Transcription
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>> Hello and welcome to another episode of the Accounting Insiders podcast. My name is Gary Dehart. I'm the host of the Accounting Insiders podcast, publisher of uh Insightful Accounted. It is November the 12th, 2025. I always like to put the date out there because what we say today is true and two months from now it may not be. So, um, if anything changes between now and then, that's not on us. So, my guest today is Isaac Smith. Isaac is the co-founder of Team Up. Team Up is helping accountants hire talent in the Philippines. So, Isaac, thank you so much for uh for taking some time to have a discussion.
>> Gary, thank you so much for having me here. It's uh it's a pleasure to be with you.
>> Absolutely. And I was on your LinkedIn profile before we started uh recording and noticed that you're just getting back from the Philippines.
>> Yes.
>> How long have you been back?
>> Uh well, I got back uh a week and a half ago. No. Yeah, a week and a half ago. I I had several things uh that I did right in a row. Learned a lesson. Um there was a lot of recovery time for that. Um but yeah, highly recommend people to go out to the Philippines if they have people there. Uh just a wonderful place and amazing people.
>> Yeah, we I have not been there. It's not really ever been on my list of places to go, but as as we're going to discuss, we currently have three people in the Philippines who uh do amazing work for us. And it would really be uh it would be great to be able to go and see them in their homes, you know, in in their home environment uh in their home country. So, um, tell me just a little bit about your background, kind of what got you, what were you doing prior to this that got you to doing what you're doing?
>> Yeah, So, um, like you said, we help firms hire, uh, accounting staff in the Philippines. Um, and that's because I had a bookkeeping firm and that's what I did. So, it was just my partner and me here in Portland, Oregon, and everybody else we hired in the Philippines. So, we didn't have any US staff at all. Uh, that's because I had done that in previous businesses. And it was just an obvious move to me. And so we built a a bookkeeping team of about 12 to 14 people depending on how you count part-time and full-time. Um, and then as you might imagine, you start talking with accountants and they ask, "Hey, what are you doing? That's different. Tell me more and how does that work?" And then eventually, "Wow, can you help can you help us do that, too?" So we said, "Sure, why not? That sounds like fun." And turns out it was fun. a lot more fun than bookkeeping for me. And and so a couple two and a half years ago, I thought, "Oh my gosh, I need to really focus on this." So I I started team up with my partner Mel uh couple years ago.
>> Yeah. And so uh so you had already hired people like in your in the booking firm, you had already hired people in the Philippines. Was that your first time or did you say you had hired people in the Philippines prior to that?
>> And another prior to that, yeah, I w I was I've done a lot of things. Um I I I used to run e-commerce businesses. I started e-commerce businesses and um eventually sold one. And so I was um at, you know, in the very beginning days of that, I didn't have any money. And so like you think, okay, well, how can I get work done? And so you start by finding freelancers online who can help you with things here and there. And I just sort of learned over time how that works and became comfortable and then worked with people in many countries. Um and over time uh gravitated more and more to the Philippines and um by the time it was so so eventually I sold an e-commerce business. I hated my accountants and so that's that made me it prompted me to uh want to serve people like me in a better way. So, uh, a part I partnered with somebody who had the accounting knowledge that I lacked and together, um, we built a a bookkeeping firm and took my previous experience and [clears throat] hired everybody in the Philippines to the whole bookkeeping team.
>> Okay. And then, so you mentioned going to the Philippines. So, when you were in that role, did you take trips to the Philippines then?
>> I have. So I've been working with people there for over 10 years now and I only recently in the last four years started going there. Um as we started to build a more established team I wanted to to start meeting with them. So, so the first time I went was 2022 um after you know co COVID was a difficult time to travel and so um yeah then that's when I met with our our bookkeeping team uh for the first time. Highly recommend.
>> Yeah. Now, do you have them um do you have them all in the same are they all in the same city or are you across?
>> Uh again, until I started working with people in the Philippines, they didn't really have a whole uh a good concept of what the Philippines was like. So, it's an island country, right? And so, they're spread out over it's thousands of miles, right?
