A couple days ago, I described my initial foray into the world small-scale offshore outsourcing — for the business and personal tasks carried out by an individual, i.e., me. At the time, I said I had contacted two Indian firms, and neither had responded to me.

Well, both of them have now contacted me, and I’ve had a couple back-and-forth interactions. I’d still prefer not to give you their names, since I haven’t actually gotten started with either of them, and thus don’t know how good a job they do. But the initial interactions have been interesting, and worth passing on to you.

One of the companies responded right away, told me they could certainly handle the three modest tasks I had asked them to bid on, and suggested that I choose an ongoing, month-to-month “retainer” arrangement for either 10, 20, or 40 hours per week. The rates were in the $12-15/hour range, based on the volume of work. When I wrote back to ask whether it would be possible to arrange a single, non-continuing contract for a one-time task, I got a response suggesting that I could contract for a 40-hour block of time, for $800. Aside from the fact that this represents a higher $20/hour rate, it presents two other problems: (a) I risk wasting $800 if they do a lousy job, and (b) I’m not at all sure the initial tasks I had in mind will take anywhere near 40 hours of effort. So I’m still pondering this, and haven’t decided how to proceed.

Meanwhile, the second company responded with a request that I fill out a “membership form,” which included (among other things) a credit card number to which their services would be charged; this was to be faxed back to a toll-free “secure” fax number. Obviously, there’s some risk of credit card fraud here, but it’s a well-known company, and I can always shut down the credit card if things get out of control. So I filled out the form, faxed it back, and got a response the next day indicating that (a) my form had been “accepted,” but (b) the company was so busy they wouldn’t be able to start working on my tasks for another three weeks, at which point someone would contact me to discuss the details of what I want them to do. Well, that takes us through the Christmas holidays, so I won’t be hearing from them until the beginning of the New Year.

There are no great “life lessons” to be learned from any of this; it merely indicates that initiating a “personal outsourcing” initiative is not a trivial, instantaneous process. I tend to be a little (actually, a lot) impatient, and I was hoping I would have already gotten results from my initial tasks. But I’ll forge ahead, and see how things develop with these first two companies. Meanwhile, I’m planning to contact a couple of individuals — one in Mexico, one somewhere else — through a third “virtual outsourcing” firm.

Stay tuned … I’ll post updates from time to time …