Allie Pasag - Bahay Kubo to Freelancer CEO - JasSuccess Interview

June 21, 2017
by Jason Dulay 
Jason is the founder and CEO of Work from Home Roadmap and VA Bootcamp. Aside from teaching Filipinos how to succeed working from home, he likes traveling, playing board games, and drinking coffee.
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In this inspiring #JasSuccess Interview you will discover how Maritess 'Allie' Pasag went from Bahay Kubo to Freelancer CEO. You'll surely be inspired and encouraged as she shares her Freelancing Journey with FLIP.

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 Notable Quotes:

  • When you do good with your clients napaka generous nilang mag bigay ng referrals.
  • I learned na kailangan pala talaga may savings kahit papano. Hindi pwedeng walang wala talaga.
  • I mean freelancing is a good business, even the VA companies it's really a great business, profitable business sya pero stability I think you would agree. Stable sya in a way kapag yung client mo long term na pero they can drop you like a hot potato pag hindi ka na nila kailangan.
  • When you're doing work from home reputation is very important.
  • When I started, I really didn't know anything. Wala akong alam sa real estate, hindi ako ipinanganak na marunong na akong mag WordPress. Wala akong alam sa mga bagay na ‘yan. As in I learned it by experience so yung sinasabi nila na "I don't have any experience kaya hindi ako makakakuha ng VA job." No, it's how you present yourself. I really think it's how you present yourself and how you find ways to help your client more.
  • We can do a lot of things even when we're really thousand miles away from our clients and since I think it is a good trait of Filipinos na we are very resourceful and very accommodating we're very friendly. Hindi mahirap sa atin to personalize the service that we're offering.
  • It’s not easy starting an agency, starting a team especially when you go through experiences like that na you get betrayed at times.
  • It's not the fame. It's not the money. It's the acceptance nila tapos yung feeling mo na you've touched them and you're able to help them in your small little way. So yun yung the best talaga na feeling.
  • "You don't need to be great to start but you need to start to be great" so yung procrastination nyo yung iniisip ninyo na ‘I am not this good hindi ko kaya yan.’ You don't need to be great lahat tayo pinanganak pantay-pantay tayo. You just need to keep moving forward. Pag may challenges another hurdle lang yan but you need to keep moving forward that's what you need to do kasi it doesn't matter how many times you fall and fell flat on your face what matter is the number of times that you got up you learned from your mistakes and you move forward.

 

Allie Pagan's Journey to Freelancing

 

  • Smart, Humble, Patient, Intelligent-Life
  • Undergraduate Engineering from UP
  • Came from a poor family living in a growing very small community
  • Got married early
  • Became a successful business agency owner

 

Allie Pagan encountered ups and downs in life. She was getting sick when her father passed away and her husband decided to resign from work to take care of her and the kids. Despite the experiences happening in her life, she remained strong and think of positive ways of how she can earn while stays at home.

In 2005, she started as a part-time freelancer in oDesk. It wasn’t easy for her to start freelancing because she had no idea that the client is legit or scam. After several times of sending proposals, the right client came in and she landed the job full time earning $3.5 per hour, which is enough to support the needs of their living. She did her best in the job as a Virtual Assistant. As the client felt she was loyal to the work, she was offered to become a business partner with the client. She was asked to look for a developer as it is needed for the business. She had a friend who has knowledge in creating websites that helped her too in putting up their ongoing business and made an agreement with the income. They purchased the resources as it needs such as a secondhand computer, air-conditioner, and a space for an office and were able to start the business right away. The small scale center business runs smoothly until Allie noticed that her friend was being unfair in terms of work and income. She doesn’t want to burn bridges from a friend. So they parted up the business and letting him continue what had been started for and initiate it in her own way.

Allie had an account with 10 VA’s. She also has another client who is a fan of her because she always does the job well. She was referred by different clients to her client, so this was the one had told her to start her own business. That was a year back in 2009. The client paid Allie $5 per hour and treated her like his little sister. She has helped him with a lot of things. So he was happy for her. He gave Allie a gift deposited to her account to buy a MacBook Pro. She was really surprised and almost fell down from the chair.

On the other hand, Allie’s real estate business with the client was suddenly down due to property preservation. She helped the client to overcome, but were all failed in the business is not doing smoothly. She also have encountered that her VA betrayed her. She had shared her knowledge, doing trainings, to help in order to reach their goals, but unknowingly, VA took her client. She concludes that freelancing is a good business even the VA companies, it’s really a great business, profitable, but stability is she thought you would agree. So after having a business, it is important to have separate emergency funds that worth of the expenses.

Currently, Allie already has two houses into which the other unit made had it their business office, her children are sent to good schools. She aspires newbies into freelancing, not just selling yourself into different services you can offer to the client, but rather how a freelancer can help the client.

 

 

 

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by Jason Dulay 
Jason is the founder and CEO of Work from Home Roadmap and VA Bootcamp. Aside from teaching Filipinos how to succeed working from home, he likes traveling, playing board games, and drinking coffee.

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187 comments on “Allie Pasag - Bahay Kubo to Freelancer CEO - JasSuccess Interview”

    1. Try mo mag aral ng new skills... pwd ka sa lynda.com kung san pwd ka mamimili ng mga courses tulad ng graphic design, web design, cad, photography, etc. pag may skills ka na malaki na chance mo makakuha ng client.

    1. Maritess Pasag just watched the launching of Digital Career Advocates of the Philippines - DCAP po..napakaganda ng plans nila..nakakainspire.. 🙂 thank you again po..liked your page also..May God bless you more po so that you can help more people.. 🙂

    1. You need to invest on a laptop and a good internet connection to start freelancing.. or sabi nga ni coach Genesis try mo po makipag usap sa isang comp shop and rent one computer na ikaw lang ang gagamit 🙂

  1. Sir jay why the other v.a rate is 20+$ while the fil is just 3-5$ w I just saw in other groups pero same lng nmn po ang mga task..nkita ko lng s isang v.a groups n international

    1. Unfortunately that is one issue that we want to address in Digital Career Advocates of the Philippines - DCAP.. we want to raise the bar of the freelancing industry in the Philippines. 🙂

    1. Your best option is to create a profile in platforms like upwork, online jobs.ph.. also when a client ask you for money before you can start work that's a red flag already...

  2. Wow inspiring nmn po. Ganun nmn po talaga bago nmn ntn makuha ang goal ntn dadaan muna ntau sa maraming pagsubok...malaking factor po tlga ang good attitude towards work ??

  3. Wow inspiring nmn po. Ganun nmn po talaga bago nmn ntn makuha ang goal ntn dadaan muna ntau sa maraming pagsubok...malaking factor po tlga ang good attitude towards work 😊😄

  4. Wow inspiring nmn po. Ganun nmn po talaga bago nmn ntn makuha ang goal ntn dadaan muna ntau sa maraming pagsubok...malaking factor po tlga ang good attitude towards work

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