>> Yeah. Yeah. I I don't remember the number of islands there are, but it's it's thousands of islands, but there are three main islands, I think, um at least where the population centers are. And um so uh my approach was always well if I'm going to if we're going to be remote let's just hire the best people wherever they are. And so we never focused on any cities or locations. We just run a process that is that's open to anybody in the country who is qualified and wants to apply. Um, and so we've we've had people kind of in the bookkeeping firm, you know, when you have, you know, more than 10 people, they're going to end up being scattered kind of across the country. And so that's that's what it was. And so we flew people into a central place where we could meet uh when we did that.
>> Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. So, as I mentioned uh already and and we talked about it before we started recording, we have uh three people who we work with or who work with us in the Philippines and we view them as I they're part of our team 100%. They're in our systems. They are u you know in our meetings. They are you know responsible for areas of our business and I I don't know why we didn't do this sooner. And um other than you know, it's it still costs money right and so we did have to be able to uh be in a position to be able to bring them on but it has certainly helped us uh my business partner and I get a lot more done and um get a lot more done efficiently and effectively. it really helped us kind of unload some of the things that either we don't want to do, shouldn't be doing, and those are two different things. Um, and and in many cases really not very well qualified to do. And I draw I put social media under that one because it's uh it's probably all three. Something I'm not qualified to do, something I don't really want to do, and something I shouldn't be doing. Um and so but we we have found again with uh we have three working with us currently. We had another person um a fourth but in all all four cases the you know the work ethic super high. Their um desire to work super high, their English as we mentioned before English um we had one who was you would have thought she grew up down the street. Um, the three who are with us now, their English is is good and improving. Um, as you're looking for and sourcing people in the Philippines, what does that look like? I mean, how do you, uh, if you have a, you know, a firm here in the US, they're going to want somebody, I would imagine, with pretty good English skills.
>> How do you, how do you sort through that? I mean, are we making phone calls or Zoom calls?
>> Yeah. So maybe to back up and set some context for just a second. Um the way I see you know uh if we want to use the words outsourcing or offshoring or um I I I I don't think we need to use those types of terms. I think what the way that firm owners and business us business owners should be thinking is let's build the best team possible and then who cares where people are, right? Um and so you know ear in the early days you used to think of like outsourcing or offshoring or whatever as let's get the you know the grunt work out you know the the menial tasks the admin stuff the low-level stuff well if you really think about it the world we live in today you and I are talking we're across the country we're using Zoom if we wanted to work together we could right no big deal we have the tools to do that and so um the way that we think about um our team, you know, I'm in Oregon, you're in in Georgia, right? Somebody else could be in the Philippines. You can hire a professional, right? You can hire there's a whole country of highly educated people with a lot of experience and great attitudes. So, we don't need to think of them as different from us or their capabilities as different from ours. They're not different. And so to me that's a really a very exciting world. Um and so um the way we can work together is is really exactly the same as you and I might being across the country. Sure there's some more time zones between us. Um but I'm sorry what was the what was the actual question that I was answering?
>> Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, you you said uh let's kind of back up and so yeah, my original question was around screening for
>> Oh, right. English
>> English skills and
>> so of course not everybody in the country speaks English well but many hundreds of thousands many millions do and so um hiring is a process of filtering for many things and one of those things you can you can filter for is English ability. So um for firms you can just say we need somebody who is fluent in English and you'll get somebody [laughter] who is fluent in English whether whether you want to run that process or have somebody else like like my company do it. Um pretty pretty simple. And so then when you have, you know, I I would say most people that we work with do have an accent, right? But it's not like it's an issue. You know, people in this country have accents. Um so it's um yeah, you you can get somebody who can have that client communication if that's what you want.
>> Yeah. Yep. Okay. So I don't think I've asked this, but it's one of my questions, and that's you know, why the Philippines? What how did you how did you get drawn to the Philippines originally?
