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Note: Steve Dotto (SD), Stephen Jagger (SJ)
SD: We are in the middle of a conversation
with Steven Jagger, one of the co-founders of Outsourcing Things Done dot Com
They are an outsourcing website where you can
hire a virtual assistant for, what? Is that twelve hundred dollars a month?
SJ: Twelve hundred dollars a month.
SD: How much that money costs to the ah.. to the employee?
SJ: So our average... our average worker are probably anywhere
from 400 to seven hundred a month and uhmm..
SD: Are we taking advantage of those people?
SJ: Not at all! We actually pay them a little bit more than what they are normally getting.
And uhmm, and you know, other outsourcing operations
or call centers whatever you want to call 'em,
it's just, it's the way it works over there.
I think our set-up is quite unique,
We run as if we are running here locally.
They are all working on MAC's, most have dual monitors.
All have full sized desks.
Traditional outsourcing operations are, you know, they're tiny.
And they are all working on whatever computer they can get you.
That's the cheapest possible thing.
SD: And what about presence?
In communication, how do clients typically communicate 'cozÉ there'sÉ
How many hours ahead in the Philippines?
SJ: Ohh, I think it should be twelve?
SD: You should know this! You're the Outsourcing Guy!
SJ: I know, but there's, there's...we run 3 different 8-hour shifts,
so those guys are always workin'
SD: (laughs), OK but never the less, it's night there when it's day here.
SJ: Yes.
SD: Pretty much. How does communications happen between client and outsourcer?
SJ: It depends on the client, but most clients use Skype for screen-sharing.
So the virtual assistant can show their screens on what they are doing.
Or the client can take control of the screen sharing and show them what to do.
SD: u-huh...
SJ: There's online video is huge, we do a ton of online videos for...at the beginning,
placing the worker and figuring out whose the right fit with the right client.
We got the client shoot a video and the VA shoot a video.
And you know, you learn a lot more from somebody
even without speaking, with just their, their smile.
or you know, just everything.
SD: The energy, yeah.
SJ: Totally yeah, you can hear people's enthusiasm.
So we do lots of video, as a way to help things move along.
Uhm... we use an internal tool called Yammer.
It's like, uh.. like Twitter but it's locked-down.
So its for internal communications only.
And it's got an iPhone App so the client keep running around,
doing whatever they do, check their Yammer on their iPhone.
And communicate with their person directly.
A big one is Google...Google's Gmail.
Gmail's got free phoning in North America built within Gmail.
So our guys in the Philippines and open their Gmail accounts
and dial, dial the phone that's in Gmail,
and make free calls back in North America,
which is an unbelievable deal.
SD: Okay...
SJ: ..for doing it for free.
We talking about wiki, wikis are huge for
having all the systems and procedures documented.
So that the.. idea behind them is so the person can't commit a mistake.
and if they do make a mistake,
which incurs the client to think that it's your fault.
look at the instructions in the wiki, and...
and sort of find out why the guy made an error.
figure out maybe it's, you know, it's steps one to fifteen.
but it needed to be steps one to seventeen.
SD: Why did you choose the Philippines?
SJ: So we like the Philippines for a bunch of different reasons.
We looked a little bit to China, India, Philippines...
Actually my business partner right now is in Vietnam.
We choose the Philippines because the English is fantastic.
The Philippine people are awesome to work with.
SD: Culturally very close to North America...
SJ: Very close to North America, it's very Americanized.
So they've got everything you would see in North America
Maybe just a couple years behind.
But they got it all.
Uhmm..It's like it's... people
Everybody speaks English.
People that never went to school there speak English.
Makes me feel with one language,
makes me feel stupid...
SD: (laughs) So outsourcing...
and, and I got the final thing I want to talk about
is, is that you guys do basically full-time virtual assistance.
SJ: Yes.
SD: Do, do you have cases when clients share assistants
if they don't quite have a need for a full-time
or is it a pretty much one on one?
SJ: We got a few clients that will share
But the way we tell a client is...
One of them is our client, and one of them is in charge.
If they share their virtual assistant with their colleague
or their friend, or another business might own or whatever;
we don't care.
For us, we have a relationship with the main person and that's
where all communication goes.
We bill one person that VA is responsible to talk about
and deal with that one person...
SD: VA is virtual assistant.
SJ: Virtual assistant yeah, sorry.
And then.. yeah, and over that,
the client decides to have people in their business delegate
that's...you know we got lots of virtual assistants
That deal with 13,15, 20 different people within the organization.
because they are all using that same person as resource.
SD: Now help me paint a little picture though,
we've talked about realtors as an example.
What are some of the real industries that's having a real impact on?
SJ: An easy one is any software company.
So you know... Companies like Ubertor
anybody that's building a software application online software... whatever.
SD: versioning to iPhone and all that sort of stuff
SJ: Yeah. So handling customer service is like a great thing to do.
It can be a 24-hour benefit out of it because we are running on multiple shifts.
It's easy to do support for web apps through
tools like Live Chat, which pulls if any, if there was an accent. .
It pulls the accent away where it's becomes irrelevant.
Because we're doing Live Chat tech support anyways.
Uhmm.. we got legal assistance,
Web designers, bookkeepers...
We do lots of bookkeeping for North American clients.
Web design is a big one, programming is OK
it's not a huge thing over there to find programmers.
SD: Yeah. That seems to be the sweet spot of India,
SJ: Yup.
SD: ...and the former Soviet Union seems to be...
And oh.. I Have a really good question that which is my final one, which is..
Oh, the 24-hour clock! I find it compelling that, the thought of
being able to send all the tasks to be done before I wrap-up for the day,
And then first thing in the morning,
everything I asked to be done should be done.
SJ: Yup.
SD: That's gonna be a tremendous productivity benefit.
SJ: It is very cool, yeah so you're,
you're able to assign tasks you're not able to do or,
you got one of your people that are here that haven't finished the task
they can pass it on to somebody to continue it.
so when they come back to work, it's sort of the ball is always moving forward.
So they can jump back in it, the task is not where they left it.
it has been pushed forward by somebody in the Philippines or wherever.
SD: You've never lost one...
Now if you are not ready for a full time virtual assistant,
but you are intrigued by the concept.
I like some of the boutique outsourcing services,
I use O-Desk, for some little projects.
If you're gonna go to O-Desk dot com, you can check, you've looked into...
SJ: Yes, O-Desk and there's eLance...
SD: I haven't checked on eLance, but O-Desk it's all task-centric.
If you just need a logo design, or you need a simple little piece of work.
and maybe HTML-based newsletter developed;
or any that kind of stuff done,
you can just put it out there.
And there you got a facility for people to bid on the business.
You say I got a $60 budget to get this.
You might not think it's enough money to get it done.
and you put it out, and you'll get bids -not just from people overseas
but you'll get bids, people from North America for the same job.
And it gives you a real feel on how the whole outsourcing model can work.
Want more information Outsourcing Thing Done.com
is the place to go to learn more about it.
Stephen Jagger has been my guest, thanks coming over, Steve.
SJ: Thanks for having me!