Get Friday

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Digital Marketing Entrepreneur goes virtual

Back after a longish break due to getting too busy with incubating a new startup idea within our business. Getting from the germination of a new idea to a proof of concept or roll out out stage is certainly the most challenging phase. Especially because the torque required to start something from a state of inertia is obviously the biggest. But that is just the beginning of tighter days ahead. As with every new idea, there is a huge adrenaline rush and the thrill of waking up to something new while running an obstacle race against time, to get things started. All part of the game. So when I had a client of ours send us a guest post for the blog, I was more than thrilled. Our guest Christian Hollingsworth, a smart boy entrepreneur and now an ambitious young digital marketing consultant commands a twitter following in excess of 170k and that’s no mean feat. He is a guy who knows his stuff when it comes to digital marketing. So here we go.   My GetFriday Experiences Working with GetFriday has been nothing but pleasure. For months, if not years, I’ve read about many online professionals who have had great success in outsourcing a portion of their work to virtual assistants. It seemed to be the very last post I read about virtual assistants, which finally tipped the scales. Preparing For the “Virtual Assistant” Jump For most people, there are areas of concern before making the jump into hiring a virtual assistant. Many people wonder, “Should I trust a virtual assistant? Will they be able to handle everything I give to them? Is it worth it?” As with all new ventures, there’s a certain degree of trial, error, and testing. It’s important to keep the communication lines clear when working with your virtual assistant, otherwise, the channels could become quickly cloudy. Let them know what you expect from them, be clear in dictating tasks, and track their growth and progress. I’ve found that it takes time getting used to working with a virtual assistant. One area, in particular, is continually finding those tasks that you’re able to outsource. I always enjoy asking myself the question, “Would my assistant be able to handle this task, and allow me to free up more time?” What tasks do I outsource? After doing some research, I found GetFriday to be the virtual assisting company that would best fit my needs. I noticed they offered completion of web design, blogging, and administrative tasks. Now, as I sit here writing about my few months with GetFriday, I smile. Here are just some of the tasks I’ve already been able to assign to Muzamil, who is my wonderful administrative assistant. Daily the spam emails that come to my inbox are combed through, non-spam emails are saved, and the rest deleted. On a daily basis Muzamil prepares an email with the top five blog posts from the day within the business, social media, and technology industries. I’m able to click through, use the ones I want to share, and stay updated on the latest happenings I need to be aware of. Calls are made to people whom I need information from. Appointments are scheduled. Emails sent with my media kit to potential clients. Muzamil is my main administrative assistant. I’m able to forward him any blogging or web design related tasks that need completion, and he is sure to organize a team of individuals who are prepared and skilled enough to complete the task. Blog post research. A healthy dose of motivation. I know that if I’m not feeling particularly motivated one day, Muzamil will be on my case, asking what’s needed next. This is a great benefit to me as a self-employed individual, as I know Muzamil is sure to check on me daily. As you can see, after only a few months I’ve been able to outsource quite a few tasks to GetFriday. I know that as this year develops, the tasks I outsource will be even more, and the accomplishments greater. The services provided by GetFriday cost little, are of supreme quality, and free my time for the tasks that only I’m able to complete for clients. It’s a win all around. That’s one smart young man helping another one, across the globe. Thanks, Christian and Muzamil for this one. Sunder P ——– About Christian Hollingsworth: Christian is a digital marketing consultant, blogger, entrepreneur, and recording artist. He makes money online and teaches others how to do the same. Image copyright: SmartBoyDesigns and Muzamil

Digital Marketing Entrepreneur goes virtual Read More »

