Ben Juson, Tru29: Building a BPO empire and giving back to the community

CEO wisdom podcast guys with bad jewson he is CEO entrepreneur uh at true29 so we're gonna discuss your ship we're gonna discuss Ben's background which is quite fascinating he is in the Philippines Ben welcome to the Pod tell us a bit more about yourself and what you're up to nowadays well thank you so much for having me Charles uh well uh a bit about myself uh I

don't know there's there's a ton of things that I'd like to to to say about myself but I I guess one thing that I could uh you know just a quick one would be uh I'm not your usual uh CEO you know who has money and then and just start putting up a business I I I I I never even graduated uh college and uh started out as an ordinary employee uh before putting up my own business and and and up until now what I'm busy with basically is growing uh the business that I've I've established you know so many years ago uh trying to to build a group of companies around 229.

interesting tell us about true 29 you know like BPO to me there's so many other bpls out there they're tough to sell you know like what will you do different in my opinion you know like BPO it's about quality nowadays um especially in the age of Ai and GPT and AI you know you can't be you know that that seven on ten uh BPL so how how does true 29 distinguish itself from the other BPO competition out there well I guess we're the only one or I don't know if there is in other countries but but here here in Manila uh we were the only and up until now we're the only BPO company that actually accepts any size of Outsourcing I mean we we've got clients who only needed one agent for the past

10 years and we're still here with them they're still with us we we've been working it throughout with them uh what we're so I guess that's one of the distinguishing Factor about 229 we don't care how big the client is we're not after the profit profit obviously is is is something needed by any business but for us it's secondary well we when I actually launched or established

my BPO business uh the profit I thought for myself would follow as long as I'm able to provide I think what is needed by the client you see it's it's it's quite a it's quite an interesting story uh I was actually a call center agent back then uh for for this for this uh I couldn't say the company name but it's a very big uh computer manufacturer uh based in the United States now they used to have a a lifetime free technical support I mean imagine you know all of those small business owners instead of buying other other products they'd buy that brand because as a small business owner why would you rather hire an I.T when you can just buy that brand and then if you need technical help just ring them up but

but obviously you know cut they they did they needed to cut costs and this clients they somehow became my friends already through the years while I'm helping them out so I said where will these people go and when when when we started offering uh limited one-year technical support after that you'd have to pay I mean I I actually felt you know I actually felt that hey this

this people just want to earn money these people just want to have a small business they couldn't afford an I.T uh Personnel to be hired full-time uh that's where it actually began I I wanted to come up with a BPO company truly provides a service that would suit their needs rather than ppos you know thinking okay uh we've got a minimum because that's that's usually the standard

there's a minimum number of Agents or or a service or a quantity before they before you can actually Outsource that's the reason why there's a lot of Freelancers out there nowadays because all of this is small medium-sized business owners doesn't know where to go I mean if they go to this big bpos or or no uh yeah as big as like Center do you think they would

even welcome you if you just need hey I just need a part-timer four hours a day they wouldn't even they wouldn't even budge a finger that's the main difference I guess which which made us click uh but that doesn't mean that we've got small clients only in fact uh we've actually grown we've actually grown from the time that we've we've set up uh we were basically right

now uh about 60 percent I can say it's about small to medium-sized Outsourcing clients uh but the remaining 40 percent they're they're actually big companies already so this this quality service that we were we were showing to the global market I guess somehow it caught the attention of you know big players out there as well yeah congrats on that um uh BPO like I mean you have

around 50-ish employees as of now is that correct okay because your LinkedIn page has uh 50 so 500 plus yeah especially the big businesses I guess they hire quite a lot right and and that can sell and the business model is I don't know you sell their time at six dollars an hour uh well you you paid him six dollars six dollars an hour but you sell their time at 10.

is that the business model pretty much yeah pretty much that however as you mentioned earlier uh the the thing about nowadays the technical you know Revolution out there so we we actually wanted to stay I call this stay in the game uh instead of instead of marketing ourselves as you know just a company that will provide you cheap labor uh we we've also started to to innovate

so right now we actually got clients who Outsource their their uh business processes to us but we they they were actually not paying us per hour per person because we're actually using chat GPT and AI Technologies as well I mean we got a client right now based in the United States they're an AI company uh they needed to do some machine learning processes now we said sure

why not we have our own system unless you want us to use your system then this I will do it blah blah blah so it's it's not all about it's not all about uh uh it's not all about cheap Manpower right what we right what we're trying to do the good thing about about technology nowadays you know what I actually think of it uh as an advantage It's actually an advantage a lot of people would say with the Advent of AI and new technology a lot of people will lose their job not in our case it actually created new jobs just like back in the industrial revolution back in the 1800s sure when the train got you know uh widely used in the United States all of those you know the the couriers you know

