Folks ask me quite often what the best business decision I ever made was. Here is my answer:
Hiring my first overseas employee.
In 2021 I engaged a company called Support Shepherd to recruit a Philippines based employee for my storage company.
Today 80% of the employees across my 11 companies are located in either the Philippines or LATAM (Columbia, Argentina, Brazil, etc).
The average salary is $1200 USD per month ($5 per hour).
What do they do at my companies?
Customer service. Underwriting. Billing. Sales. Financial analysis. Property management (dealing with all of our vendors). Web design. Graphic design. Video editing. Bookkeeping. You name it. Any job that can be done remote, you can find exceptional talent in these countries.
Several of these folks have the potential to RUN one of my companies someday.
If I had to guess I’d say about 10% of companies in America with less than 500 employees outsource. I bet that number in 2034 is closer to 50%. Every year that goes by companies are getting more and more comfortable with it and the folks who don’t do it are falling further and further behind.
Check out supportshepherd.com to see if overseas talent could help your company.
(I’m so passionate about this for small busiensses I actually invested in Support Shepherd).
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Don’t forget something very important about this life:
Your job is to train people how to treat you.
You get more of what you tolerate.
If you tolerate people being manipulative, you’ll get more of it.
If you tolerate employees being flakey and unreliable, you’ll get more of it.
If you tolerate customers making outrageous demands, you’ll get more of it.
If you tolerate a boss sending you demands on Sunday morning, he will continue to overwork you.
If you tolerate verbal abuse, head games and drama from your spouse you will get more of it.
It isn’t rocket science folks.
People will do more of what benefits them and hurts you if you reinforce that behavior with positive outcomes for them.
It takes a very secure person to stand up for what is right when another person is acting irrational.
Set boundaries in all areas of life!
Caveat:
I’m not saying to be rude to people. Just stand up for yourself in a respectful, rational way.
And always, always, always treat people well and respectful in return. This goes both ways.
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If you want to raise kids who share hobbies with you, watch this video
Nothing is more important to me in life than sharing memories with my kids and making them want to be around me when they’re old enough to not be around me.
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Something I’ve changed my mind on over the years:
How you dress and how you present yourself matters. People judge a book by its cover ALL THE TIME.
How you look matters.
It matters in dating. It matters in business. It matters at your job and with your friends.
People judge you based on how you look all the time. Everyone does it. Whether they admit it or not.
If you purposely dress casual and die your hair an unnatural color people will perceive you as less reliable and less trustworthy.
If you dress professional and you are clean-cut with a nice haircut people perceive you as more reliable and more trustworthy.
Therefore you are more likely to get paid more money for the same contribution. Or get more opportunities.
It is that simple. You can hate the game if you want to, but get over yourself and start playing it if you want to win.
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An underrated key to delegation and management:
Saying something that takes others 3 minutes to say in 15 seconds.
Clear and simple communication, both written and verbal, is a superpower. People have extremely short attention spans.
They may look at you and nod…
But they aren’t paying attention. KEEP IT SIMPLE AND KEEP IT SHORT.
How to practice this:
Before you hit send, spend twice as much time thinking about how you can REMOVE words. Record yourself talking. Get a transcript. Then do the same thing.
It takes practice.
There is no greater threat to effective leadership than overly complicated and unclear communication.
Onward and upward,
Nick Huber
P.S.
Tax season is right around the corner and my final income tax bill will be $0 for one main reason – Cost Segregation Studies and bonus depreciation.
DO NOT FORGET TO GET COST SEGREGATION STUDIES DONE ON YOUR REAL ESTATE.
The folks at RE Cost Seg have already delivered my cost segs this year and the depreciation is mouth watering. Reach out if you’re in the market – the proposal is free.
Professional engineering reports you can count on, and they do virtual visits to turn them around even quicker.
Not sure what a cost seg is? Check out this thread.