thegarrityfile.com

If you want to build a village, or empire, you can’t do it alone. When I entered into my own business I decided I did not want to follow the public relations agency model of hiring staff and subcontracting creative services. I have chosen instead to work with a limited number of clients, on larger projects, and develop information products and other sources of passive revenue that allow me to leverage my knowledge, rather than work for an hourly rate, one client at a time. It works for me because I enjoy teaching and writing, and it fits my lifestyle of working irregular hours and balancing this with a young family.

This would not be possible without help - I am big on not wasting my time doing things I am not good at. It is more economical (and far less stressful) to pay someone who has the expertise than to struggle with learning and doing something that takes me away from my own paying work. In today’s world, location is irrelevant. In the past year alone, I have outsourced the following kinds of services to virtual assistants:

• typing and transcribing to a virtual service firm in India - $24 and three day turnaround
• editing and formatting by a wonderful VA in Colorado, Peggy Peterson - who saves my sanity every month
• enewsletter publishing by a friend and former colleague, Wendy of E-Touch Services
• teleseminar and other support from fellow Canadian Erin Blaskie - thank you Erin for getting me started!
• ongoing e-business support from Patti Rahn in Wisconsin - with whom I also enjoy many meetings of the minds and share a time zone
• portal page design to Victoria of Remix Promotions in St. Louis - done entirely by email, in days and for the cost of a few hours of her time! Wow!
• supreme technical support and website redesign (in progress) by David Burch in New Mexico, a web developer who gets marketing and creative services, and can explain it too!

All of these people are fellow ex-pats from the corporate world who have developed their own businesses doing what they love to do. Because it’s their focus, they do it quickly, and expertly. They also don’t waste time, as they are balancing life and client work. They work from home with no padded overhead costs.

All of these projects combined were completed and done mainly by email, paid for by the hour, and at far less than the cost of a staff person for a month. Now if I could only find someone to buy and deliver groceries I will be in heaven.