the the guys riding the horse to deliver the package from one state to the other obviously they lost their their livelihood but with with the new train Railway system actually creating new jobs for them so you just need to think out of the box and that's that's basically what we did and how how do you train your employees to adapt to that mindset and be more entrepreneurial

be more creative and solution oriented rather than reactive and nine to five mentality well that's one good thing about us we encourage we highly encourage diversity and and creativity within within our our organization in fact we have what we call an open door policy not necessarily open door because you you know you you can go straight to the CEO or the HR manager so you can complain

or whine but uh we we've got this concept of open door policy that if even if you're even if you're just a janitor and you've got an idea we hear them out and we reward them for it that way everyone is motivated to you know think out of the box and see how much more we can improve our services for our clients and make them more happy at the same time it makes our office more lively because it it became like some sort of a game to them and and that's the kind of of environment that I really wanted because I used to be an employee myself I don't want to you know a dull boring environment because I got used to that kind of environment nine to five you're just in front of computer

I mean come on so I I actually stopped that people in the floor is actually having fun they're there they're laughing they're you know doing jokes the same time earning and and helping our clients see you know grow their business love it let's talk about numbers here so I did some quick napkin math with 500 employees that are placed you know 10 bucks an hour um that

is build uh let's let's call it that way 40 hours a week so it's like 1 600 uh per month and that's around 12 to 13k per year and then you do times 500 that is a 10 million dollar business a year that I would have if that would be the case is is that like somewhat accurate mathematics it actually is you're almost right on spot my friend but these are big numbers like uh that's that's somewhat impressive and let's say that the margins you know like I own various agencies too um obviously it's payroll extensive that eats up or margin but let's say that the margins are 20 that's two million dollars in your pocket on a yearly basis like uh that's that's pretty impressive it is it is and that's what I like

about this kind of business we were able to create a revenue that allows us to grow even further uh we didn't actually use the profit you know to to buy a new Lamborghini or buy I I don't know another CEOs or businessmen uh I I still drive my old Mitsubishi uh sedan uh what we did with them with the income is is actually put up other businesses we want to expand we want to explore the software one that I saw so yep we went into correct we branched out we branched out so we are now in in uh We've set up true engine which is a technology company uh we're now actually creating an accounting system all in one with with an inventory and a hris platform payroll system all in one it's pretty much

like an internet uh an intra network uh for for one of the government agencies here in the Philippines and basically we we thought about that from having this VPO because remember earlier I told you hey we need to be Innovative we we wanted to to make sure that that BPO stays relevant by by coming up with new ideas not just cheap labor but so we got AI

we got system and technology so we thought hey if we could do this then perhaps we can set up a technology company as well they don't have to be all in California they don't have to be all in Silicon Valley in fact we got a lot of clients uh a very big a very big uh self-driving car company actually in in in the United States is actually Outsourcing to us and our programmers or developers you know the techie guys who creates all of those codes that I couldn't even read uh they're Filipinos we've got them there we got an abundance of them so I said hey let's let's do this so we started that off and then about a couple of months ago we we also just launched true Cafe because I love coffee not

necessarily because yeah just oh great yeah that one here yeah cheers yes so yeah it's set up true Cafe and uh it allowed us to hire more people at the same time give more jobs out there uh so we're basically giving back to the community by doing that and then just last first of June we we launched true exports which is mainly more on the trading part

but focused on environment related type of products we were focusing on scrap metals and recycling basically so we export those things because there's there's not much recycling plant here in the Philippines to be honest so we we're working with some companies up there in Singapore we we bring all of these materials over there get it recycled over there bring them back here interesting yeah made it cheaper

and contributed even you know a very small uh a very small act for for Mother Earth yeah and that's great and you're growing you're expanding you're in the Abundant state but it wasn't always that way uh in in your case right you you grew up pretty much from nothing you you didn't have parents growing up so how does it feel nowadays that you have hid this success

like do you ever stop and Ponder upon your life and how you you went from zero to one you did your research huh so yeah you're right uh yeah it wasn't it it was a life for me uh no no parents and then or anything like that you know a support group or something and not just about the Monies you know it's the support group if you got that family that supports you you can actually achieve almost anything but I didn't have both of them it didn't have the money I didn't have uh that support group so when you said didn't you Ponder or or how was it it's really hard mate so this time around what I thought was hey how can I give back to the community that that I don't know I'm

not I'm not trying to be mobile but it somehow became like uh an intuition to me a fire a fire in the heart yeah that's right so I I actually unlike other unlike other companies uh they wouldn't hire you if you're if you're not a college graduate got tons of experience I actually gave people who are high school graduates some people doesn't even know how to speak

