Print this list off and tape it to your desk. You just never know when you might have to turn down another opportunity to grow:

1. I’m really not a planner. If I hire a virtual assistant I will have to think about why I have a business and what I want to achieve this year and even 5 five years from now. Otherwise I’m just wasting her time and my money. And that just wouldn’t be fair to either of us.
2. How can I trust a VA with my business? I mean, I’m over here and she’s over there, way over there. How these VAs get any work done without someone looking over their shoulder is beyond me. It’s just not good management. Besides, if I can’t micromanage the details what will I do all day?
3. No one could possibly do it as well as I can. (And the way I do it is quite unlike anything you’ve ever seen.) I started this business because I have something unique and special to offer my adoring public. To think a virtual assistant could step in and competently assist with anything related to marketing or administration is, well, it’s crazy talk.
4. I don’t have time to explain everything to a VA. I’m too mired in paperwork and marketing and answering emails and God-knows-what-else to actually waste an hour or two a month with something as tedious as delegating. And like I said, what I do is complicated. Mysterious in fact.
5. I can’t afford to hire a virtual assistant. Nope, not a single dollar left in my budget for getting the right things done at the right time. Heck, this computer system alone cost me thousands. I’d be nuts to spend another three hundred bucks this month on administration when I could just do it myself for nothing. I mean, the sales aren’t exactly pouring in right now. (Though I’m not sure why.)
6. Bonus Excuse: Maybe next year I’ll think about hiring a VA and getting ahead with my business. Right now I’ve just got too much to do.

There you have it. Six of the most widely used and abused excuses for not outsourcing all the crap that’s getting in your way. Why choose silly things like productivity and purpose when you can defer to much easier choices like chasing your tail and working yourself to the bone?

Don’t let a VA stop you from getting what you really want out of your business. It’s just not worth it.

                          

What’s going on here and why should you pay attention as a business owner?

oDesk points out that offshore outsourcing is on average $6 an hour cheaper than US homeshoring. That can have a substantial impact on the bottom line of small business owners who routinely use BPO to float the boat. And in such an historically dire economic crisis as the one we’re seeing in the U.S, one cannot ignore the need for businesses to cost cut wherever it makes sense.

However, it seems that today’s American business owner may be starting to think about BPO as an investment in the long term viability of their businesses rather than a short term expense that could put them in the red.

More importantly though, if we look at the whole of oDesks’s recent BPO statistics in the context of recession, the numbers imply that satisfaction with a job well done is, at the end of the day, the least costly alternative of all.

If homeshored services can be done right and done right the first time, business owners spend less time and energy micromanaging and more growing their business. Not to mention saving them from potential ruin.

I’d like to think those same business owners also put out less cash for the project overall versus struggling with an offshore alternative that may not fully understand their business requirements from the get-go.

Offshore alternatives have their place. The point is to look at a longer time horizon when deciding which BPO strategy makes the most sense for your bottom line.

                          

In a recent press release, our VAnetworking.com founder, Tawnya Sutherland, said this:

While the VAnetworking.com Forum itself enjoys a free membership base of over 10,000 people-many of them very active in the ongoing discussions there-we knew that within this market there was a segment of VAs who were prepared to invest in something geared specifically for their entrepreneurial growth and development. Right here, in the throes of a US recession, we’ve got this tightly knit group of business owners coming together to uncover very real income opportunities.

In addition to unmatched networking and educational opportunities, virtual assistants who join VAinsiders receive immediate access to various takeaways to use in their own businesses, including over 125 business templates, e-books, tutorials, charts, articles, coupons and sample contracts.

What’s incredible to me is that VAinsider membership numbers continue to increase. This tells me 2 things:

1. Women entrepreneurs know that outsourcing is not just good for business, it’s good for business during tough economic times. It makes sense, for example, to ramp up a marketing campaign when clients are scarce. It makes even more sense to hire a high end VA (read: VAinsider) to help execute that strategy. It’s cost effective and you get results much faster than if you were to try to hire and train for such in-house (oh the pain).
2. Women entrepreneurs understand the importance of staying sharp, focused and in the know. Recession be damned. It’s always the right time to shoot for the stars.

It would seem that recession may be pushing this bandwagon right up a hill instead of down.