There are several things you should learn from this:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now for the exciting part! Let\u2019s start talking about the Philippines. Please, DO NOT go anywhere else in the world for your outsourcing. You may be thinking, \u201cI\u2019ve got a great contact in Viet Nam [or somewhere else], so I\u2019ll go there.\u201d NO! Go to the Philippines.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a specific set of cultural differences that exists in the Philippines that don\u2019t exist anywhere else in the world. Trust me\u2014you won\u2019t find this in Brazil or anywhere else in South America; not in South Africa; not in Eastern Europe, Thailand, Cambodia, nor Singapore\u2014go to the Philippines with this! The Philippines will provide you with a completely different experience, and I will tell you why.<\/p>\n
Skills!!<\/strong>\u00a0They all do research for me and provide all the data that I need to make informed decisions in my business, \u00a0what things we should or should not be doing, and so forth. They do all the research. Also, they write the content for the websites, do all the marketing; they write articles, create videos, do link-building and profile links, social bookmarking, social networking, directory submissions; they put up RSS feeds and link to them, and so forth. They do all these things that you always hear about, but that you never have the time to do on your own.<\/p>\n \u00a0This leads to my first tip.<\/strong><\/p>\n In the Philippines they do not have the educated workforce that we have in the U.S., so it\u2019s difficult to find someone with experience in managing the kinds of projects that you want them to work on, meaning Internet-based projects. This simply means that you have to train the people you hire.<\/p>\n For example, they don\u2019t know how to go out and market your website for you\u2014you have to train them. But the good thing is that they all speak very good English. In fact, I have a girl working for me who makes phone calls to U.S. customers, and if you were to receive a call from her, you wouldn\u2019t know that she isn\u2019t from the U.S. You may detect a slight accent, but her English is perfect and she is super helpful and polite. That\u2019s just another example of the many different things you can have done for you in the Philippines.<\/p>\n Take Care of Them and They\u2019ll Take Care of You<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>The second reason I want you to see these photos is because over the years, as I\u2019ve taught about outsourcing, I sometimes get the idea that people think that their outsourced employees are some kind of robots. You know\u2014they\u2019re 7,000 miles away and if things aren\u2019t perfect you can \u201cjust get another one\u201d or \u201cjust throw them away.\u201d But they are human beings with needs, feelings, and desires similar to yours and mine. They have families and problems just like we do, so please treat them well.<\/p>\n You will grow to love the people that you hire, and they will become your friends\u2014you\u2019ll love working with them. As you treat them well, they will work very hard for you and do amazing things for your business.<\/p>\n When something goes wrong, give them a chance to correct it. Help them correct it. Seek out why something went wrong. Ask them questions.<\/p>\n Too many times I\u2019ve seen someone hire an amazingly talented Filipino worker, only to have them not show up to work 3 weeks later and then the entrepreneur fires them, assuming they\u2019re lazy or that they don\u2019t really want the job.<\/p>\n Rather than fire them, try asking them questions. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s going on with your family?\u201d \u201cAre you feeling ok?\u201d \u201cI noticed you didn\u2019t show up to work yesterday\u2014what can I do to help you?\u201d<\/p>\n You\u2019ll find that if you give them second chances, they\u2019ll be much more committed to your business and to helping you succeed.<\/p>\n As I tell you about some of the important cultural differences that exist in the Philippines (as compared to other outsourcing countries), you will understand why Filipinos will do such good things for you. These are things I have learned from five years experience working with them.<\/p>\n Realize that some of these cultural differences exist in other places in the world. However, nowhere else will you find them all. It\u2019s the combination of all these cultural attributes that makes the Philippines so different when it comes to outsourcing.<\/p>\n CUTURAL DIFFERENCES<\/strong><\/p>\n Filipinos are Honest<\/strong> Never once have I heard of a problem with dishonesty or theft. Of course, having said that, please don\u2019t go and do something that you\u2019re not comfortable with and risk becoming the first one to get ripped off. I expect that all the Filipinos you hire are indeed fully honest, and this factor is so important because you can confidently assign them to do so many different things, which in turn will help make your life easier and your business successful.<\/p>\n This is always one of the biggest concerns people have when hiring overseas workers. If it\u2019s a concern of yours, my advice is to give it a shot and see for yourself. I\u2019ve never once seen someone get ripped off when outsourcing to the Philippines.<\/p>\n Filipinos are Loyal<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Second, in the Philippines there is a culture of loyalty, almost to a fault. They are so loyal that once you give them a job, they will never quit, which means that you can give them all kinds of things to do. This allows you to teach them things in steps, if necessary, knowing they\u2019ll stay with you. I have found that this makes my training much less complicated\u2014you can make mistakes and still know that your Filipino is not going to quit on you.<\/p>\n Over time, because they\u2019re so loyal, you can teach them things you wouldn\u2019t normally teach an American worker or a contract worker. Knowing that they\u2019ll continue to work for you will take a huge burden off you and allow you to be more effective at running your business (being the CEO!).