I have been reading a ton about what virtual assistants do. If you work with a virtual assistant properly, it seems like they can cut out almost any minutiae from your life. It seems like the ultimate productivity hack! Perfect for a busy reporter who’d rather be writing.
But, like with so many things, I put off learning how to use a virtual assistant because I was scared to try working with one.
Some of my unfounded virtual assistant fears include:
- What if they steal my information and sell it on the black market?
- What if they don’t do what I ask them?
- What if they judge me?
- What if they make me look bad?
After I wrote these down, I answered myself:
- What if they steal my information and sell it on the black market?
- A virtual assistant is no more likely to do this than anyone else I share my credit card information with. I’ve had that stolen twice and everything is fine.
- If I use a reputable service, it’s even less likely.
- What if they don’t do what I ask them?
- Then I waste an hour or two proving myself right. So what?
- What if they judge me?
- Like with other daycare parents, there is no way I’m the craziest or most demanding one.
- What if they make me look bad?
- To who? There is very little damage a VA can do that can’t be undone with a polite email.
After this little (insane) pretend conversation with myself, I was ready to try. But not ready enough to give a VA anything of consequence, like booking airline tickets or setting up research interviews for my job.
How a Virtual Assistant Could Help Me
I settled on asking a virtual assistant to buy me pants. You read that right, pants. I hate buying pants. They are the least fun article of clothing to buy. I also tend to agonize over what pair, and then not like the ones I buy, so this is extra low-stakes. Someone else could definitely do a better job for me.
The Pants I Need:
I need breathable, athletic, hiking pants that I can get away with wearing to the office. I don’t want to spiral along the The Shopping Shame Cycle by obsessing over a million choices.
Why?
I’m rehabbing a nagging hip injury with the goal of getting back to my hands-down favorite sport: surfing. At my physical therapist’s urging, I want to increase the likelihood that I’ll go for a brisk walk every day, either before work, or during lunch; the two times I’ve been most successful at actually getting up from my desk and walking in the past.
The solution:
A virtual assistant!
Disclaimer:
I’m still too paranoid to share credit card info with my VA directly, even though I know it’s illogical, so I decide I will do the actual purchasing myself.
How I Found My Virtual Assistant
A journalist friend did a story on how VAs can be a huge help to entrepreneurs and executives, so I thought, why not disorganized professional moms with sore hips? I tried the highly-recommended service, Ask Sunday.
Turns out, my dedicated VA, Dhwani, is good at following instructions, formatting data, and most importantly, being non-judgmental. I could be as particular (read: crazy) as I wanted in my request, and pay her to consider the entire universe of hiking pants for me, and she seemed more than happy to do it.
How to Hire a Virtual Assistant for Personal Shopping
Dhwani is based in Ahmedabad, India. We have never met, and we have an exceedingly polite relationship. I know nothing about her taste in clothes, so I have to be detailed to the point of sounding like a complete jerk when giving her the task.
- I ask for three to 10 options that are similar to a pair of $89 jogger pants from Athleta, in features, fabric, color, and overall looks—but less expensive. The fabric is probably most important. It’s a lightweight, wicking nylon/ spandex blend. I only have $50 left in my clothing budget for the month, and I want to see if this VA experiment can save me time and money.
- I give Dhwani my waist and hip measurements and say to include only suggestions where my size is in stock.
- I send a list of retailers I frequent, and I give her a one-hour time limit.
- I ask her to reply with a confirmation that she understands the task.
The First Response from My VA:
“This is to acknowledge that we will try to find said jogger, as per your requirements and will update you with one hour of work.”
Dhwani’s use of words like “as per your requirements” already has my morale way up.
“Further, I have done 20 minutes of research and gone through various sites, including the links given by you, but could not find any similar product. Although, I did find matching pants on eBay, but they do not have the required size.”
I’m bummed, but I never even thought to try eBay for this. That idea alone is worth bringing Dhwani on board.
“However, I will research for 40 more minutes and try to find the joggers as per your requirements. Please review this and do let us know if you have any suggestions/ queries and confirm you’d like us to search more.”
I’m buoyed by the official progress report on my pants situation. It seems to be getting the appropriate amount of respect from within the AskSunday organization.
I wish my family rallied like this every time I needed to buy clothes.
I also realize that I’m the reason Dhwani struck out. In my original request, I told her I liked the “Iron Blue” color option of the original pants. These are not easy to match.
When I reply, I tell Dhwani to expand her search to all colors, and I send her a quick list of the keywords I would use if I was doing this myself. The second email takes about 5 minutes.
The Results of My Virtual Assistant Experiment
In the end, I receive a beautiful spreadsheet including six choices, each with links, the name of the retailer, and the price. Most of them are from a discount travel clothing site I never heard of, Sierra Trading Post which is another huge win in my book.
My favorites are $60 low-profile, grey, straight-leg, hikers from the Columbia website. They aren’t as fashion-forward as the original joggers, but I know I can style them with canvas slip-ons or vintage tennis shoes, and they’ll look almost as dressy as jeans at my casual office.
Best of all the fabric is nylon and elastane, which is a version of spandex. And these are wrinkle and stain resistant. Perfect.
They have tons of five-star reviews, and with a quick cross-check to my local REI I see that they are in-stock and on sale for only $45. Plus, I can save on shipping and, as a member, return them for free, anytime, even after wearing them.
Here is how things net out:
- Original Pants $89
- Pants I got: $45
- Dhwani’s Rate: $12
- Total hard savings: $37, and under-budget for the month!
- Time spent writing two emails to Dhwani: 20 minutes
- Time I normally spend researching something like this, talking myself into and out of it, and eventually buying: 4 hours.
- Total time savings: 3 hours, 40 minutes
- Normal satisfaction level after seeing every pair of pants on the internet and the “settling” for something: 55%
- Satisfaction level after talking with Dhwani, seeing six pants, and buying one: 100%
I wear the pants to work twice the next week, without anyone noticing the repeat – a bonus of them being less stylish, and therefore less conspicuous, and I walk 30 minutes on each of those days.
Maybe I’ll try something higher-risk next…like shoes.
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