Starting a manpower staffing agency in the Philippines as a foreigner

What a bucket of worms that sounds like haha...good luck with that..I definitely think you would have to have a work visa and some kind of business license, BIR number and loads and loads of insurance....I see that you are in Cambodia. Is this a misplaced post??

Munchie wrote:

What a bucket of worms that sounds like haha...good luck with that..I definitely think you would have to have a work visa and some kind of business license, BIR number and loads and loads of insurance....I see that you are in Cambodia. Is this a misplaced post??

11 months ago this New Zealander asked about starting a vehicle rental business in Puerto Princessa, admits he does not speak any local languages.  Evidently not many business prospects in Cambodia.

Hey Munchie. thanks for pointing out that I am still pinned to Cambodia. I will change it to NZ as I am in NZ have been to Philippines a few times and have a couple of businesses already. both small scale though.

mugtech wrote:

Munchie wrote:

What a bucket of worms that sounds like haha...good luck with that..I definitely think you would have to have a work visa and some kind of business license, BIR number and loads and loads of insurance....I see that you are in Cambodia. Is this a misplaced post??

11 months ago this New Zealander asked about starting a vehicle rental business in Puerto Princessa, admits he does not speak any local languages.  Evidently not many business prospects in Cambodia.

Yes  you are right, I did and eventually started the business late last year along with a couple of other small businesses with a local partner. I am in the final stages of applying for SSRV but doubting if this was the best way or use to park $50K. ACR I and nothing else. Apart from sorting all the papers in city hall, DOL (dept of labour) etc. I was wondering if there was anything else needed.
Appreciate if anyone knows someone who is in or has run this sort of business in the Philippines.

I had an OFW agency in Manila over 10 years ago with a filipina partner who knew the ropes. I also owned, ran and worked in Canadian staffing agencies - from contract to permanent technical people - for a total of about 7+ years.
But for here it seems you are proposing a lower-deck temp agency that may or may not work here...

A couple of realities?

There are so many people looking for work and so many others who have friends and friends of friends, that it's quite likely you won't be wanted, and certainly not for a fee, because most pinoy, even those with money, tend to be kuripot.

As well, in this corrupt country, it's likely that someone's cousin will get a job with whomever because often it's not about competence or performance at all, but about helping out the cousin and her or his family. Performance-based hiring is much less stressed here than in the west.

One way to check things out would be to contact some temp agencies, if there are any, and see how they are doing. I'm not sure how you'd get paid.
As well, you can approach prominent corporations or businesses in general, do a survey among prominent companies to see if they'd pay for such a service.

Once this chinese curse lifts, perhaps you've got your work cut out for you?

sarawanan_n wrote:

Hi community, I am planning on starting on a manpower staffing agency that focuses on providing temp services, casual and permanent staffing solution as a bridge between qualified workers and the businesses that require its services.

Is this possible as a foreigner? As all the staffs (employment) are and will be locals, I do not see any problem but I could be completely ignorant.

Any suggestions and advise is highly appreciated. 

Cheers

I would suggest opening an employment agency in a country that has a low unemployment rate and have more jobs than applicants. Open up an agency here in the Philippines and soon you will be looking for a job.

W9XR wrote:

sarawanan_n wrote:

Hi community, I am planning on starting on a manpower staffing agency that focuses on providing temp services, casual and permanent staffing solution as a bridge between qualified workers and the businesses that require its services.

Is this possible as a foreigner? As all the staffs (employment) are and will be locals, I do not see any problem but I could be completely ignorant.

Any suggestions and advise is highly appreciated. 

Cheers

I would suggest opening an employment agency in a country that has a low unemployment rate and have more jobs than applicants. Open up an agency here in the Philippines and soon you will be looking for a job.

daenr wrote:

I had an OFW agency in Manila over 10 years ago with a filipina partner who knew the ropes. I also owned, ran and worked in Canadian staffing agencies - from contract to permanent technical people - for a total of about 7+ years.
But for here it seems you are proposing a lower-deck temp agency that may or may not work here...

A couple of realities?

There are so many people looking for work and so many others who have friends and friends of friends, that it's quite likely you won't be wanted, and certainly not for a fee, because most pinoy, even those with money, tend to be kuripot.

