Good morning! Join us for another exhilarating whirlwind tour of the future of work, with a spattering of global economy. We’ve got you covered with this week’s Gone Global!

The old ‘hire the best’ fallacy 

Sir Richard Branson advises businesses to “hire the best, and then get out of their way.”

Steve Jobs said: “We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

The advice is clear.

“Hire the best.”

Yet, I have always had issues with that sage advice.

It’s not that I disagree, but it’s just not that easy.

For one thing, it’s really expensive to hire great people. And we all need to balance the books – even FB and Google.

I currently employ 250 people. Across 20 years, I have employed 600+. Yet, I have never felt I had the budget to hire the best people possible.

A Good CTO and CFO can cost $360,000 each. A good CMO and COO might cost $300,000 each. That’s $1.3 million!!

Plus, each of those top players will also need a team of top players to manage. Before you know it, your staffing bill will cost tens-of-millions.

It’s not that I don’t want to hire the best. I do. But who can afford that?

I can’t.

And that’s not even the ‘best’. The best CXOs can cost $1m-$10m+++

The offshore opportunity

As you know, I employ people offshore. In fact, 100% of Outsource Accelerator’s staff are Filipino (except myself). They are a fantastic team, building a world-class product.

So I already get a massive ‘discount’ on salaries. A 70% discount, in fact!

But even then, I struggle to afford the top A-Players I desire.

Employing Philippine talent means I can bootstrap an 8-figure business, pushing 75%+ annual growth while maintaining 15%+ profits. If I were hiring from the US, UK, or Australia, I would burn a ton of cash and need external funding.

Yet, I still can’t afford those top A-Players.

The Philippines is home to most of the world’s preeminent businesses – FB, Google, Amazon, P&G, EY, Nestle, JP Morgan, McKinsey, and Amex. They are all here.

You can find the best of the best in Manila, Philippines. The crème de la crème.

How to save $1m!

However, instead of $360k salaries, they might be $100k – saving you a nice $260k/each. Hiring the four CXOs from the Philippines will cost maybe $400k, instead of the $1.32 million.

That’s $900k in your pocket!

Not bad!

Even though, for most businesses, $400k is still a lot of money.

It’s all about balancing the needs of growth, resources, product, and profits.

With a bit of help from offshore staffing, maybe we can all afford Richard Branson’s advice to hire the best and get out of the way.

The question for your business

Have you hired the best of the best? How did that work out?

Read more thought leadership articles here:

• Buying Low, selling high
• Becoming an Ironman business