HUSBAND. FATHER. DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST.
ENTREPRENEUR. MEDIOCRE GOLFER.

I’ve mentioned a few times that “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” is one of those books that shaped the course of my life. It kept me out of debt. It taught me to take appropriate risks.  It taught me to buy assets before liabilities. There’s a line in that book that, I think,...

I got this email from one of my newsletter subscribers asking about how I organize my video training library. I love your emails and am extremely grateful for what you've created with OnlineJobs. I hired a wonderful person a little over a year ago through your site...

You want to hire an OFS (or maybe even a VA!) but you've been putting it off because you're afraid you don’t know how to do it right? There’s one thing you can do to help you get over your fear of hiring AND help you learn how to hire someone faster. Write and post a...

Last week I told you about my son in the Philippines and how he had a friend there who needed a job.  My son had vetted Marc for me.  Marc was trustworthy and hard working, just not super skilled. His option was to travel to Manila for work and leave his wife and 2...

After I released that newsletter on phone services, I got a lot of responses on phone services that are not on the list. So here's an update based on what subscribers told me: Unitel Dialpad Ooma Office Twilio WhatsApp ZegoCloud DialDesk Not a phone service but a...

"John - How do I know if I can trust them?" It's one of the first questions people ask me. Humans are hardwired to be suspicious of things we don’t know or understand. That’s how we protect ourselves. So I understand why you’d be reluctant to trust a stranger halfway...

Here's a VA I know who is available to hire. Notice I didn't call him an OFS.  He's not. And...I don't actually KNOW him. Here's the story... My oldest son is serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The "Mormons".  Yes, I'm an...

Chat GPT is everywhere. People keep asking me if it is replacing VAs. Yes and No. Yes, in a sense that it can help get rid of a lot of busy work that your VA is doing. If you need your VA to write ten articles daily for your content marketing, an AI can do that...

In 2022, many Philippine holidays fell on the weekend. But in 2023, you may have noticed that many of those holidays now land on a Monday or Friday. If your OFS doesn’t work on the weekends, they can expect around 9 “long weekends” if we count regular and special...

My OFS, Julia, is in the process of getting her driver’s license. She’s in her forties, so I was surprised to learn that she’s only started learning how to drive. She tried learning to drive when she was younger. But she crashed the car, which scared her from driving...

"Hey John, you should create a job board like OnlineJobs.ph in...." I get a lot of requests from people asking me to replicate Onlinejobs.ph in their country. No. Why? Because employers have a better experience in the Philippines than anywhere else in the world. Not...

It’s January 2 and I’m sure gyms across the world were packed this morning with people who’ve decided to get in shape as their “New Years Resolution”. I spent the day in the mountains backcountry skiing with my wife. It’s not part of any “resolution”, it’s part of my...

Christmas in the Philippines starts on September 1.  Yeah, it's early. But...for a lot of Filipinos, the New Year celebration is the more awaited day. New Year in the Philippines is a loud, bright celebration that everybody looks forward to, regardless of religion or...

I was interviewed by Starter Story, and I shared a lot of stuff there that most people don't know about me or Onlinejobs.ph. https://www.starterstory.com/stories/onlinejobs Most people don’t know I started Onlinejobs.ph with just $5,000. It was just me, Dan, and two...

Merry Christmas. I'm going to keep this short. Right now I find very little expectation in my business. There's little demand from customers and workers. I find I have a bunch of "couch time", which I don't get a lot of during the year. I find this down time to be the...

I hope you have something fun/great/spirit filled for Christmas and New Years. I just want to remind you that the last week of December will be crammed with Philippine holidays. Even though December 24 (New Year’s Eve) and December 25 (Christmas Day) fall on Saturday...

Just before Thanksgiving, I got this email from Austin. It was in response to the newsletter I sent about EJ buying his OFS (Online Filipino Specialist) a laptop. John, I've read most of the emails you've sent since I first used OnlineJobs.ph in January 2021. One of...

You can now send your OFS gifts from Amazon! The Philippines has been able to order from Amazon for decades, but my OFS has never recommended it before because shipping is expensive, and the options are limited. But Amazon recently commissioned several local courier...

I'm not a morning person. I'm not a night person either. I'm a solid 11-7:30 sleeper.  If I don't get 8+ hours of sleep my skills (mental, physical, relationship...) go downhill. Last week we went to an in the dark Christmas lights experience with like 10 million...

I get asked "How do OFS make phone calls to the US?" all the time! Recently, I got this email: Can you put out something on how to allow Filipino VA to make calls to the US and to answer calls from the US (without incurring calling fees ideally)? Jason To answer that...

Winter is in full swing for me in Utah.  Here's what it looks like: In the Philippines, it's the holiday season, which means it's time for you to pay your OFS the 13th month. If you don't know, here's a full explanation of the 13th month. If you already know about it...

A few weeks ago, I talked about how EJ helped his OFS get a new PC. If your OFS is thinking of buying a computer (or you’re thinking of buying a computer for your OFS), we just updated our computer buying guide:...

If you have a team in the Philippines and they live close to each other, I’m willing to bet this is something they would do as a form of team building. My OFS Julia writes ------- The holidays are here! Now that the Philippines has reinstated face-to-face classes and...

I recently stumbled upon this blog post by one of our customers, Ziv Raviv, the CEO, and founder of Kivi Media & Daily Cookie. https://dailycookie.co/get-faster-results-for-your-business-with-an-ofs/ I’m really happy about the endorsement but what I love about...

