Listen to this! Before you Outsource to the Philippines

This attached Interview of Mike O’Hagan from MikesManilaTours is a must if you want an insight on Outsourcing to the Philippines.

Recorded by Scott Trevethan from Scott Partners – Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors for his “Small Business Heroes Interview Series”. Scott has captured the value Australian Small business are getting from Outsourcing to the Philippines.

Outsourcing to the Philippines with Mike O'hagan and Scott Trevethan | Mike's Business Tours

Transcription:

Scott: Hi and welcome to the small business heroes show where we talk everything to help your small business grow and prosper. I’m your host Scott Trevathan and today I’m talking to Mike O’hagan now.
Mike O’Hagan’s business career started over 30 years ago with buying and selling goods. Six years later the entrepreneur in Mike’s surfaced when he launched an innovative short distance, Furniture Removal business. He bootstrapped Mini Movers from an initial investment of $200 and a ute to an annual turnover exceeding twenty-three million dollars with over 350 employees servicing all of the major cities in Australia. Today, Mike has interests in six other businesses in four countries he also sits on several boards. He’s a serial entrepreneur and the brains behind Mike’s Manila Tours.
His education has been at the school of hard knocks and a three-year entrepreneurs master’s program at MIT in Boston USA. He’s a business mentor, a doer, and a practical down-to-earth business practitioner who believes the ultimate goal for all business owners should be a huge weekly income whilst not having to work in it now. Mike’s one (who) walks the talk. He’s practical and outside the box, challenging the way business is done. Mike O’Hagan, welcome to the small business hero show!

Mike: Thank you, Scott. Great to be here.

Scott: So I’ve just told the viewers a little bit about your history tell us what you’re up to right now.

Mike: Well, today I’m supposed to be semi-retired which is an interesting. And interesting for the scenario I’ve got more balls in the air that I’ve ever , but I’ve got somebody doing all those balls for me.
So I just said overview at all so it’s not as busy as it used to be. I live in Manila, I have got a few businesses up here and I’m still running my tour business every three to four weeks. I get six Australian people together put them in a van for three days. We drive in and visit a whole lot of places and learn about what’s doing not good to do. While I challenge them around their business model.

Scott: That’s a great snapshot of what you’re actually up to. I did the tour when it Mike’s is, well probably two and a half three years ago now. It is it really was fantastic! I can’t recommend it highly enough a little bit about the things that you cover because it’s not just jumping into a van and driving around a whole bunch of places. The education and the understanding of the people is all part of your tour. Isn’t it, yeah?

Mike: Look, let me place it for you. To start with there’s a major, major shift in the world in business and it’s a huge shift. It’s a quantum change that will never go away and that is the connectivities allowing Western businesses that have very high overheads. To engage people in services in third world countries with a lot lower wages, and sitting in the middle of this is this country called the Philippines.
Million people who became Christians five hundred years ago. So, they’re fully Christian based and that’s important because they have the similar skill core values to us. It’s the only country in the whole of Asia that’s actually Christian. They also have the advantage that a hundred years ago they became a colony of the USA for 40 or 80 years, depending on how you measure it. The Americans came in here as the colonists and put their own education system in here. They have a probably a better education system than Australia. Its compulsory so 105 million of them are educated, and it’s compulsory in English. So now they’re the third largest English-speaking country in the world. All the planets lined up to make this the place to go for hiring people services expertise. Everything you need and a lot lower costs.

You know the average wage in here is about a hundred and twenty dollars per week that’s in the BPO industry where we pay nearly twice the local wage, which is about $60 per week. So one hundred and twenty dollars a week. Compare that what they’ve got with a better education system. That’s a major major shift in the way businesses can operate. Now we’re seeing a lot more businesses of it everywhere in the world, including Australian resourcing their businesses from overseas. Because it just makes a lot of sense. I suppose time zones (are) another thing that has a great advantage for Outsourcing to the Philippines over somewhere say like India or even Europe.

Learn more by watching the interview below: