Ever since reading Tim Ferris‘ The 4-Hour Work Week I’ve been intrigued by the idea of outsourcing projects to an overseas virtual assistant. However, like most people I was skeptical that it could be as easy and hassle free as Tim makes it sound.

I’ve been waiting for the perfect project to send to the other side of the world to test the concept.  A couple of weeks ago, just the right project was sitting on my to do list.  I had an hour long phone interview that I needed a transcription of.  This seemed like the perfect test for an overseas assistant so I started by contacting AskSunday, the folks that Tim endorses.  Unfortunately, they require you to sign up for one of their plans and wouldn’t just tackle a single project for me. 

After a little research on Google I found a company in India called Patodia Inc.  On their home page they say their "ultimate objective is ‘Client Satisfaction’ therefore, if
any client is dissatisfied with the work, Patodia Inc returns the
payment or doesn‚Äôt charge the client for the work done."  It seemed like I didn’t have much to lose, so I decided to give overseas outsourcing a try.

The owner Prakash Patodia was easy to reach.  He gave me a very reasonable quote via email, happily had a sample prepared for me and his team completed the final project to my satisfaction in less than 48 hours…at a fraction of the cost of what an American company would have charged for the same work.

The possibilities for utilizing this affordable workforce are limitless. In a recent post Seth Godin gave several examples of how a business could utilize oversees assistance to provide a better customer experience.

If you’ve got things you know would enhance your customer’s experience that you don’t enjoy doing or you would do if you "just had the time"…why not give Prakash a call…chances are he can help you.