Have you ever considered outsourcing before, but never seemed to get around to it?

Or perhaps you are new to the idea of outsourcing and want to see what it's like.

Whatever your situation is, I have a story that is going to complete change any thoughts you have towards outsourcing. Or work in general for that matter.

Before I get started with my story, I must tell you that for my entire life I have had the ultimate Do-It-Yourself attitude. My motto was always, "If you want something done right, you best do it yourself." It's an attitude I developed early on. Going all the way back to group projects I had in grade school.

However, I had read so many articles on outsourcing and how great it is that I simply had to give it a try. I had a project for this website which involved a lot of basic labor that I simply didn't feel like doing. More specifically...

For my Personal Development Books page, I needed to provide links for the book titles to it's appropriate page at Amazon. I also needed the name of each author entered in after the name of the book.

With so many books that are included on that page, I knew that this would take at least an hour or two of my time. And quite frankly, that was an hour or two that I really didn't feel like doing for such a simple and basic task.

So I decided to outsource it. And here's my story...

The Ultimate Outsourcing Story

I posted my request on Get A Freelancer under the title "Virtual Assistant Needed - $4 An Hour." I should mention first that I had to fill out a couple of extra forms since this was my first time. But that was to be expected. But all in all, it probably only took about 10-15 minutes from starting the process to posting my request.

After that, I anxiously waited about ten minutes. Then I rushed to my computer to check and see if there were any postings. And much to my surprise...

Three requests already!

I decided to have a look at the first virtual assistant's submission. Here is the exact, word-for-word submission that I received (with the exception of deleting their name for privacy)...

Hello, I am [name deleted] located in India. And I have gone through all your requirements, and I think I can easily fit to this position. I have basic knowledge of html and easily create/edit pages in HTML. I currently make use of Dreamweaver for that, but if you say I can go ahead and download the Kompozer as well. Though I am based in India, I work during US business hours. And as per your EST time, I am easily available during 10am to 6pm approx. Just for reference purpose, you can have a look at my reviews for my overall quality of work delivered in any kind of project. Awaiting at least some response.

Please notice something interesting about this. You can tell that this isn't something that they simply copy and pasted into a message box. It was a message targeted specifically for me. Saying that they would really like to help!

After a few minutes, I was sent another message from the same person...

Forgot to mention, I would like to quote an hourly rate of $3. Will be waiting to hear back from you.

Can you believe that? I am not kidding about this. This is what they really said to me. I made the request at $4 an hour, which I thought might have been too low. But instead, I was told that it was too much, and that they would be happy to work for less!

After this message, I was sold! Even though I received seven more requests within minutes, I considered the opportunity working with this particular virtual assistant to almost be too good to be true.

After working out some of the nitty gritty details (payments, length of time to complete task), I submitted specifically what I needed done.

It was getting late, and we both decided that the task could be postponed until tomorrow. So, I decided to call it a night. Very much excited to see how things would turn out.

The Morning After

The next morning, I woke up around 7:00 and checked my e-mail...

No e-mails from my virtual assistant.

I guess it's not a perfect world after all. But I couldn't possibly expect it to be done by then. After all, I knew it would take my assistant a little time to complete the project. So I ate some breakfast. Watched a little television. Had a nice little Saturday morning and checked my e-mail again around 8:45. Here's the subject link I read...

"Personal development books HTML done"

Woo-hoo! Let's check it out. Did my virtual assistant get the job done right? Or did they screw everything up? Well, as it turns out, it was absolutely perfect!

There was one book "Million Dollar Habits," that I was referring to the Robert Ringer edition instead of the Brian Tracy edition, but that way my fault. There was no way my virtual assistant could have possibly known that! Other than that, I couldn't have done a better job myself!

Keep in mind the reality here. Here's a job that I had every intention of doing myself. It would have taken me a couple hours of my time and would have been extremely boring, but it was something that needed to get done.

Instead of doing it myself, I decided to experiment with outsourcing. Paid $3 (even though I said I would pay $4), and the job was completely done for me while I was cooking eggs and watching SportsCenter.

The Possibilities Are Endless

 
Imagine what you can do with this! How many things do you do in a day that are repetitive and boring? Things that you could easily explain to someone in five minute and hire them do it for you.

This task was a perfect opportunity for outsourcing. I had a list of book titles that I made. And I needed them to be links to Amazon pages.

It's simple to explain, and it's even simpler to have someone else do it for you.

All you have to do is post your request, choose a candidate, and then check your e-mail a few hours later and see if the task was emailed to you. What you can do during that time is totally up to you. Here are two basic options...

You can sit around and do nothing. While at the same time having the good feeling that everything is being taken care of for you. Or, you can work on something more productive that will earn you far more money than your outsourced task.

If I would have done the Amazon linking myself, that proved to be a $3 an hour a job. I would much rather pay someone that much to do it for me.

Then, while that particular task is being finished by someone else, I can spend my own time doing writing for the site. This is an activity that has proven to be worth far more than $3 an hour. So I'm using the power of leverage by getting two things done at the same time.

This means I'm getting work done much more quickly. Which also means I'll be able to add a lot more to the site as time progresses. And it's only costing me a few dollars an hour to do this.

The possibilities truly are endless when it comes to outsourcing. You can hire someone within minutes and not have to worry about doing simple, time-consuming tasks yourself ever again. You just sit, wait, and it's done. All taken care of for you.

What's stopping YOU from outsourcing your next task?


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