>> Yeah, so yeah, the the Philippines is one of many countries that people are now sourcing from. You know, India is the other one that we hear a lot about. I've worked with people in India. I've worked with people in Eastern Europe. I worked with people in Egypt and many other countries. And uh I would say there are great people everywhere in the world. Um, why I ch why now I've gravitated towards the Philippines is because it's so easy. Um, because there's a there's a there's just a large talent pool. There's a critical mass there and it's it's easy to access. Um, they're not scattered uh across different platforms and they're not hard to find. There's just a lot of people there who have a lot of experience already working with US firms. And so that's one reason the English uh capabil their English comprehension right we already talked about that the fluency is very high in Philippines compared to other countries they're just wonderful people I get along with them well we have a lot of similar cultural you know that cross ties it just makes it really easy to work with them so that's why
>> okay what about their um their technical skills like coming into the job force and um again we have we've had great experience with it but is that is it pretty common that as people in the Philippines are you know getting into working ages are they are the technical skills comparable to what you might find here in the US?
>> Yeah. Yeah. And that's that's what I I try to tell people is if you have expectations for for somebody that you would hire remotely in the US, you should have those same expectations for somebody in the Philippines. It shouldn't be different. Of course, you know, like you can't do a a a blanket expectation and expect everybody to be like that just like people in the US will surprise you, you know? So like individuals are all going to be different no matter what country, but your expectations can remain roughly the same.
>> Okay, great. So let's talk about we're going to pull the old um old Clint Eastwood movie, the good, the bad, and the ugly of of hiring. Um well, we could probably just stop it at that, right? Of hiring because like you just said, it's really doesn't matter. You're hiring for the individual for a job, right? and whether they're sitting in South Florida, you know, northern Alabama or um you know, Eastern Oregon, doesn't really matter, or the Philippines, it doesn't matter as long as they're qualified and willing and able to do the job. But in in hiring
>> in the Philippines, uh what are the when I say the good, bad, the ugly, I'm looking at like the pitfalls, what are the you know top problems or key considerations that you see or that an employer needs to keep in mind as they are hiring. And since you are focused in the Philippines, I do want to talk about that specifically if I'm hiring in the Philippines.
>> Yeah. So you you know and and that's a good a good frame and it's it's good to be thinking about you know um what are the challenges because there are right um and you'll hear your listeners I'm sure have heard lots of stories about when it's gone wrong because it can go wrong right um and so I of course being in the position that I I'm in I hear lots of these stories and so but when when we start to look into them. Um, you can usually trace back to the the point where, oh, maybe maybe maybe this is where it went wrong and you can keep going and and and of course I have a perspective, right? And not everybody's going to share my perspective, but um where I see it all originating is is very uh two mindset things. One here here the top two if you want to do internet language right the top two mistakes firms make number one is very simple it's thinking about the the people that you want to bring on as those people over there simple as that right um if you see a difference between us and them if you use words like my offshore team rather and my team that is going to shift the way that you talk about them, the way that you talk to them, the the way that you interact with them, and the way that you set things up. And that can cascade down into many things. So like for example um one of the topics that we might get to uh on this call is um working with you know an intermediary company whatever we wanted to call these outsourcing companies right well if you think you need an intermediary company things are going to behave differently right and so that's what I mean a lot of times you know there's there are these forking uh branches uh in your decision tree and Um, the more you can think of your the firm the firms that I see that have from my perspective the most success see themselves as one team. We're all the same.
>> I'll pause there.
>> Yeah. Do you find um the ones that seem to have the most success are they are the is there a team in the Philippines working US hours or are they working Philippine hours or do they split that? How does that how does that work?
>> Yeah. Um there so there are no right answers to any of these questions. Um they're just options. But generally what we see working really well is for the the firm in the US to choose a couple of hours that you have overlapping. Um so I'm on Pacific time. Um my afternoon is their morning. Works great. And so people can start uh logging in 3 or 4 p.m. my time. I have a couple of hours with them and off I go to dinner. Uh for you on the East Coast, um there is no business hour overlap as you know. So what we usually see working well is to choose your morning hours. So if we take during daylight savings time, so this gets a little confusing every six months because
>> Okay. Yeah.
>> We change our time, they don't change their time. And so, um, but during summer, it's a 12-h hour time difference, which which makes the math easy. You just flip AM and PM. So, what we see working very well is to choose your, let's just say like 8 to 11 a.m. for you, which is 8 to 11:00 p.m. for them. So, I think, you know, the thought process is, yeah, I don't mind doing a couple hours after the kids go to bed. Um if I can then choose the rest of my hours speaking as the person in the Philippines. Um that works really well.
