From 1 to 1,000 Agents: Starting a BPO from Scratch, According to Telework’s Marge and Cris Aviso

How does an entrepreneur scale their BPO company to over a thousand agents? Marge and Cris Aviso of Telework PH show us how they survived the challenges and made their business thrive.

The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry has long been the darling of the Philippine economy. According to the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), the BPO industry’s size was $32.5 billion in 2022, and has been steadily growing by eight to 10% every year. The Philippines is an exporter of labor to the world, but BPO companies allow workers to stay at home and work in a wide range of industries on everything from customer service to financial services and IT. And it is precisely this reason why Marge Aviso created Telework PH, albeit with a more hyperlocal focus.

In 2015, Marge Aviso founded a hybrid work BPO to be closer to her hometown of Bulacan. In the process, she built a company that involves all four siblings in the family and employs hundreds in her local community. At the same time, Telework PH is forging a new path forward in the BPO landscape with its AI-centric solutions.

The Business Manual spoke to two of the siblings who lead Telework PH, Marge Aviso, founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Cris Aviso, Chief Financial Officer. The siblings shared an eye-opening look at what it takes to compete in the BPO industry in all stages of the company’s dramatic growth.

Telework PH

There are two remarkable stories behind Telework PH, each offering valuable lessons to entrepreneurs. The first is an intensely personal story of the company’s founding. It is a story about trust and family and the siblings’ collective grit in the face of challenges to survive and thrive. The second story is of a startup that was in the right place at the right time, leveraging technologies like AI, navigating through the pandemic, scaling and professionalizing operations, and finding innovative solutions to lead in the dynamic BPO landscape. Marge and Cris Aviso share what it took to succeed in both.

Today, Telework PH runs multiple offices around the Philippines, but primarily in the Avisos’ hometown of Bulacan. Marge Aviso explains, “So we are about 1,000 full-time employees, more or less, because we have a seasonal account right now. But we’re not going down any further from 1,000 employees. This is spread all over the Philippines, but half of them are in the office in Bulacan.”

The scale of the young startup has not gone unnoticed. Recently, Telework PH was recognized by the Philippine Daily Inquirer as one of the Philippines’ Growth Champions, placing itself among the top 30 companies that achieved the highest percentage growth in revenues between 2019 and 2022, which includes the challenging years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Necessity of Entrepreneurship

Prior to the founding of Telework PH, its CEO, Marge Aviso was a registered nurse. However, to help make ends meet, she joined a BPO company in Manila. It was here, working for two years, where she learned the ropes. Yet, she credits her experience in nursing for giving her an edge in managing people.

She says, “I truly believe the background in psychology has helped a lot because it has to do with dealing with other people and, you know, breaking down the barriers. And running a BPO is really heavy on manpower and dealing with emotions. And I think the science behind getting through [to] people has really helped me a lot with managing teams and leadership in general.”

By starting her own company, Marge Aviso joined the ranks of other nurses-turned-entrepreneurs featured on The Business Manual. “I [thought] there has to be something better than this,” Marge says of her time as a BPO employee. And she took inspiration from her own mother, who runs a sari-sari store business.

The example of their entrepreneur mother is something her sister Cris, 10 years Marge’s senior, echoes. “I witnessed my mom really taking care of our store,” Cris says. “So for me, it was a different story, not really as an entrepreneur. But I saw how the business works, the finances.”

Cris recalls how her mother was forced, at one point, to borrow from loan sharks, and how later on, she realized how she could help her sister avoid similar pitfalls. “I realized that I had to help my sister in her business,” she says. “So I put family first. So that’s where I really saw the beauty or what’s good about being an entrepreneur.”

Unlike other entrepreneurs who seek to solve a customer pain point, it was a personal pain point that led Marge to entrepreneurship. “Although I’ve seen how hard [entrepreneurship] was,” she says, “I realized that this is my path to actually, you know, taking my time back and really spending it with my kid. Because I was traveling back and forth, [from] Bulacan and Metro Manila. I was away for most of the week, like four days a week.”

