When it comes to outsourcing your business (or yourself!) to the Philippines, there’s definitely a learning curve.
Here are 7 ways you can guarantee failure for yourself :
(Hint: Don’t do these things!)
1. Try To Hire Someone To Do Everything
Here’s an actual email I got this week
So wait…you want a programmer, graphic designer, webmaster, who is fluent in english and likes to write, who can write sales copy, autoresponders, forum posts, ebooks, and reports.
Oh yeah, sure, let me help you find that person!
Oh wait, that person doesn’t exist.
Hire someone to do a specific task! Then train them to be able to do everything.
2. Hire A Project Manager
Filipinos don’t know how to run your business for you.
Don’t try to hire a project manager first along with 6 others, and expect that “project manager” to manage those other 6 and get things done. They don’t know how.
YES! They’re very capable of being project managers, but very rarely will you find someone who has been involved in enough internet business that you can just turn a project over to them and have them manage other people for you.
Eventually…yes! After you’ve trained them and they’ve seen how the business is supposed to work.
3. Hire Someone And Ignore Them
You have to train the person you hire. They don’t know how to run your super-niche internet marketing business. Don’t expect to hire someone and just let them go do everything themselves. Expect to spend some time working with them.
4. Ask Someone To Do Work Before You Offer Them A Job
This is my favorite.
I get an email that says
Can you please tell me why I can’t successfully hire someone, they all keep disappearing.
Here’s the email I send them:
I want you to start by doing a trial task.
Write 20 articles, submit them to article directories, do a bunch of directory submissions for me, build me a website and write all the content for it.
Then, I’ll evaluate your work and see if it’s going to work out.
hahahahaha.
Yeah right!
They’re not going to do work until AFTER they know they have a full-time job working for you.
Don’t give them a test task. Give them a job. Tell them the first month is a probationary period.
5. Expect Immediate Results
This is a long-term proposal here. I’ve been doing it for 4 years. You’re not going to see the same results in 4 days.
Don’t expect it.
6. Search and Search and Search For The Right Person, Then Email Them
Hey John,
I searched for 3 days and I found the perfect candidate. They can do everything you said wasn’t possible back up in #1 on this blog post. Why won’t they respond to me?
Why?
Because they already have a job and they’re loyal to their current employer.
Instead of trying to find the perfect person up front, try contacting 20 potential fits, see who responds, then sort through them.
7. Set The Wrong Expectations
When you hire them, don’t tell them you expect them to be totally self-directed and to work without supervision and to be able to figure everything out on their own.
If you do, you’ll never hear from them again.
Try telling them
I expect you to try to figure things out, but I understand that I’m going to give you tasks that you won’t know how to do, and sometimes there won’t be any way to figure it out. In these cases, please know that I’m here to answer your questions. I’m here to help you. Please don’t hesitate to ask me when you get stuck.
Otherwise, when they don’t know how to do something they get embarrassed and will never talk to you again.
If you set the right expectation with them about asking for help, they’ll ask, you’ll help, and all will be happy and good.
These aren’t hard things to avoid…you just have to know about them to avoid them.
There’s more good stuff like this as a member of ReplaceMyself.com.
Dear John Jonas,
is it possible to buy only that part of your course, which covers only “how to hire workers”, but not the parts which are tutorials for the workers?
@John Deiss – Yes, that's the first month's module. You can cancel after the first month and not get any of the other training.
I don't have a different way of doing it.
John
LOL, hahaha….
you are completely on the dot! i think i did most of those things with the expected result.
it might help to train the employers and reshape our expectations, in a lot of cases.
thx to your post, i will try again…
4 hrs a week ? that’s gangsta
Who in the world is the idiot who wrote that email in #1 ??
Unbelievable.
Interesting, but I have to disagree with the expect results right away part, you have to have patience. Start off by starting a blog and don't put any ads on it, just talk about your passion and how much you like it, build up a following, then slowly add ads and maybe sell a ebook or something. Although, if you can do it the other way and it works, go for it I guess, but don't start off like a spammer. Gary V's book 'Crush it" is a good source, I just finished reading it myself.
Hi John,
What if can I do if I do not know how to help them. I am not very Tecnical. I would have no idea how to help them with a technical issue.
Regards, DJC
hi dear lisa, is your " eteam ' looking more work? I can use this system if they need more work .
I have work for them if they are interested. socializing@email.com
what seems to be a US hire's level?
you wanna know where the good employees are? they were already hired by people who pay well. paying $1-3 per article is not enough, it's just the minimum salary, like something a fast food crew would get..
I hope your content writer can spell better than you!
Thanks for this great post. You really have to find the right person. I'm employing two Fillipinos and they are both great! Very hard working and eager to learn. Whenever I talk to them they take notes and get back to me. Yesterday one emailed me with a new idea based on something I've said two weeks ago. She has reviewed her notes and thought it would be a good idea.
I currently have 2 Filipinos working for me. They have both done a great job, even surprising me with their initiative and ability to do things with little direction. The first one built me this site: http://www.wealthwithrealestateinvesting.com, and created videos for it from audio interviews I sent her. She needed just a little correction on the videos.
A few weeks ago, I hired a second gal who speaks pretty good English and is willing to converse on Skype (the first one won't ever talk to me on Skype, so all my instructions are by email) which allows me to train her much more quickly. She built this site for me: http://www.paulchenowithpaintings.com with very little direction, and lots of good ideas.
In both cases, I am paying less than $150 per month (I pay weekly with Paypal). Over time, I expect to increase that as their performance merits it.
Cool article! I just hired my 1st guy in the PH. Really excited!
I would hate to scare off people who are afraid of training. I never trained my employee. She knows much more than I do about websites, which is why I hired her. however, per John's suggestion, I am lavish with my praise – well-deserved. I did know from her initial response that her written English was unacceptable, but that's not what I need from her. I also get responses in the middle of the night. She asked me if I knew about the 13th month. I said that I was planning on doubling both Dec. payments (I pay twice a month) Is this what others are doing?