IAmA westerner running an office out of the Philippines AMA

[blogspotter]

bluechinagroup and Amoxicillin, can you please do detailed post on opening a HK corp? I visit HK&Macau once a year, and I have thought about this, but never gave a serious thought. I need not carry gambling money from my place this way

Also, how about taxes in the home country. Don't I have to pay tax in my home country on the income I generate in HK?

 

[Amoxicillin]

bluechinagroup and Amoxicillin, can you please do detailed post on opening a HK corp? I visit HK&Macau once a year, and I have thought about this, but never gave a serious thought. I need not carry gambling money from my place this way

I'm not really sure there is that much to say. HK is a first world banking hub and the processes aren't that dissimilar to most western countries.

I sent my proposed company name, passport and address proof via email, paid $1,500 USD, signed and couriered the docs over, and about a week later the company was formed. This also provided a registered agent address for the first 18 months.

Although I didn't have to, I decided to fly over to meet the guy who set everything up and get my bank account sorted. I went with HSBC because Standard Chartered wanted a shitload more information (business plan, etc...)

Setup of the bank account was done mostly on the spot, with an extra month or so to get a secured credit card. The time deposit for the CC was only HK30,000, and they provided me with an RSA fob so I can do internet banking.

The only two major problems I found with the HK corp are:

1) They aren't particularly anonymous. $5 gets me a copy of your company papers online.

2) They have agreements with a bunch of companies regarding judgements

Also, how about taxes in the home country. Don't I have to pay tax in my home country on the income I generate in HK?

That entirely depends on your home country. I don't hold a US passport. I would suggest talking to someone about your specific situation.

 

[flaw3d]

Props to this thread. The HK corp knowledge dropped here is just amazing.

 

[Amoxicillin]

Great info, but same question here, which website do you recommend when it comes to hiring ? and what do you look for when you hire ? so you don't get screwed over with shitty VA?

Thanks bro!

I primarily use JobStreet for regular positions, and MyNimo for peasant positions.

You're going to have to live with the fact that you'll make bad hiring decisions for positions you're not an expert in. Go read this, then accept that you're going to make bad hires http://www.businessinsider.com/how-google-hires-people-2013-6

Hire fast, fire faster. In PH it takes about a month to fill a position, followed by another month for them to give notice to their previous employer. Two months lead time generally means you need to over-hire to get what you want.

1.How do YOU hire managers ?

I make them interview me or my HR manager for faux positions. If they don't ask me the right questions, then I can't trust them to ask anyone else the right questions.

For example, I'll make them interview me for a content writing position. A crappy manager will ask mostly education questions and do little to no validation of skills.

A good manager will ask to see samples, request that I write an article in front of them, ask what blogs they have written, find out if they have twitter followers who like what they post, etc... The less they are afraid to grill me, the more confident I am that they will grill my other employees. I find confidence and a little skepticism are signs of a good manager.

I probably shouldn't write this here, but I've found better results from atheist employees. They tend to think for themselves a little easier and they aren't easy to find.

2. You mentioned that you also ran teams remotely. Why did you move to Cebu ?

Why not? Life is boring if you stay within your comfort zone.

 

[coach]

I had a friend there that was running an online business in Cagayen De Oro emplyoying a number of locals. He got into some sort of legal spat with his employees, and a few months down the road was assassinated. This was probably 3 months ago. My only point is, be careful not to piss off the employees.

 

[Amoxicillin]

I had a friend there that was running an online business in Cagayen De Oro emplyoying a number of locals. He got into some sort of legal spat with his employees, and a few months down the road was assassinated. This was probably 3 months ago. My only point is, be careful not to piss off the employees.

Although a nice place, Cagayen De Oro is a little too close to the Muslim terrorists. Getting someone killed down there will cost a few hundred US.

PH is divided into two chunks, the top half is what everyone talks about and is predominantly Christian. The bottom half however (commonly referred to as the south) is full of Muslim extremists. If you're going to setup down that way, I wouldn't venture too far out of Davao.

As far as not pissing off your employees, this is why you hire HR and managers. Don't fire anyone yourself directly, have HR do it; in my experience the employee will think HR or their manager is the one who instigated the firing.