Back after a longish break due to getting too busy with incubating a new startup idea within our business. Getting from the germination of a new idea to a proof of concept or roll out out stage is certainly the most challenging phase. Especially because the torque required to start something from a state of inertia is obviously the biggest. But that is just the beginning of tighter days ahead. As with every new idea, there is a huge adrenaline rush and the thrill of waking up to something new while running an obstacle race against time, to get things started. All part of the game. So when I had a client of ours send us a guest post for the blog, I was more than thrilled. Our guest Christian Hollingsworth, a smart boy entrepreneur and now an ambitious young digital marketing consultant commands a twitter following in excess of 170k and that’s no mean feat. He is a guy who knows his stuff when it comes to digital marketing. So here we go.   My GetFriday Experiences Working with GetFriday has been nothing but pleasure. For months, if not years, I’ve read about many online professionals who have had great success in outsourcing a portion of their work to virtual assistants. It seemed to be the very last post I read about virtual assistants, which finally tipped the scales. Preparing For the “Virtual Assistant” Jump For most people, there are areas of concern before making the jump into hiring a virtual assistant. Many people wonder, “Should I trust a virtual assistant? Will they be able to handle everything I give to them? Is it worth it?” As with all new ventures, there’s a certain degree of trial, error, and testing. It’s important to keep the communication lines clear when working with your virtual assistant, otherwise, the channels could become quickly cloudy. Let them know what you expect from them, be clear in dictating tasks, and track their growth and progress. I’ve found that it takes time getting used to working with a virtual assistant. One area, in particular, is continually finding those tasks that you’re able to outsource. I always enjoy asking myself the question, “Would my assistant be able to handle this task, and allow me to free up more time?” What tasks do I outsource? After doing some research, I found GetFriday to be the virtual assisting company that would best fit my needs. I noticed they offered completion of web design, blogging, and administrative tasks. Now, as I sit here writing about my few months with GetFriday, I smile. Here are just some of the tasks I’ve already been able to assign to Muzamil, who is my wonderful administrative assistant. Daily the spam emails that come to my inbox are combed through, non-spam emails are saved, and the rest deleted. On a daily basis Muzamil prepares an email with the top five blog posts from the day within the business, social media, and technology industries. I’m able to click through, use the ones I want to share, and stay updated on the latest happenings I need to be aware of. Calls are made to people whom I need information from. Appointments are scheduled. Emails sent with my media kit to potential clients. Muzamil is my main administrative assistant. I’m able to forward him any blogging or web design related tasks that need completion, and he is sure to organize a team of individuals who are prepared and skilled enough to complete the task. Blog post research. A healthy dose of motivation. I know that if I’m not feeling particularly motivated one day, Muzamil will be on my case, asking what’s needed next. This is a great benefit to me as a self-employed individual, as I know Muzamil is sure to check on me daily. As you can see, after only a few months I’ve been able to outsource quite a few tasks to GetFriday. I know that as this year develops, the tasks I outsource will be even more, and the accomplishments greater. The services provided by GetFriday cost little, are of supreme quality, and free my time for the tasks that only I’m able to complete for clients. It’s a win all around. That’s one smart young man helping another one, across the globe. Thanks, Christian and Muzamil for this one. Sunder P ——– About Christian Hollingsworth: Christian is a digital marketing consultant, blogger, entrepreneur, and recording artist. He makes money online and teaches others how to do the same. Image copyright: SmartBoyDesigns and Muzamil

Midhya, our VA with Jerry Hobby

Where Good Ideas come from?

Borrowing from the title of the popular book by Steven Johnson, here is an example of how ideas connect and how people benefit from it. We had posted Andrew Wilson’s virtual assistance social experiment in our previous blog posts. This is a reply from another client, Ryan Leon after reading his post. Re: The Virtual Assistance project New post by Ryan Leon » Sat Apr 16, 2011 1:23 pm I would like to begin by commending Andrew Norman Wilson on the Virtual Assistance Project. I was, for lack of a better term, mind-blown after reading his posts and watching the videos on his blog. I have to admit, that I started an account at Get Friday to make my life a little easier. After seeing Andrew’s approach, I’m a bit embarrassed by my lack of effort in getting to know my assistant, Midhya. Up to this point, my tasks have been purely business related, with some “easy” personal tasks such as ordering books on Amazon.com. Ever the positive spirit, Midhya is always eager to help and delivers great results. My eyes are now open to the fact that I have been missing out on a key value that Get Friday offers: Midhya’s input. My entire outlook has changed, and I owe it all to a creative student in Chicago. I would like to close my comment with a message to Mr. Wilson: Andrew, Thank you for sharing the Virtual Assistance Project with the world. As a 25-year old, I am constantly finding out that I have MUCH more to learn about life and my place in the global environment. You really have something here. I know that you will do great things, because you already have shifted the paradigm in my own mind. I am amazed at how the internet continues to evolve and connect people with ideas that would be lost on them otherwise. Keep up the good work. Your fan, Ryan Leon Thank you, Ryan for your unreserved appreciation of Andrew’s work. And my apologies for not asking you before making this post. Am presuming you would be happy to have it go public. And I thought his assistant should know about it as well. Midhya, keep the good work going! Pic of Midhya with Jerry Hobby, the CEO of Anything Internet and a regular guest on the CNN 650 Morning Show. We constantly learn from others ideas and experiments and that is how innovation happens. And it is more likely to happen much faster in a better-connected world. Watch this engrossing talk by Steven Johnson, spiced by some exquisite illustrative video animation. Happy viewing! Sunder P CEO

Where Good Ideas come from? Read More »

