Sending an Inquiry to GetFriday

[KMO]

Hey Everybody,

I've just composed an inquiry email to send to GetFriday.com. Before I sent it, I thought I'd post it here to see if anyone had any suggested tweaks, re-writes, or wholesale change of frame.

Thanks, and stay well.

-KMO

__________________________________________________ _______


Greetings friends,

My name is Kevin M. O'Connor, but please call me KMO. I am the host and author of a weekly podcast called the C-Realm Podcast. C stands for "Consciousness." You can find it here:

http://c-realmpodcast.podomatic.com

and here:

http://www.c-realm.com

I'm working on my 50th episode, and I've had some amazing guests on the show over the last 10 months. As with many if not most of the new clients I imagine you're hearing from these days, I learned of your services by reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, and my expectations and desires for our collaboration spring from reading Mr. Ferriss' book and website.

In his book, Mr. Ferriss suggests that would-be graduates to the New Rich class use Skype to interview people and make a digital recording of the conversation from which to create some type of information-based commodity for sale. Well, just having finished Mr. Ferriss' book, I find my self in the enviable position of having nearly 100 such conversations already recorded.

To start with, I'd like to make transcripts and audio CDs of the podcasts available for sale on my website. If possible, I'd like to have the transcripts and CDs produced and shipped on demand so that I don't ever have to invest money in products for which I do not have orders. I produce a new program every Wednesday, so every week would bring a new transcript to create and make available for sale.

In addition to scheduling, conducting, and editing the interviews and assembling the podcast, I'm also quite adept with Photoshop and web graphics. I would want to arrange a distribution of tasks so that I create the audio content, provide copy, and create all graphics needed for web-pages and advertisements, and that my team in India handles the rest of the operation, including research, accounting, product creation, order fullfilment, customer service, webpage maintainence, and web-marketing.

If you would, please consider my inquiry and let me know where clarification is needed, what part of the overall project we might use for a trial run, what I might be expected to spend in the trial period and going forward, and the ways in which we might proceed from here.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Stay well.

-KMO

[luv2mambo]

FYI - I sent a request to GetFriday and Here is what I got. I have since filled out the contract, given them my Credit Card info and havn't heard anything back...


Hi Larry,

This is to confirm that we have received your B-20 membership form.

Due to a sudden increase in business, we currently have a three week waiting period between the receipt of your membership form and the start of service. I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.

Someone will get back to you as soon as an assistant becomes available.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me, or call our toll free number and speak to one of our customer representatives.

Regards
Venky

[final_id]

I got a "sudden increase in business" comment from an online virtual-assistantship shop too (I can't remember which one; maybe the same outfit?) and I'm wondering whether that increase is entirely due to the 4HWW phenomenon. Hmm ... I hope that VA's don't suddenly grow into such demand that the outsourcing becomes too expensive to be effective toward creating a Muse!

[Drewkerr]

On Tim's Blog he made a post about YMII and Get Friday being backed up due to
the 4HWW.

I also heard they are increasing their prices due to a demand for there services.

If you can't wait, try to find another source for VA using Tims guidelines.

Drew

[KMO]

Well, I just spoke to a consultant on the phone who has used "a sh*t-load of Indian outsourcing." I sent him the text of my GetFriday inquiry, and he said it would work okay, but that I'd do better to do most of the things described in the inquiry myself and then outsource the process once I had it working.

He used a metaphor of a mechanical device driven by an electronic computer. Indian assistants, he told me, make excellent cogs in the machine, but if I want them to act as the electronic control system, then I'll need to secure someone who works at a pretty high level, someone with the equivalent of an MBA. For the average indian VA, the message I composed is much too high level, and I could expect to spend a LOT of time breaking down all of the instructions contained in it to much more simple and specific items.

He suggested that I go ahead and send it just to see what kind of response I get, so I will do that and post the results here.