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Models
Build-operate-transfer
Build-operate-transfer is a multi-year path where a vendor builds and runs a team, then transfers the people and the entity mechanics to you. It is a corporate project, not a single-seat search.
Also called BOT staffing
How it works
BOT contracts define the build phase, the operate metrics, the transfer date, and who carries labor liabilities at each step. Regularization clocks keep running on the people. You cannot transfer them like laptops without employment documentation. Capital, PEZA, and office leases are part of the operate phase if the site is real. For one to five remote hires, BOT is the wrong instrument. You want a search and an employer, not a construction narrative.
Example: a vendor offers to stand up 25 support staff over 18 months, then sell you the subsidiary. Legal and HR cost on the transfer alone can exceed a year of EOR fees for a five-person team. Run the math before the offsite.
How it differs
Agency hire is a search. EOR is ongoing paper. Captive is the end state BOT claims to reach.
Common errors
Signing BOT language for three VAs. Forgetting the workers must consent to employer substitution.
In practice
Treat Build-operate-transfer as a week-one operating object. Name the employer on the contract and the manager in Slack. If those two names cannot both be true at once, the model is theater. Write an owner - founder, local employer, or worker - and a date you will look at it again: first cutoff, first holiday, or first miss. If nobody can show a contract clause, a payslip line, a calendar block, or a checklist box, you do not have build-operate-transfer yet. You have a conversation. Convert the conversation before the person starts, while changing the deal still costs a paragraph rather than a resignation. Re-read the worked example above against the actual hire in front of you. If the numbers in that example cannot be swapped for this seat’s pesos, hours, and start date, the brief is still unfinished.