Local VA or offshore?

I thought I’d share on this topic here. A few years ago I wrote an article about outsourcing and offshoring and the fact that these are two different things although they can be mingled too.

Outsourcing means to engage someone outside of your business to provide services to support you. This could mean someone next door, down the road or in the next suburb or state.

Offshoring means you are sending work offshore for someone else to manage for you. Our major Telco in Australia has call centres in the Phillippines, for example, but they also have call centres in different states.

It is very true that businesses do struggle to get everything done, and if they spend their funds on employing staff and having to put in place all the things that go with that, office space, equipment, furniture, and the employee overheads of sick and holiday leave, superannuation, taxes, etc, it’s no wonder they get strapped for cash.

But it does make sense to outsource your needs. IT, bookkeeping, administrative support, web support, graphic design and so on. For some needs it’s an hourly rate and for others it’s a project rate.

This article written three years ago talks about the benefits of outsourcing locally. Another benefit is knowing that your IP is protected under Australian law or whatever country you live in – if engaging a VA in your own country.

There is an industry association here in Australia for Virtual Assistants and a few VA networks listed where you can place a job request and get a number of VAs responding to your needs. Generally these networks have already screened their VA members and most have a minimum of 5 years’ working experience and many with over 20 years. All Australian VAs are independent contractors and not employees.

Kathie M Thomas

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