My Contribution to the Global Economy: Four Tips to Working with a Virtual Assistant

I’m never had normal "superhero" fantasies. Superhuman speed or incredible strength never appealed to me. My ability would be much simpler: to never require sleep.

Imagine all of the work I could get done! (Not to mention all of the reading, television watching, writing, and video games I could catch up on!) It was a fun fantasy and I’ve pushed those boundaries of no sleep a lot over the years, but it eventually takes its tole. A special on 20/20 finally convinced me that it was something I probably wouldn’t want.

So, I went for the next best thing, a virtual assistant! After reading The 4-Hour Workweek and an article in Vanity Fair about the practice, I thought this could be an adequate substitute. I needed help with several freelance writing gigs and I saw a VA stepping in to help me find research material.

I contacted Tasks Everyday, a VA company based in Mumbai, India. I submitted a request for a VA to help me do research for several upcoming freelance writing gigs and some miscellaneous stuff. I chose the smallest plan, which was 40 hours to be used over two weeks for $400 ($10/hour). Within three business days I was introduced to Kunal.

Kunal - at least I think it was Kunal - contacted me by phone the day before we were to begin working together.

I didn’t understand a word he said.

It sounded like a series of muffled noises punctuated by several moments of awkward silence. When the line went silent I knew I was supposed to say something… but since I couldn’t understand him I just sat there thinking about what I could have done with that $400.

That was the last time we ever spoke by phone… but we found a better way to communicate. I soon received my first email from Kunal, which read:

My name is Kunal and I am your dedicated VA247. I will be handling all of your tasks at the time you choose.

I will be available on this email address XXXXX@taskseveryday.com.

It will be a pleasure working with you. I would put in my best efforts to ensure that all your tasks are executed 100% efficiently.

Excellent! I love efficiency! As it turns out we had a bit of a rocky start, but it was mostly my fault. By the end I was very happy with the results of this experiment. Here’s what I learned:

1. Avoid speaking by phone

Yes, in India they speak English, but what I heard didn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard before. Kunal and I only spoke by email and instant messenger after our first phone conversation. It went much better when we could communicate in writing.

He pinged me every now and again by IM. When I was busy I just didn’t answer him and when I wasn’t I pinged him back. He gave me an update on his progress every afternoon and periodically sent me an outline of how he had used his time and how much time I had remaining.

2. Keep instructions task oriented

My management style is very much collaborative. I’ve been spoiled by working with generally very competent people who don’t need a lot of details. But Kunal was not a creative thinker. He needed clear details about what he should be doing. I asked him to help me brainstorm about some ideas for a series of articles I was commissioned to write, I received absolutely nothing in return. He was dumbfounded. He needed specific tasks, not open-ended requests for assistance.

3. Provide clear instructions and an example when possible

Here is the first task I sent Kunal:

Please find and summarize two to three articles that focus on innovation, how it occurs, and how companies/managers can create it. I would prefer two of these articles to come from a mainstream publication (e.g. Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times,). If you find articles in these publications that you can’t access (some require a paid subscription), just email or IM me and I’ll pull them for you. The other article can come from a blog or other unknown place if you feel it offers realistic advice. See if you can find an article or blog entry(ies) from Scott Berkun on innovation as well. http://www.scottberkun.com/.

Kunal spent four hours on this task and sent me two articles that had very little to do with "innovation" and neither of the articles came from the publications that I wanted them from. $40 down the tube.

I consulted my advisors (i.e. my wife) and the next day I tried again. This time I asked Kunal to find articles on managing telecommuters and provided him a template to use to find the articles.

Home run! He nailed it by finding 32 articles. I quickly glanced through the articles and asked him to pull out any statistics from them. I also asked him to tag/categorize the articles and then I would tell him which author’s contact information I wanted so I could follow up with them for an interview. We did this for several freelance projects that I’m working on. It went great!!

4. Be sure you have enough work

I didn’t have enough work. He still had four hours at the end and I had all the research I needed. So I had Kunal help me organize the NCAA tournament I’m in charge of this year, help me find a Web application compatible with Skype, contact my utility companies to find out how much I owe them since my new house doesn’t have a mailbox yet, and some other misc. stuff.

Seal of approval?

I consider this a successful experiment. But before I go back to Kunal, I plan on trying a few other experiments. With such close proximity to a college campus, I wonder if I could find a college student - who speaks fluent American English - to do something similar for around the same price. The problem is that I couldn’t pay them regularly since my work only comes in spurts. Elance also has several freelance VAs that could be useful.