Daring to Dream: The werk:out Way

My professional career started over 35 years ago with a hint of aspiration as a young graduate at Ernst & Young. From my initial role in Audit, to the thrilling UK stint in global outsourcing company Serco, each phase has played a crucial role in my development and has significantly enriched my life. It has been a journey driven by determination, creativity, agility and a little bit of luck.

I still remember stopping the then-CEO of Serco in the corridor, telling him why I should be posted to the UK office. Oh to be young and to be bold! I did get the gig which brought me to UK/Europe as Financial Analyst and later to the United Arab Emirates as Regional Controller. These roles did not just refine my professional abilities, they also enabled me to engage fully in diverse business climates and cultures and expand my limited worldview.

My return to Australia brought new challenges as I moved on to Citrix as Regional CFO when it opened its first APAC office, and later on at Wolters Kluwer (CCH), where I was integral to a pioneering team that led the digital transformation of the tax & accounting division while also working on strategic acquisitions.

These experiences eventually led to my first entrepreneurial venture, YourBookkeepersOnline (YBO), in 2014. Small businesses and accounting firms had only started to hear of business process outsourcing (BPO) being available to them. So, by utilising cloud technology and harnessing my combined industry knowledge, I established YBO together with my wife, Dudy, who is an advertising veteran. By providing outsourced solutions to an untapped market, the future of offshoring looked bright.

By January 2020, we had moved on from YBO and embarked on a small, bespoke and more ambitious version of the offshoring business. We became werk:out. We embraced our duality of being an Australian business serving Australian clients while tapping the industrious and resilient Filipino workforce from the country we came from. The pandemic was not going to stop us. In fact, we thrived. We had already adopted a work from home setup even before Covid hit, so we were ready for the aftermath of business disruption in Australia. 

As werk:out grew, we continued to gain talented employees all throughout the Philippines and discovered the wide range of skills available to Australian businesses. Today, we are proud to provide a “concierge” service, matching the varied requirements of our clients to offshore solutions, from accounting services to administration, branding and digital marketing, mortgage broking support and FP&A.

Looking back, my journey from corporate to entrepreneurship had been serendipitous with its own share of bumps and setbacks. And where I am now with werk:out is where I'm meant to be. Every experience and knowledge I’ve gained then and now have enriched the conversations I have with all types of business owners. I’m able to share meaningful insights on offshoring, educate the uninitiated about cloud technology, uncover business opportunities and find innovative solutions to problems they are not even aware of. Seeing their business grow and thrive and how our team contributes to make it happen clearly reveals a bright future for offshoring at werk:out.

““At Werkout, our core mission is to identify gaps in your operations; areas where efficiency can be improved; or tasks where your time can be saved through Outsourcing / Offshoring solutions which incorporate Technology & Workflow Process Improvements. These challenges can be outsourced to us with confidence. With our knowledge of available technology solutions and a team of skilled & experienced professionals, we not only provide solutions but also seamlessly implement them into your workflows. Our goal is to liberate your time and resources, allowing you to focus on what truly matters for your business’s growth and success.

Discover how we can transform your operations and help you thrive. Let us handle your part of the business we are skilled at, while you concentrate on your core business activities. Your success is our priority.””