memberDir.php
  AssistU
  http://www.assistu.com
  Of course, they are less specialized, but you can find virtual assistants at
  Elance
  http://www.elance.com
  and Craig’s List
  http://www.craigslist.com
  And if you want to go multi-national, you can hire your assistant in [...]