I like to keep things simple. Simple = efficiency. I try to do this in all aspects of my life. If you've watched any of my videos you'll notice I only wear single color t-shirts.  No logos. Nothing fancy (except for my one green/gray striped shirt...that's my "fun"...

My kids are pretty entrepreneurial (at least some of them are). They run a pretty successful local business. They make more than their teachers make. They've also invented all kinds of contracts. Contracts buyers sign. Contracts anyone working for the business sign....

At this time of Thanksgiving (in the US) I'm thankful for the flexibility my OFS provide me. In our house it's a time of puzzles and Legos and being together. I hope your OFS provide you this flexibility too. I got an email about being flexible recently from a long...

Check this out.  It made me cry. EJ replied to my All Saints and All Soul’s newsletter because, like me, he appreciated how Filipinos celebrate these holidays. As we talked, it turns out he also gives his OFS team holidays off and benefits like SSS. In his words,...

I want to share this email from Danielle because I know many of you might be having this issue too. I’ve had my OFS for 10 months and it’s great 🙂 However, I need a little advice. Sometimes grammar or wording can be an issue. Some of her tasks include writing social...

At Onlinejobs.ph, we strongly advocate for Filipinos only to have one full-time job. But I know that there are a lot of jobseekers who have multiple jobs on the site. It’s usually one of these scenarios. 1. They’re not making enough money from their part-time job....

I sometimes get comments from people about how much turnover there is in the Philippines. The TLDR of my response is, “turnover is a management issue.” I know that answer is hard for a lot of people to hear. Nobody likes to be told they’re horrible managers. I know...

I’m proud that when there’s a disaster, my team will come together and offer to help right away. When the pandemic started, my team donated and distributed groceries to people who couldn’t leave their homes, mainly seniors and families with babies. They started this...

I got this really good question from Debbie about pay raises Hi John, I’m about to do a review with my assistant who has been working for me for 4 months, and would like to reward her work with a pay rise. She still has quite a bit to learn in her role so I want to do...

Last time I asked about how I don't like Halloween. What I do like is Thanksgiving -> New Years. Everyone is nicer. People are giving. The world is a more enjoyable place when people are looking to help each other. I know it's still October, but let's talk about...

Next Monday (Oct 31) is my second most dreaded day of the year: Halloween. The worst day of the year of course is April 15. Tax day. But this isn't about Halloween, it's about All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, two Philippines holidays coming up next week. November 1...

Here's a fun piece of Philippines culture. What comes to mind when most people talk about convenience stores are places like 7-11. They have 7-11s in the Philippines too, but the purest version of a convenience store looks nothing like a 7-11. In the Philippines, a...

I found this comment on my benefits newsletter from Jacqui Hi there, I went back and re-discovered this blog post because I want to offer my OFS healthcare. My OFS is expecting twins in March next year and I would like to provide her with the best (but most...

One of the benefits you COULD give to your OFS which I mention in my emails, videos, and blog posts is the Pag-IBIG fund. The Pag-IBIG fund, also known as the Home Development Mutual Fund, is a government-owned and controlled corporation mandated to help Filipinos get...

I got this really interesting email from Jared after I sent out the disaster-proofing email. Can you provide more details on your emergency fund? How is it set up? how they 'apply' for it? I also heard of some employers providing generators or other means of backup....

I’m sorry that this email is really late. I was out for an entire week and didn’t have internet. So I just found out about Typhoon Karding and how devastating it was when I got back. With it happening around the same time as Hurricane Ian, last week was a pretty bad...

After last week's email about banking in the Philippines, I got comments on social media about how others handle payments. The great thing about these comments is they came from guys who have been outsourcing for years, so they know what they’re talking about. Reading...

First, let me start with what NOT to tell your friends. Don't tell them the name of your OFS...unless you want your OFS to get another job. People are lazy. Nobody wants to do the work of finding an OFS. If you go raving about your OFS to your friends and then you...

What's preventing you from hiring your first OFS?  Why haven't you taken the leap yet? I get an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from employers around the world working with OFS.  Every day someone says to me: I love my OFS... My OFS has worked for me for 3...

I've talked about SSS quite a few times recently because people keep asking. I want to reiterate that this benefit is OPTIONAL. It would be nice if you can give this to your Online Filipino Specialist, but you don’t have to. In this email, I’m going to list what your...

The 13th month payment is coming up in December. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions. Is the 13th month required? For you, it is optional. You don’t have to give this. BUT it’s best if you do because it’s a really effective motivator for Filipino...

I get asked this question a lot. Recently, I got an email from Karen and I wanted to share my response for people who have the same question. My business partner is concerned about hiring an OFS directly instead of using an agency out of concerns that this is going to...

JANUARY 2023 UPDATE: We have updated this to reflect the slight increase in the monthly contributions as issued by the SSS Every time I mention SSS I get tons of questions. Here we go. First,  this is completely optional. You don’t have to pay for it. But if you can...

Let me preface this by saying I am not an accountant or a tax attorney. I’m simply sharing how we’ve been dealing with taxes and our OFS for years. This is how 5 different accountants have dealt with it for us. Also, my OFS Jamie is not an accountant. What she shared...

When I first started outsourcing to the Philippines, their internet wasn’t really good. Like, 256Kbps wasn't uncommon. That's "K" - Kilobits.  Not "M" - Megabits. 5Mbps was really fast! For years, the Philippines had the dubious reputation of having the slowest...

In my newsletter, I post regular updates on typhoons and earthquakes in the Philippines. Some of you might be worried if outsourcing to the Philippines is worth it, given that they go through 30-something typhoons, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes every year. Yes!...