Ep. 48 Does your OFS (Online Filipino Specialist) Handle Billing?

John Jonas says your OFS can handle billing. He argues that employees knowing your prices builds trust and job stability, and recommends training them with tools like Snagit videos to take on the work.
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Does your ofs handle billing for you? So I got a question this week. Does your OFS handle billing for you? And then I had an experience with my daughter. So let me go back to when I was in high school and tell you what happened. So in high school, I made friends with a new group. And this was my junior year. And the first time we hung out was. It was Friday night after water polo practice and they're going, they're all going out to dinner. And I didn't have any money. I grew up poor and so I didn't have any money. And I said to them, oh, sorry guys, I can't go with you. I don't have any money. And one of them said, that's okay, I'll pay for you. I went out with them. It was awesome. We had a great time. But I couldn't pay them back, really. Like, my parents didn't have a way to give me money to pay them back. Between my workload in school and sports, I couldn't work. I would get home from school at 3:30 and do homework until 10:30 at night and then go to bed. There just wasn't the. There wasn't time for me. There also wasn't money. So the next week when we were all done with water polo practice and they're going out to dinner again, I said, oh, hey, sorry, I can't go with you guys again. And one of them said, it's okay, I'll pay for you. And that became a thing. Like, they would pay for me every time. And we were friends for years. We're still friends. It's years and years later. And at some point I asked that friend, why do you pay for me? And he said, well, my parents spoil me and so I want to spoil my friends. And he did. And it was amazing. Like, it was such a good example to me that I've carried through my life of trying to help other people. So this is where it comes to my daughter. So recently I had a conversation with her because I noticed that she has a friend who she keeps billing via Venmo to get money for stuff. $4. You owe me $4 for this thing. $8. You owe me $8 for this thing. And I finally said to Addie, why do you keep billing this friend? You have so much money. Why do you ask her for $4? She doesn't have that much. Why don't you just pay for. Yeah, you know what? My parents kind of spoil me and I should boil my friends. Just like I told her the Story of what happened with me. And so I noticed she stopped. She stopped billing this friend, which is really awesome. So let's get into billing then. So I got this billing question from a customer. So let me tell you what it is. He says, does your OFS handle billing? I have a consulting business and charge high ticket prices for large packages. I'm very hesitant to have my ofs get involved with the billing or even know how much I'm charging because I feel that if they do, they the discrepancy between their salary and these fees will be shocking for them and awkward for me. So my answer is, first of all, we don't have billing in my business. We have customers, they pay, they use a credit card subscription. We don't bill clients, we don't have high ticket things. It's not how we do things. But your OFS has no idea. Like they have no idea what expenses are involved. They don't know just because they send a big bill to someone, they don't know what you have done to get that, or they don't know what other things are going on in your business to allow you to bill like that or to do the work. There's just so much that goes on that nobody else really knows who's making what money. And even if they did well, you know, it doesn't really matter. An employee is an employee and it's their job to help you and you pay them and they get stability out of it. You're the one taking the risk as an entrepreneur, so it probably will not be awkward for them to see these things. And it shouldn't be awkward for you because you're working with an employee. In fact, it might even be better for the people in the Philippines because if they know that your business is profitable, then they will feel like they have a more stable job and that's good for them. So if you trust your ofs, yeah, let them handle billing for you. Also, right now, publishing this, it's the week after Christmas. Now's probably a pretty good time to start getting your OFS to do something new for you. Like you have this process that you've been wanting to do for a while, you haven't done it and you it might be having them handle billing for you. Now's a good time to like start recording videos. A snagit video is really easy to do and start creating, training and organizing what you need for them to implement this new process for you. And either start giving it to them now and don't expect anything till after New Year or start gathering this stuff and give it to them after the New Year so that they can start implementing a new process for you. Get a jump on your New Year's resolution. Get something off of your plate, something new. Now's a good time to spend a little bit of mental energy and get someone else doing that work for you.
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