I’m reading about this kind of thing in Tim Ferris’ book The Four Hour Work Week.
Pay some MBA grad in India or the Philippines to do online research data gathering or mundane tasks like sending birthday cards and flowers to wives a continent away.
The book is ten or twelve years old, so wondering if it’s dated. However some of the companies like Your Man In India seem to still be around.
I actually have some mundane shitty work I’d prefer to manage than perform. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
My work actually uses one from the Philippines and she’s very good at her job. So my experience with this has been positive.
Just curious how you sourced this and what the fee structure is?
Ha. I had you in mind when I wrote that. Nice.
Care to share here or in a PM what kind of duties she performs? And what’s it costing your work?
I have no idea what the company pays her.
But she does mostly administrative work like paper work and scheduling from what I understand. I don’t really have much contact with her overall.
I have no idea. She was there when I go there this week. It’s my first week so I haven’t really had much contact with her doing my own things.
Sorry, thought this was something you sourced online for your online business.
Yeah, Ferris used one for scheduling as well. But like find these people who wrote theae kinda of books, get their contact information and then CALL and schedule them to appear on his podcast. That’s pretty cool. Cuts out all the stuff I’m not well versed in, and the stuff I can’t be arsed to do.
Why don’t you use Google Assistant/Siri?
Just say ‘Hey Google/Siri, make an appointment’ -done! Thank me later. 
This post in Reddit maybe be useful in giving an idea on costs - the author has a Complete Science background, does online tasks (like making comments?) and VA tasks (scheduling tasks)
Virtual Assistant — This was actually a very humbling experience given that I’m again, sheltered and always saw myself as the boss (we were weirdly taught to think that way growing up and I was being groomed to take over the family company after college so this felt weird at first). I worked for an American student living in Tokyo lol rich kid problems for $5/hour with a $5 weekly base fee. I usually worked 7 hours per week. This was my source for grocery and food budget. I’ve been working for him since June 2020 and he’s given me a few raises and referred me to other clients. So at the moment I’m handling 3 people from (Him in Tokyo, UK, St. Louis) before I could fully transfer them to my friend since I’ve just landed a new full time job. Hit a rough patch around January and tried to leave work but he ended up asking me to come work for him again after rejecting more than 10 applicants. Again, be good enough so your employer will gradually also be loyal to you.
Initial Pay (June 2020): $5/hour * 7 hours + $5 weekly base fee
= $40 per week (~8,000php per month)
Midway to Now:$7/hour * 7 hours + $5 weekly base fee
= $54 per week (~10,400php per month)
(Now I only work 4 hours per week though since I have other jobs and he adjusted as long as I don’t leave raw lol)
https://www.reddit.com/r/phinvest/comments/mtuefk/update_hey_im_that_21_yr_old_college_student_who/
I’m used to that.
I’m with you, have the same exact questions based on the same book and similar needs (need an actual person). I’ve just never had a real need until now and your post reminded me of that book.
I’ve never actually known anyone who used the services he describes but would like to hear about real world experiences with them.
You can always check out some of the freelance sites like Upwork, Freelancer, etc. I know that Upwork has a ton of people looking for work as VAs.
I actually hired a translator that just communicates with my Vietnamese manufacturer. So I guess it’s similar. I pay her 40$ A month. All she does it translate my messages and stay on some calls.
I just sent this message through BING and got:
There are several websites where you can find English speaking virtual assistants in Taiwan. Some of the popular websites are Upwork1, Guru2, and Freelancer3. These websites have a large pool of virtual assistants with different skill sets and hourly rates. You can browse through their profiles, check their ratings and reviews, and hire the one that best fits your needs. Is there anything else you would like to know?
I asked specifically for Taiwan based English speaking, but I imagine the PI folks will be listed there as well.
The whole point of hiring virtual assistants (instead of in-person) is so you can live somewhere like the US but pay a Philippines-level salary.
If you live in Taiwan and are looking for someone who’s also in Taiwan, then why not just hire someone to work in person? They’ll have the added benefit of grabbing coffee for you.
