thanks so much for the post. In the opening issue of my VA newsletter I address this briefly. In my opinion, VAs are not the only ones dealing with lower-wage global competition. My advice to U.S. based VAs is to develop a niche (mine is technical), set a price you can live with and play up your strengths as a domestic - proximity, language, etc. I'm also an Elance provider and have successfully been able to win over lower-wage international providers time and again!

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To work around that, we've started to use training video tutorials to clearly outline strict processes that the VA's need to follow. We've seen much better results with that approach, and I now try to stay away from lengthy emails to explain a change of procedure or task.

The significant savings involved with using off-shore VA's simply cannot be ignored. HOWEVER I've also learned that some tasks simply require a level of expertise that seems to be harder to find in the off-shore market. Until that changes, I will always be looking first to domestic sources for personnel to fill some roles.

I would again emphasize that the sheer demand of Virtual Assistant opportunities emerging over the next 5 years will mean excellent potential for both Western and International VAs alike! As you have mentioned, I can certainly see a growing trend of Western VAs offshoring certain tasks to International VAs in order to grow their businesses at a faster rate.

I do want to address the one concern I have about the promotion of the $3 VA. Naturally small/medium businesses are always looking to keep their costs low and profits high! So, when businesses hear about the prospect of hiring a VA for $3, their mindset naturally shifts to how much money they can save as opposed to ensuring they have the best fit for their current project or position.

One of my Internet Business Colleagues outsourced his customer support to a offshore team for less than $5/hour and he admitted after that the training process was more extensive and time consuming then he envisioned. He said that as a result they experienced some delays in launching certain parts of their business. Now, again, I am not wanting to make a sweeping generalization that offshore VAs take longer to train. The point I want to convey is that businesses need to strike the balance between cost and quality, otherwise they may end up in a less than desirable situation.

Thanks for all the comments - keep them coming!

So I keep trying to learn more about online business concepts and giving my clients huge value so they keep me busy.

I guess even a VA like me (in USA) should be prepared to offload some of my tasks that can be done more cheaply elsewhere... and not feel I should hang on to them.

In fact the more I can outsource the better, as it makes me more profitable and I can be more competitive.

It's just worrisome sometimes, but you can't be complacent in any job these days. Training is important for us all no matter what country we're in I guess.

Thanks - Mary

I'll definitely continue to keep an open mind on where I find my VAs and the tasks that they can handle.

Regards

I personally work with a number of global team members, including an individual in the Philippines that is essentially in charge of running my entire web design business (he works with new clients in quoting and planning their projects, coordinates the global design team in getting the project done, and deals with customer service along the way). He also handles a number of other things related to the business.

In regards to your note of your apparent limitation noted in your posting that "This individual was required to keep regular North American hours and converse on the phone with partners", I need to make clear my experience with these exact 'limitations'. My virtual assistant works from 9am-5pm US PST, converses regularly with US based clients via phone with the clients never even thinking that they're speaking to a foreign provider (his communication is that good), and he does literally everything that I used to be in charge of with my business. In summary, I've outsourced MY position in the company so that I can concentrate on the things I enjoy in life (surfing, building other businesses, completing my university marketing degree, etc.).

What I'm really trying to get at with this replyto your posting is that I disagree that there are certain aspects of the VA tasks that clients need to keep local. I firmly believe that we're now working in a global community that is getting smaller culturally by the day. I'm fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of the ridiculously low hourly rates with professional quality still ever present, but I feel that the rest of the business world is going to quickly catch on to the opportunity to hire individuals that measure up to USA providers for a small fraction of the cost.