Outsource Your Life Now – Here Is How

If you are reading this page via RSS reader, you can visit the main page here - Canada's Personal Finance Blog

Outsourcing daily tasks is not a new idea. However, Tim Ferriss, author of "The Four-Hour Workweek," has made this popular by mentioning it in his book. Ferriss uses "a small army of virtual assistants" for everything he can think of - as he mentions in his book.What can you outsource these days? Let me answer this little differently by asking what you can't outsource these days? The following list should give you an idea of what people are trying to outsource (NB – Don't laugh. This is a real list from DoMyStuff.com )

Help me armwrestle

Repair my broadband connection

Design my website

Personal shopper

Pull weeds in landscaped beds

Choose my cell phone plane based on the phone

Reform my life

Pick me up a t-shirt from College Corner

Research my house history

Unlock iPhone or Blackberry to work on Helio

These should be good enough to give you an idea. If you are thinking only celebrities, professionals and rich people can afford outsourcing, think again! The Internet growth has created lots of outsourcing sites, and they are becoming affordable enough to indulge you in the luxury of not to do anything.

Today, I am going to review some of these outsourcing sites for you. There are too many sites out there, and I am going to mention only those which I have found easier to navigate with a clean layout. If you are interested in finding more, search on Google for these: outsource, virtual assistant, freelance etc.

GetFriday

A Bangalore-based (India) company. Currently this site is the busiest outsourcing site. GetFriday offers three pricing options: Pay As You Go, Monthly Plans, and Task Based Plans. Pay As You Go Costs $15 per hour with a monthly admin fee of $10. Basic monthly plans start at $120 a month for 10 hours.

https://getfriday.com

The Canadian Virtual Assistant Network

This is the only Canadian site I have come across. You can submit profile, interview, and hire a VA through this site. Site does not mention fees and charges. There is a Directory of VA by province which you can browse.

http://canadianva.net

DoMyStuff.com

DoMyStuff is an online marketplace where you can hire freelancers to work for you. Freelancers can pick up projects and independent contracting jobs.You need to post your tasks and freelancers will start bidding on your tasks. You can limit or pick bidders based on location, fees, ratings and so on. Payment system is very safe. You never pay (or freelancers never receive payments) directly. Once you choose the best bidder, you will have to forward payment into an online escrow account. No one will have access to this money while your work is being done. Once completed and you are satisfied, you will release the funds to the freelancer. DoMyStuff has a clean interface and easy to navigate. This site is all free; free for both employers and assistants. There are no monthly or transaction fees.

http://www.domystuff.com

Guru

The world's largest online marketplace. Employers can use this site for free but freelancers pay quarterly fees. There is a minimum bid set at $25 per project. Guru's open auction system works the same way as DoMyStuff.

http://www.guru.com

Elance

Elance is famous for small to mid size business. I find Elance a little bit expensive. However, their service quality is very good.

http://www.elance.com

Two other sites worth mentioning: FreelancerNow.com and RentACoder.com.

The Internet has revolutionized the way we do everything. We are online a lot these days and it makes sense to hire people via net to free up our time. These freelance sites have opened up endless opportunities to find work for qualified professionals beyond locall boundaries. The ability to work from anywhere in the world is a reality now

First Published: Sep 1, 2008 ADawnJournal.com

Featured