If you’re looking for affordable virtual assistant services, I’ll admit, you’ll find nothing “cheap” here; quality has always been my signature trait.
But if you’re a fellow U.S. participant in the global economy, the long-term expense of an offshore business model may just give new meaning to the phrase “you get what you pay for.” In fact, you may find it’s a business model you simply cannot afford.
Consider this. Each year, more people leave the conventional workforce — life shifts, businesses close, and jobs are outsourced or altogether replaced by technological advancements. And with each change, it’s likely one more entrepreneurial trooper marches into the work scene, all decked out with a bootstrap budget. With all of the startup expenses, they feel that going the route of inexpensive (read “cheap”) is their only option.
Your vantage point may give you a different perspective, but in this business and all its peripheral professions, the scales don’t often weigh in favor of a healthy U.S. economy. From laptops to website hosting, coaching services to WordPress plugins, many are built or developed in, or largely supported by, foreign manpower. Many dollars go out, but I’m not convinced as many come back in.
And then there’s the freelance support force, with so many prone to follow the herd and hire abroad. That trend amplifies the voice of one nagging question: How many of those dollars put food on foreign tables, but rarely stand a chance of coming back to feed the American Dream?
Stepping back to view the flow of business (and thus business dollars), I’ve come to wonder if a time will come when our professional neighbors find they can’t sustain business because their customers’ jobs (and livelihood) are now in the hands of others abroad.
Yes, it’s my contention that we all eventually get what we pay for, and sometimes we pay dearly, and that’s why: