I have hired my first full time employee outside Denmark. It’s a guy from the Philippines who is going to do various tasks for me. He starts the first of July.
My biggest conern is that I have enough work for him, so he doesn’t sit idle and do nothing.
While I have brainstormed a lot of different tasks that he should do, I didn’t qualify them until today. So I just spent thirty minutes describing his first task that he should commence when he starts Wednesday. As soon as I get some more experiences with this venture I will blog about it.
The original idea to find someone in the Philippines really came from John Jonas and his Replace Myself program. Though I cancelled my subscription after the first month since I really only needed the address to the website where he himself finds his people.
You can hear the first part of an audio on Replace Myself and then you basically need to buy into his program to get the rest. Besides the rest of the audio, you also get a lot of other content. It is basically a program for finding, hiring and training people in the Philippines.
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I am interested to hear how your experience went with your guy. I also bought into ReplaceMyself.com and even went as far as emailing about 10 people for WordPress theme design in which I got about 5 responses. However, I decided to hold off until I solidify my business plan as I am currently spending $100 / month on a personal business coach and another $100 / month for online internet business classes and cannot afford the $300 – $500 / month for a full time VA.
VMG BPO also looks interesting. I am currently subscribed with GetFriday which costs $15 / hour … maybe I should switch.
My business concept right now involves creating a social website marketed to beer connoisseurs which allows them to rate and purchase specialty beer from all over the world. Still in the getting started phase. Perhaps you can help me with the shopping cart aspect.
I just recently let my Philippine VA go. My VAs in India seem to have a leg up when it comes to the English language.
@Tony
For general VA stuff I will keep using VMG BPO. They have really positively surprised me. As Ralph writes the people in India has the upper hand when it comes to English.
I’m currently in the process of translating the Get A Shop to English so I can sell to a broader market. The price for a full professional Magento shop with a custom design is going to be aprox. $2500 (probably including hosting and payment gateway the first year).
@Ralph
Sorry to hear that. John Jonas’ advice is that you hire someone with good English skills and teach him the rest. It is easier to provide some training in e.g. setting up WordPress blogs than it is to to learn English.
Hi Rasmus, my name is Kei and I am a VA from the Philippines. I am eager to find out what happens next in this experiment of yours, I am currently doing a lot of reading with VA experiences. Lots of luck!
I am about to try this also and am really interested to see how it goes. What is a VA exactly?
Hi Rasmus,
Greetings!
I believed your looking for Agents
Well, I have a proposal for you, if you need more agents and or a
team doing social media (apointment setting/telemarketing) seo,
virtual assistants, online marketing etc.. I have group of people who
can work for you.
I’ll be the one to manage, train and monitor/track the progress of
their work. Their qualified, good english and with their skills,
trainings and wide exposure in this industry is a plus factor.
Each agent, depending on how many agents you needed will only cost you
around 450-550$/month. I have qualified agents in-house. If your
interested, I will personaly train them and I will lead the team! I
can also managed to work on your system, dialer, crm, script, docs and
everything you needed for this agents.
By hiring one of my agents or hiring a team of agents, you will reduce your overhead and better
leverage US based resources for more strategic activities.
I hope this makes sense to you. Let me know your thoughts.
I’ll be more happy if we can discuss this things over the phone.
Talk to you soon!
Cheers!
Rommel
–
Rommel Batalla
Direct: +17029972572 (US)
Mobile: +639175250782 (PH)
skype: rommelbatalla
E-Mail: rvbatalla@gmail.com
@Rommel: It is cheaper for me if I go directly, but I really need a Ruby on Rails developer in the Philippines, so if you can find someone talented, please contact me through the contact form.
@Karl: VA = Virtual Assistant. They do all kinds of tricks. I currently use someone from India as VA. They do a lot of research for me.
@ Karl: VA is what we call Virtual Assistants. They serve as your online partner that can surely help you in your business. Those virtual assistants can provide quality services in a most reasonable rate. It’s better than hiring an employee simply because you don’t need to invest in materials, trainings, and even a space in an office. If you have a limited resources it is best to pick virtual assistant from the Philippines. Don’t ask why, just try and see the difference.