>> Yeah. Yeah. We have um we have one right now who splits. He works uh half his time during our hour our hour our hour our hour our hour our hour our hour our hour our hour our hour our hour our hour our hour our hours and then half his time outside of that. Um the other two currently one of them unfortunately his his role is I was telling you about he really runs our webinars so he's got to be here for us during our times.
>> Yep.
>> It's just kind of stuck with it. The social media one um not as time bound but um I imagine I wouldn't be surprised if her schedule changes a little bit but but we're super flexible. We're not, you know, we we try to be and, you know, if if they prefer to work in alternate hours, we're open to that because especially like social media, it doesn't matter when that work gets done. You don't have to be here during my time. I do want you here some of my time so we can have discussions and so it's not just some black hole that I'm sending, you know, chats to, right? Um, you or a task list. like you have said, they're part of our team and we want them to feel like they're part of our team
>> 100%. So, um, what about what are some things like just the like either pitfalls or considerations that let's stick with pitfalls. That'll be the bad side of it that um that you've seen take place just in your time working there.
>> Cool. Yeah, I I I want to answer that, but I also know that we left an open loop for the listener. I said the top two things, and I only told you one.
>> Oh, all right.
>> The other one's much quicker. Is uh the the second big mistake firms make is just making it more complicated than it needs to be. It's actually all very quite quite quite simple. Of course, there are some details. they're going to want to know about compliance and we can talk about compliance but it's a detail. It's not a driver of the whole system. And so yeah, just keeping things uh keeping things simple um is a recipe for success to your question.
>> Yeah. Yeah. And then so just kind of the the bad or or it could be bad or pitfalls kind of what what are some things that I've got to have in mind as I let's say I've never never hired somebody outside of uh outside of the country. What are some of the a couple of things that I really need to be mindful of? You kind of touched on them but um beyond those mindsets.
>> Well, um you know, so I have seen challenges come up, of course, and you know, one of those challenges is um or one of the pitfalls that I've seen is waiting until you're too busy to bring somebody on and then you don't have the capacity to onboard somebody well, give them a good start and you just throw them into a fire. I had one guy tell me, he said, "My hair is on fire." You know, accountants, right? They're they get they have too much work. And so this poor guy, like I really felt for him. And so then he hired somebody. And then he said, "Ah, this just isn't working." And I'm like, "Well, what has been your process?" And he said, "Well, I haven't even talked to her." I'm like, "Yeah, okay. Well, yeah, you're gonna have to engage." I mean, I feel for him. Um, but yeah, you're you have to know that you're just like hiring somebody anywhere else. You've got to be able to give them a good start,
>> right? And if and if you can't do the handholding yourself or like one oneonone like this, you got to have resources, whether it be, you know, your your FAQ somewhere or your your uh we don't have one, but you know, your human resources booklet, right, that tells them here's the process. But but that's going to be true for anybody, right? I mean, I can't hire, you know, I can't hire my next door neighbor and expect them to know what I do if I don't tell them, right? Or expect them to know what to do if I don't tell them what to do.
>> They have to have guidance.
>> Yeah.
>> Wherever you are and whoever you are.
>> Anything else that's that you've seen um that's kind of a you again pitfall or uh what you really need to make sure is pointed out on the front end. people are
>> a couple a couple of things come to mind and I'm realizing you know usually when I talk about these things I'll say and did you notice that you know that applies to anybody you hire anywhere um so like uh but I do actually I did think of some things that apply specifically to the Philippines but you brought up process and I think that's important um to mention yeah it is good to have process documented you know systems in case. Um, but at the same time, I think that a lot of people have received a message from the internet that says if you're going to hire people, outsource people or whatever. That's a clue, right? They they said outsource people. If you're going to hire, they say, you know, you have to make sure that all of your your processes are thoroughly documented, your SOPs are in place, people can follow step-by-step directions. I just don't believe that's true. Um, that's good to have, but if you're hiring intelligent people, you can work with them, you know, um, and and yeah, you should probably have some systems in place, but you don't need I think a lot of people go, well, I don't have my processes, you know, thoroughly documented so that I can't make this higher, so I'm stuck. and you end up like the guy I just described, his hair is on fire because you, you know, you were too uh you you thought you couldn't move forward when really you could have.