Borrowing from the title of the popular book by Steven Johnson, here is an example of how ideas connect and how people benefit from it. We had posted Andrew Wilson’s virtual assistance social experiment in our previous blog posts. This is a reply from another client, Ryan Leon after reading his post. Re: The Virtual Assistance project New post by Ryan Leon » Sat Apr 16, 2011 1:23 pm I would like to begin by commending Andrew Norman Wilson on the Virtual Assistance Project. I was, for lack of a better term, mind-blown after reading his posts and watching the videos on his blog. I have to admit, that I started an account at Get Friday to make my life a little easier. After seeing Andrew’s approach, I’m a bit embarrassed by my lack of effort in getting to know my assistant, Midhya. Up to this point, my tasks have been purely business related, with some “easy” personal tasks such as ordering books on Amazon.com. Ever the positive spirit, Midhya is always eager to help and delivers great results. My eyes are now open to the fact that I have been missing out on a key value that Get Friday offers: Midhya’s input. My entire outlook has changed, and I owe it all to a creative student in Chicago. I would like to close my comment with a message to Mr. Wilson: Andrew, Thank you for sharing the Virtual Assistance Project with the world. As a 25-year old, I am constantly finding out that I have MUCH more to learn about life and my place in the global environment. You really have something here. I know that you will do great things, because you already have shifted the paradigm in my own mind. I am amazed at how the internet continues to evolve and connect people with ideas that would be lost on them otherwise. Keep up the good work. Your fan, Ryan Leon Thank you, Ryan for your unreserved appreciation of Andrew’s work. And my apologies for not asking you before making this post. Am presuming you would be happy to have it go public. And I thought his assistant should know about it as well. Midhya, keep the good work going! Pic of Midhya with Jerry Hobby, the CEO of Anything Internet and a regular guest on the CNN 650 Morning Show. We constantly learn from others ideas and experiments and that is how innovation happens. And it is more likely to happen much faster in a better-connected world. Watch this engrossing talk by Steven Johnson, spiced by some exquisite illustrative video animation. Happy viewing! Sunder P CEO

The Virtual Assistance Project – Social Experiment

On our invitation Andrew is posting his thoughts about the social experiment here on our blog. For more in-depth information on this project please read “Virtual Assistance: An Interview with Andrew Norman Wilson” in Media Fields Journal. Andrew talks about his project: I want to start this post by stating my belief that the critical dimensions of my project, which include this post, are articulated with the utmost respect for all the actors involved – Akhil, the other virtual assistants at GetFriday, and the Get Friday management. I want to be sure that this project is not understood as a way to blame or point fingers at individuals or the company as a whole. Setting the personal dimensions aside, this project is about an economy of informational labor that has inherited certain power relations from prior (though still simultaneous) forms of capitalism. In doing what I do I am not attempting to destroy or overthrow, but rather to question the relationships we take for granted or accept as inevitable every day by attempting to actually live the changes I would like to see. The people at GetFriday have been extremely open and helpful in allowing this to happen to a certain extent, and I doubt I would have found such openness at another virtual assistance service. As my artist statement for the project reads: The Virtual Assistance project began with research geared towards unpacking the relational system of GetFriday, a virtual personal assistant service based in Bangalore, India. Get Friday typically provides remote executive support, where a largely American client base is assigned a “virtual” personal assistant. I am a part of that client base, paying monthly fees for a primary assistant who works out of the Get Friday office in India. My “assistant” is a 25-year-old male Bangalore resident named Akhil. In paying for our relationship I am not trying to lighten my workload, but rather to attempt collaborative projects and even reversals of the normative outsourcing flow under a corporate contract arranged for one-way command. Using the service has been a method of engaging with, understanding, and reacting to an economy in order to learn, with the help of Akhil, how to peel back the corporate veneer, revealing limitations, histories, biographies, networks, power, desire, and more. Personal outsourcing initially came to my attention through the writings of proponents Thomas Friedman and Timothy Ferris as a method to shorten the typical American work week – to slough off excess labor onto globally integrated residents of developing countries. Global outsourcing tends to produce telematic relationships – telematic in the sense of a remote control over another’s labor. These conditions led to a number of questions about power relations that have been guiding me through the project. If power is defined as the ability to manipulate resources across space and time, to what extent can power in my relationship with Akhil and GetFriday be re-distributed amongst a service where the normative use is one-way command? How can this be reversed towards mutual assistance and collaboration? How can this relationship exceed the commodified forms intimacy and creativity privileged by service-based economies? The Get Friday service initially struck me as an opportunity for direct engagement with one of the dominant symbols of globalism—outsourced labor in India. GetFriday’s goal of “enhancing value to its clients” is consistent with the dominant use of outsourcing and its accompanying definition of value – profitability. Most people sign up for this service not to learn about their Indian assistants or to engage in a dynamic version of a pen pal relationship, but rather to outsource low-end tasks for a low price. However, profitability is not the fundamental horizon in which my project is formed. Profitability is a term of economic efficiency, and this is not an economically efficient relationship. In terms of social profitability, a much more efficient relationship would be to find the most “relevant” Indian gallery or artist willing to work with me, and try to make work about outsourcing. This project, while partially about outsourcing, more importantly uses outsourcing. The relationship-project is inherently problematic in a number of ways for me, and so the stakes are higher and the baggage is heavier. A crucial reorientation of my goals for the project came with my understandings of my contract with GetFriday. The power dynamics of the relationship are largely determined by the limitations put into play by the corporate contract and the accompanying forms of social engagement that are deemed acceptable by GetFriday management. I can’t have contact with Akhil outside of the official GetFriday communication channels, and all communication can be monitored by Akhil’s superiors. Akhil cannot organize or join a labor union. Akhil’s superiors insist that he represent himself as my “virtual assistant” in the project. In a way, these restrictions are the juice of the project. Not because I’m seeking to call Get Friday out for bad labor practices (it actually seems like a great place to work for many), but because I’m calling to question the dynamics of this whole economy, which Get Friday and I are just a small part of. Consistent with the sociological categorization of immaterial labor, Akhil performs labor in which he has to speak, communicate, and cooperate within an organization that has been normalized for economic efficiency. Though the work Akhil has done for this project (which is far less than the work I have done for it) benefits me in certain ways (I have been invited to present the work internationally), the project has become an attempt to allow for that forced speech, communication, and cooperation to become a will to speak, communicate, and cooperate. By asking Akhil to relax and write down his thoughts in front of his favorite view of Bangalore, or asking him to assign me a task, or asking him what he wants to be working on at work, we have achieved this to varying degrees. Akhil told me he wanted the opportunity to work on design and engineering projects in

