Live in the philipines?

toxtom said:

what? seriously you get paid $400/month in call centers there?

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Yup. But the turnover is very high. The call centers are always hiring because quite a number of their employees realize that the money is not worth being in the graveyard shift for an extended period of time.

setting things up here is not hard. you just need to talk to a lawyer if you are foreign. lots of ways to get around the laws, usually just involving money, getting a fake local partner, or as xbox says why not partner with someone from ph.

let me know if you guys need help. just send me a pm and i'll look into my resources, since i am also involved in small businesses here, and no am i not looking for any additional partners. just helping out.

all the best,

F

navone said:

Just thought I would jump in here to say this is something I am interested in. I've got 2 employees in PH right now, and as I'll be moving to Japan in a few months, I was thinking I might rent an apartment in PH, maybe Cebu, and commute between the 2.

One question I had was, I am thinking about hiring a business/project/marketing manager to help run things for me, and was wondering about the market for such positions in Cebu. I would like to hire someone located in the area, who would work from home but would work directly with me when I am in Cebu. For all you guys in the Philippines, would you recommend Cebu as a base of operations, or perhaps somewhere else I haven't thought of? I'm looking for somewhere with a good infrastructure, skilled workforce, but also nice beaches/lifestyle. I want to avoid Manila.

One more thing, how much would a small, basic apartment cost in Cebu? If its cheap enough, I would just keep it rented, or would something like a weekly serviced apartment be better?

Thanks in advance, and to PMguru, if you end up doing this, make a guide about it, I know I'd buy it.

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Hmm. Incidentally, I just came from a one month training in Chubu Kenshu Center, Japan (between Nagoya and Toyota City). It's really cold there this winter.

Yes. I would recommend making Cebu as a base of operations. It's a small, but highly urbanized city with an international airport just an hour away. And also, several island provinces are reachable by fast ferries.

A $500-a-month apartment / house or condo should be more than adequate. Of course, the nearer you are to the business centers, the more expensive it gets. I don't know about serviced apartments, but I think there are several condotels (condo + hotel) around.

Hmm. Maybe I should write a guide about this myself.

rg0205 said:

Alternately, I think Cebu is a great place. Good infrastructure for business and not too polluted as well. I actually am thinking of flying up.

Would love to meet people who can be of service since I am looking at hiring a team.

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Give me a heads up when you're in town. I'm interested in outsourcing projects.

henga said:

Hey,

Also going to move to asia in a close future (if everything goes as it should).

Any idea how much you need to pay for workers like doing dataentry, what could the monthly salary be ? Just basic data entries etc. $300 per month? Is that an OK salary in PH?

I dont have any idea!
Thanks,
H

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The minimum wage per day in the Philippines is 382 Php or 8.3 USD (for non-agriculture work and in the capital city of Manila). source: http://www.nwpc.dole.gov.ph/index.html

Workers doing data entry work usually get paid $200-$220 per month.

Do your business after the election, maybe a month or so...there are a lot of issues today which I believe is concerning the election. But it will settle down soon

Just want to share something for those planning to outsource, live and have a business here in the Philippines.

Of all the cities that would suit every business man/woman's lifestyle but for sure two things do come in to the picture:

1. Work
2. Fun, fun, fun....

The best place to be is Cebu. Why?

1. We have business centers here that will suit everybody's budget. We got the uptown area, IT park (where most call centers are located), Business Park (where elite businesses, hotels, mall, restaurants are), Economic zone (for manufacturing companies), airport and seaport are few minutes away or an hour away depending on your location. Top hospitals are just nearby especially in the uptown area, there are malls, hotels and hospitals everything is just right here as well as apartments.

The cost of an office it depends on the location and the size. It can range from $300-$400 for an average office space. For apartments, $300-$500 for a fully-furnished apartment.

If you are limited on a budget, you can have a virtual office with an established business address and your business is already registered. This is good for start-ups. It can cost you about $75 monthly and start up cost will be around $300 (registration, business permit, TIN, etc) for a virtual office, no more factory overhead, utilities and etc. You even got a secretary to answer inquiries.

2. Fun, fun, fun

We have malls, restaurants, bars/pubs/clubs, beaches from north to south, you can even go island hopping for just a budget of $150 for 10 persons including lunch to beautiful islands plus you can go on snorkeling, diving and watch dolphins!

Whether you want to see water falls, hot spring, white sand beaches and simply relax on top of a mountain, Cebu has it all for you. You don't need to spend a lot of money to live like a king or a queen!

The best part it, you can enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

----

A piece of advice, some of the people here are looking to work to earn money and that's it. Getting the right people to work because they love to work and do not always think about salary, money and raise is difficult to find. If you happened to bump into this type of person who treats and works like he or she owns the company and will do his or her best for the success of the business you got a diamond there. Be sure, to treat that diamond very well or else you will lose your gem.

