After I finish speaking to someone for the “Lunchbreak” column, I usually ask them to send me photos to feature in the article: at work, with their employees, or perhaps speaking somewhere. Yoely Neuman, who started the overseas staffing company Hiring 4 Less, had a hard time finding any such photos. He’s never gone to a trade show, never spoken at an event, and, in fact, has never met any of his several thousand employees face to face. He built his company sitting alone in his Monsey office. (In the end, a photographer was hired to take some photos for this article.)
The idea for Yoely’s company came from his own pain point. After building a successful graphic design company, he realized he couldn’t handle all the work on his own, so he looked into hiring someone overseas. It took him some time, but he managed to hire several employees abroad and the business grew. Eventually, friends and family asked him for advice about hiring overseas, and it became a business on its own.
Yoely operates his company knowing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, a mindset that has catapulted him into becoming a leader in his field. In fact, Hiring 4 Less was recently ranked #96 on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in the United States. If you’ve ever thought about hiring overseas, this is a worthwhile read.
—Nesanel
I was born in Boro Park and moved to Monsey when I got married. I’m one of nine siblings, and when I was growing up, I went to Satmar Yeshiva. My father sold textiles to clothing companies. He was always hustling; we didn’t grow up with too much money.
“As a bachur, I was more creative. I had no interest in doing anything entrepreneurial until I was about 22. I would think about different products and creating websites and inventions, but I never turned those dreams into reality. They were all in my head, and I was focused on my learning.
“I got married at the age of 25, which is a little later than the average yeshivah bachur. I learned in kollel from when I was in my early 20s, and when I was 22 I taught myself graphic design with a computer program. I started on Printshop, then moved to Photoshop, and then to Illustrator. I explored the design space. I didn’t have a computer at home, so after I finished my day in yeshivah, I would stop by my brother’s office and use his.
“After polishing my skills, I started to do graphics and branding for people I knew. I would have a vision, and I was able to imagine it from start to finish, from the design to the execution to the sales. I try to rely on my common sense; it needs to make sense to me before I present an idea to the client. My friends passed my name on and people heard about my design business. Baruch Hashem, people liked my creativity. I did some branding and even some ads for businesses and stores. I was very good at creating a business name and logo. For example, I designed the logo for the Dips store in Boro Park, and I made the brand name and logo for the OhVents! event planner company.
“When I got married, I went fully into branding and graphics design. I started a company called Sell Like Hotcake, which had a niche in Amazon product packaging. The idea was to design and brand products for private labels. I was one of the first ones to do this sort of thing. I didn’t do it on a large scale, but I did it in a very creative manner compared to other companies that were in the space.
“Honestly, I didn’t know much about the Amazon business before I got into it. I somehow have a feeling when it comes to these things. When someone tells me about something they’re thinking of selling, I get a gut feeling about whether to sell it or not, or how to market it. I knew how to display something that would make people say, ‘I want to buy that.’
“I was working hard. I was in the office from nine to five and often after hours. The issue with graphic design is that every hour of work you are able to provide to the client is dependent on your ten fingers. I realized that I needed to hire another designer to keep up with the demand. However, doing so cost a lot of money. I wasn’t interested in hiring a freelancer because they’re generally not invested in the business; they just want to get the job done. But I couldn’t afford a top designer because they charged between $150,000 and $200,000, and I knew I wanted a good one. I felt stuck.
“My two brothers ran an Amazon private-label company and told me that I should start exploring the idea of overseas employees. I looked into it very carefully. I listened to a lot of podcasts and to people who have worked with overseas employees, and I read a few books on the subject. I wanted to be educated before I tried it. I try to be methodical and organized in my work.
“My first overseas employee was a graphics designer. To be honest, it was very hard for me. It’s hard to work with someone from a different culture when it’s completely remote. I almost gave up a few times. After almost five months of struggling with my first employee, I realized that it’s not about the employee but the communication. I had to understand my business relationship with that employee—what I wanted and expected from him, and how to relay all that to him properly. I wanted to master the concept of overseas hiring because I knew it would help my company and allow me to hire even more people.
“Slowly but surely, I learned how to give hands-on instructions, how to create a good business system, and how to speak to employees regularly on video calls. It took time, but I became very good at being an overseas boss.
“At this point, I only had one employee, my graphic designer. I hired another person overseas to look for sales from Amazon companies and see who could benefit from my service. I hired a third person for customer service. Then I hired another graphic designer. After eight months, I found that I didn’t have to do any of the graphics myself anymore; I was just the art director. I was doing almost nothing. I was just directing things from one person to another at a fraction of the cost.
“It was 2019. I was very excited and believed very much in the concept. Whenever I spoke to someone, I told him about my business and how I operated it. I used to tell my Amazon customers about the business and how I had employees overseas running the company, and they asked me if I could find them overseas employees as well. I had no problem sending my contacts to other people and helping them with remote employees. At this point, I had about eight overseas employees doing product packaging, product design and product images for my clients.
“I realized that I loved helping people with their businesses. I got more and more into it, and it became a part of me. I was used to explaining to people what to do and what not to do, and I loved it.
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