aaacbc started this topic @ 10:55 on 06/12/2006
Hi everybody,
I have a business idea and I would like to have your comments about it.
For start-up's or small business' I will propose them a "Virtual Office" for them with their own phone number - a secretary answering the calls and forwording the messages - doing secretarial paperwork - bookkeeping -etc.... for them.
So they will have fix costs no surprises and no problems with employees in the beginning for very competitive prices.
There are a lot of well trained people in the Philippines who work for very interesting salaries so we could provide very interesting services to US, UK and other english speaking countries for very competitive prices.
What do you think about it?
Could you give me some advices?
Are there some people interested in such a venture?
Please let me know and give me your comments about this project. 
KR
M.
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www.aaacbc.com - WE TURN IDEAS INTO VALUE
RE: Virtual Office - New business is looking for...
TFGTV | 06/12/2006 06:25 PM
Personally I'd NEVER use an overseas-based service such as this simply because there are people in Britian who need this sort of work. I'd rather put food on the plates of a local family than export work and therefore add to the unemployment line that I have to pay for out my taxes! Local people will probably also be more familiar with local practice and custom, and possibly have a better grasp of English as it is spoken in the U.K.
I also make a point of AVOIDING doing business or buying from Companies who use overseas call centres. Many people I know do the same thing. It's bad enough we've sold our manufacturing industries down the river without hacking away at the service sector; keep on that road and we become a bankrupt nation with nothing left to sell!
As for those "Interesting" salaries in the Philippines; They're paid for with the near-slavery conditions those people work under; add to that the cost to the UK economy in terms of lost jobs, beneifits paid and higher taxes as a result; this does NO-ONE any long term favours.
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Matt Quinn.
www.tfgtv.com
Corporate Communication for SMALL Businesses!
RE: RE: Virtual Office - New business is looking for...
aaacbc | 06/12/2006 11:54 PM
I don't think so that such a service will cost the UK a lot of jobs.
What we intend to do is giving small companies and start-up's the opportunity to profit from a professional service until they are able to invest in a full time employee or do you think that you will find an employee in the UK who works for 100 Pound or less.
You don't have to see this as a buyout of UK jobs, it is more a tool that could help start-up's and small business to develop a professional service for their clients (like the big companies) in the early stage of their existence, without having to much financial charges to assume. This until they produce enough resources to be able to recruit a full-time employee from the local market and to assure the development of his business without taking to much financial risks.
I think this will be a chance for the local market and help developing healthy companies being able to grow with professional services and open for the local job market on a long term base.
Because the failure of small business and start-up’s is due to financial problems during the first 3 years of the life-cycle of a company.
We will only provide an additional solution for small companies to avoid financial problems.
KR
M.
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www.aaacbc.com - WE TURN IDEAS INTO VALUE
RE: RE: Virtual Office - New business is looking for...
TFGTV | 07/12/2006 10:13 AM
Your operation in isolation may not cost a lot of jobs. But the overall wholesale exporting of service sector work can and IS costing UK families their livliehoods and the bigger picture is a BIGGER picture! EVERY British job is important! EVERY British home should have a breadwinner who works, contributes to and benefits from the economic life of this country...
An ideal? A pipedream maybe; but a worthy goal and one we shouldn't loose sight of!
And it's those a the bottom of the rung who are suffering most. We've seen it happen with manufacturing and heavy industry; and entire communities are STILL laid waste as a result. The social and economic cost is enormous! And, if anytihng, the export of service sector work is even worse than the loss of our manufacturing base. At least where goods are imported from abroad there is work created in shipping storing and distributing the goods....
What future for a Britain where we make nothing and do nothing? What happens when what national assets that haven't been stripped already are gone?
I happen to live near Livingston, an area where many people depend on call centre and office-sitting type work. Quite a few jobs have been lost in recent times due to service work being exported. As these families lose their livliehods they become a drain on our benefits system as well as a loss to the commercial community as they are no longer able to puchase beyond the basic neccessities.
The whole point of business is to generate wealth; not just for the individual, but for the community as a whole. Firstly wealth is created for the risk-taking entrepreneur who has the initiative to start up and gain independance. But secondly (and just as importantly) for the community in terms of jobs created and services provided. SO; for EVERY SINGLE call that is picked up in an overseas call centre a British worker loses out. For EVERY PENNY that British workers lose out on a British shopkeeper looses out. For EVERY PENNY that a British shopkeeper loses out on a British distributor, importer, banker and so on through the economic chain.......
I'm afraid I see the "I'm alright jack" mentality as sociopathic and amoral.......
No I DON'T think I will find an employee in the UK who works for £100 (per week? per month?)or less; nor would I expect a professional to work for that sort of money! You say this will be a chance for the local market? WHO'S local market? OK so the individual who takes up your service might benefit in the short term; they might not have to fork out as much cash. But one way or another the overall cost of work says the same. And frankly, in displacing the cost of labour, anyone who abdicates their responsibilities in this way has much the same effect of the economy as any benefit cheat or common shoplifter! ....This isn't like importing tee shirts or watches you know! You're shipping work abroad and generating NOTHING to replace it!
Who pays when my Sister has to shut down her take-away because no-longer can people in the area spare a few quid for a curry on a Friday night? Who pays when my mate Paul has to shut down his little garage because people can no longer run their old bangers? Who pays when my local call centre is paying people off and no longer have a requirement for training videos? (And that HAS happened to a couple of my former clients). Who pays when some disaffected jobless kid takes a knife to the side of your car?
I know a LOT of people who feel this way and are actively hostile to Companies that ship work abroad willy-nilly. Like I said; If I come across a business operating this way they go on my persoanl blacklist and boycotted! Charity begins at home; and the most 'Foreign' place I'm prepared to 'export' this sort of work to is England.....
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Matt Quinn.
www.tfgtv.com
Corporate Communication for SMALL Businesses!
RE: Virtual Office - New business is looking for...
clickedon | 07/12/2006 07:22 PM
On the other hand, Matt, a small business which starts to thrive because of lower initial investments could prove a real boon to the economy as it grows, providing even more jobs in the UK.
It's too simplistic to say that outsourcing abroad will lead to job losses in the UK - it might just keep the country competitive.
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Dave - clickedon.co.uk
RE: RE: Virtual Office - New business is looking for...
TFGTV | 07/12/2006 08:26 PM
I'm afraid that's not what I'm seeing with my own eyes as some call centres and secretarial services around Livingston contract... I personally have two cousins both 18 months out of work since their call centre work was 'outsourced'; When that call centre was 'outsourced' 80 British families lost their only source of income. The girls are 'unskilled' and competition for factory jobs is fierce; especially since the closure of the vast Motorolla plant at Bathgate... And that in one of the fastest growing parts of the UK! In similar vein I have a friend who runs a computer maintainance business; He came VERY close to folding as the rug (in the form of a major client who collapsed due to outsourcing) was pulled from under him. And I personally have lost service-sector clients as their work is 'outsourced' abroad....
Similarly a tour around places like Wishaw, Motherwell, Springburn and Clydebank... Decades after the heavy and manufacturing industry that built these areas was 'outsourced' (basically asset stripped for short term gain for the few) great tracts of these areas still lie desolate with now three generations of former workers locked into a culture of benefit dependancy...
And as I drive around the UK in the course of my work I find that England and Wales too are littered with 'Wishaws, Motherwells, Springburns and Clydebanks' Simplistic? Damn right it's simplistic because the effects are simply horrendous!
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Matt Quinn.
www.tfgtv.com
Corporate Communication for SMALL Businesses!
