We’ve all heard the sweet siren call of cheap overseas labor. Whether it’s the cheaper alternative on Amazon, the deal we got at Walmart, or for many photographers; the countless emails and messages we get promising cheap editing services.
Our companies various inboxes get at least one of these solicitations a week. The two countries I see the most are India and Vietnam, but we’ve seen various other southeast Asian countries. They will give you a price sheet in broken English that promise amazing results for well under a dollar per photo. Here at AVOH, we shoot anywhere between 20-30 photos per house because we shoot to completion. This means our cost per shoot is more variable than other photographers who charge for set amounts of photos but according to the latest solicitation we received, it would cost us between $7 and $10.50. That’s substantially cheaper than we pay our editors so why haven’t we switched like many of our competitors?
There are a variety of reasons, but I can say with certainty that we are not going to switch as long as I am here. While much of our competition can be swayed by cheap prices and are willing to start a race to the bottom if it will get them more clients, we have always and will continue hiring local.
Local money stays local
When you hire us, your money goes to someone local who is much more likely to keep their money local. According to a study done by the University of Minesota Duluth, 48% of each purchase at a local independent business was recirculated into the local economy compared to 14% of each purchase at a chain store. Their data doesn’t have anything about spending money overseas, but I would hazard a guess that its some decimal point of 0 unless you happen to live somewhere that has lots of foreign investment. As a native of Lancaster California, I don’t really see any exports here that anyone from Southeast Asia is buying, unless Lockheed Martin starts selling them F-35s or if Northrop Grumman starts selling them B-51 Raiders.
This means that for every dollar you spend with us, almost half of that is being spent somewhere else here. It’s hard to track the lifetime of a dollar but every local stop it makes is another chance for it to stay local. When I’m using my paycheck to buy a sandwich at my favorite local deli, that dollar from my paycheck is getting 48% of it spent locally again. Depending on how many local stops it makes, it’s conceivable that your single dollar can generate multiple dollars worth of economic activity locally. When you book a shoot with us, you aren’t just keeping our lights on, you are keeping the lights on at every local business we and our employees support, and the local businesses that those local businesses support.
This is especially important as a realtor because you are also a local business. So your money now has a chance of making its way back to you. I will eventually buy a house, as will many of the people I purchase goods and services from. You are not only helping your local economy but nurturing potential future clientele.
When that money goes overseas to save a couple bucks, none of that is reinvested here. That means none of the businesses you care about are getting a cut and future clientele are getting less money to eventually spend with you.
Local experts that are just a phone call away
Ever been dissatisfied with your photos? We try our best, but it happens sometimes. When you call us, you can talk directly to the editor that did them and provide feedback to either get a quick fix on your photos or to make sure it doesn’t happen next time. Our editors go to events where you can meet and talk to them, and we can even arrange an office visit if you want to witness the local experts that make your photos and video awesome.
When a company hires overseas, you can’t do any of that. Southeast Asia is on the opposite side of the globe so getting anything on the same time scale is a nightmare. You thought it was annoying trying to remember what time it is for your family on the other side of the country? When you leave feedback with a company that hires overseas, they must store that and then disseminate it into an email that will get read many hours later. Many of these companies don’t even have a phone contact, why would they? They are mostly using google translate to talk to us. You wouldn’t understand a word they said if you called.
Was it something simple like needing an object removed from the photo? Me and my team can handle it in minutes since we are on a similar schedule to you. Hired someone remote? That’s going to be the next day. They’ll probably use the same technique I use but I’m awake when you are.
People I can talk to and work with
You may not care about our team cohesion if you get a good product, but that cohesion is what delivers you a good product. I know all our team members by their faces. We have barbecues, hangouts, etc. with all our employees. While it’s corny to say we are like family, we are much closer to that than any business who hires foreign labor.
That means every employee is happy to be here and is bringing their A game. I can turn in my chair and see all our staff. I can talk to them about their work as it’s happening, check up on them, and take care of them when something is wrong,
Ever have a bad day and bring it to work with you? We all try not to, but it happens. When a foreign contractor comes in and has a bad day, I’m praying that their company is taking care of them so that it doesn’t affect our product. When one of my guys is having a bad day, I’m at their desk with open ears and sometimes food. We all know each other and can watch out for one another like a team is supposed to.
Did an employee do something bad to your shoot? I can pull them aside and have a face-to-face conversation about the incident in question. It’s far easier for me to correct this mistake when I can see their emotions, know if I’m pushing too hard or not enough, and have all our tools in front of us to help correct any errors or show examples. If a foreign contractor messes up, I can only write a strongly worded email or use one of the other hundreds of services that are filling my spam inbox.
So why does our competition continue hiring foreign labor
It’s quite simple really, they want to do it as cheap as possible. While we are competitive with most of them, they have a higher profit margin because they aren’t hiring high quality, local talent. We are willing to take that hit to our profits if it means all our labor stays not just in America, but right here in your backyard. When I go to the store to buy groceries, I not only see my fellow team members, but I see you, our clients. I’m always humbled when I step into a restaurant or grocery store, and I recognize some of you. Many of you don’t recognize me since I’m in the background editing your photos and making them look as beautiful as possible.
The danger of cheap foreign labor
Foreign labor does something even more disturbing. It doesn’t just deprive our local economy; it actively harms it. When a rival photographer uses foreign labor to undercut us, we must either stay more expensive and lose clients or slash our prices and lose the profits that we invest back into the business. America has a higher cost of living so we eventually hit a point where we can’t cut back while they still can, this forces other local businesses to take their money outside of the country or die. I’m willing to die on the hill of local labor but other businesses might not be. When you have even one competitor leveraging foreign labor, it actively harms the rest of us and leaves us with only options that hurt everyone.
Maybe we will lower our profit margins? Our equipment costs thousands of dollars each. This equipment needs to be maintained, repaired, and replaced on a regular basis. If we drop our profit margins enough, eventually we can’t afford to maintain or use the expensive equipment that makes your listing stand out. It may be more about the user than it is the equipment, but a professional with good equipment is far better than a professional with bad equipment. I respect our photography team a lot, but we couldn’t produce the same results on cheap cameras or phones.
Maybe we can just pay our employees less? You ever seen how unhappy most people working at McDonalds are? We can do everything in our power to make the business nice and accommodating for them but if they aren’t making enough, they will be unhappy and maybe leave. Unhappy employees create subpar work and if we can’t retain them, we must keep hiring new people that lack the skills and years of experience of our current employees.
All these outcomes actively harm you, the client. You want the best quality product we can produce. Competing with foreign labor is a zero sum game where none of us win just so you can save a couple dollars.
In conclusion
Foreign labor may be cheap, but it comes at a massive cost that my company is not willing to make, and neither should you. If you want high quality, fast work from people you can call for help; you should be demanding local talent from every business you use. That doesn’t just include us. Foreign labor calls to almost every business where it has similar effects to the local economy. There’s a time and place for foreign labor but that time and place is not when there are local alternatives to it. And when we say local, we don’t mean local as in the same country, we don’t even mean local as in the same state, we mean local as in right in your backyard.