Outsourcing to the Philippines can change your life.
That statement might sound big and bold, but I say this based on my own outsourcing experiences and the thousands of businesses that I see every day using the Virtual Staff outsourcing marketplace to successfully find and hire remote staff and virtual assistants in the Philippines.
Philippines outsourcing and hiring Filipino virtual assistants changed my life. It was a game-changing business move that allowed me to operate multiple businesses while working my chosen hours.
I'm not exaggerating. Let me give you an example of someone I know.
Fred owns an e-commerce business. He does FBA and Shopify and earns between $5,000-$10,000 a month in profit.
Here's how he leverages Filipino outsourcing:
- Hires remote home-based workers
- Has built an incredible team and a business that is turnkey
How did he do it?
He used the VirtualStaff.ph marketplace to post jobs and search for workers who had the skills that he needed. He chose to do it this way because he wanted full-time home-based workers who could speak excellent English. He did not want to hire "typical freelancers."
Fred hired the following people:
- Admin/Customer service agent: Her job was to reply to customers and make sure all the admin was working fine
- PPC expert/SEO/Marketing. He hired someone to do the ads SEO and help him with product descriptions
- Researcher: He hired someone whose sole job was to research new products, competitors, and pricing.
He hired three full-time staff, and his salary bill was less than what it would have cost him to hire just one employee in the USA!
This means Fred can take a birdseye view of his business, and instead of working in it, doing the nitty-gritty and quite frankly monotonous tasks. Now he has the power to do what he wants, when he wants, with who he wants!
So, with that being said. Here are my top 10 Philippines outsourcing tips for those new to hiring and working with Filipino virtual workers.
Top 10 Philippines Outsourcing Tips
- Hire for the position: Suppose you need an SEO expert. Then hire an SEO expert. Don't hire a jack of all trades unless you want a general (not specialized) worker.
- Pay the right salary: Know the going rate for wages for that position. My philosophy is to hire the best virtual staff in the Philippines, save a lot of money, but at the same time make sure that I am not compromising the quality of the staff I hire by trying to screw the salary down too much.
- Don't use a BPO company: For 90% of you reading this article, you're better to cut out the go-betweens and directly hire staff on the VirtualStaff.ph outsourcing marketplace. You can find workers yourself at Virtual Staff Resume Search.
- Pay staff on time: Sounds simple? It is. So please don't delay paying staff salaries. Otherwise, you could lose their trust and end up losing a great Filipino worker if you're building your team on VirtualStaff.ph, it's easy. You set the hourly rate and pay your staff after completing the agreed weekly work hours.
- Incentives work: You don't have to, but it could increase productivity and help increase your staff morale. I usually pay my staff a bonus at Christmas, or sometimes at random times based on performance.
- Be upfront and transparent: Treat your staff well. Remember, for many of you reading this. You'll probably live in the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, etc. It's thousands of miles away from the Philippines. Please be sure to keep your staff in the loop on anything that might affect them.
- Be clear about salary: This builds on tip #6. From the start, be clear about the salary rate. It's easy on VirtualStaff.ph, as you choose the hourly salary rate, how many hours per day or week you require your staff to work, and then after the staff complete the hours, you release salary to them.
- Daily Communication: I don't mean babysitting the person! However, I suggest that daily communication is vital for this to work. Just send them a message on or off VirtualStaff.ph.
- Time Tracking: This is a hot topic. Should you have your staff on time tracking and screen monitoring software? This is entirely up to you. If you pay per hour, it can be helpful as it keeps trust between both parties and ensures no misunderstanding.
- NEVER hire friends or family members of your current Filipino virtual worker. The reason for this is simple. It can cause problems. Your current virtual assistant is doing a great job. You're looking for an additional worker, and she suggests her friend. You then give the friend the job, and she's not good at it. It then causes unnecessary problems.
I apply this to all my businesses. It's my golden rule, and it's worked for me every time I've used it. I came up with the golden rules before launching VirtualStaff.ph. That was when I had my retail and consultancy business.
Are you interested in hiring a virtual assistant, but do you still need more information?
I've included some articles to help you work with virtual assistants and successfully outsource to the Philippines.