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

I’m no stranger to medical issues. When I turned 30 the pain in my stomach started. It took me 10 years and lots of doctors to figure out I have a dairy allergy. When I turned 40 I realized my brain wasn't working right.  It took me a few years to figure it out and...

Atiba has been successful with OFS. Really successful. He sent me a video talking about it. We chopped it up into smaller segments so we could focus on specific things. When discussing company culture, most people think about ping-pong tables in open-layout offices....

Employee costs can be super high, especially if you want to hire the best. Or is it? I know where you can hire the top 1% of workers at an affordable rate. Workers who graduated at the top of their class. Workers with years of experience and are recognized for their...

Every once in a while, we get a request for a "Certificate of Employment" (COE). It's a letter stating the person works for us, including how much they get paid. The usual reason for getting a certificate of employment is something that really makes us happy: they’re...

A few months ago, one of my OFS, Jam, talked about taking care of his mom and how he would accompany her to doctor’s appointments. I mentioned in my video and podcast that we do it differently in the US. We mostly take ourselves to the hospital.  Same thing when we...

We’re trying to build an exterior detached garage at my house right now. When we met with the designer he said, “What do you want with this?” “Well, we want this much space. We want *this thing*. We want *that thing*...but we don't really know.” And he said, “Well,...

I know this is a really late email, but I have to talk about it because this typhoon was huge, and its impact is still being felt. Hanna had packed a punch, with peak winds reaching 155 kilometers per hour near its center and gusts of up to 190 kilometers per hour. It...

I get a lot of questions about how we implement paid time off (PTO) at Onlinejobs.ph. We offer unlimited PTO. We don't track it. We don't really care. I know unlimited PTO isn’t for everyone. The best way to implement PTO really depends on your business and what...

One of my OFS, Kiel (the one who visited me in 2019), emailed me asking to take the week off. His mother died. Our answer to that is, “Of course! Take as much time off as you want.” I gave him paid leave so he could focus on grieving and settle whatever needed to be...

After I sent out my newsletter about an OFS running out of things to do, I got this email from EJ: ...we never run out of work. We have hundreds of clients but not enough OFS's. LOL. As budget become available, I hire more OFS's. I currently have 17, but we honestly...

I got this email from Daniel asking for more information about PTO and benefits. He has a growing team of Online Filipino Specialists. He asked me these questions because he wanted to make sure that the benefits were fair for everybody involved. I will share his...

In my last newsletter, Vince shared his vacation photos from Manjuyod. Manjuyod is actually located in the province where Lougie (another programmer of ours) lives. Vince thought it would be great if he got my team members, who are on the island of Negros, for dinner....

It’s always a celebration when an OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker) relative comes home, even if it’s just for a short vacation. Recently, Vince (one of my developers) had a relative who was working in Hong Kong come home for vacation. To celebrate, they decided to go...

Are you still on the fence about hiring an OFS? Worried you won't get it right? I just got an email from Di and here’s what she said: I posted my first job on a Friday and by the Tuesday I had made my first hire - I simply followed the One VA Away process and it was...

What do you do when you get “bitten” by too many applicants on your job post? 1. Pause your job post…now! Once you get past 30 or so job applications, it’s hard to sift through them.  If you’re getting a lot, pause your job post inside your OnlineJobs.ph account so...

School started recently for my kids.  They're good at some things and not good at others (like all kids). My kids are just not good at performing arts. It’s uncanny how similar they all are with this. In elementary school when they do their singing performances or...

I talk with a lot of people hiring OFS. I see both success and failure. A common denominator among the successful ones, and often lacking in those who fail: Empathy. Yeah...not the trait you expected. Successful employers are kind. They show a lot of empathy and care...

Meet Karen. She’s one of Julia’s friends, an OFS (Online Filipino Specialist) from South Cotabato and she’s been working from home since 2010. Julia asked Karen if she could share her story. Karen was happy to do it because she knew many Filipinos were in similar...