English and I'll try to create a job for them and because of that technology Ai and chat GPT we were able to because they didn't need to speak English to to be able to learn those things where we can teach them in fact we got a lot of those I've I've got a I got a staff here he's been with me for what seven years now he used to be our gender and now he's one of our supervisors he used to be just you know mopping the floor without his his one of our supervisors uh we have a HR supervisor who's who who was uh what he called this who who rejected by a lot of companies because she was she was uh uh fresh grad I mean no one wants to hire a fresh

graduate it's it would be really hard for you to get a job without some experience out here and and we gave her a chance uh we said okay uh let's put you on the phone first and then after seeing her enthusiasm obviously she didn't she didn't do well well not do well on the calls because she never had experience that's given but we saw the enthusiac enthusiast

so we said okay let's train you in human resources in HR uh and and now she's she's a rock star and she's one of our supervisors uh and and um yeah growing into a manager one of these months to come so so it's giving back I guess became like uh an Intuition or or a byproduct of where I came from yeah that you reflect on your past in my case you know I mean I grew up way more privileged than you are um but I still had my struggles and it's like how can I get away from the The Nest that my parents built for me that's what the kind of problem us privileged kids have you know um and nowadays I'm seeking to help other kids get education as soon as possible learn entrepreneurship

as young as 13 and have them achieve their financial Independence and whatever the background is this kid has and even if that kid doesn't have parents and is growing up in this toxic environment on the streets for example so be it you know they'll accept them in my program I'll teach them with I think with the Internet it's it's pretty much um available to anyone to to

get on a call you know and and get some some mentorship and so forth and that's a strong driver for me because every time I picture myself in that environment kind of stuck you know studying in the educational system that's also a privileged uh kids problem to to be stuck in the educational system which was somewhat very toxic for me me I've always been an entrepreneur um

and now I really want to help other kids get out of that because I know the pain right and you know the pain of growing up without parents without people giving you a shot you know you had to fight your way through and you're like okay now um I don't like the word inclusion but it's giving people a shot at success right once you give them the shot if they don't take the shot at the goal it's pretty much their problem but let's have them have a shot at least at the net and the more shot they can have the the bad yeah the better um my last question for you Ben is where do you want to take the business this year um what's next for true29 well actually we've got uh seven years

roadmap that I designed a few years ago uh before the end of this year we'd like to double the number of employees that we've got um and and then just not look inside of our country in terms of expansion uh but before the end of this year we're we're we're hoping that uh we're gonna be launching our our office in Singapore and then opening up another another

office in the United States hopefully in in another one in California we've already got one there uh in Newark and and I'm hoping somewhere in southern side uh we we're gonna put something up and and help you know clients out there as well as provide employment to all the people out there because Outsourcing doesn't need to be offshore you know United States a lot of politicians are

using it for you know for making them look good but to be honest I mean come on what does really Outsourcing means it simply means that you're giving the work to another company and let them perform it so it doesn't matter where where where where where the office is that they're they're making a devil out of the you know out of the Outsourcing name when in fact

even even their own their own people can benefit from it and then we've started doing it actually we got about uh about a dozen not so it's not too much we we got about a dozen employees back there in California uh we were providing uh the mostly Developers for for some other uh companies out there so that's basically what we wanted to do we don't want to

keep it here in the Philippines we we want to expand globally right and I fully agree you know like that's why they use words like offshoring it's like the people that cheat the taxes it's like the same connotation offshoring you know and I fully agree an e-nationalist uh Speech is mostly dumb I think we do need a part of that's like the testosterone part of us you

know oh my country I'm Canadian I mean I don't have that personally I'm like citizen of the internet and I'm weird a bunch of kids are like me also but I I do believe that you know in a world of globalization especially we're just gonna anyone is gonna trade with anyone whatever their nationality so just Embrace that while it's there any other rhetoric to keep jobs uh

local is dumb uh it's not scalable you know it's like me talking to French entrepreneurs and uh them you know being very Nationalist and so forth and yeah we we have employees we treat them right but no you in 2023 by default you're competing at an international level even if you're a small business even if you're brick and mortar and selling chocolate in the street you are

competing against Amazon Amazon also sell chocolate and guess what you're competing against this Mexican company that does ads in the US to sell their own chocolate your competing gets lint a Swiss a chocolate company so you know come come in these day and age and yeah super glad that we've talked Ben because you've got the wind in your cells I really like that I love your energy

I think uh I think what you've accomplished is amazing so yeah take time and and reflect on that touch yourself on the back enjoy the view you know uh good job where can people find out more about you and true 29 well yeah well basically if you want to find out more just just go to our website www.tru29.com uh or our contact details are there you can

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