Virtual Assistants (VA) in 2010

[Sean Conner]

So my wife and I have been doing a lot of reading, emailing and posting about VAs - where they're trending, going rates, new scams, stratification, etc. etc. - it's a bit dense and it takes a while to separate the hype from the scam, from the honest Indian, Filipino, etc. professional just trying to connect with someone willing to pay them.

Here's a few figures to help get you calibrated. The current exchange rate for the US Dollar to the Rupee is about $1 to 36 Rupees.

(Disclaimer: take these prices with a grain of salt... they're from the internet after all.) A new 100cc motorcycle in India costs about 35,000 Rupees- about $750 dollars US (interestingly enough, about the same price as a used one here.) A half liter of milk and a dozen eggs are about 24 Rupees - about 0.60 cents. A 30 day rail pass is about 500 Rupees - about $14 dollars. And finally a nice 2bd/2ba apartment in most places for about 6,500 Rupees per month - about $180 per month.

So if you're living in India making $5/hr and working 40hr/wk you're making about $800/month- or about 29,000 Rupees/month. This individual is living a pretty good lifestyle by most standards- certainly better than I did right out of college.

Then I think it stands to reason that I should be able to find a trustworthy VA team with all the same (or similar) specifications that Tim discusses for about $5/hr.

We shall see...

[Sean Conner]

I'm currently conversing with a gentleman by the name of Avadhesh Mahajan, at an outfit called Yantram BPO (yantrambpo dot com in case you're curious.) Trying to figure out if it's a scam, if the people are any good, etc. etc.

Does anyone have any experience with them, and if so could you elaborate a tad for the community on your experience?

Here's what I know so far about them:

1. They're charging between $3/hr and $7.50/hr, depending on the "package" you buy and skill set.

2. They have both monthly packages (i.e. pay $480 and get 160 hours of work per month) and hourly packages (i.e. pay $200 and get 40 hours... it's unclear if there's a window that you need to use them in however.)

3. The parent domain name is registered to:

Registrant:
Yantram BPO services Pvt. Ltd.
Shambri
Laguna Hills, Wyoming 92653
United States

Domain Name: OUTSOURCING-SERVICES-INDIA.COM
Created on: 22-Mar-07
Expires on: 22-Mar-11
Last Updated on: 14-Jan-09

[Sean Conner]

Hello Avadhesh,

I'm interested in testing a VA team with the necessary skills to do the attached test assignment in approximately 3 hours (i.e. about how long it would take me to do it on my own.) - See attached doc file. If you can't open it for security/compatibility reasons let me know.

1. Could you please explain in greater detail the hourly packages? Is there a window of time that I would need to use the hours in the hourly packages- 3 month, 6 months, etc?

2. After reading the attached doc file and assessing the quality of work required for the assignment, could you send me three (3) examples of similar work.

3. What would be the expected turn around time on an assignment like the attached test assignment? (i.e. 12 hours, 24 hours, several days?)

4. Do you offer a single point of contact for your clients to interact with your VAs (i.e. account managers, etc?)

5. Lastly, do you require payment upfront for services (I assume so,) and if so what guarantee do you offer for satisfaction of work and continued performance. I'm a very reasonable person, but am new to the word of VAs and am very wary of potential scams.

If you need clarification on any of these questions please let me know.

Thank you very much for your time,

Cheers,
Sean

[Sean Conner]

Avadhesh is taking his sweet time getting back to me... I guess he's either really busy or thinks it's more trouble than it's worth, or it's a scam and he's not responding with the requested answers and examples because they can't be produced. Sigh... no one said this would be easy.

Also, Elance has de-listed my proposal due to someone I communicated with (in North America) reporting me - Elance wants their money, and they can't make money off of tests, or so it would seem.

Here's the automated de-listing response:

Dear X,

Thank you for using Elance. We were alerted to your most recent job, “In-Depth Acedemic Research Assignment", and removed it from Elance because:

The minimum payment for any Elance project is $50.

Click here to login and post a new job as necessary.

Sincerely,

Elance

[Sean Conner]

Thanks for the words of encouragement (or at least commiseration.) Could you take a moment to clarify some things for me (and others that I'm sure will want to hear this.)

So you're saying that you actually do use elance for your VA tasks, correct? Two dozen independent - freelance - VAs seems like a lot to manage, do you have a lead VA that manages the work flow for you?

Have you tried using other VA firms? I'm finding that the firms I've contacted thus far (i.e. taskseveryday.com and yantrambpo.com) are either not very responsive OR are asking for an $800/mo commitment right out of the gate... that's too big of a commitment for me and a bit too much of an upfront risk for my pocketbook, at least for the time being.

Thanks Andrew,

Sean

[Sean Conner]

Andrew, that does in fact help, thank you. It's nice to have someone to discuss these things with, and don't underestimate the power of a few well timed words of encouragement!

I'm actually kind of shocked (and a little disappointed) at the lack of easily accessible entry level VA firms out there. It seems like a there's hole in the market frankly. Or perhaps the pull in the market is strong enough that demand is simply outstripping supply at the moment (i.e. why skilled professional VA firms are up around $10/hr+ with a minimum commitment)... I mean who wouldn't want to take their $80k salary and pay someone $15k to do 90% of the busywork... unfortunately that's not my situation.

In my situation my wife is actually winning most of the bread - bringing in a very modest $45k at a non-profit summer camp for kids with serious illnesses - outsourcing for her really isn't an option, and definitely not a necessity for me

Luckily we're both very determined to engage in the NR lifestyle and have spent the last two months testing concepts and wrapping our heads around the practices... and yes figuring out where the rubber meets the road, and sometimes doesn't quite meet the road, i.e. VAs

I actually wanted to engage the VA route for my very good friend (who recommended the 4HWW a few months ago) and who is in fact in a situation where he does need a VA. For me it was mainly a test, for him it's looking like necessity. (He doesn't even have time to do the legwork to find a VA! How's that for necessity.)

I'll have a discussion later today with him about what his time is worth to him and see if I can engage a VA at the level they are requesting and Dave is comfortable with - rather than trying to engage a bunch of VAs for testing at very small levels, which no VAs seem interested in.

If you have some specific direction that you'd be willing to share in a private conversation I am all ears - if you're reticent about sharing your hard earned information I understand that too.

Thank you,
Sean

[Sean Conner]

Thank you so much Andrew! Very well timed words, and solid wisdom. Thank you so much for extending your phone number to me too. You rock!

...And you can edit your phone number out now.

Cheers,
Sean