Outsourced Wednesdays
Outsourcing February 6th, 2008I’ve been infrequently dropping some bits and pieces into this little weblog for about 8 months now; I think it’s time for a feature. The most popular post (by a landslide) is 5 Tips for Outsourcing to a Personal Assistant. As we get ever-closer to launching Having Things Done (our new personal outsourcing service), the question of “but what would I outsource?” seems to continue to be a popular reaction.
In that spirit, each Wednesday* I’ll be posting actual task requests I’ve made to my assistant, including his response. In addition to sparking ideas for what to outsource, hopefully it’ll highlight aspects of what makes for effective (and less effective) task definition and communication.
So without further ado, here is one of the first requests I made of my current assistant. The visual formatting was his, so I’ve left it mostly as-is.
Find a Mechanic
“Mechanic” may be too strong of a word, but we have a tire with a
slow leak (it goes flat in a few days after pumping it up) and we’re
in need of an oil change.1. Please check out http://yelp.com and search for things like “oil
change.” Hopefully you can find at least 2 with good ratings that are
within a mile or two of our home.2. Call them and ask for their rates for an oil change and a tire
leak fix. If they ask, we have a ‘03 Honda Element.3. Choose the one with the best rate (or that you generally feel like
is going to be nicer to deal with) and schedule an appointment for
anytime Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Just pretend that you’re me.
Give them my phone number if they need it. Also tell them that “your”
wife might be the one to stop by.Thanks,
-Jed
===========================
Jed,
Here is the place:
Bridgestone Swift Car Care
4.5 star rating based on 3 reviews
Categories: Auto Repair
Neighborhood: Ukrainian Village
1710 W Chicago Ave (between Hermitage Ave & Paulina St)
Chicago, IL 60622
(312) 733-7003The shop opens at 7:30am. No appointments. If you take it in by 8am or so your wait will be minimized. The cost is going to be about $37 plus tax. The cheapest place I found. Reviews are all great except the building is a bit dingy and run down. I talked to Charlie, a Latin sounding guy.
If you want an appointment see option 2.
_________________________________________________
2nd option
Car-x Auto Service
4.0 star rating based on 8 reviews
Categories: Auto Repair
Neighborhood: Near West Side, Noble Square
1314 W Grand Ave (at Ogden Ave)
Chicago, IL 60622
(312) 243-3111
Hours:
- Mon-Fri 7:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
- Sat 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
The charge will be about $50 for oil change and tire fix and they have only scheduled a couple appointments for Thursday and Friday thus far.
If you want this one let me know what steps to take.
Time: 25 minutes
____________________________________________________
### end task
25 minutes. Is there any wonder I was encouraged to keep working with this guy?
*Wednesday seemed appropriate given that it’s my day off.
Popularity: 24% [?]
February 8th, 2008 at 8:31 am
That’s been my biggest question, “what would I outsource?”. As I look at my task list, the things I could outsource to a virtual assistant are either things I’d rather do myself, or things I can do as quickly as I could explain it to an assistant. For example, if I needed to find a mechanic; I like to have a mechanic who knows the car and specializes to some extent, so I take my Honda Odyssey to one place, my 04 BMW to another, and my old 76 BMW to yet another. All of which I found through word of mouth, or local recommendations. I know that’s possible for a virtual assistant to find, but it’s a bit more complicated than just saying find a place to get the oil changed.
For things routine things like online shopping, travel reservations, calendar management, etc. - I get the advantage there, it takes a little more trust, letting go of the details, and willingness to delegate then over time outsourcing these would likely simplify and save time. But, I do feel like the internet offers so many tools that I can simply do those things myself.
I’m not ruling it out though as something I can figure out how to use effectively. I’m signed up to be notified of your service and looking forward to it starting up. Best of luck with it.
February 8th, 2008 at 9:58 am
@Alan- I can certainly empathize. I used to be an absolute internet research junkie. I was the go-to guy for most of my friends and family when it came to finding deals and researching new products. And I used to love it. But things are different now. I’ve shifted my interests and prefer to use my (now greatly decreased) free time differently.
You really hit it with “it takes a little more trust, letting go of the details, and willingness to delegate then over time outsourcing these would likely simplify and save time.” That’s really where it’s at, and it’s most definitely not for everyone. Some people can create the right mindset and some can’t (or simply prefer not to).
But stay tuned- hopefully some of the ideas that pop up on this site in coming months will trigger some good ideas
February 8th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Jed, what a fantastic idea! Make sure you don’t spare us all the details. If there are back and forth clarification emails between you and your provider, please share them with us. Effective communication is usually one of the biggest issues in outsourcing.
As far as tasks go, there are two projects where I’ve had the most success:
1) Filtering, responding to and/or escalating support emails from my forum community. I’ve empowered her to reset passwords and given her boilerplate answers to the top 5 questions asked so she can send replies herself.
2) Data gathering: I’ve had her do research on a plethora of projects, but the one with the highest ROI was putting together a list of potential sponsors for my forum.
With this said, I still struggle with keeping her gainfully employed, but here are some ideas that may help get more ideas flowing: http://www.outsourcedmylife.com/im-in-virtual-assistant-love.php
Jed, I look forward to seeing next week’s task and results!
February 8th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Awesome, look forward to this new category. It will be very interesting to me to see what kinds of task you have VA do and how you interact with them.
I’m also on the waiting list for your Having Things Done and am excited to see the beta version.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:42 am
[...] take it full circle here. In my first Outsourced Wednesdays entry, I described how George helped me find a good mechanic. That was last summer, and the car is once again in need of a little tune-up, an oil change, and a [...]