She continues, saying, “I wasn’t able to witness the milestones of my kid. And I feel like this is not the life I signed up for and there has to be a way out of it. And I saw entrepreneurship to be the way.”

Yet, Marge’s own personal circumstances provided a solution for others like her and for others in her own hometown. She shares how her company helped others like her, saying, “And so I realized that maybe there is a way for women, especially moms who really just wanted to have a decent income and does not have to leave their families behind because I’m sure they’re missing so much from that experience. So I thought, why not bring BPO into Bulacan?”

Leap of Faith

Marge Aviso describes the beginning of her journey into entrepreneurship as “a leap of faith.” Yet this leap was informed by a clear opportunity and confidence in the skills she had acquired through her work experience.

“I knew that the BPO is flourishing,” Marge explains. “And I knew that there is a skill within me that I can control. And that’s very much something that I can execute right away… I knew that I have skill in acquiring clients. I knew that I have skill in communications.

“I knew that I can deliver services well. And so I just did.”

Cris Aviso also describes her journey into entrepreneurship as a leap of faith. However, her circumstances were different, having already built an extensive career in banking.

Cris says, “It was also a leap of faith in my case. It was a difficult decision because I am stable in my work in the bank.”

On one hand, she had the opportunity to support her family, help the business her sister built with her expertise, and work from home. But on the other hand, she would give up a successful though often demanding career in banking.

Eventually, after many years of advising from the sidelines, Cris took a formal position in Telework PH. “I was also looking for balance,” she explains “So…yes, family first. Those are my considerations in taking that big decision to [enter] entrepreneurship and join as a CFO of the company.”

Starting Telework in Bulacan

Though today Telework PH is a rapidly growing company in a robust industry, it began without lofty aspirations. Like many startup businesses, the early years of Telework were spent on trying to find solutions to real world problems. And in the beginning, the focus was on survival.

“Initially, I was just applying for online jobs,” Marge Aviso admits. “It didn’t occur to me that you can actually make this as a consulting business and eventually hire teams under your company.”

Telling herself that she would never join another BPO, she searched for clients on her own. “I had to search for my first new client. And what I did was apply for that job post that I saw online and really convince this client to hire me. So I was selling myself. I was selling my services. I was selling my skills.”

Working online for her first client, a unique opportunity came along. “So there was this specific client that wanted me to hire more people [to support] their business,” Marge explains. Despite not having any experience in recruitment, she jumped at the chance. 

She says, “And so what I did, knowing my background in psychology–and I didn’t have any background with recruiting, but that somehow goes, you know, alongside–I took the leap of faith of hiring that first person within our barangay [town].”

One thing led to another. One referral led to more referrals, and soon, Telework was hiring agents across Bulacan.

“We eventually started there,” Marge says. “We hired from the referral of one person or within the barangay, within the community and then off of Bulacan, outside of Bulacan and even outside of Metro Manila.”

Keys to Rapid Growth

Soon, Telework was faced with a challenge that many startups are faced with: the need for growth. Their unique, Bulacan-based hybrid work setup had served them well, but to grow, the BPO company needed more revenues and more clients.

“I realized I really needed to up the revenues or the sales,” Marge Aviso says of those early challenges. “So what I did is I first attended a seminar… about remote working and I got to network with other business owners. And I got to network with this person who is looking for a BPO that would service AI clients.”

In a stroke of good fortune, Telework began working on AI when the technology was still new. This newfound focus would also help to fuel the BPO company to further growth in later years.

“So we [had] the right timing, at the right market at the time because AI wasn’t even revolutionary at the time… ChatGPT wasn’t around or any other [AI], you know, Gemini, what have you, but we were already working on AI stuff.

