Ep. 296: Are There Actually OFS Who Can Do Good Work?

Welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at working with OFS online. Filipino specialists. This is episode 296 are there actually talented OFS? So this is an interesting, interesting topic. One of the reasons I stopped calling workers VAs is because people assumed that a VA is a secretary, that they are untalented. They are, they're cheap, they are not able to really do thinking work. And none of the, first of all, none of that's correct about most normal secretaries. And then it's just not correct with most of the people that we hire in the Philippines. And so most of the questions I get about like, are there actually talented people? Or I'm not sure they can actually do good work, or can I, can I find legit talent? Which those are still common questions I get. But most of that has, has kind of changed. Once people understand the naming change from VA to ofs, then they start to understand, oh yeah, like there's talent. They are specialists. Right? But I still get the question. And even listening to this podcast, you might still have the question, are there talented people or what kind of talent is out there? So let me answer that today. So the short answer is yes, there are talented people. I have hired really talented programmers, designers, SEO people, content writers, people to do lead generation, data entry, make phone calls, customer service, user interface design, run my Facebook ads, run our Google Ad, lead campaigns with customers. I mean, it's amazing the talent that I have found over the years. And then I get customers telling me about their amazing ofs all the time. They don't often delve into the details of it, but every once in a while I get someone that goes into the details with me about their amazing ofs and the talent that they found. So like Paul found an investment banking analyst out of the Philippines from Onlinejobs ph. He said this is a $250,000 a year person in the US I'm paying him $1500 a month out of the Philippines. And he's really, really good. That's what Paul said about him. Melissa hired a va, is what she said. She said it in quotes. Who has a jd, a law degree, a Juris Doctorate degree in the Philippines, and they call her their litigation paralegal because she doesn't have a US law degree. She hasn't passed the bar in whatever state Melissa is in. So she can't legally be an attorney. She can't give advice, but she can do all kinds of work that the attorneys are doing. And Melissa said she takes such a huge burden off of our attorneys and provides so much backend work for them. I know someone else who told me he hired an accounting auditor, someone who is taking the place of $150,000 a year person in the US he hired him in the Philippines. The guy's doing an amazing job. And then I know people who have hired like CAD designers and engineers and e commerce experts and financial planners. Realtors. Like the Philippines has the Realtor brand. So yeah, there are realtors looking to work as a realtor assistant or like email marketers or even people to do physical work like design these physical mailers. Or last week someone told me that they were hiring a speech tutor for their child who has speech problems. So they could hire someone locally at, you know, I don't know, a hundred dollars an hour. Or they can hire someone in the Philippines at $5 an hour and have them like a speech pathologist, someone who's going to help their child learn to say their R's correctly. Basically anything that can be done on a computer or on the phone or on the Internet or over a video call can be done in the Philippines and people are doing it. The talent that you find in the Philippines is on par with the talent you find in the US. It's just like 1/5 to 1/10 the cost. They're really, really good people. So then the next question I often get from people is, how do I find someone I can trust? And I cover that in detail@1vaoa.com.