Finding a Fantastic Virtual Assistant

The drama that unfolded was like a bad "B" movie with two people having an online catfight, debating whether someone had made false claims about expertise or credentials. I closed that box and went back to work, intermittently responding to the one person who made a bid. She charged $25 an hour, with a five-hour minimum -- and advised me that my project would take her 12 hours -- way above my $100 budget.

Going back to the drawing board, I reworked my proposal to cover just 35 business cards, and because I'm not a "put-your-eggs-in-one-basket" type of gal, I also decided to Google "Virtual Assistants." Up to 736,000 sites popped up, and I chose TasksEveryday.com, an India-based company that advertised an hourly rate of $6.98! What's the saying, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is? That was the case here.

Yes, they offer that rate and were quite professional, with speedy follow-up to my query. The catch: You can only get that rate (which buys you a suite of services and your own dedicated personal assistant) if you prepay and sign up for a 160-hour package. Since their lowest-priced package was for 40 hours -- though still a bargain at $9.98 an hour -- I had to pass on this choice for now.

Meanwhile, my project for database and marketing support work for 35 leads lingered for three days on DoMyStuff.com without another nibble.

Getting Serious

Time was ticking away, and I had to find someone to get my networking notes out within two to three days, before my warm leads got ice cold. Back to Google, I surfed through several other choices before clicking on VirtualAssistants.com.