Together, Telework’s hybrid work model and a niche in AI services would propel the company to rapid growth. And yet, this formula for success had evolved organically.

Marge Aviso recounts. “In the beginning, I would say it’s mostly just survival. I just wanted to make sure that, you know, we are able to eat.

“And then it came to me that, hey, we can actually extend the table to the rest of the team. And when, you know, it came to a point where that same client who asked me to expand also wanted me to build an office…”

Once again, necessity drove this expansion, as one of Telework’s clients had complained of hearing roosters in the background of calls–a common problem in the cockfighting-mad provinces of the Philippines. And so, in 2018, the BPO company put up its first office with 32 staff. 

Later that same year, the BPO company would open its second office, this time with 85 staff. In the following year, office number three would open with 160 staff. And by 2020, Telework PH ran a total of five offices with almost 800 staff.

Trust and Family

With the tremendous success and growth of the BPO company came new challenges. To answer these, Marge turned to her family–against the advice of others. 

“I was already told to not hire friends or family members,” Marge says. “So there was already that caution for me because there is going to be emotions involved and if that happens, you know, there’s a tendency of you breaking ties.”

For Marge, it was a matter of trust.

“My siblings knew that I needed help at the time because I was new to this,” she says. “So when the time came that I really badly needed help, and especially during the pandemic era where it’s been very challenging for me and I’ve had leadership turnovers. I’ve had people who turned [their back on] me. I was like, I needed help at this time and I needed people whom I could trust.” 

From there, Marge Aviso and co-founder and Chief Information Officer, Liewilyn Baynosa, eventually onboarded all of the Aviso siblings. First there was Lui Aviso, who is now Finance and Admin Manager, and then there was Mark Ryan Aviso who is the Director of Remote Operations. Finally, Cris Aviso joined the BPO company after many years as Chief Financial Officer.

Cris is quick to point out that even though she was the last to join, she had been there since the beginning, providing advice for the fledgling startup from day one. “Actually, at the start of the company, I was there… But at that time, I felt that we weren’t ready to be in the same company because I was the eldest and there was this superiority over her. And of course, she was trying to build her own business.

“And then when I saw that she was ready, she was becoming more mature as a person, as a businessman, that’s when I decided I really have to help them because the company is growing.”

With Cris’ experience in banking and finance, she was able to further fuel the BPO company’s growth. She explains, “So when I came in, I just fortified the control system, implemented the budget, and, yeah, I think the control is important. So that helped them while the company [was] growing.” 

Lessons from the Pandemic

Today, Telework’s hybrid work setup allows the company to be nimble, while catering to workers’ preferences to work from home–a trend that became widespread during the pandemic and continues to change the workplace today.

“I think we were the first among the BPOs doing the hybrid setup,” Marge Aviso says. “We’re not like Accenture or Concentric, of course. But they were having difficulty transitioning to that, especially during the pandemic.”

Prior to the pandemic, Telework was already utilizing hybrid work. “So when the pandemic hit,” Marge explains, “in three days, we were able to get the operations back.”

“We sent the computers to their homes,” she continues, “and everybody was up 90% of the time. And apart from that, we were really highly specialized in certain areas.”

During the pandemic, the seeds the BPO company had planted in other services also continued to bear fruit.

“So we weren’t taking all call center work,” Marge says of the pandemic years. “We were more specialized in AI, data analysis, and some other customer support-specific [services]. That’s already more on technology companies. So I guess we found our blue ocean that way.”

Indeed, as the entire BPO industry moves away from voice, or call centers, that specialization in AI and IT services has led Telework to lead the industry into a whole new world of possibilities.

The Challenges of Scale

Today, the challenges that Telework faces is one of scale. How can the BPO company replicate its successes across different clients and across different industries? How can it repeat its success stories and delight its clients again and again?

“I would say I found that our business wasn’t scalable at the time,” Marge says of Telework in its early years, “specifically with the services that we were offering because it was very [customized]. So whenever we’re talking with one customer, it’s going to be very different. It’s not replicable, it’s not scalable.”

