Outsourcing Mastery: 17 Secrets on How to Outsource to the Philippines

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all the people that I have worked with and who have contributed over the years to produce the ideas that are presented in this book, as well as the moral support needed to perfect it.

To my family and friends who have always been there from the start, whose strong faith and dedication made this journey worthwhile.

To my mentors and coaches, whose creative energies and smart perspectives have added more value and sense to this book.

To my wonderful staff in the Philippines who have helped prove the usefulness of outsourcing, and the wonders and liberation that it can bring to entrepreneurs.

Thank you all.

CHAPTER 1: DAILY COMMUNICATION

Hi, this is Erlend writing this ebook from beautiful, sunny Samal Island in Davao, Philippines. With my years of experience working with different Filipino virtual assistants (VAs), I decided that the most important secret to outsourcing, and the one I should start the book with, is communication.

Must Have: Daily Communication

Communication is so important that a daily system for achieving clear communication is an absolute must. There are a lot of ways that you communicate in the modern world - through email, instant message, phone or video calls. I highly recommend focusing primarily on email, however - it's easy and it's fast. For someone like me, who is on the go most of the time, emails with my virtual assistant serve me best. You simply set it up then ask your VA to send you daily emails.

Whatever medium you use, I need to stress the word 'daily' here. They can send you a text message or call you; set up a webinar or video conference call with you; send you updates into a project management system. Whatever - the medium is not as important as the need to send you updates on a daily basis.

One of the biggest mistakes that offshore clients had in the past with outsourcing is that they don't require daily communication with their virtual assistants. Weeks would go by without hearing anything. They assume their VA is on top of everything; in reality, everything is going wrong. This is a common scenario in outsourcing to other countries, where employees don't always understand the tasks to be done, and don't know what is supposed to be going on. But you, the employer, don't even know that they have a problem because they are not telling you due to lack of communication.

Be Crystal Clear

In my experience of hiring employees from the Philippines, it's a smart idea to provide instructions the same way you might instruct a 5th grade student. When writing instructions via email, use simple words. Phrase your sentences accordingly. It will help if you list things in bullet points. In addition, use images and screenshots. Similarly, when providing instructions over the phone, slow your pace when talking. Most Filipinos have a hard time understanding foreigners with heavy accents. This is also the reason why they often take a lot more time than usual to transcribe audio or video materials. And if video is being used, take advantage of that by showing your VA some useful visual aids. Share your screen if possible.

Always Ask Questions

After every instruction, it is a good idea to ask your employees if they understand or not. Ask if they are still with you every now and then before proceeding to the next point, because it's highly likely that you may have lost them at some point, especially if you are discussing a task that is new to them.

Efficient Results

Now, there are three basic things that I have my people tell me on a daily basis and I highly recommend that you make it your SOP (Standard Operating Procedure), too. At the end of the day, they email their answers to these three questions:

* What did you do today?

* What problems did you run into?

* What can I help you with?

This process achieves two things:

1. It holds them accountable - they have to tell you what they did today,