Recently copywriter and agency owner Christian / @cbwritescopy went viral...

For saying he pays his Pakistani employees $4/hour.

He goes on to say that this pay is for administrative tasks or unskilled labour like formatting spreadsheets and setting up email accounts.

The average salary in Pakistan is $280/month.

His VAs get paid $640 per month.

And he says if they perform well he gives them a raise.

Christian runs a lead generation agency.

A typical retainer is $2000 per month.

But for an experienced marketer who gets results, I'm sure Christian is making a minimum of $5000 per month plus performance fees.

I don't have a problem with Christian arbitraging labour like this.

And I don't have a problem with Pakistanis willing to work for $4 per hour.

It's a win-win situation for both parties.

The only reason I'm using this example is to show you how much of a gap there is between value creation and value capture.

Christian himself is a victim of this equation.

His agency likely creates 6-figures in value every month for his clients...

From which he's able to capture 5-15%.

If you're a copywriter, media buyer, graphic designer, developer in the Global South...

Working for some occidental agency...

Understand that they're marking up your work by 5-10X to resell to their clients.

And they're only able to do this because...

​You're not willing to build a real business for yourself.

– Nabeel