Time Tracking & Analysis
So I’ve religiously logged my time for a couple weeks now (using a desktop widget from Paymo.biz), and come to the following conclusions –
- I waste too much time switching between tasks. I need to focus more on completing things before moving onto something else
- I waste too much time with social media. I need to outsource Ping.FM, Facebook friend maintenance, Twitter follower upkeep, etc.
- I waste too much time checking email. Rather than checking my personal and multiple business accounts 50x per day, I should set a schedule and check maybe 4-5x.
- I waste too much time doing internet shopping / research. Whether it be a gift for my mom or a new laptop for myself, I always feel the need to find the best value product out there, and spend hours doing so. I can definitely outsource some of this research.
Virtual Assistant Providers
I’ve also been busy research sites / companies to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) from. Here’s the options that I’ve come up with –
Job posting boards
- Craigslist Manila – http://manila.craigslist.com.ph
- oDesk – http://odesk.com
Outsourcing companies
- Your Man In India – http://www.yourmaninindia.com
- Get Friday – http://getfriday.com (sister company of Your Man In India)
- Catch Friday – http://catchfriday.com
- First Page Web Search – http://www.firstpagewebsearch.com/
From my research the job posting boards are time consuming because you have to interview people, and you also don’t want an individual because they’d be a single point of failure in your business (ie. if they got sick a lot of stuff would stop getting done).
First Page Web Search is by far the cheapest of the outsourcing companies, and even though they specialize in SEO VA’s, they can do solely admin work too, I’ve already asked them. Only $300/month for a full-time VA! So that’s where I’m currently leaning…