<\/p>\n Filipinos Think Like We Do<\/strong><\/p>\n Also, Filipinos think like we do. Their brains work the same way the Western world does, and they will read between the lines. So, if you make a mistake in something you\u2019re teaching them, they will read between the lines and go figure it out.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll share an experience that highlights this: I once gave an employee the task of setting up an account in one of my systems for another person. Keep in mind that their work hours are during my night hours, and when I got up the next morning there was an e-mail from this employee, saying, \u201cSir, I don\u2019t have his e-mail address. What is his e-mail address?\u201d Well, before I had a chance to reply to him, he had gone to work on it.<\/p>\n Thus, there was a second message from him saying, \u201cSir, is this his e-mail address? I went out and did some research to see if I could find it, and this is the e-mail address I found for him online. Is it correct?\u201d So, even before I had the chance to reply and send him the information, he had already gone online and found it. He was trying to solve the problem for me.<\/p>\n As you train them and work with them, you\u2019ll find that they\u2019ll try to solve problems for you too. This is very different than traditional outsourcing!<\/p>\n They are Intelligent<\/strong><\/p>\n Filipinos are very intelligent. They have bachelor\u2019s degrees\u2014real university bachelor\u2019s degrees.<\/p>\n They Have Their Own Computers and Internet Access<\/strong><\/p>\n Filipino employees have computers and Internet access, which means that you\u00a0don\u2019t have to go there and set up an office; they can just work from home. Also, because they work from home, you don\u2019t have to go through a service to hire them.<\/p>\n They Work Hard and They Speak our Language<\/strong><\/p>\n Employees in the Philippines are very hard-working by nature\u2014it\u2019s part of their culture. In addition, they speak American English (unlike in India), which is so important when you\u2019re running a business in the U.S.<\/p>\n English is so prevalent in the Philippines that the government has actually mandated that business dealings be conducted in English. You can find people in the Philippines whose English is PERFECT. You can easily find people who write and speak perfect English. <\/p>\n HOW TO WORK WITH YOUR FILIPINO<\/span> First, this daily e-mail message holds my employees accountable to me. If they don\u2019t work on a particular day, they will have a difficult time telling me what they did. And even if they weren\u2019t able to accomplish a lot or finish anything on a certain day, I still want the daily e-mail, which leads to the second thing they\u2019re supposed to address, which is \u201cWhat problems did you run into?\u201d If they\u2019ve run into a problem, I want to know about it, so that I can help them.<\/p>\n 2. Difficult First Task\u2014Solves the #1 Problem in Working with Filipinos<\/strong><\/p>\n This helps solve or prevent problems, especially one special challenge that sometimes occurs with Filipinos. Here\u2019s what was happening with me: As I was hiring people, I found that some of them simply \u201cdisappeared.\u201d They would do really great work for a week or two, but then I\u2019d never hear from them again. This was frustrating because I was hiring and training them and getting good work from them, but they would suddenly disappear. So I began giving my new employees a difficult first task, in order to weed out the ones who couldn\u2019t handle the work\u2014I wanted to know who was going to stick with it.<\/p>\n So here is the difficult first task I usually give them: I buy a domain and I send them access to the domain and to my hosting account, and I tell them, \u201cFor your first task, I want you to set up this domain on my hosting account; I want you to set up WordPress on the domain; I want you to change the theme; and I want you to write a post and a page.\u201d Those are all hard things to do, and if they can do it all, then I learn a lot about them. For example, I know that they know how to Google; that they can figure things out; that they understand html and WordPress, FTP, uploading and hosting, Mysql, and how well they can write. Also, the \u201cdifficult first task\u201d allows me to set expectations for them.<\/p>\n Again, this is the Number One problem in working with Filipinos.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know this at first, but I have learned that Filipinos often feel embarrassed about things. They are humble people and can sometimes feel like they\u2019re not good enough or that the work they\u2019re doing is not going to be adequate, and that consequently they will lose their job. They\u2019re afraid they won\u2019t qualify. They\u2019re also very non-confrontational. This is what led to some of them disappearing after I had given them an assignment they couldn\u2019t do. They sometimes simply disappear because they don\u2019t know how to do something, or they don\u2019t understand something, or they fear they\u2019re not going to do it the right way. You can prevent this with proper training. Remember, they look up to you and they don\u2019t want to disappoint you, so instead of saying \u201cyes\u201d to what you\u2019ve asked them to do, they sometimes say nothing, because they don\u2019t want to upset you, and that\u2019s when they disappear.<\/p>\n Filipinos would rather disappear and lose their job, than confront you with a problem they have. So, when you find someone not communicating with you, you NEED to seek out their problem and help them solve it. DON\u2019T JUST FIRE THEM! They really want the job. If they\u2019re not working, it\u2019s because they need some direction or instructions.