Good help is hard to find or is it?
This is my personal testimonial about why I choose the “Philippines” to outsource a lot of my work to well qualified English speaking Filipino virtual assistants
By Rod Lex Nelson, aka “Rolexon”
Before 2003 I did not know much of anything about Asia but then I visited the Philippines and was very surprised and happy about what I discovered. So much so that I returned and lived there for over a year and hope to return and live permanently someday.
My story is about what makes the Philippines my choice to find virtual assistants to help me do anything online. Like many I didn’t have the time or knowledge to do certain task or the extra money to hire local help and I just wanted to cut back on expenses. This is about my solution to solve all of these obstacles and more. I will explain in detail below…
But first I want you to understand exactly what “Outsourcing” is. I have prepared an in depth 5 day crash course that I want you to have absolutely FREE. It is delivered by email and is an opt-in and easy one click opt-out eCourse. This will change the way you think about accomplishing your online task when you understand outsourcing. Start your course today and be assured that your email will be kept private.
What Made the Philippines Special to Me
What I discovered in the above course goes hand in hand with what I discovered about the Philippines myself. I believe that what most Americans don’t understand about the Philippines is what other Asian countries do understand. And that is what I am about to explain to you.
China, Japan, South Korea and other Asian neighbors invest a lot of assets into the Philippines. They build schools, hospitals and start businesses to take advantage of the low cost of living and labor that exist in the Philippines. Due to their rocky recent history starting with their President Ferdinand Marcos that stripped the wealth from the developing country. Along with the assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr. caused continued political unrest and wide spread corruption, the Philippines has not recovered economically.
So the Philippines has remained what is considered a “Third World Country” and so one would assume that is a reason that created a land of opportunity for other nations and outside businesses that can both benefit them and help the Philippines at the same time. I would not say that everything is dirt cheap there. But with wages so low for so many there has to be a way to survive. This does have the tendency to keep unnecessary extravagance from inflating prices. And things that create a monthly expense other than rent and food are not popular.
As an example use “Health care”: I have health insurance here in the US and still pay more for health care here than I would there. Here I have $20 co-pay, there it is about $8 to see a doctor without any insurance. And to further my personal experience; I came down with a bad case of pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital. I had a private room and the best doctors. I had several test like “heart sonogram” “blood test” and really felt that I was taken good care of everyday. My stay was over a week long and the final total bill was $368.
Many of the doctors I met in the Philippines worked in the USA for years at one time or another as a means to fund their retirement plan. Health insurance supports and causes the high cost of health care in the USA, that is my observation from personal experience.
I would recommend a vacation to the Philippines for any health issue over USA health care to save your physical life and your financial life. You will probably have a foreign doctor in the USA at some point anyways.
Education and Language
Philippines is number one in Asia for getting a quality education IN ENGLISH. They have the best colleges. Fact is that other Asian countries send their children to the Philippines to take advantage of this educational system. Tagalog is the national language of the Philippines plus they have 100s of other dialects. But what surprised me is the fact that all the school subjects are taught in English as English is the worlds business language. This is not so in other Asian countries and so for the purpose of world wide business it is important for Asian families to have their children educated in English speaking schools.
The Philippines does all of their business in English! The street signs are in English and advertising is mostly in English. For an English only speaking person as myself it is not hard to get along in the Philippines! I lived there for a year and was never in the position of not being able to communicate, because they were able to accommodate me. It is common today that high school students in the Philippine speak two or three languages. Usually first being their regional dialect then Tagalog then English along with the ability to get by in other regional dialects.
To understand this foundation in English better it is helpful to remember the history between the USA and the Philippines. The Philippines was handed over to the USA at the end of the Spanish American war about 1898 and remained a US territory until after the end of the second World War. In 1945 the Philippines became an independent nation. But the American influence and friendship is still strong.
Once you understand how low the wages are that the general population exist on you’ll really be surprised how many people you meet have college educations. And so the low wages and scarce local job opportunities have brought online opportunities to the forefront to thousands of highly educated English speaking Filipinos looking for businesses that can use their services. They know what online businesses need and they are the best at any service a virtual assistant can perform online, be it a one hour job to being a part or full time employee.
Wages in the Philippines
When I first met my wife 2003 in Cebu she was earning about $2 per day, that is the low end. For skilled labor like a carpenter it is about $5 a day. A live in maid or driver would be expected to be paid about $60 to $80 per month. What I enjoyed was the ease of finding good help for any task when I lived there and for what seemed to me no more then what would be a tip in the United States. My wife took care of paying because she said I was too generous. Of course many jobs pay more that require college degrees but there are far more college graduates than good jobs available.
Now online workers that you can hire today can do anything for you from software development to web site SEO services including back link building, article marketing and everything else you can think of that can be done online. You will find a lot of virtual assistance offering their services from $1 to $3 per hour or by the project which is good for them and the USA individual or company paying for their services.
So considering that many Filipinos understand that it is fortunate to have a job that pays $3 for a 10 hour day and 60 hours a week, it is not hard to understand what $1 to $3 an hour means to them.
And to top that off you will never find a more content and satisfied worker! Never complaining and always happy with a song in their heart that often you can hear at anytime and anyplace if you live among them. There it is common to see women walking hand in hand smiling and laughing and singing displaying their true friendship and happiness. I truly miss being there compared to the all to often road rage and evil looks I experience here in the USA!
That Filipino people are a very rich people! Maybe not in financial wealth but in the true richness of life that we all are seeking. A very good example that “less is more”.
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You will learn of online companies that offer hundreds of these workers to advertise their services. You can read reviews on their past work and get many details from their profiles. These services even offer a safe way to pay them by acting as an agency where you fund your account with them and they pay your assistant. These services even monitor your virtual assistant through a system that monitors there computer activity when doing work for you. These services charge about 10% . You can start out by using them and then when you find the virtual assistants you like and trust you can use any means you want to do business with them.
Outsourcing to The Philippines
If you want an intensive guide to outsourcing to the Philippines then through my research I purchased and I highly recommend “Outsourcing to The Philippines” to learn all you need to know how to run your online business from anywhere and pay as little as $1 an hour for experienced online help!
Expand your work force without the high payroll and other expenses of hiring locally
This book goes into detail about “Outsourcing to The Philippines“. Whether you are an individual or a large corporation and you’re serious about saving money by finding the most cost effective online help, even possibly full or part time, temporary or permanent workers you will want to know all the ins and outs of “Outsourcing to The Philippines“. You wont save as much or find better quality virtual assistance then you will in the online Filipino work force.
Click on the book cover or here to Get This Guide Now…
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Thanks