In 2014, Americans who made phone calls, sent mail, or emailed spent on average 0.71 hours a day doing it, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Christian Sculthorp, CEO at Healthy.co.id, recommends the freelance marketplace company Upwork (formerly oDesk) for finding all kinds of virtual help. He uses the site for data entry, small website updates, content writing, translation, and bookkeeping, among other things.
"The best thing about Upwork is that I can hire them on an hourly basis and then just message freelancers with jobs as I have them," he says. "Upwork then tracks their work and sends me back screenshots of them doing the work. This keeps everything low cost and efficient."
Rates vary based on freelancers' skills, experience, feedback, and work history.
Violette de Ayala, founder and CEO of Femfessionals, used Elance (now part of Upwork) to find her bookkeeper, marketing associate, social-media team, designers, and IT team.
"It is always best to hire an expert in certain fields and leave those roles to them," she says. "This allows me to continuously focus on the growth of our company and take the steps necessary to achieve our business goals."
Fiverr allows virtual assistants to offer various freelance services for $5 a pop, and other popular freelance services include Zirtual, Toptal, Freelancer, and Guru.
You could also go the old-fashioned route and outsource work on Craigslist.