The Secret Sauce of Outsourcing

I get a lot of questions about the 13th month, especially near the end of the year. I'm going to answer some of those questions in this episode. But if you want more information about the 13th month, you can check out the links below. https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/13th-month-pay-practical-advice https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/what-is-the-13th-month-is-it-required

We recently did an interview with Paul Staten, he runs the super successful SEO Werkz. Paul does a lot of specialized OFS (online Filipino specialist) hiring, training, and managing himself. He gets a lot of applicants every time he has a job post and he shares some really great advice on how to deal with that in this episode.

I've managed a lot of people over the years and I've learned that people need to feel good about themselves. You got to treat people well because if you don't, it's going to cause problems. I had the opportunity to apply this lesson both at work and in my personal life recently. I'm going to tell you all about it in this episode.

My OFS did something wrong on a project. It's not that they did a bad job. I just saw that they didn't put much thought into one element of that project. Then I realized that what they did seemed right from their perspective, not from my perspective. There are going to be times where they do their best and still make a mistake. You have to be there to correct that mistake. I'll share how we resolv...

My daughter Baily placed 4th in the Utah Mountain Bike State Championships. She's so happy and I'm really proud of her. She overcame a lot of adversity to get to that point. Because of all that hard work, a lot of good came out of it. You can see the pictures I took that day here: https://johnjonas.com/pushing-through-adversity/ I feel like often with virtual assistants there can be some adversity...

Employee benefits encourage workers to stick around. It's the same with Filipino workers. You're not required to give your OFS these benefits (hence the quotation marks). But giving these benefits goes a long way in making sure you'll have a long-term relationship with them. If there's one benefit I think you should give, it's the 13th month. I talk more about that here:  https://blog.onlinej...

How do I know if I can trust my new OFS? How much access should I give my OFS? That's the problem I encountered when I hired my first OFS, 'Jake'. I didn't know if I could trust him. But not giving him access to my systems was getting in the way of him doing his job. So I gave him access to EVERYTHING. Want to know what happened next? I'll tell you in this episode.

When I buy something here in the US, it's easy. It's easy to have it shipped. It's easy to check if I can get something cheaper elsewhere. That's not the case when you buy stuff in the Philippines. Laptops and computers there are more expensive. That's why people are asking how we buy equipment for our team. I'll share with you how we do it in this episode.

I thought I gave my son good instructions when I asked him to put away the toilet paper. I was wrong. I should have explained it adequately and showed him how to do it. It's the same with your Filipino virtual assistant. When something doesn't go right, ask yourself, "Did I give good instructions?" How would you know if your instructions were good or bad? Find out in this episode.

I'm not an attorney, so I cannot give you legal advice about writing contracts and enforcing them with your OFS.  I'm not qualified to answer that question. All I can tell you is how we've done it with our Filipino team. That's what I'll be sharing in this episode.

The Philippines doesn't celebrate Halloween. Instead, they celebrate All Souls and All Saints Day, where they commemorate lost loved ones. They celebrate family. We don't do that for Halloween. That's one of the reasons why I don't like it. I'll explain further why I don't like Halloween in this episode.

There's a guy on my mailing list who mainly hires the most expensive OFS. He does this because he believes that the most experienced, skilled OFS would ask for higher salaries.  I sent an email about it, asking you guys for feedback. What's you're hiring strategy when you hire an OFS? I got your answers here, and that's what we'll be talking about today.

Often, employers are scared to hire an online Filipino specialist because they're afraid of benefits. Like it's something expected (it's not).  As a foreign employer, it's difficult to pay for benefits unless you have an entity in the Philippines. If you want to offer benefits to your Filipino team, there's a way to do it.  That's what I'll be sharing in this episode.

Setting up shop is super easy in the US. You can do it yourself or have a lawyer set up an LLC for you and you can have a business up and running in a week.  In the Philippines, it's not that easy.  We're going to talk about that in this episode.

One of the big issues people have with hiring a virtual assistant in the Philippines is nobody really wants someone that's unskilled.  That's why you don't hire a VA, you hire an Online Filipino Specialist (OFS). What's the difference? How can I hire an OFS for my business? I'll answer those questions in this episode.

I am not an accountant or a lawyer. I am not qualified to give you any tax advice. Anything I am about to say, you should take with a huge grain of salt. Make sure you talk with a tax professional. That being said, I have been outsourcing since 2005. I've worked with different accountants and they've all done the same thing. That's what we're going to talk about in this episode.

When I first hired someone through an agency, they asked me if I wanted my Filipino virtual assistant to work in my time zone. I said, sure! It sounds like a sweet deal. To work in my timezone, my virtual assistant had to work late at night until dawn because the Philippines is 12 hours ahead. After a couple of weeks of this, he came to me and asked if he could work the day shift.  I didn't r...

How can I trust an online Filipino worker? How do I know who I can trust? These are tough questions to answer. When you first hire someone, you don't know if you can trust them.  The funny thing is that Filipino workers also have the same fear. They're just as worried about whether or not they can trust you!  So how do you get around this? How do you build trust on both sides? That's wha...

What kind of virtual assistants can I find in the Philippines? Can I actually find good, talented people there?  You can find just about any person you need for your business in the Philippines, and it's not that hard to do it. I have a great team of customer support people. I also have writers, designers, programmers, project managers, etc. I've known people who've hired lawyers, software sp...

One of the big questions I always get asked is, "John, who's the first person I should hire?" Most people would tell you to find somebody to do stuff you don't know how to do. My advice is contrary to that. My advice is to hire someone to do something you know how to do and outsource that task. Want to know why? I'll be explaining my answer in this episode.

Everybody wants to know, how do you find someone good? Where do you find them?  The short answer: Onlinejobs.ph Full disclosure, I own Onlinejobs.ph . You can take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. But...there's a reason why people talk about it and recommend it to their friends.  There's a reason why Employers come back over and over again. It's a great place to find the best Filipi...

When I was told to outsource to the Philippines, I had no idea. I had no idea that going to a specific country would make all the difference.  I had no idea wages would be so reasonable, the people would speak American English, and culturally they're honest, loyal, hard-working, and don't want to steal your business ideas. They understand American culture and slang and are super Westernized....

Every episode of this podcast is going to contain something that's going to make you better at outsourcing. It's going to contain tips. It's going to contain new ways to find people. It's going to contain better ways to manage people. My goal with this is every episode, you'll come away with something you think you can do to improve what you're doing with outsourcing. ---------- You’ve thought abo...