Why Hire Your Virtual Assistant From the Philippines

When choosing WHERE to hire a Virtual Assistant, it can be very tricky to know where to start.⁣
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In 2xYou, we currently hire from the Philippines, where of course, I’m from as the founder.⁣
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If you’re considering hiring a virtual assistant, here are a few reasons why the Philippines might just be your best bet:⁣
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GOOD INFRASTRUCTURE⁣
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In the last ten years, more and more infrastructure has been set where people have easy access to electricity, good internet (even if we’re a third world country), and have access to equipment. In the last 2 years alone, there’s been a rise in so many co-working spaces with fast internet connection where your virtual assistant can work as a backup for their home office. You will be able to find quality people easily because they have the equipment and backup working spaces as needed.⁣
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DIFFERENT ECONOMIES⁣
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Because of the economic difference, you will be able to hire someone for a lower wage than when you hire someone locally. To have a clearer example of how different the economy in the Philippines is compared to other first world countries is when you have your tooth cleaned in the US, it will cost you around $200 while here in the Philippines, it only costs $10. That is how vast the economic difference is. The cost of living here in the Philippines is so much cheaper than that in the US. So basically, that is the reason why you can hire someone in the Philippines at a lesser cost because the minimum wage in the US is more than enough for us here in the Philippines.⁣
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STRONG CONNECTIVE CULTURE⁣
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In the Philippines, depending on the culture inside your company, it is so easy to build a really good culture structure with Filipino employees mostly because it is already in our culture called “bayanihan”, which means gumming together as a group to build a goal.⁣
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As you’re building your company, hiring from the Philippines makes more sense because of the culture that we already have where we take care of each other and make sure that the others are doing okay. We check in on each a lot and treat our co-workers as family or tribe members. It is going to be easier for you to have that stronger culture connection when you’re hiring from the Philippines just because of our own natural culture already.⁣
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REALLY GOOD ENGLISH SKILLS⁣
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A lot of Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese come here to the Philippines to learn English and the reason for this is for most of us here, English is our second language. This is mostly because we were colonized by the US for 30 years, so the English language has been widely used here along with our local dialects. Also, the schools and universities here use English as the medium of instruction. So, if you’re hiring for content writers for example, or customer support, chances are, applicants from the Philippines have really good English skills as it is embedded in our history, and is an integral part of our culture.⁣
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WELL-EDUCATED⁣
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Most Filipinos are well-educated especially if they get to the point that they are already working online with you. Most of them will have bachelor’s or Master’s Degrees mostly because we highly value education here in the Philippines that you’re going to be able to get high-quality people right off the bat.⁣
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POSITIVE ATTITUDE⁣
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Being a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, we get volcano eruption scares every now and then, we get typhoons a lot in a year, but we are still very resilient in showing up and we make sure that we have a positive mindset about how to look at things in life. Mostly because, of a little bit of our dark history and how we’ve come through it and how we keep surviving every single day, we do have this positive mindset of making sure that we look at the brighter side of things instead of letting things be of doom and gloom. In your company, as you are building culture, this is something that could help you solidify that strong culture inside of your company.⁣
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GREAT ADAPTABILITY⁣
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As we’re used to typhoons, we’re used to things not going our way, we still keep finding ways to get to where we want to go. Being adaptable is part of our culture of being able to find ways to get to our goal or just simply to survive. Inside your company, hiring someone who can be adaptable, especially in the early part of your business can be highly valuable.⁣
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RESOURCEFULNESS⁣
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Despite us being an island nation, meaning, we don’t have easy access right away to different parts of our own country, we’ve become resourceful in finding different ways to get to where we want to go.  It’s easy for us to think of solutions whenever we have problems as we are kind of trained up from being a kid to an adult to be resourceful in finding other ways through different things just because we had to live this way.⁣
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Inside your company, having someone who is resilient, adaptable, and resourceful is going to help you a lot.⁣
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ENTREPRENEUR MINDSET⁣
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Because of our history, being traders of the Malays and the Chinese, the entrepreneur mindset or thinking in ways where you are growing yourself, growing someone else’s business, or finding business opportunities, is something that is a natural thing for most of us. This is not a guarantee though that all the employees you hire to have this mindset. But it is one of the things that you will find surprising how many Filipinos have tried doing business before mostly because of influences from families or friends.⁣
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You can basically hire virtual assistants from anywhere in the world. It just really depends on what qualities you are looking for and what you need them for in your business. But, if you’re looking for a culture that celebrates hard work and hustles, then hiring a virtual assistant from the Philippines will definitely give you the edge you need to further scale up your business.⁣
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Do you think a Filipino would be a good fit for your company? Let’s discuss in the comment section below.