The answer lay in turning Telework services into a product, to “productize” the BPO company’s services, as Marge Aviso calls it.

“We’re working in that direction, productize and have a technology in place,” she explains, “because customers or clients are no longer fascinated by how we speak English, but they are fascinated by what is your process and can we actually move that process into our existing business model? So they’re actually buying not just the staff and how skilled the staff is…” 

By migrating towards tech and away from call centers, Marge Aviso is talking about taking the BPO company to the next level.

“It’s very easy to be like a talent agency,” she continues. “Oh, I can hire someone who’s good at speaking English. But also they have the system, they have the process, they have the expertise. And so we found, I personally found that if we went that route, then it kind of like pushed us to be more of an innovator than just reinventing the wheel.”

Speaking about the future for Telework and the BPO industry, Marge says, “So we’re building a BPO cloud. So that will enable small agency business owners to actually operate like a BPO with controls in place, data privacy, security, and from the end to end. The challenge here is client acquisition.”

What is this BPO cloud? She explains, “There are lots of skilled, highly talented people, but they’re not able to [be hired]. Because if they would, they would have just gone directly to a client and say, hire me. But they’re going through a BPO because they don’t have that client acquisition skill. 

“So if we can bridge that gap and have more people be directly hired by offshore clients, then that would have been an amazing opportunity for most of us.”

And so, by providing skilled workers the ability to be hired by offshore clients through Telework, Marge Aviso has come full circle. She empowers talented workers who are just like she was once, seeking to contribute, wherever they may be.

Inspiration and Advice

Telework PH is a shining example for young entrepreneurs to take that leap of faith and build a company based on their passion and their expertise. The entrepreneurial spirit of Marge Aviso, her co-founder Liewilyn Baynosa, and Marge’s siblings serve as an inspiration to make that jump. For this same reason, Telework has even funded an inspirational film as part of its advocacy, When the World Met Miss Probinsyana.

The film, starring Rhian Ramos and Sid Lucero, is based on the true story of Marge Aviso, and conveys themes on women empowerment, and uplifting lives of Filipinos in the rural areas.

What personal message does Marge Aviso have for young business people who are just starting their entrepreneurial journey?

“In every stage of that growth or level,” she says, “you become a different monster or you face a different monster and you become a different person. And so you have to be willing to let that go, that old self in order to face the new challenges ahead. And you have to be comfortable doing that every step of the way.”

For Cris Aviso, her message to entrepreneurs is much more practical. Focusing on financial literacy, she advises entrepreneurs to educate themselves on essential knowledge and skills.

“From the finance point of view,” Cris says, “I think it’s very important for startup leaders or CEOs to also know about finances because it’s difficult when you don’t know your numbers… You have to learn about basic tools, about gross profit, about those sort of stuff for you to sustain the business. And you really [must] know how to supervise your employees.”

In closing, Marge Aviso speaks about risk tolerance among entrepreneurs, and the importance of seeking help when you need it. She says, “Some entrepreneurs, in the beginning [think]–and I’ve experienced this myself, I was too over-positive, I would say, and also egoistic at that time– that maybe I can solve this… But eventually, when I see that three months down the road or six months down the road, it’s not fixing itself, then that’s the time I scream for help.

“So we have to anticipate that, project that in the future, that sometimes there is always that back-up plan and having that scenario in place to really foresee what’s going to happen.”

Text VINCENT SALES

Photography KIERAN PUNAY of KLIQ, INC

Videography EXCEL PANLAQUE of KLIQ, INC

Art Direction MARC YELLOW and ANDREA SANGCO

Sittings Editor RJ LEDESMA

Shoot Coordination TONI MENDOZA

Shot on Location ENDERUN DESIGN & INNOVATION CAMPUS, ESTANCIA MALL, ORTIGAS CENTER