E123: Under the Hood with Rob Hampton Part 1 - How to Effectively Manage Filipino VAs

Have you ever hired a Filipino VA and was so pleased with them that you felt like you hit the jackpot? They're incredibly talented, they get things done the way you want, they're just downright fantastic. With them helping you out, you get more time to focus on business direction and you couldn't be happier. But then, and seemingly for no reason, your incredible VA suddenly disappears. What just happened?

Rob Hampton, our guest for today's Under the Hood episode, experienced just that. This, along with many other problems such as declining work quality and failing to communicate regularly, is not an uncommon problem in the outsourcing world. But building a team of loyal Filipino VAs is not impossible. It boils down to one thing: understanding their culture.

We've managed to put together a team of awesome Filipino VAs who've been with us for a while now. They've done tremendous things for our business and we would not have grown so much in recent years if not for their help. Rob and I discuss how to build such a team, and how to manage VAs in a way that fosters a long-term relationship.

In more detail, we discuss:

• what his niche is and how he came about selling on Amazon
• his early experience getting betrayed by his own supplier and how he bounced back from that
• his experience hiring Filipino VAs
• cultural differences between Westerners and Filipinos
• how much freedom to give them while still holding them accountable
• rules to set when working with a VA for the first time
• pay structure, and whether VAs should be paid a fixed monthly/bi-weekly salary or paid hourly instead
• benefits such as 13th month pay, paid time off, and company lunches
• tips and best practices on communication

Hiring people is challenging, but when you hire someone with a different culture from the other side of the globe, things get a lot more difficult. Filipinos in particular are known to be loyal and have a knack for making people happy, and it's not in their nature to knowingly do things that will disappoint you. If you put in the effort to understand their culture, traits, and customs, they will stick with you and do wonders for your business.

Resources mentioned:

EcomCrew courses Under the Hood Episode 96: Our Philippines Team – Hiring and Maintaining a Team of Rockstar VAs

If you want to be featured on your own episode and get free business advice from us, sign up to be an Under the Hood guest here.

This is just Part 1 of my conversation with Rob. In Part 2, we discuss how to effectively scale his company and reach his goal of $1 million revenue this year. Stay tuned for that on Thursday! Until then, happy selling.