The Virtual Assistance Project – Social Experiment Read More »

On our invitation Andrew is posting his thoughts about the social experiment here on our blog. For more in-depth information on this project please read “Virtual Assistance: An Interview with Andrew Norman Wilson” in Media Fields Journal. Andrew talks about his project: I want to start this post by stating my belief that the critical dimensions of my project, which include this post, are articulated with the utmost respect for all the actors involved – Akhil, the other virtual assistants at GetFriday, and the Get Friday management. I want to be sure that this project is not understood as a way to blame or point fingers at individuals or the company as a whole. Setting the personal dimensions aside, this project is about an economy of informational labor that has inherited certain power relations from prior (though still simultaneous) forms of capitalism. In doing what I do I am not attempting to destroy or overthrow, but rather to question the relationships we take for granted or accept as inevitable every day by attempting to actually live the changes I would like to see. The people at GetFriday have been extremely open and helpful in allowing this to happen to a certain extent, and I doubt I would have found such openness at another virtual assistance service. As my artist statement for the project reads: The Virtual Assistance project began with research geared towards unpacking the relational system of GetFriday, a virtual personal assistant service based in Bangalore, India. Get Friday typically provides remote executive support, where a largely American client base is assigned a “virtual” personal assistant. I am a part of that client base, paying monthly fees for a primary assistant who works out of the Get Friday office in India. My “assistant” is a 25-year-old male Bangalore resident named Akhil. In paying for our relationship I am not trying to lighten my workload, but rather to attempt collaborative projects and even reversals of the normative outsourcing flow under a corporate contract arranged for one-way command. Using the service has been a method of engaging with, understanding, and reacting to an economy in order to learn, with the help of Akhil, how to peel back the corporate veneer, revealing limitations, histories, biographies, networks, power, desire, and more. Personal outsourcing initially came to my attention through the writings of proponents Thomas Friedman and Timothy Ferris as a method to shorten the typical American work week – to slough off excess labor onto globally integrated residents of developing countries. Global outsourcing tends to produce telematic relationships – telematic in the sense of a remote control over another’s labor. These conditions led to a number of questions about power relations that have been guiding me through the project. If power is defined as the ability to manipulate resources across space and time, to what extent can power in my relationship with Akhil and GetFriday be re-distributed amongst a service where the normative use is one-way command? How can this be reversed towards mutual assistance and collaboration? How can this relationship exceed the commodified forms intimacy and creativity privileged by service-based economies? The Get Friday service initially struck me as an opportunity for direct engagement with one of the dominant symbols of globalism—outsourced labor in India. GetFriday’s goal of “enhancing value to its clients” is consistent with the dominant use of outsourcing and its accompanying definition of value – profitability. Most people sign up for this service not to learn about their Indian assistants or to engage in a dynamic version of a pen pal relationship, but rather to outsource low-end tasks for a low price. However, profitability is not the fundamental horizon in which my project is formed. Profitability is a term of economic efficiency, and this is not an economically efficient relationship. In terms of social profitability, a much more efficient relationship would be to find the most “relevant” Indian gallery or artist willing to work with me, and try to make work about outsourcing. This project, while partially about outsourcing, more importantly uses outsourcing. The relationship-project is inherently problematic in a number of ways for me, and so the stakes are higher and the baggage is heavier. A crucial reorientation of my goals for the project came with my understandings of my contract with GetFriday. The power dynamics of the relationship are largely determined by the limitations put into play by the corporate contract and the accompanying forms of social engagement that are deemed acceptable by GetFriday management. I can’t have contact with Akhil outside of the official GetFriday communication channels, and all communication can be monitored by Akhil’s superiors. Akhil cannot organize or join a labor union. Akhil’s superiors insist that he represent himself as my “virtual assistant” in the project. In a way, these restrictions are the juice of the project. Not because I’m seeking to call Get Friday out for bad labor practices (it actually seems like a great place to work for many), but because I’m calling to question the dynamics of this whole economy, which Get Friday and I are just a small part of. Consistent with the sociological categorization of immaterial labor, Akhil performs labor in which he has to speak, communicate, and cooperate within an organization that has been normalized for economic efficiency. Though the work Akhil has done for this project (which is far less than the work I have done for it) benefits me in certain ways (I have been invited to present the work internationally), the project has become an attempt to allow for that forced speech, communication, and cooperation to become a will to speak, communicate, and cooperate. By asking Akhil to relax and write down his thoughts in front of his favorite view of Bangalore, or asking him to assign me a task, or asking him what he wants to be working on at work, we have achieved this to varying degrees. Akhil told me he wanted the opportunity to work on design and engineering projects in

