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Info Tech July 3, 2008, 5:00PM EST

Mom-and-Pop Multinationals

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New York auto dealer Tehrani hired Brazilians to develop his Web site Jennifer S. Altman

His real estate business has slowed, so he spends more time advising nonprofits across the U.S. on how to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Virtual assistants have handled routine correspondence and put together business materials while he's on the road, all for less than $10,000 a year. He figures a full-time secretary would run $45,000. Nicola, a 35-year-old designer, decided to work from home after she had their second child. Nicola now farms out design work to freelancers and is starting to sell organic baby food she cooks herself. She is setting up a Web site for that business and offered $500 for the design work. Of the 20 bidders who responded via Elance, 18 are from outside the U.S.

The couple uses two main offshore vendors. One is GlobeTask, a Jerusalem outsourcing firm that employs dozens of graphic artists, Web designers, writers, and virtual assistants in Israel, India, and the U.S. It generally charges $8 an hour. The other is Kolkata's Webgrity, which has a staff of 45 and charges $1 to $1.20 an hour. Five years ago, says founder Amit Keshan, 32, his company designed Web sites for Indian clients. Now he does all his business through Elance, handling up to 300 jobs each month for U.S., British, and Australian clients. For $125, Webgrity designed a logo for Wilburn's real estate business that Wilburn says would have cost as much as $1,000 in the U.S.

A worldwide market where even mom-and-pop businesses outsource could still be years from attaining wide appeal. But micro-multinational entrepreneurs like the Wilburns may not be rarities for much longer. "People will do it the old way until it becomes a no-brainer to do it the new way," predicts Elance's Rosati.

Links

Mobile Manifesto

Many small outsourcers say they were inspired by the 2007 book The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Described as a "manifesto for the mobile lifestyle," it includes a chapter on how to find offshore "virtual assistants" to handle everything from daily office tasks to writing business plans. One tip: Don't hire based solely on the lowest hourly rate—focus on the total cost of the job.

Business Exchange related topics:
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Global Outsourcing
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Engardio is an international senior writer for BusinessWeek .

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