Effective training and communication are the keys to success. Add an Online Filipino Specialist to the mix, someone you can entrust with almost everything, you’d be unstoppable.
So how do you get Online Filipino Specialists to start working on your business? There are two ways to assign work. First, you can teach them what you know and ask them to do it. Or, you can have them do work you’re not familiar with.
But I strongly recommend having your OFS do tasks you know how to do. Let me explain why.
Have them do what you’re good at
The advantage is clear: You can easily teach your OFS how to do the tasks.
Think about it — if you’re a programmer and you hire an OFS to handle the programming work, you know exactly what and how to teach them. You can easily give feedback and provide follow-up. You’ll have clear expectations because you know exactly what it takes to accomplish that assignment.
When you do this, your OFS will learn to trust you because they’re confident that you will be ready, willing and able to give help with an assignment if needed. And without trust, it will be impossible for your OFS to rise to rock star status and truly thrive in your business.
When you hire an OFS for a particular role in your business, you’ll look for someone with skills and experience in that area. But when you hire for tasks that fall under your expertise, you have a lot more freedom and flexibility to look for workers in a wider talent pool. If your OFS is a little more raw, that’s OK because you can train quickly and get them up to speed to do things your way.
Nobody knows my business better than me, so if I teach an OFS how to do a certain task, they can do it right forever.
Some people think that because they’re the experts in their business they might as well just do everything themselves. These people argue that they could easily do a task much faster than someone else, so there’s no need to hire an OFS.
The point of becoming the CEO of your business is to free yourself up to work on your business, not in your business.
By unloading tasks to an OFS and training them, you have one less thing on your plate. You’ll be amazed at the amount of freedom you’ll feel, how much more effective you’ll be in your business just by cutting down your workload. Doing so will let you prioritize things you’ve been forced to neglect up to this point.
Eventually, your OFS will be a seasoned veteran, and you don’t have to worry about them anymore.
From then on, you’ll be the CEO of your business. You can start focusing your energy on making sales and making money.
Having them do what you’re not good at: the drawbacks
Another idea would be to have your OFS take on some duties that you don’t know how to do. In some ways this sounds really good. Perhaps you have an important task to fulfill in your business that you’re not familiar with. It would make sense to hire an OFS with expertise in this area. Then you don’t have to worry about struggling through it yourself.
When working with Filipinos though, there are some setbacks to this method.
Culturally, Filipinos want to please you. They want you to be happy with their work so much that the idea of disappointing you scares them. If you hand your OFS a task that you don’t know how to do, and the OFS knows you don’t know how to do it, they won’t feel comfortable coming to you for help.
And if your OFS doesn’t think they can come to you with questions and directions, they won’t be confident in doing the work they think is best. They’ll be too worried about messing something up and upsetting you. With these thoughts, the OFS will be hesitant to accept assignments. It’s pretty clear to see that this scenario would hamper the OFS’s ability to work effectively.
Exceptions
You definitely should hire an OFS to do something you’re good at, but there are times where it’s best to hire help when you’re not an expert.
For example, if you need a programmer, but you’re not experienced in that area, go ahead and hire a programmer. Don’t try to learn how to do it first.
There are other highly technical tasks such as web-based work where you may need to find skilled outsourcers if you don’t have the necessary experience.
What Filipinos are good at
One of the many reasons I’ve had success outsourcing to the Philippines is because Filipinos are genuinely capable, talented workers. They’re really good at many tasks. Here are some of the things you can outsource, knowing the work will be in good hands.
- Programming: I’ve hired two programmers in particular whose work is just as good, if not better, than anyone’s work I’ve seen anywhere else.
- SEO, driving Web traffic
- Link-building
- Managing business processes
- Customer service: So much is moving to the Philippines. Can take inbound calls or make outbound calls. They can do chat and email really well.
- Social media: You can find Filipino OFSs who are good at setting up Facebook fan pages, setting up accounts and creating contests. They can implement social media in your business.
- Telemarketing
- Digital publishing
- Writing: This includes copywriting, blog writing, articles, email, ebooks. Filipinos speak and write English very well, but for most tasks, you don’t need perfect English. If you do need perfect English, though, as in this case, make sure you screen candidates first.
- Webmaster
- WordPress
- Graphic design: Make sure you test them. Everyone thinks they are a good designer, so make sure you find the right person for your business.
- Web design: Filipinos are very Westernized and think like Americans when it comes to design work.
- Accounting/bookkeeping
- Real estate
- Data entry/repetitive tasks
- Thinking work where they’re given training and asked to work through problems or situations
What Filipinos struggle with
While Filipinos are excellent workers and have the skills and experience to handle many of the tasks you assign, there are few things they have a hard time with. One is project management.
Filipinos will shy away from project management, mostly because of their tendency to be overly worried about doing things correctly. They are not used to being put in charge and making key decisions.
Also, Filipinos struggle with marketing for many of the same reasons. It’s not completely impossible to find Filipinos who can do these things. It’ll just be a lot more challenging for you to find the ideal fit.
If you believe marketing and project management are truly duties you need to outsource, start out small and give your OFS simple tasks to fulfill. You will need to spend extra time teaching and training, and you’ll need to be much more involved in the day-to-day work, overseeing what they’re doing.
Once you’ve established a high level of trust between the two of you, move on and give them something larger to manage on their own. Eventually, you’ll be able to see whether they can handle these types of assignments. If you start out large and turn the OFS loose from day one, don’t expect great results.
In summary
You’re far more likely to be successful in outsourcing your business needs to the Philippines when you hire OFSs to work on tasks you’ve been doing yourself and are good at. By freeing yourself of these tasks, you can concentrate on building your business and making money. And while you’re being more productive, you can have the assurance that your OFS is flourishing into their new role.
About John Jonas
John Jonas is a long-time outsourcing expert and the creator of OnlineJobs.ph.
Since 2005, John has taught hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs how to profitably delegate to VAs in the Philippines (and get their lives back in the process).
With help from his own VAs based in the Philippines, John has created an outsourcing empire that allows him to work 17 hours/week and to spend most of his time with his wife and 5 kids.
Find John at JohnJonas.com and Facebook.
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Sometimes its hard to find the online job but I hope i can land a job very soon