Back in action and the news

Back in Action We have been a little sluggish with our social media efforts till now. Reason why you haven’t seen too many blog posts since inception. But that is all set to change. In the recent past, in general we have been initiating a shift towards more openness and transparency. We expect that this will help our clients make better sense of their long distance personal, business relationship with their VAs. It’s a push towards opening our doors a little wider, for the whole world to see. So you will get to see a lot more posts from us, very frequently on what is happening out here. Stay tuned! Back in the News Leah Milner from the Times Money (UK) did a story on GetFriday titled “Individuals are now outsourcing to India”. After running a thorough road test wherein she tested Madhu Abraham (our VA) on a variety of tasks including some mischievous ones where she tests his tact, here is her verdict. “Testing the limits of the service, I request that he writes a humorous blog for Money Central on the cheapest wedding venues, but Maddy says that while he is happy to do the background research he is “not a good writer”. I reflect that it is probably just as well that I cannot outsource every aspect of my work or I would soon be out of a job.” Thanks, Leah!! Here’s the link, if you do have a Times subscription. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/money/consumeraffairs/article2926600.ece (Unfortunately, the article cannot be accessed without a subscription and Times will take offense if we publish it without a syndication. Don’t quite get the logic. You take a picture and write a story about us for the entire world to see and won’t allow us to publish it without syndication!) Sunder P CEO

Back in action and the news Read More »

Back in Action We have been a little sluggish with our social media efforts till now. Reason why you haven’t seen too many blog posts since inception. But that is all set to change. In the recent past, in general we have been initiating a shift towards more openness and transparency. We expect that this will help our clients make better sense of their long distance personal, business relationship with their VAs. It’s a push towards opening our doors a little wider, for the whole world to see. So you will get to see a lot more posts from us, very frequently on what is happening out here. Stay tuned! Back in the News Leah Milner from the Times Money (UK) did a story on GetFriday titled “Individuals are now outsourcing to India”. After running a thorough road test wherein she tested Madhu Abraham (our VA) on a variety of tasks including some mischievous ones where she tests his tact, here is her verdict. “Testing the limits of the service, I request that he writes a humorous blog for Money Central on the cheapest wedding venues, but Maddy says that while he is happy to do the background research he is “not a good writer”. I reflect that it is probably just as well that I cannot outsource every aspect of my work or I would soon be out of a job.” Thanks, Leah!! Here’s the link, if you do have a Times subscription. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/money/consumeraffairs/article2926600.ece (Unfortunately, the article cannot be accessed without a subscription and Times will take offense if we publish it without a syndication. Don’t quite get the logic. You take a picture and write a story about us for the entire world to see and won’t allow us to publish it without syndication!) Sunder P CEO

