AFTER working for eight years in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, Michael Cubos is now running his own BPO company in Cordova, Mactan Island and Davao City.
Cubos left his high-paying senior level job in a call center after growing his network of clients in a consultancy job he got at ODesk, his job on the side while working in a giant BPO company in Cebu.
“I guess it is the belief that wherever you are, you shouldn’t stop learning. That got me into the BPO business,” said the 32-year-old founder and chief executive officer of Performance 360 Call Center and BPO Services.
“I gained the trust of the clients and that encouraged me to move forward and handle the business myself,” said Cubos, recalling that the opportunity came at the right time when he felt he was already stuck in his career.
Cubos’ long stint in the BPO industry, having held various key positions in five different BPO firms, exposed him to various aspects of the business, from customer service to training agents, technical support, operations, and analytics, among others.
“I know a lot of skills and I know I should do something about this,” said Cubos, who is a mass communications graduate from the University of Mindanao in Davao City.
Prior to his corporate job, Cubos learned life the hard way. He managed to finish college by working as a telemarketer while studying.
“It was the financial struggles that motivated me to dream big. I worked hard so the family’s future generations would not experience the struggles we went through,” he said.
With an investment of P10,000, Cubos initially rented 10 computer units from an Internet cafe in Consolacion from midnight to 6 a.m. to jumpstart his BPO business. After learning later on that working in an Internet cafe was not conducive for professional work, Cudos shifted to a home-based operation.
“My journey setting up this business was a trial-and-error thing. After learning that working at home was quite a huge risk and would not help me professionalize the business for both my clients and agents, I expanded my search to look for business partners,” he said.
One of Cubos’ relatives offered to partner with him in the business. In 2013, they set up the first Performance 360 Call Center and BPO Services in Davao City with 70 seats.
After Davao, Cubos expanded his business in Cordova in November 2015 with the help of another family member for a business partner. The Cordova site employs 40 call center agents and is performing well.
Combining both sites, Performance 360 caters to seven foreign clients rendering outsourcing services like sales, lead generation, customer service and virtual assistance.
“I named the company Performance 360 because I want our employees to excel in all aspects. We are a small BPO firm but we are committed to provide the best service to our clients,” Cubos said.
“I also want our company to be known as a family and Christ-centered BPO firm. In every sale we close, we say it is for Jesus,” he said, adding that he wants his agents to foster camaraderie and healthy working relationship and to stay away from vices that may harm them.
This year, Cubos plans to expand the Cordova site’s capacity to 140 agents by year-end.
Cubos is an awardee of this year’s The Outstanding Cebuano Award (Toca) for entrepreneurship.