James Schramko here and today I want to talk to you about the Western way. So what is the Western way? This is what I refer to the cultural phenomenon of people who you hire in Western society.
So I’m talking about the USA, Canada, Australia, UK, you know, Western countries. You hire them in your business, you build them up strong, and then they leave, and they copy your business model. And often, they take your customers. And I saw a lot of this in the motor industry, where people would sell for a dealership and then they get a job at another dealership and then they’d approach all of their customers. It’s called poaching.
And it’s very common. Now, in small businesses, what you see happen very often is people come in, they’re sort of junior, they get paid pretty well in Western rates, they learn the business and then at some point, they’re looking at all this money coming in and the rewards for the business owner and they think, I could do that. And they vertically integrate, which is they cut the employer out, the middleman and they go direct for the end customer. So really, really common. It’s a cultural phenomenon.
The reason I bring this up is I’m often having a conversation with a student of mine saying, should you hire in-house? Should you hire Western labor? Should you go somewhere else? You can get coders in Europe, you can get team members, especially for support, publishing, helpdesk type stuff in the Philippines, which I found certainly over the last 10 years, the team have been incredibly loyal, reliable. They faithfully produce the work that you asked them, they never ever have ripped me off, cloned me or vertically integrated my customers where I can’t say that for my Western contractors. My US web developer once took control of my customers when I moved out of that contract supply. And he had approached my customers. And the Western way can bite you on the ass. So be careful.
I’m not saying only hire overseas, that’s not what this video is about. I’m just saying, if you do hire people in your own culture, be mindful of this, put at least some terms and conditions that would protect you if possible. And a lot of this is not enforceable so check with your lawyer, but put some terms and conditions that give you some protection against people approaching your own customers.
It used to drive me crazy when the salespeople in the dealership would say, you know, my customer this and my customer that and I’d have to remind them, They’re not your customer. They’re a customer of our business and you’re employed to look after them. So you have to delineate and make sure everyone’s clear. So watch out for the Western way. And if you’re really looking for team members offshore, then I would recommend for service support and good English-speaking skills, go to the Philippines.
I often get asked, where do you get them from? I recommend VisionFind.com, that’s a business I have a share in so I have a vested interest in that, but that’s where I got every single one of my team members through that same supply.
I’m James Schramko. This is SuperFastBusiness.com.
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