The Satyam Scandal

We at GetFriday understand the concerns raised in the wake of the Satyam scandal. The scandal is unfortunate and particularly shocking given that Satyam is the 4th largest IT firm in India. But the Indian industry believes that this is an isolated cased and an aberration. It may be recalled that some of the best Indian firms like Infosys have earned their reputation through adhering to good business ethics and the highest standards of corporate governance. It should be noted that other countries and industries also have bad apples. The likes of Enron, Worldcom and the recent Madoff case come to mind. Even in this case, the audit firm involved was PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of the big 5. No matter how well planned a system is there will always be people who will find a way around it. The Indian regulatory system is strong and robust and is expected to act as swiftly as possible to ensure that the hard earned reputation of India Inc. is protected. GetFriday: We are not a listed company with public investors. We are closely held with the majority stakeholder being the TTK Group, a business conglomerate that is synonymous with trust, since 1928. The group is known for its conservatism and its unblemished reputation. Over the last 80 years, the group has worked with many international companies and brands including Cadburys, Ponds, Sara Lee and Durex. Many of its brands have been household names in India now for decades. While being a client is quite different from being an investor, we would like you to know that GetFriday is backed by an 80-year-old group with a rock solid foundation. Issues that are relevant to the context: 1) Security of financial information Right from the inception of GetFriday in 2005, we realized that the security of financial information was critical to our success. So we implemented a system that does not allow the assistants to access any credit card information. While online shopping on behalf of clients is an everyday affair at GetFriday, we have ensured that assistants can go only up to the check out stage and then have to hand over the shopping to their team-lead for completion. This is thanks to our secure Safe-Access system that requires two levels of authorization for any transaction. Each transaction is tracked and the details stored so that there is a clear audit trail. This has ensured a trouble free and safe operation with zero fraud reported so far since 2005. With our online billing system, all information is double encrypted, password protected and then secured with a pass phrase (never stored on any system). The information resides on a secure network with firewall protection and is PCI compliant to ensure that the information is secure. Again, the audit trail clearly fixes accountability and responsibility based on access. 2) Confidentiality of Personal / Business information As a matter of utmost precaution we ask all our assistants to communicate and handle tasks only through our CRM system (Pivotal from CDC Software, a top ten ranked CRM vendor globally). This ensures the tracking and safety of client information. Communicating on personal email ids is prohibited and even on official email ids is allowed only when there is a maintenance break or unscheduled breakdown on the CRM system. Our privacy policy and confidentiality clauses as per terms of service require every assistant to not share information pertaining to one client with another. We conduct regular training sessions and sensitize staff on the importance of these measures. Employees are required to sign an NDA and confidentiality agreement as part of their employment contract with us. If some clients require specific NDA’s signed then we review them on a case-by-case basis and then take it forward on a mutually agreeable basis. 3) Business Continuity While business continuity is a cause for major concern if someone is outsourcing critical parts of their business, it is imperative in the case of a VA service that there are no long-term contracts and commitments. If clients want to drop out, all that is needed is a month’s notice. Similarly if GetFriday is unable to provide service for any reasons or if the contract is terminated, then it is our duty and commitment to hand over confidential information or destroy it within the specific time mentioned in the NDA and confidentiality agreement. In fact, there can’t be a better option than a service like us which protects and insulates clients from the issues of attrition, sudden surges / drops in business, and unavailability of assistants on account on normal issues like vacation, sickness etc. This is as nice and dependable as it can get for small outsourcing that is not worth a million dollars. We have maintained utmost transparency with our clients across the globe and always encourage clients who are on a visit to India to drop by and get to know us in flesh and blood. Outsourcing is here to stay, and this scam shall not affect Indian businesses adversely. Read more on this. If you have any concerns or question, you can post a comment here or contact us through our website, www.getfriday.com

The Satyam Scandal Read More »

