A self confessed “entrepreneur with ADD”, Mike O’Hagan has mastered the art of locating business opportunities and then giving consumers exactly what they want. With his own moving business, Mini Movers, business tours in Manila, and a handful of other startups (including a business that sells deep sea diving equipment!), Mike spends his time lazing on a beach in the Philippines while he outsources a lot of the work elsewhere. Well, maybe the beach bit isn’t true, he’s far too motivated for that!
In my fireside chat with Mike, we talk through the incredible benefits of outsourcing many of your work tasks (we’re talking a 90% saving on labour costs, people), and living by the principle of “make it in the east and sell it in the west”. Plus, we get into Mike’s marketing techniques that once involved a whopping $1.2 million Yellow Pages spend, and his use of data mining to generate leads.
I answer some listener feedback and tackle the question of online backlinks, plus long time listener (and rockstar) Lachy Doley writes me anew opening jingle. Check Lachey’s work out.
Let’s do this.
In this session of Small Business Big Marketing, you’ll discover:
- Why Mike spent 1.2 million dollars on Yellow Pages advertising in 2004.
- Why having sales ability is the best skill you can have as a business owner.
- How to save 90% on human resources by outsourcing work tasks.
- Why it might be a good idea to stop yourself from becoming emotionally attached to your business.
- Why Mke sees himself as an educator as much as an entrepreneur.
- That it i spossible to build a business out of absolutely nothing, nada, zilch.
- How business opportunities exist all around us – we just have to look with problem solving eyes.
- Why Mike had no business success until he was in his 30s, but then broke out of the cubicle.
- How Mike uses data mining to generate 600 stellar leads every day.
- Why Mike is not a serial planner when it comes to his businesses.
Episode Timeline
- 1.55 The story behind my new, listener created intro jingle.
- 5.00 Netregistry share their tips about backlinks and why they are still relevant.
- 7.00 I give some advice to a small business owner who wants some tips for making money during business downtime.
- 11.00 Introducing Mike O’Hagan, owner of Mini Movers, and a tonne of other businesses.
- 12.00 Mike describes what he is best at – seeing business opportunities and acting upon them.
- 14.00 Mike describes how the internet has created opportunities for him – and how they could create opportunities for you too.
- 19.30 The vital importance of being able to sell as a business owner.
- 20.30 Mike always wanted a jetset lifestyle, and he tells us how he has achieved it.
- 24.00 The limited benefits that planning can bring – “Most things you plan don’t work anyway”, says Mike.
- 26.45 Mike explains why he spent as astonomical 1.2 million dollars on Yellow Pages advertising at one point.
- 30.00 We talk data mining, and how it powers the lead creation of Mike’s businesses.
- 36.00 Mike talks about the huge benefits of outsourcing, and why he chooses to hire accountants, lawyers, engineers, and admin staff from places like the Philippines.
- 45.00 Mike and I might be entrepreneurs, but we are also educators.
- 49.00 Sort out your business’ small design fixes with Swiftly.com.
- 50.00 My top three takeaways from chatting with Mike.
Resources and Links Mentioned in this Episode
- Mini Movers official website
- Mike’s Manila Tours official website
- Netregistry answers your marketing questions for free
- Lachy Doley official website
- Swiftly.com – for small design jobs
- The Small Business Big Marketing Forum
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Over to you!
Let us know YOUR key takeaways from this episode by leaving a comment below. I personally read and respond to every comment!
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15 thoughts on “196 – How to save 90% on labour costs using outsourcing (AKA off-shoring) with Mini Mover’s Mike O’Hanagan.”
I enjoyed this episode, outsourcing (offshoring) combined with strong operating procedures have been a great enabler in my business. I’m sure Mike’s tours are mindblowing to many businesses 🙂
I’m in. Time to start to outsource and get more done.
Correct! You and me both, Nick.
Yes, Simon. Agreed. It would be like eating chocolate for the very first time!
Timbo how about interviewing an outsourcing company in the Philippines? How are they marketing their business. Great to see the other side of Off shoring.
How do I leave a comment on each episode in itunes?
Interesting thought, Phill – though my criteria for a guest is a successful small business owner who’s using marketing in same way, shape or form to build their business.
You can’t. You need to do it here. Leaving a review on iTunes is always appreciated though.
I wonder has Mike ever considered the business impact to Mini Movers when all the Aussie accounting graduates can’t get a job.
I’d say Mike considered it and decided that the jobs of the Aussie moving guys were valuable and it wasn’t worth putting his business at risk to employ accounting graduates… And I’m also sure Mike would educate accounting graduates to be smart about how they can offshore their work to reduce their costs and run a profitable business.
And where does it all end. We have seen what ‘off-shoring’
has done to the manufacturing industry.
Surely there’s a balance, Luke? Doing everything locally can prove cost prohibitive. Doing everything off shore can also come with it’s own set of problems. That said,thanks to off-shoring Mike has been able to build a decent sized business and employ many local removalists along the way.
Yes but Mike is competing with business’ who are probably using local services providers. If everyone is playing on a level playing field, these costs should be recoverable. In an ideal world, it would be great to have some balance in how this work would be split but this would be impossible to regulate.
Fair dues to Mike for his success but I think this is an approach which should only be condoned in exceptional circumstances.
Really great interview with Mike there, thanks.
It was so refreshing to hear an Aussie success story who genuinely understands the role that off-shoring can have to both globalise a business and it’s profitability/longevity locally.
Thank you for this great information.