>> Yeah, we we actually we have some documentation in place. I would say it's probably not super current and but I have I have our team in the Philippines doing the documentation now. Like
>> you you guys you're doing it. So just because I wrote it out doesn't mean it's right,
>> right?
>> Or the best way. Or
>> what was correct a year and a half ago
>> probably isn't
>> correct now. I mean, we've got a whole other, you know, with AI, we've got a whole other resource, right, that we can pull on that needs to be added in or amended in that process document. Um, but again, that's regardless of where you sit. Um, so now what about um have you seen anything that is a a better fit to you know place in the Philippines versus the US or um or again is it is it job agnostic if you will?
>> Yeah, there is uh there is a way that I think about this and um I I think like you said some like your one guy has to be available for um webinars. So
>> um I think I think it's more along the lines of time expectations and so yeah you can hire people who want to work at night um and I don't think that there's anything wrong with with that. um if they want to do that.
>> But of course, you know, that will limit your access to the talent pool. And so some of the conversations I have with firm owners is, okay, well, how how can I, you know, do I want them to have client contact or not, especially if they're not going to be available, you know, full business hours or so then we can have a conversation of, well, maybe you should keep some client communication inside the US time zones because maybe you're not going to be able to find that more senior level person who wants to work through the night, right? Because, you know, we're all getting older. You're like, "Yeah, I did this when I was younger. I don't need to do that anymore." So, that actually does present a little bit of a challenge to find people who are more senior who can have those more highlevel discussions with your clients. And so, that's that's a bit of a strategy session on how do you as the firm owner want to arrange this? You can um set expectations with your clients that communications happen happens this way in these hours via you know whether it's email or whatever and if you want a call with somebody maybe it'll be in those hours or maybe you're like I don't want my clients to have to deal with that at all. I want somebody in the US to be available all the time and and they can talk. So like there's no right or wrong answers here, but just a lot of options and some things that you can think through.
>> Yeah. Okay. It really depends on what your what the role is and and what the need is for the firm.
>> Yeah. So So let's do this. Let's wrap up with maybe since you've been doing this for several years now. Um kind of a we could call it a checklist or going back to your the internet's you know top five um maybe the top five if that's the right number keys to success in um again we're not using the term offshoring or outsourcing but key to key to success in bringing on uh talent from the Phil from the Philippines.
>> Yeah. hiring offshore, right? Um tops. So I already gave the top two, right? One is think of think of your team as one whole, you know. Um two is don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. And if you would like, we can talk about compliance stuff because I know that's going to be a question for the listeners. Um and then let's see, three, four, five. Um really yeah it it's all comes down to leadership and management right how do you how do you lead your team how do you select the people who are going to be right for your team you know because not every oh this is a big one okay here we go um not everybody who's qualified is going to be right for for your firm right that's that's a lesson that I learned the hard way right you hire somebody who is got all the right skills and then Oh, this just isn't working because it's just not a it's not a personal person personality, character, values fit, right? Culture fit. Um, so we've all heard you should hire for attitude. Well, that's true,
>> right? um four well you know I I I don't actually have off the top of my head you know four and five but um I did kind of tease like there are some cultural challenges should we talk about those like this is where
>> absolutely
>> this is where it has gone wrong for me and I have heard these stories is there is actually a cult there are cultural differences like I said at the beginning they are pretty similar to us but it is a different country and they do have a different culture and um if you if you're not aware things can go wrong. So so it comes down to a few things. Uh one is uh community versus individual right each culture is at a different place on that continuum. Um another is direct versus indirect communication. Um another is um yeah, like saving face, right? Um, and so here here let me let me present a problem that a lot of people including me have experienced and maybe the listener can relate to or maybe you can relate to. Let's say you have a new task or a new project or something and you you have a call with your teammate in the Philippines to go over it. You say, "Hey, whatever your name, right?" Like, "Hey, I've got this new thing I want you to do. Um, it's here's the objective. I think you should probably do this and this and this." But you'll, you know, you figure it out or whatever. You know, you have that conversation that we would normally have, right? And then at the end of the call, you say, "Okay, got it." or what questions do you have? No questions. I Okay, you got it. I can see a little smile on your face, right?