We at GetFriday understand the concerns raised in the wake of the Satyam scandal. The scandal is unfortunate and particularly shocking given that Satyam is the 4th largest IT firm in India. But the Indian industry believes that this is an isolated cased and an aberration. It may be recalled that some of the best Indian firms like Infosys have earned their reputation through adhering to good business ethics and the highest standards of corporate governance. It should be noted that other countries and industries also have bad apples. The likes of Enron, Worldcom and the recent Madoff case come to mind. Even in this case, the audit firm involved was PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of the big 5. No matter how well planned a system is there will always be people who will find a way around it. The Indian regulatory system is strong and robust and is expected to act as swiftly as possible to ensure that the hard earned reputation of India Inc. is protected. GetFriday: We are not a listed company with public investors. We are closely held with the majority stakeholder being the TTK Group, a business conglomerate that is synonymous with trust, since 1928. The group is known for its conservatism and its unblemished reputation. Over the last 80 years, the group has worked with many international companies and brands including Cadburys, Ponds, Sara Lee and Durex. Many of its brands have been household names in India now for decades. While being a client is quite different from being an investor, we would like you to know that GetFriday is backed by an 80-year-old group with a rock solid foundation. Issues that are relevant to the context: 1) Security of financial information Right from the inception of GetFriday in 2005, we realized that the security of financial information was critical to our success. So we implemented a system that does not allow the assistants to access any credit card information. While online shopping on behalf of clients is an everyday affair at GetFriday, we have ensured that assistants can go only up to the check out stage and then have to hand over the shopping to their team-lead for completion. This is thanks to our secure Safe-Access system that requires two levels of authorization for any transaction. Each transaction is tracked and the details stored so that there is a clear audit trail. This has ensured a trouble free and safe operation with zero fraud reported so far since 2005. With our online billing system, all information is double encrypted, password protected and then secured with a pass phrase (never stored on any system). The information resides on a secure network with firewall protection and is PCI compliant to ensure that the information is secure. Again, the audit trail clearly fixes accountability and responsibility based on access. 2) Confidentiality of Personal / Business information As a matter of utmost precaution we ask all our assistants to communicate and handle tasks only through our CRM system (Pivotal from CDC Software, a top ten ranked CRM vendor globally). This ensures the tracking and safety of client information. Communicating on personal email ids is prohibited and even on official email ids is allowed only when there is a maintenance break or unscheduled breakdown on the CRM system. Our privacy policy and confidentiality clauses as per terms of service require every assistant to not share information pertaining to one client with another. We conduct regular training sessions and sensitize staff on the importance of these measures. Employees are required to sign an NDA and confidentiality agreement as part of their employment contract with us. If some clients require specific NDA’s signed then we review them on a case-by-case basis and then take it forward on a mutually agreeable basis. 3) Business Continuity While business continuity is a cause for major concern if someone is outsourcing critical parts of their business, it is imperative in the case of a VA service that there are no long-term contracts and commitments. If clients want to drop out, all that is needed is a month’s notice. Similarly if GetFriday is unable to provide service for any reasons or if the contract is terminated, then it is our duty and commitment to hand over confidential information or destroy it within the specific time mentioned in the NDA and confidentiality agreement. In fact, there can’t be a better option than a service like us which protects and insulates clients from the issues of attrition, sudden surges / drops in business, and unavailability of assistants on account on normal issues like vacation, sickness etc. This is as nice and dependable as it can get for small outsourcing that is not worth a million dollars. We have maintained utmost transparency with our clients across the globe and always encourage clients who are on a visit to India to drop by and get to know us in flesh and blood. Outsourcing is here to stay, and this scam shall not affect Indian businesses adversely. Read more on this. If you have any concerns or question, you can post a comment here or contact us through our website, www.getfriday.com

Virtual Assistant

Getting snowed in

Tim Ferriss’s book has done wonders for the popularity of this service. The number of people who want to sign up has increased dramatically and the credit goes to Tim for opening people’s eyes to the potential of outsourcing. We have been keeping an active eye on blogs about comments on the GetFriday service. Quoting from Tim’s own blog he says “Even GetFriday, which has done great work for me, is getting snowed under with work since their mentions in the book. The price of success! Be careful what you ask for ;)”. This is very much true. Though we had prepared well for this, you aren’t ever completely prepared for the reality. So it is a fact that we are struggling to keep pace with the enquiries. However our processes have evolved so well over the last year that we have been able to cope with the influx amazingly well. We also found some blogs where prospective clients had posted that our sign up process was not online and that our service was good post the sign up. Let me explain this. The sign up process is intentionally not online. While the sign up and payment for our other sister service “YourManInIndia(YMII)” – the Indian concierge service is completely online, we kept it offline for GetFriday. It is nice to think of a factory situation where you sign up online, pay for a plan and get alloted a human robot automatically as an assistant. It may work well in a highly automated supply chain and manufacturing system where parts are sourced as you place your order for let’s say a computer (like Dell), or even in the world of digital downloads, software etc. But here we are dealing with providing human assistants and it requires a great deal of resource planning and fitment before we can assign an assistant to a client. Hence the sign up process is kept intentionally offline wherein we study the requirement, send an appropriate form, get a secure fax sign up from client before commencing service. In our opinion it is better to have a slightly longer process of understanding client requirements and sign up than have a prolonged process of waiting to get an assistant assigned after an instant sign up. This isn’t instant coffee or Nirvana. Again this may change in the near future if we are able to automate resource fitment and allocation. Another article that has brought quite a buzz for us in Canada is this one by Patrick White for the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. Thanks to Patrick we are now known in Canada as well. On a closing note, we are getting snowed in but we aren’t finished yet with taking on new clients. We remain as keen as ever to serve more and more people globally and make their lives better. If there has been a prolonged wait with our service, kindly bear with us we should be having you on board soon. -GetFriday Management

