Crazy Question: How to start a VA company in Philippines?

I've got a friend that does this. He acts as a middle man providing outsourcing to american companies. I'll ask him and PM you when I find out.

Seems interesting. I never heard of that but it is surely a better version of hiring a virtual assistant online.

Andrea

Well definitely being there is a must to set it up and some time is needed to work out the kinks, which is just part of doing business. But from that point on, with a good technology layer, it can easily be managed remotely with a good manager in place, strict deliverables and routine trips.

Thailand was a thought also...how would you compare the filipinos to the thais in terms of the type of work mentioned?

PM me, we can chat.

Your the best man. Would appreciate it.

Is there any particular reason why you'd like to set up your own company in the Philippines? If all you require are a few workers to take care of your typical internet marketing tasks, there are a few outsourcing firms that specialize in exactly this kind of thing.

John Jonas has a great 1 hour+ interview that talks about how to basically outsource your entire operation offshore, and IMHO this would be a good place to start for you- How To Live The 4 Hour Work Week Through Outsourcing - John Jonas Replace Myself Free Audio

Onlinejobs.PH

Filter them out till you get a good worker.

Over pay him/her instead of paying for an office.

Do you really want to spend a month just doing paperwork? That's the minimum time you will need for the office lease, setting up utilities, social security registration, business permits (plural, there are several you need to get), tax forms, drawing up employment contracts, police clearance, etc.

One thing you can do is go to one of the many outsourcing companies here and set up a business relationship with them.

Hi,

First off -- nothing is crazy about your question.

In fact, VA companies are increasing in number here in the Philippines. I'm from Cebu City and I see a lot of these "start-up" companies offering services to Western clients.

I'm a work at home VA and I know that doing a work at home arrangement for VA services to sell to clients can be frustrating at times. The hiring process takes long, so does the training process, and you don't really have that much control over your VA's activities. Sometimes, you may end up disappointing your clients if deadlines aren't met, quality of work isn't up to par, etc.

Setting up an office in the Philippines is a good idea if you really want to have strict quality control over the service you will be providing to your clients. Of course, you don't have to be there all the time -- a good operations manager can oversee the entire business for you. At the start though, you may need to be there to keep track of things.

Factors to consider when setting up an office in the Philippines:

1. Location - Your best bet will be to situate yourself in key cities in the country. Manila definitely has a higher cost of living compared to Cebu and Davao. However, their IT infrastructure are the same.

2. Office Space Rental - depends on the location and size

3. Equipment - depends on how many people you want to hire

4. Utilities - internet connection up to 8.0mpbs costs about 50k (~$1100 per month)...but you can always get a lower connection speed

5. Employee Benefits - health insurance, social security, hdmf, night differentials, allowances, bonuses etc.

6. Government Permits - can take so much time to process because of all the red tape

7. Salary - depends on the positions you will be offering and the skill set of prospective applicants

Starting Salary (typical rates in Cebu):
$1~43 pesos

Article Writing 12,000 ($280)
Link Building 9,000 ($210)
Web Programming/Graphic Design 15,000 ($350)

VA companies require their employees to work 9 hours a day with 1 hour break for 5 days. That makes it 40 hours of dedicated work per week. Some companies assign clients to each VA to do all around tasks while others get the total scope of the project and distribute it to their article writing team, link building team, programming team respectively. Keep in mind that you also need to do some training of sorts so this will also be a factor to consider. Of course, you can set metrics and evaluations all throughout the year to ensure quality.

Hope this helps.

Jan*

I was thinking of a similar business model. I would also second on building an online VA business instead of getting an office. You could setup hosting, have a basic website, ecommerce and all for ~$1000. Then find some clients that will hire your VA. Then find personal freelance VA from the Philippines either via Elance or oDesk to fill those needs. Make sure they have previous experience and work for you and only you. If it gets bigger, you can outsource the management aspect as well. It wouldn't cost more than $3000-5000 and you could have a solid VA business built up. No overhead and all that extra junk needed.

I also thought about doing this. I didnt ming the prospoect of paying for office space, utilities etc, but in the end there would so much paperwork and beurocracy i think it will be too much of a headache. The one big advantage, even if you are hiring them just for your own projects is that having that daily face to face communication will make things move along much quicker. you can be on had all day just to explain little things and they'll learn alot more.

Even with skype and daily emails i still feel my communication with my VA's is somehow limited, it can get frustrating sometimes when i get a little idea that needs doing, but i have to put it in an email and spend time writing out all the instructions etc.

I have had an outsourcing business in the Philippines for about 6 years. I live here now, having retired from a lifetime of computer programming in the U.S. I started with an office but have since moved to hiring workers to work from home. They like it better, i like it better. If you don't live here then you could do something like this by hiring people from an agency and then hiring the good ones.

I just wanted to update you guys on this thread. I actually have made the jump into starting one in another country, which speaks 100% english as a first language and zero virtual assistance companies operating out of it.

Does anyone know any inside knowledge as to what the daily production of a VA doing SEO and Article writing output?

Also If you guys want to know more about cost and method, let me know.

Ok, to those who replied to his original post, ALL OF YOU, except some of you (you know who you are ), MISSED THE POINT.

What he is asking is CREATING A COMPANY IN THE PHILIPPINES to provide VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS to other IMers. Ya know, like the brick and mortar company?

I will say this, the idea has crossed my mind once or twice. I have visited the Philippines and was half-tempted to pursue the idea. Its a good idea, but you kind of have to be careful where you place the company. Crime is rampant all over the place, employees leaving is common, not to mention that if you even look like a foreigner you will be swamped with people begging money from you. And if you get ripped off, you can't pursue or you will be shot (kind of how the gangs work there).

It can be very profitable, but ultimately it will take alot of hard work, honest connections, and a safe environment to have the office.

Hope that helps you in your studies mrrichsin.