Like Bacon and…well, Bacon.

[stextbox id=”custom”]The following is an excerpt from “The No Bull$#*? Guide to Virtual Assistants for Businesses; How to Skip Past Siri™, ODesk and Offshore Outsourcing to Find the Kind of Support Your Business Really Needs“; a new, just released e-book for businesses on the subject of working successfully with virtual assistants. Be watching for more announcements about the release date, but until then, enjoy this little teaser.[/stextbox]

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that our society which is so fixated on being thin is seeing a surge in people admitting that they love bacon. Smoky, salty and dare I say it; fatty bacon. Perhaps it’s the ultimate rebellion, like telling the emperor he had no clothes on. Whatever it is, large numbers of people are singing the praises of bacon.  Bacon and eggs, bacon and burgers, bacon and chocolate and hey, what could be better than bacon with bacon?

Why am I talking about bacon when this is a book about a business collaboration? 

Because it was the best way I could think of to illustrate just how decadently wonderful teaming up with a virtual assistant can be for your business.  Unless of course you are one of those rare people who don’t like bacon.  I mean you really, really don’t like bacon. Pretending you don’t like bacon because you think it makes you look righteous in the eyes of the diet gods doesn’t count. If your dislike of bacon is genuine, then by all means substitute chocolate.

Bacon and chocolate aside; it’s a fact that more small and medium sized businesses are exploring the option of teaming up with virtual assistants rather than hire employees. The face of outsourcing work is changing.  Where it used to be large corporations who outsourced things like customer service to offshore workers, now even one-man operations are discovering a deep well of highly experienced onshore or near shore outsourcing for practically any need they may have.

In their recent Fast 50 Report, Freelancer.com put Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) jobs at the very top of the list stating:

“BPO jobs boom as virtual assistants become mainstream for SMEs and entrepreneurs. Outsourcing basic administration tasks is rapidly becoming the norm for western small business, as SMEs increasingly become comfortable with accessing an online workforce.”

Not only are businesses embracing the ability to outsource to meet their business back office needs, they are also learning that although offshore might cost less, onshore gives them the same high quality, high value service that used to be reserved for in-office employees.  Finding the right onshore virtual assistant allows you to build a trusted relationship the same way you used to with an employee.

Think Perry Mason and Della Street, Sherlock and Watson, Mr. Drysdale and Miss Jane Hathaway. Bacon and Bacon. You get the idea.