>> Um, so then you say, "Okay, great." And you leave that call feeling very confident like, "Yes, okay, we're going to move forward. This is going to be taken care of,
>> you know." Oh, and you'll say, I'll check in with you on Tuesday or whatever. And so Tuesday comes around, you have a call like, "Okay, great. Tell me about how it's gone." and they are like just kind of like look into the camera and like uh and you go like
>> well what did you do? Uh do you have any questions? What did you do? And oh I didn't start or or I did step one and two that was just kind of preparation but I didn't actually start the meat of it. And you're like whoa what happened here? What what huh? Why? Why not? and and you go and they'll say like, "Well, I didn't understand." And you're like, "Whoa, I asked you if you understood. You told me yes." And then you had all of these days that you could have asked me, but you didn't. Why not? And this is a cultural thing. And and so if you know the severity of that situation can, you know, if it's bad enough, you can start to think, "Oh my gosh, I just can't work with these people." So I'll pause there. It looks like you've had some experience.
>> We have. Uh we have not not a lot, but there have been a couple of times. And you kind of walk away going at times I've walked away going, "We did have that conversation, right?" And [laughter] I'm not I'm not getting any younger. So, it's quite possible that I totally made that conversation up in my own head. Um Yeah. But it's been and and not widespread, but there have been a couple of times we're like I know we talked about it. I pretty sure we even have some documentation around it and it just didn't shouldn't happen.
>> Okay,
>> this mystery here, let me explain why this happened.
>> Yeah.
>> Um so it's those cultural things. One is um direct versus indirect communication. So we are very com comfortable with direct con communication and direct and that's that there are two facets to this one is I'm telling you something um versus I'm telling somebody to tell you this thing. Um the other facet is I'm not beating around the bush. I'm telling you what I need. Right? I'm not flowering it up with a bunch of language. Americans are pretty extremely direct. Um, I have learned in recent years though that countries in Europe, Eastern Europe especially, or in the Netherlands are even more direct than we are. Um, as well as Israel. Um, so we think we're extreme, but we're not that extreme. Filipino culture is on the other side. And so they they prefer um if if they have bad news or something that that they're going to be feel like you're not going to want to hear is displeasing, they would much rather tell somebody else to tell you. That's just how it is.
>> Yeah. And um and also they're going to want to just hint at it, right? They're not going to want to be direct. like it's like my wife knows I'm not going to pick up on these hints, you know? So, it's kind of the same thing. They might. And so, like if you're if you're asking them, okay, here's what I want to do. Is that okay with you? They're not going to tell you no. They in their culture, and this goes to the next the next part, which is authority. um they have very strong deference to the boss and it's their uh working culture is very top down command and and control sort of thing. And so it's seen as disrespectful to say no.
>> And they would much rather nod and smile and say yes. And if so, like if you're if you're telling them to do something that they know is wrong, you like you, the boss, are the one in the wrong, they would much rather just say smile and go about their day and just not do it at all.
>> Because they know you're wrong,
>> rather than tell you, "No, you're wrong."
>> Um, that's interesting. And so then so then there's a there's a few other things involved in there like they they don't want to be um you know saving face is important to them and so they don't want to fe look uh incompetent in front of the boss right and so like all of this put together creates that situation that we just talked about and so what do you do? Well one is to recognize what what did I just do in this conversation? I generalized an entire country of people, right? And I said, "They're all the same." They're not. Right.
>> Right.
>> So, you're going to have individuals who are different. And some of them and and so there are a lot of people there who are more comfortable doing it sort of our way. And so, you know, that could be because they're just that's their personality or it could be because they've had a lot of experience working with people like us. And so my message is
>> well so then hire them
>> and then you don't have [laughter]
>> Yeah. Hire the right person. Right.
>> Yeah. And it becomes like in the US, right? Not all Americans are the same. Some of us are shy. Some of us are this way, that way. We also have many cultures here. And so then it just becomes more like that. And it's your job as a leader to create an environment, a place where people with the different personalities are able to step into their roles and speak up when they need to.
