Hershafe Saloma, 29, works as a remote writer for US clients from a town in the Philippines with no banks. Her mother runs a sari-sari store and uses a POS swiper as the town's ATM, cashing out her earnings. Remote work through OnlineJobs.ph has transformed her family's finances and independence.
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Welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at working with online Filipino specialists. This is episode 389, ofs without access to banks. How does that work? So I recently talked about telling stories of different people in the Philippines and employers, and today we're going to tell another story. So today is Hershey's story. Hershey comes from a small town in the Philippines, and it's really interesting. Every time I get one of these stories back, I'm really surprised at how similar and how different certain parts of their stories are. We often see videos of people's houses, and it's like, oh, wow, that. That looks very American. Or, oh, wow, that looks like other Filipino houses that I've seen. Some of them are very different. Some of them are very, very similar. And with Hershey, we're seeing some of that again. So from this very remote town, her mom acts as the ATM for the town, which is really, really interesting. She worked at a sari sari store growing up, which I've seen, and been to sari sari stores, but they're very different than the way that my culture works. Yeah, it's the same thing as what my son talks about all the time. I recently had a conversation with one of my ofs about banks and how some banks don't have. Don't support swift, which would be the international transfer protocol, and how they deal with. With a bank that can't do that or what their options are. I didn't. When we. When we talked about it, I didn't talk about how you would get your cash out because she has an atm. The person I was talking to, Hershey, in their town, they don' have an atm. So her mom acts as the atm, and that's one of the roles that her mom and her mom's business fills in the community. So it's. This is a really amazing story. Hershey is really, really articulate. It's really cool to see another person that. And for you, if you're watching this, if this is the first one you're watching, yeah, you can find people like Hershey. If this isn't the first one of these stories you're seeing or hearing, well, you're starting to get the idea that, yeah, there's really talented people out there, and they're. They're all over the place. They're not that hard to find. So here we go. Here comes Hershey's story. If you're watching this on YouTube, you get to see it. If you're listening to it on a podcast. You're just going to hear it but really, really good. Here we go.
There are no ATMs in our area. Since it's very remote, we don't have banks there. Instead of the ATM or the machine itself releasing the money, it would be my mom from her drawer. Hi, my name is Hershafe saloma. I am 29 years old. I live in Santo Tomas city, Batangas. I am an online Filipino specialist and I work as a writer. I write content for courses, emails for email marketing, scripts for YouTube and TikTok, product descriptions as well for Amazon stores and I also write for social media. I've been working with my current employer for two years now. I search for copywriting position because I actually worked in the past as an English teacher teacher in my previous university. The first project that my client asked me to do was a full blown course about selling in the Amazon platform. The course is composed of around 200 videos, 10 to 15 minutes long in a span of six months. After that project he trusted that I can manage his product descriptions, writing it, uploading the products, it's himself in his Amazon stores and until now I am already managing three stores for him. So I grew up in Gamai, Northern Samar. It's actually a very far flung area, eight hours away from the nearest airport. My family actually owns a one stop shop for everything that you might need from food on your pantry to your table, even for your health needs. So. So we actually are a mini drugstore in the Philippines. That's what you call a sari sari store. We are also into fisheries. So at one point my family owned boats. Right now what's actually booming in our family business is the ATM card swiper. There are no ATMs in our area since it's very remote. We don't have banks there. We have this little gadget where you, I think they call that a POS system or something where you insert your card and then you would type in your PIN code the amount of money that you're going to in cash. Instead of the ATM or the machine itself releasing the money, it would be my mom from her drawer. Despite the family business earning a good income each month, we actually didn't live a life of luxury because that income would be used to support the extended family which would total around 10, 15 people. That would include the uncles, the grannies and the cousins. My mom is a very entrepreneurial person. Her helpers in her saree saree store are her kids. So on Top of making sure that I'm getting good grades, I was also tasked to man the sari sari store. I thought then when I was young that it was normal, but later on when I would see my classmates, you know, bonding after school but I am not allowed to, you know, join them. The rest when my knees are hurting or my hips are, or feeling heavy from standing too long, when that realization hit, I felt like I'm trapped. Despite feeling trapped, actually, it was a great training ground for me having that firsthand experience in managing my mom's and my dad's multiple small businesses. On this side in our main store, I was trained in accounting, in inventory management, in sales talk, in customer service or client handling. Everything that I am effectively doing right now in my job. It's also the byproduct of my training. In my younger years. When my employer was looking for a video editor, I suggested that my husband would apply. If given confidential data or information by my employer, we take it with utmost confidentiality. We do not share it with anybody. It's just between the three of us and if requested that I only know I wouldn't share it with my husband. Onlinejobs PH has impacted our life in such a way that we are fulfilled every day. We wake up not really stressed or worried. We actually have more time together as husband and wife. I'm really happy and fulfilled with the tasks that I'm doing right now because it also speaks within my passion, so it doesn't really feel like I'm working. Onlinejobs PH helped us to live independently without anybody supporting us. It has allowed us to sustain a lifestyle that is peaceful and really fulfilling in all aspects.
