What’s With The Hate Mail? I’m Only Trying To Ensure Your Business Success, Enjoyment & Longevity.

As many of you may know, I’m a big supporter of Australian businesses outsourcing what they can to The Philippines. And of recent times (the last three weeks), I’ve been promoting this particularly heavily for three reasons:

1. 1. It works (more on that in a minute).
   2. I’m hosting a business outsourcing tour to Manila in June and I’m looking for 10 motivated business owners to join me.
   3. I have an interest in an outsourcing business in Clarke called Cornerstone Business Solutions.

As a result of sticking my neck out, I’ve received some hate mail. Well, let’s call it pissed-off mail – hate’s a big word as I often tell my kids.

So, before I share my stance on this whole Philippine outsourcing thing, allow me to share two of the notes I’ve received in the past 24-hours.

This one’s from a listener who’s a website designer who unsubscribed from my email list:

“Not interested in supporting someone who supports sending jobs overseas because it’s cheaper. Good-bye!”

And then there’s this longer email from a listener who’s in audio production, which actually saddens me:

Another Nail In The Coffin

Well, shipping everything off to the Philippines won’t help me one little bit, it’s another nail in what i’m doing.

I have seen it in IT day jobs too, in fact I have just taken one to make ends meet.

Recruiters/clients now wanting everything, highly skilled for a lot lower rate. Not to mention the companies I know of that have off-shored and now moved back as it was such a bad experience for them (that’s in a corporate IT field though).

But hey, if everyone wants to go to the Philippines and mix / master their audio because it’s cheap be my guest. 99% of podcasts / webinars are awful to listen to, but the masses don’t really care ’cause it’s cheap, so who am I to bang on about it. I sound like a vinyl lover don’t I! Ho ho … 

It’s a worldwide market though and everyone is expendable, it just a matter of time. Most jobs will disappear over the next 20 years.

It’s a cycle we are now in, interesting where society will go, certainly not ahead IMHO, and don’t mention mortgage repayments in Sydney … (my eyes are watering just trying to keep up on where that repayment will come from).

Offshoring – what a great idea!

Now here’s the thing, team.

In fact, here’s 7 things:

1. 1. I’m all for keeping jobs in Australia, when it’s financially feasible for the business.
   2. I’m not suggesting every business outsource everything to The Philippines. But if you have tasks inside your business that you can put a process around – admin, bookkeeping, data entry, inbound & outbound calling, SEO and social media management, to name a few – then there are huge efficiencies to be gained.
   3. I’m all for ideas that enable a business to reduce its overheads whilst improving their customers’ overall experience. Outsourcing is one of those ideas.
   4. I see all too often how prohibitive it is for a small business to pay $180 per hour to have a brochure designed locally, or $60,000 per annum for a local telemarketer – so prohibitive that the business owner says “Stuff it! I just won’t or can’t do it!”
   5. This means way too many business owners spend 98% of their time working in their business and not on it. Only when we work on our business do the big ideas reveal themselves.
   6. There’s never been a better time to run (and market) a small business in Australia.
   7. We just need to open our eyes and minds to the new global economy. In it, there’s more than enough to go around for everyone – here and over there.

You see, it’s all about mindset.

The two pissed off listeners mentioned above are in a tough spot with their current mindset.

Change is inevitable. Those who bend or adapt will survive (individuals, companies and nations). I choose to live in an abundant world where everybody can win.

Did you know, in the last 12-months there have been more Aussie jobs created and more vacancies than in the last 25-years. According to Trading Economics, Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent in March of 2016 from 5.8 percent in February and below market consensus of 5.9 percent. It is the lowest jobless rate since September 2013, as the economy added 26,100 jobs and the number of unemployed decreased by 7,300.

Outsourcing is just one component of our complex, global ecosystem.

If I was a web designer or audio producer, I’d have a team of Filipinos on the tools five days a week – coding, editing, designing, providing customer support (they’re great at customer support) – freeing me up to chase business, do the deals, think more strategically (I don’t think any of us spend enough time thinking) and enjoy my new found business (and personal) freedom.

You can bitch about it and call Doomsday

Or, join the growing band of motivated business owners, and help Australia become internationally competitive, for the good of all Australian communities. 

If you’re now feeling inspired to take this leap then join me in the Philippines this June, or start your outsourcing journey now.

Do you have an outsourcing story you’d like to share? Or maybe you still disagree and remain steadfast that we should keep all jobs within Australia. Leave your comment below.