>> Yeah, that's great. So, you had mentioned um compliance and you said we probably should touch on compliance.
>> Um what does that mean?
>> Well, so I'm here with a message that is like surprising to people to hear, right? Like you can just hire somebody, right?
>> You can just hire somebody in the Philippines. And people are like, "Whoa, what does that that sounds like a great idea, but what does that mean?" And then what are the how does that work? Do I need to learn about Philippines employment law? Can they be contractors? And so the answer is yes. Right. Okay. So first of all, disclaimer time. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not your lawyer. Um I can't speak for what's going to be right for your firm. I can just tell you what I've seen, you know, hundreds of firms doing and what my perspective is. Um so yes, you can hire people as contractors if you would like to. You could also hire them as employees if you would like to. Um, and every firm is going to have a different reason that they might do one or the other. Um, if you choose to hire people as contractors, it's actually quite simple. Um, it's it's basically what you assume it might be. They're responsible for their tax, for some of the things their government asks of them. Your responsibilities are minimal. You just pay them with there are many payment platforms that can do that.
>> Yeah. if you would like if you have if you would like to hire them as employees. I'm assuming you don't have an entity in the Philippines. So, you can use what's called an employer of record and um that's a company. Some some people here are familiar with PEO organizations. Say you wanted to hire someone in another state, right? You're you you you might use a PEO to do that. If you don't know what I'm talking about, the simple and simple thing is there's a company in the Philippines that will employ people on your behalf, right? And you have a contract with that company. So they do the payroll, the compliance, all of that. Um, and the benefits administration and everything. And so they just facilitate you being able to work one-on-one with somebody and that's all. They're not trying to get they're not trying to do management or we haven't really talked about those outsourcing companies. But the difference here between outsourcing companies and these employer record companies is they're not trying to get involved with your work. They're not they're not adding layers of management. They're not adding training. They're just doing the back end.
>> Right.
>> So some people Yeah, I know this can, you know, can go down a really deep rabbit hole. it's probably not what we want to do on a podcast, but um just I know that there are listeners who are thinking like, well, what about this and what about that and what about the IRS regulations and you know, contractor versus or the state of California, right? Contractor versus employee and that sounds more like an employee, right? Well, if that's your perspective, like I said, you can hire them as employees through the employer. Yeah.
>> Okay. All right. Anything u anything in closing? I think we kind of covered all the major topics we were uh planning to hit on. Anything that uh you can think of that we've missed or just uh anything you want to share in closing?
>> Sure. Well,
>> how how do people get in touch with you?
>> Sure. Well, I could tell you a little bit about our company um what we do. Um if so, as it's pretty clear, we have a philosophy that you can just work with people. And so, that's what we help people do. So team up is my company. We we're just recruiters. And so we help firms hire staff in the Philippines. And if they want to do that, you know, if they hire through us, that's their relationship with that person that they've hired, not ours. So you, like I said, they would pay them or the employer record would pay them. We don't have the ability to, nor would we want to take a little slice of their pay for ourselves, which I think is fair that way. Um, so anyway, yeah, you can feel free to reach out and learn more about uh what we do if you want to. Um, you can find me on LinkedIn, search my name, or just go to our website hireteamup.com.
>> Okay. And then actually one other thing um and that is the job the roles that you guys hire for.
>> So you know our audience is primarily you know accounting professionals. Um, are you hiring for any and all roles, support, admin, technology?
>> Yeah, so we focus we we try to stay focused on what we're good at. Um, and so we focus on accounting and finance roles. And so, you know, that that includes admin, right? So, admin, your executive assistants, virtual assistants, bookkeeping, accounting, tax. You can even hire tax managers. uh although they're they're a little more difficult to find, but accounting managers, directors,
>> you know, but yeah, that that's what we focus on.
>> Okay. Well, very good. All right. Well, Isaac, thank you so much for your time. Um, when's your next trip back to the Philippines?
>> March. And this time, I'm taking my family. I can't wait.
>> Oh. Oh, that'll be awesome. Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Very good. All right. Well, thank you again. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for sharing uh your obvious your your in-depth knowledge on hiring in the Philippines. We'll talk soon. Thank you.
>> Thank you for having me. It's been fun.
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