Chances are, you’ve seen this page —>
I see it every time I install a new, $38 ink cartridge into my HP 2610 printer.
I’ve had this printer for almost a decade.
And without fail, every time I install a new cartridge, it regurgitates one of these things…as if to say, “thank you for feeding me.”
The first time I saw it, I was somewhat enchanted by the idea of the tiny little bird down at the bottom.
There’s an image of him ‘pre-alignment,’ where his colors don’t line up. And then there’s a giant black arrow pointing to another image of him, ‘post-alignment:’
His colors line up.
The cartridges are ‘aligned.’
You’re both happy.
But dozens of cartridges and alignment pages later, I’ve come to realize:
It’s all bogus.
A hoax.
The EXACT same page is programmed to print every time you install a new cartridge. It’s not actually doing anything.
HP is giving you a false sense of confidence in their product, and they do it by wasting your time, your money, and your ink.
It seriously ticks me off. It’s dishonest.
I don’t trust HP anymore.
They’re pretending that they did something good when they didn’t.
Moral of the story: don’t be a pretender. In business, don’t pretend to solve a problem or fix an issue that you sincerely can’t.
You’ll just make people angry and lose their trust.
Filed under General by 
Trying to outsource without knowing how to recruit Filipino employees is like sending your bank account information to that guy in Nigeria who emailed you yesterday to tell you you’ve inherited your distant cousin’s estate.
It’s a bad idea.
Watching this video so you can learn the right way to recruit Filipino employees…
That’s a good idea.
Main points to take away:
- Specify a few skills you MUST have and be flexible about everything else. There’s no such thing as hiring a perfect VA. That’s what training is for, and I can teach you how to do that, too. Make a list of a few indispensable skills (English speaking is #1 on most people’s lists), and consider any other skills an added bonus.
- Be aware of other qualifications, like years of experience, desired salary, and check out their website if they have one. A serious applicant will make an effort to give out as much information as possible.
- Send multiple inquiries. It’s okay to contact several people for a single job post. It’s very unlikely to find a candidate that’s perfect, affordable AND available on your first try. I usually contact around 20 candidates for a single position. Then I narrow the field from there.
- Spend time on interviews. After you get a response, make an effort to talk to the person before hiring them. You can learn a LOT about a person when you meet them (use skype or facetime) You might learn about some of their new skills, get a better feel for their English skills and get to know their personalities (are they go-getters?).
In the interview: Don’t expect your interviewing candidate to volunteer information. Filipino candidates are much more modest and timid than American candidates- it’s just a part of their culture. If you want to know something- ask specific questions.
Filed under Business Ideas, philippines outsourcing by
I learned an AMAZINGLY powerful lesson in 1991. It changed the way I approach business (and virtually every important aspect of my life).
Flash back to the days of Boyz II Men and the original Super Mario Brothers…
It was the unbearably painful 3rd hour of church (yes, I go to church for 3 hours every Sunday). I was sitting in Sunday school, fidgeting in my chair and wondering what I was going to eat for dinner.
I had just gotten my braces off and couldn’t stop moving my lips over the sliminess of my newly straightened teeth when my ears perked up at something my teacher said…
He told our entire class of awkward, naive 13 year-olds that if we wrote our goals down on a piece of paper, he would buy us a spanking-new-Franklin-Covey-genuine-leather planner, worth $80.
- I didn’t care about my goals.
- I cared less about the planner.
- But the fact that my teacher was going to spend $80 on me, that meant something.
So I Wrote My Goals Down…
Later that week (the deadline he gave us was fast approaching), I pulled a tithing slip out of my Sunday school bag and got to work:
(So I’ve always been a little obsessed with making and saving money. Don’t hate.)
I had no idea that he was teaching us a seriously valuable lesson.
I carelessly stuffed the paper into my scriptures, too anxious and eager about the new planner to care about my scribbled goals.
The Afterword…
I pulled this paper out of an obscure place in my scripture bag a couple of years later. Shocked, I realized that I had accomplished every one of those goals:
- I had been struggling in a class at school. I ended up getting all A’s
- I had gotten a job and for the age, I probably made a lot of money. I had saved basically all of it.
- Yep, I read my scriptures more.
- Church more often…check!
- Beach more often…check (really??? this was a goal???)
I gained much more than a new day planner from my Sunday school teacher: His lesson taught me the power of writing down goals.
You can listen to Tony Robbins or Bob Proctor or whoever your favorite motivational speaker is until you’re blue in the face. You WON’T understand the power of WRITING goals down until you do it.
I haven’t accomplished every single goal I’ve ever written down…but I’ve come close.
It works.
Try it.
Is Team Building Part Of Your 2013 Plan?
If it is, here’s a great place to find Filipino Outsourcers. ReplaceMyself is a great place to lear how to hire Filipinos.
Filed under Business Ideas by
The Philippines has a LOT of “Regular” holidays (“regular” is the word they use for “You have to give us the day off”)
Here’s a color coded list with my experience of days you must give them off, days you should give them off, and days you might give them off, if you’re really nice.
The reality is, they won’t take all these days off.
- January – 01 – New Year’s Day
- January – 23 – Chinese New Year
- February – 25 – People Power Day
- April – 05 – Maundy Thursday
- April – 06 – Good Friday
- April – 07 – Black Saturday
- April – 09 – Day of Valor
- May – 01 – Labor Day
- June – 12 – Independence Day
- August – 20 – Eidul Fitr
- August – 21 – Ninoy Aquino Day
- August – 27 – National Heroes’ Day
- October – 26 – Eidul Adha
- November – 01 – All Saints Day
- November – 02 – Special Non-working Holiday
- November – 30 – Bonifacio Day
- December – 24 – Special Non-working Holiday
- December – 25 – Christmas Day
- December – 30 – Rizal Day
- December – 31 – New Year’s Eve
In addition, from Christmas to New Years, I always give my guys off. They say that most people take that entire week off work (maybe they do, maybe they don’t, but I don’t want to work during that time so I don’t make them work either).
However, I ask them to check their email in case I need something done.
Filed under philippines outsourcing by
My team created this trailer video:
They’re pretty amazing.
You can get really great video work done. We found this guy at OnlineJobs.ph.
Our PR Process
At their suggestion, when we get something which is PR worthy our process is:
- write a press release about the event (interview, story, blog post, news, …)
- create a video about the event (this trailer video)
- submit the release through PRweb’s highest tier distribution with the video attached
- post it to social media accounts
It all happens basically without me, although I am involved a little (like in telling them the initial video was 2x to long).
Filed under outsourcing, philippines outsourcing by
A couple of the products available in this $19 charity WSO, are products we use, and which we paid $97 for.
It’s a great way to get access to some really good tools to help your local marketing business.
Filed under online business by
At ReplaceMyself, where we teach people to outsource to the Philippines, we just released 2 new trainings:
- Digital Publishing Training – Teaches your Filipino VA how to publish books to Kindle, Nook, and iBooks
- Content Curation – Teaches your Filipino VA how and why to curate content onto blogs to generate traffic.
Both modules are very well done and will save anyone who uses them tons of time.
How Can We Help You???
We’re considering adding a couple live training sessions each month where we would have someone get on a webinar with YOUR FILIPINO VA’S and teach them different traffic strategies or business building strategies.
Would live training for your VA be of interest to you?
What kinds of training would you like to see?
Please reply in the comments.
Filed under outsourcing, philippines outsourcing by