As well, in this corrupt country, it's likely that someone's cousin will get a job with whomever because often it's not about competence or performance at all, but about helping out the cousin and her or his family. Performance-based hiring is much less stressed here than in the west.

One way to check things out would be to contact some temp agencies, if there are any, and see how they are doing. I'm not sure how you'd get paid.
As well, you can approach prominent corporations or businesses in general, do a survey among prominent companies to see if they'd pay for such a service.

Once this chinese curse lifts, perhaps you've got your work cut out for you?

Hey Daenr. thanks for sharing your thoughts and the insights. very much appreciated.
I had noticed some of the aspects - referred by friends, favoured by relatives to being kuripot, you mentioned.
To your point on approaching businesses and corporations, I was there in the Philippines just before the lock down for about 2 weeks and met few of them.

I think giving some context would help you, and the expat community, help me. Sorry for the delay and being vague in the first go.

I visited Philippines in the first two weeks of March before the lock down. This was primarily to see how my businesses - motorbike rental, computer gaming store and a sari sari, were performing and to sort some of the legal paperwork with my business partner. 
I was initially booked in an Airbnb and then cancelled to move to a hotel due to water scarcity issues across Puerto Princesa. The hotel I stayed at had about 13 rooms and only 3 were occupied and on chatting with the owner/manager she noted that the business was very slow and getting towards bad due to the covid-19. This hotel is, I would categorise a medium sized, with 12 staff - 2 kitchen staff, 3 receptionists, 3 room service , 3 garden and 1 general care taker. My first impression, there are too many staffs for a hotel with just 13 rooms. Soon I realised that this was due to cheap and large abundance of labour.
Over the course of 10 days of my stay, she met with every one to share the business update and her  decision to reduce the number of staff to just 2 for cleaning and maintenance. This was real life example of drastic measures at drastic times and I could totally understand. I immediately thought about my businesses which was making profit - with all of them together, and was managed by husband and wife who are also the owners. I was convinced that it cant get any leaner than that.

I also met with the lady - hotel owner, almost every day to discuss and help her with any advise or idea I possibly could and then.... I had a brain fart! I proposed the idea of "hospitality staff as a service" or "staff on demand model". In other words "Uber for Staff". We worked out some numbers and scenarios, risks and benefits of having staffs in the hotel books as opposed to an agent. She could see the unending possibilities - services ranging from hiring on hourly, to days to months during high season, flexibility of choosing the specific skilled individuals from a pool like kitchen staff, cleaners, receptionists, restaurant waiters, bar attenders etc. of using a service like that if there was one.

Coincidentally, there was a monthly hotel association meeting where all the small, medium and large hotel owners and managers meet on a monthly meeting to discuss performance, trends and initiatives. She took me along and it was a great meeting and I got to meet about 60+ individuals with whom I was able to share this idea in various levels. These meetings could have up 200 owners during good times. It was well received and they were really keen to be able to tap into a service like this. Over the next couple of days, I also went to city hall and met with city officials to discuss and overall the idea was received well.

My vision, if this "staffing as a service" were to come alive, it will be a web/app based tool for hotels to use - engage, book, and manage hospitality staff. at a nominal price.   

Hope this provides better context for anyone interested to advise and assist.

There does not seem to be enough studies to compute a living wage in the Philippines. The only legitimate one I have read is based on a media interview with NEDA Secretary Pernia who stated that a family of five to survive would actually need an aggregate income of *P42,000 to live above the poverty line.Jun 16, 2019.

manwonder wrote:

There does not seem to be enough studies to compute a living wage in the Philippines. The only legitimate one I have read is based on a media interview with NEDA Secretary Pernia who stated that a family of five to survive would actually need an aggregate income of *P42,000 to live above the poverty line.Jun 16, 2019.

@Manwonder: thanks for the insight. I am unsure of living wage either however, the PHP 42K seems about right for metro areas. The scenarios we discussed were based on the govt set minimum wage in Palawan @ PHP 295 per 8 hour shift. which in an example of 10 permanent staff at a small to medium sized hotel would have a reoccurring  cost of PHP 200K per month - 22 working days per staff. And with the model we proposed this could squeezed to almost half if not 35% - depending on occupancy, for any given month.

Happy to be corrected and take additional insights.

From what i know if you will put up a business in the Philippines and you are a foreigner...majority of the shares of your company should belong to filipino partners. You are only allowed to have a number of percentage.