There are three main players/components to  Outsourcing to the Philippines (or anywhere overseas)

• The owner…the entrepreneur, the one with the vision (that would be you )
• Project Manager…your most important asset with any business is an excellent Project Manager. This is the person who will delegate the tasks that need to be done within the business  model that you have given them. It is also their responsibility to follow up to make sure it gets done right. When you first start out outsourcing, you may have to assume this position at first but it won’t be long (once the successes start coming) before you will need to put someone else in the most important position so that you can concentrate on starting new business’.
• The technicians…these are the players that the Project manager has designated your tasks to…these are the ones that actually do the physical work for you. This is your team.

Although I promised you two web sites to work from to hire from the Philippines, it seems that one site bestjobs.ph is no longer allowing anyone who is outside of the Philippines to sign up. This site is still active but it is only for people who have physical addresses with business’ located within the Philippines.  So, until they change their mind again…this one will have to go by the wayside..although there are creative ways of getting in.

When they closed bestjob.ph to outsiders, John Jonus (who was successful at using these Outsourcers) decided he would set up his own site to connect online jobs and Filipino workers  with American, Uk, Australian etc. countries.

www.Onlinejobs.ph was born in early 2008 and became the “Outsourcing to the Philippines” go to source. Onlinejobs.ph is geared specifically at Filipinos who want to work online for foreign companies.

For the most part, they are all college graduates…or senior students looking for work. The ones you should concentrate on are the ones with the Science of Technology degree. They each have different strengths and skills listed…its a rare one that would come trained in all aspects (I would wonder about those qualifications anyway)….but they all can and want to be trained to execute new tasks and procedures.

To get the best results, you need to email at least 20 people at a time with your desired job. Not everyone will return your email even if it seems they are available. Sometimes these people are listed in such places as Craigslist in the Philippines as well as onlinejobs.ph and they may have secured a job there.

Once you get email results, filter through and eliminate any that don’t seem a good fit. Narrow your list down to 5-6 applicants. Once you do this you want to test them on a fairly difficult task…to see what degree of proficiency they have, but more importantly, you  want to see their ambition and resolve to accomplish new tasks they aren’t familiar with. The ones creative enough to find and execute the answer to something they previously had little knowledge on is the person you are looking for. You want a self starter.

Personally, I think paying them for doing this task is important. It sets up good vibes between you and your prospects  and allows them to see your generosity from the start. Even if you paid each one around $25.00 you could do 5 of them for $125 which is not a lot to spend on hiring an assistant…but it is a lot to them in terms of reward. You’ll attract better prospects this way too.

Another thought is to filter through the applicants and if you feel you have found one that you would like to try out, hire them on a “trial” basis for the first month. Make sure they understand that the first month will be a trial to see if the job is a good fit for them and they are a good fit for you.

Once you’ve made your decision and hired someone, you must be sure to and stress the fact that you are “there for them.” If they can’t figure something out and they are too scared to turn to you then they will just quit showing up and walk (just like a brick and mortar employee would do.) Treat them like you would any respected brick and mortar employee. When you find a good one…one with integrity, education, creativity, passion, desire, tenacity, persistence and honesty…they are worth spending the time to nurture and train. In the end, its you that will reap the reward.

Remember, you are not Outsourcing one task to a temporary employee as you would on a site like Elance. You are training your assistants for full or part-time employment. And although you can higher part time, according to John Jonus it is better to eventually have full time employees only…as soon as you can afford to do so.

Two more things to be aware of  are bonuses for those that have earned them  and “the thirteenth month.”

• Bonuses…Because of the money exchange, it won’t cost you much to give bonuses…when they are earned, and will only endear you to your employees more….creating deep trust and loyalty which can only be a good thing.
• “the thirteenth month”...this is a tradition in the Philippines but your Filipino worker will most likely not mention it…maybe assuming or hoping that you are aware of it. Here’s the tradition: When the 12 month year is over, they are automatically rewarded a “thirteenth month’s pay” equal to one month’s salary. Can you imagine how excited and surprised your employee will be when you automatically give them this gift at the end of the year?

John Jonus has a membership site…www.ReplaceMyself.com that has training manuals that you can give to your newly acquired employee/employees, videos they can watch and learn from and he even offers his members access to a “business in a box”…for those who want to get started but don’t have a package they can give their employee to learn from and get going.

Next post we’ll explore www.ReplaceMyself.com in more detail and I’ll reveal more of what’s available to members behind closed doors. There’s an interesting side note to joining Replace Myself that you’ll learn about too.

In the meantime, you can check out John’s blog at: John Jonus Blog

Celebrating freedom…yours and mine 

Kathy