<\/p>\n So when I give them their difficult first task, I say, \u201cI\u2019m giving you a difficult first task. I know that it\u2019s difficult and that you may not know how to do it. I know that it may scare you and make you feel that you\u2019re not going to be good enough and that I won\u2019t like you and will then fire you. So here\u2019s what I want you to do: First, I want you to try. See if you can figure it out. Google it; find a tutorial; talk to your friends and see what they know and ask if they can help you. But when you get stuck on something and you feel that you\u2019re just not making progress, I want you to ask me for help. I know you\u2019re going to get stuck at some point, and I\u2019m expecting you to come to me for help. I usually know how to solve the problem and how to help you, and if I don\u2019t know how, I can find somebody who does. So again, when you get stuck on something, I need you to come to me and ask for help. I expect this to be a long-term working relationship, and I want this to work out. I\u2019m here to help you.\u201c<\/p>\n I have found that as you correctly set these expectations, it does a great deal to prevent losing somebody who can actually be a good employee for you. A while back my brother texted me about this very issue. He has three people working for him. One day he sent me a text message and said, \u201cJohn, my guy disappeared. What do I do?\u201d So I explained to him that he probably became embarrassed because he ran into a problem he couldn\u2019t solve. I told him, \u201cE-mail him and see if you can find out what his problem is.\u201d About a week later my brother called me and said, \u201cJohn, you were right. He was embarrassed because he got stuck on a problem and didn\u2019t know what to do. Before this, he was doing such good work for me, and then suddenly I wasn\u2019t hearing from him. So I figured out what the problem was, spent about five minutes solving it for him, and now he\u2019s back to doing great work for me!\u201d \u00a0The difficult first task lets me set the right expectations with them to prevent them from disappearing.<\/p>\n 3. Low Starting Wage<\/strong> 4. Raise the Wage Quickly<\/strong> 5. Give Bonuses for Good Work<\/strong> Here is his reply: \u201cYes Sir, I\u2019m still doing article-marketing, but after I had done it a couple times in the way you told me, I then did some research and I figured out that if I do this and that, instead of what you said, and that if I do it with such-and-such frequency, instead of what you told me to do, and that if I use these websites, in addition to what you told me to use, it is way more effective. I hope that\u2019s OK with you, Sir.\u201d<\/p>\n What do you say to that? If my boss had given me some very specific instructions, there\u2019s no chance I would go above and beyond and try to do things more effectively for him, but this is what he did. I\u2019ve since come to realize that this is a normal experience with Filipinos\u2014you\u2019ll see this kind of thing all\u00a0all the time with your employees; they will go above and beyond,\u00a0because they want to keep their jobs. So that month I sent him an extra $50 dollars and he was thrilled. So, give them bonuses for doing good work.<\/p>\n \u00a06. Network<\/strong><\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve hired one person and you\u2019re ready to hire a second employee, ask your first employee who they know that you can hire. To find another employee for you will take them about three weeks. I don\u2019t know why it takes them that long, but I\u2019ve seen it quite a few times. I suspect it\u2019s because they want to make sure that this second person is really good, because they feel that their reputation is on the line.<\/p>\nCultural Features that Benefit Your Business<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nFirst, the Filipino culture is a culture of honesty, even to the point that my employees have access to my credit cards, bank account, usernames and passwords for my personal e-mail account, my PayPal accounts, my hosting accounts, and root access to my servers. The only thing they don\u2019t have access to is the ability to pay themselves, because if they had that, they would know each others\u2019 salaries.<\/p>\n
\nWhy? Because:<\/p>\n\n
\nThey Like Us!<\/strong>
\nYou can combine all the foregoing points with the fact that Filipinos actually like America, which is quite different from most other areas of the world. This will truly benefit you and your business.<\/p>\nThe Best Website To Find VA’s\u2014OnlineJobs.ph<\/h1>\n
\nIt\u2019s now time to show you how to proceed, once you hire your employee. I have 22 \u201cHiring Tips\u201d that will help you train and work well with your Filipino employees. Here are the first two:
\n1. Daily E-mail Message
\nThis is my number one tip. I require all my employees to send me an e-mail message every day. I have them answer three things:
\n1) What did you do today?
\n2) What problems did you run into?
\n3) What can I do to help you?<\/p>\n
\nI have a low starting wage, but I raise it quickly, if things are working out.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nRemember the guidelines I gave previously regarding monthly salaries.<\/p>\n
\nLet me tell you about one of my employees. A while back I gave him the task of doing article-marketing for me. I wanted him to write articles and submit them, in order to get content out there and to get links to our website. I gave him some pretty specific instructions, which is what you should always do. I taught him how to write the articles, how to submit them, which websites to use, how often to do it, why we were doing this, and some other specifics. Then I let him go to work. I don\u2019t know exactly what happened next, because although I was getting the daily e-mails from him, he wasn\u2019t talking about article-marketing, and I suspected that it was because he was a little embarrassed about what he\u2019d done. So after some time, I sent him an e-mail message and asked, \u201cHey, what\u2019s going on with article-marketing? Are you still doing it? I know it can be super effective, and our website is going very well right now, but you haven\u2019t said anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n