Getting snowed in Read More »

Tim Ferriss’s book has done wonders for the popularity of this service. The number of people who want to sign up has increased dramatically and the credit goes to Tim for opening people’s eyes to the potential of outsourcing. We have been keeping an active eye on blogs about comments on the GetFriday service. Quoting from Tim’s own blog he says “Even GetFriday, which has done great work for me, is getting snowed under with work since their mentions in the book. The price of success! Be careful what you ask for ;)”. This is very much true. Though we had prepared well for this, you aren’t ever completely prepared for the reality. So it is a fact that we are struggling to keep pace with the enquiries. However our processes have evolved so well over the last year that we have been able to cope with the influx amazingly well. We also found some blogs where prospective clients had posted that our sign up process was not online and that our service was good post the sign up. Let me explain this. The sign up process is intentionally not online. While the sign up and payment for our other sister service “YourManInIndia(YMII)” – the Indian concierge service is completely online, we kept it offline for GetFriday. It is nice to think of a factory situation where you sign up online, pay for a plan and get alloted a human robot automatically as an assistant. It may work well in a highly automated supply chain and manufacturing system where parts are sourced as you place your order for let’s say a computer (like Dell), or even in the world of digital downloads, software etc. But here we are dealing with providing human assistants and it requires a great deal of resource planning and fitment before we can assign an assistant to a client. Hence the sign up process is kept intentionally offline wherein we study the requirement, send an appropriate form, get a secure fax sign up from client before commencing service. In our opinion it is better to have a slightly longer process of understanding client requirements and sign up than have a prolonged process of waiting to get an assistant assigned after an instant sign up. This isn’t instant coffee or Nirvana. Again this may change in the near future if we are able to automate resource fitment and allocation. Another article that has brought quite a buzz for us in Canada is this one by Patrick White for the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. Thanks to Patrick we are now known in Canada as well. On a closing note, we are getting snowed in but we aren’t finished yet with taking on new clients. We remain as keen as ever to serve more and more people globally and make their lives better. If there has been a prolonged wait with our service, kindly bear with us we should be having you on board soon. -GetFriday Management

virtual personal assistant

In the beginning….

As you might be able to tell from the title, this blog is dedicated to Virtual Assistants and Remote Offices. This first entry is about the creation of GetFriday. Let’s set the scene: It was the summer of 2005. Your Man In India (GetFriday’s sister service) had been around since 2000, providing services in India and carrying out physical tasks in India for non-resident Indians across the world. They were approached by AJ Jacobs, an editor-at-large for Esquire. He had just finished reading The World is Flat, and had an interesting idea: Can individuals outsource their personal tasks across the world. YMII took up the challenge and launched a brief pilot. You can read Jacob’s article here. GetFriday was officially launched in August of 2005, dedicated to providing outsourcing solutions for small businesses and busy individuals across the world. A simple story launching a simple but incredibly powerful service. Stay tuned to this blog to see the things that GetFriday is capable of.

In the beginning…. Read More »

As you might be able to tell from the title, this blog is dedicated to Virtual Assistants and Remote Offices. This first entry is about the creation of GetFriday. Let’s set the scene: It was the summer of 2005. Your Man In India (GetFriday’s sister service) had been around since 2000, providing services in India and carrying out physical tasks in India for non-resident Indians across the world. They were approached by AJ Jacobs, an editor-at-large for Esquire. He had just finished reading The World is Flat, and had an interesting idea: Can individuals outsource their personal tasks across the world. YMII took up the challenge and launched a brief pilot. You can read Jacob’s article here. GetFriday was officially launched in August of 2005, dedicated to providing outsourcing solutions for small businesses and busy individuals across the world. A simple story launching a simple but incredibly powerful service. Stay tuned to this blog to see the things that GetFriday is capable of.

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