I know a lot about Cebu because I was born, grew up and lived here and never ever trade another place in another country. I basically know everything from beautiful tourist spots to cheap hotels, apartments, to fun and affordable tourist packages because I planned and been to some beautiful destinations here in Cebu together with my students. So cheap is the best! Much more, we can get more out of our money.

Been to Manila, as for me it's too big, commercialized, polluted, crowded... You will get lost in a matter minutes...lols. The cost of living is kinda expensive there compared to Cebu.

In Cebu, you got everything you need here in just a matter of minutes.

Regarding the workforce here:

Well, as far as I remember in my labor law class the minimum wage per day is 361php that is equivalent to $7.8 a day for 8 hours worth of work so x 20 days = $156 or 7,176 a month for entry level workers plus additional benefits of SSS, health care, and others...

Highly skilled that's another story, call center agents received higher entry level salary of about $300 per month graveyard shift.

This is based in Cebu only.

Hiring a project manager (homebased/on site) would depend on experience. As for safe estimate, $500-$1,000 a month for project manager who mans the operations will be enough.

As to data entry, a salary of $175-$200 will be sufficient.

The rate is on a safe estimate of 46php = 1 USD, this is applicable for Cebu only. I don't know other cities though.

For further inquiries about business stuff or you want to have 1-week off from work and be in a beautiful island paradise (Cebu), just hit me a message on pm. It would be my honor to answer each and one of your inquiries.

Cheap alcohol, motorcycles, and good looking girls. Be aware of the Photo ID issue that is going now there. Don't get tricked by a person that is 19 and then get raided by cops because they are minors ,only 16 YO with NO RIGHTS TO WORK and so on, especially of you are looking for dates,because they are gorgeous and fun to be with. But drinks are Cheap, so GO THERE and hire me as a drunk bodyguard and I guarantee the most fun ever!

i pay my outsource coders 200-300 dollars per project which usually lasts a couple of weeks up to few months depending and i usually go to makati the business center and the rent there is not as cheap as the other areas in phils but they keep build new apartment high rises for for people to buy there, yes i miss the Red Horse beer already

Red Horse FTW!

Yeah, Makati or Cebu would be the most ideal locations for you to move to. I'd recommend you to check Subic out as well.

All the best!

Hi,

I am one of the many Filipinos who found the luxury of working from home here in Cebu. If you want cheap start-up and living costs, Cebu is the best place for your business.

To give you an idea: (Full Time rates)

Call Center Agents - 15,000-20,000 ($330-$440)
Content Writers - 10,000-12,000 depending on experience ($220-$260)
Web Designers - 12,000-20,000 ($260-$440)
Link Builders - 8,000-10,000 ($170-$220)
Data Entry- 8,000-10,000 ($170-$220)

Workforce here is pretty loyal if you provide them benefits and some perks. Filipinos are easy to handle and are hardworking.

Apartment/Condohotels are at 15000-25000 ($330-$440) per month.Lifestyle is also buzzing.

Hey jls1985 Good stuff this is a great help thanks. I have been triggered now to go on the last month of trialing our systems here then we will be moving over there (hopefully to Cebu) by the sounds of things. I will PM you and xbox360gurl70s soon about everything as I will need all the info I can get. Always great to know that there will be some BH forum members near by where i'm setting up. Thanks everyone for the help.
haha jmsks33 I think I may have to take you up on that.

navone ill update this post when I get over there and let you know how it's all going with the setup.

@pmguru: Sure! You will not regret staying Cebu. You can save a lot of money here and have things done perfectly with the right people of course.

From business registrations to everything, I can help you out with. I am not affiliated with any company or offering some services, helping a fellow BHW member will be a great deal already.

@pmguru: please do, as after doing a bit more research I think getting set up in Cebu is looking more and more like it will happen in the future.

To all the locals in this thread, thanks for the great info.

how about chilling in boracay and working there from the beach just with ya laptop

@ pmguro, I'm from Cebu Philippines and working as a Link Builder in UK based company.

Moving in the Philippines is a great idea specially in Cebu, here in IT Park BPO's have rapidly growing. Cebu cost of living is very cheap and we have many beautiful places here to have relax. Cebuano's talents with regards to SEO are very competitive to the worlds market.

Regarding with the idea of the salary based of what wahsupermom stated, I think that is wrong because in our company content writer, link builders, and web designers have more than rates than wahsupermom stated.

I have a full-time telemarketer that is working in Cebu.

i have workers in camagayan

I am also from the Philippines. There are a lot of talented individuals here waiting to be discovered lol.