My OFS, Julia, recently got this message from her graphic designer friend. The message is in Filipino, but it roughly translates to: I just want to share. My client is amazing. He pays me a minimum salary even when I don’t have tasks. Thank you for introducing me to...

I have talked about how common it is for Filipino families to have a relative work abroad and how difficult that situation is for them. Have you ever heard this story firsthand? Meet Ben. He’s part of our social media team, and his wife is an overseas Filipino worker...

Last week I recruited a content writer for OnlineJobs.ph. I had like 30 applicants in 5 hours before I was able to turn the job post off. From those 30, I narrowed it down to 8. 8 amazing writers. From the 8, one stood out to me.  Not for any reason other than I...

I was talking to my son, Austin, a few weeks back. He mentioned something interesting that I had never heard of before. In Marinduque, where he’s assigned for his mission (for the Church of the Latter-Day Saints), they don’t strictly follow time. They have watches and...

A few weeks ago, Julia, the OFS that writes my newsletters, took a vacation to visit her in-laws' province in La Union. It’s been years since I last visited Luna, La Union. When I last visited almost 10 years ago, it was a sleepy town where the only place worth...

I haven't skied in a few weeks now. I know...I know... "How in the world are you still skiing???" Here's what it looked like the last time I skied: It's hard to appreciate how steep and skinny that chute was. We hiked 2 miles with skis on our backs to get there....

Ever noticed how many Filipino nurses there are? Or that many caregivers are Filipinos? Caring for a sickly or elderly family member is a big part of Filipino culture. If you’re young and healthy, you’re expected to care for the elderly and the sick, whether they’re...

Rachel’s OFS has been working for her for over a year, and recently asked for a raise. So she emails me and asks. How much of a raise is expected?  I started her at $8.00 an hour and that seemed to be the upper end for the bookkeeping/secretarial work she does for us....

When I read this email from Spencer, I just had to share it with you guys. I just hired my first OFS! I posted a job and got 71 applicants. I made up the interview process as i went along. There were four rounds of 4-5 questions. Out of the 71 initial applicants, 29...

I have often talked about how hiring an OFS can be life-changing for you. But for Filipinos, having a full-time job that lets them work from home is just as life-changing. Mariah’s OFS story may sound unbelievable, but it’s quite common. https://youtu.be/gn6FAMCO0jo...

I got this email from one of my OFS graphic designers the other day. She makes creatives for social media (posts and ads): Good morning. I will try to finish the Ads as soon as I can. I am currently at the hospital. My father got car accident yesterday.  The neck of...

I see some people brag about their hiring philosophy of “Hire slow and fire fast.” I know I’m going to make a lot of people angry by saying this, but I think it’s stupid. Let’s start with the “hire slow” part of this statement. If your hiring process is really slow,...

We have this messed up culture here in the US where we’re proud of the fact that we work all the time. We celebrate people who work 60-80 hour work weeks. We brag about the fact that we rarely take vacations and have very little sleep. It’s like we equate our value...

I can’t really say this better than Rhonda. It’s eye-opening if you haven’t done this yet. We've been considering a side business of focused bookkeeping for a specific business type. Every business has it's own quirks, and it's a useful sales and marketing tool to...

Filipino culture revolves around the family. The parents and grandparents care for the kids. Adult children are expected to care for the aging parents. But it’s not that easy for a lot of Filipino families. My son Austin saw this firsthand in Marinduque. For a lot of...

I get a lot of emails and messages like the one I’m sharing with you today. This one is from Kathleen. She’s one of the hundreds of thousands of business owners who found amazing Filipino workers through Onlinejobs.ph. People who just want to work. People who, if...

I've said this before but I'll say it again. When you hire OFS, you'll change generations of lives. Yesterday one of my OFS sent me the following email: -------------- Hi John and Dan! Remember last year when I asked you and Dan to give my daughter a summer job? She's...

I have no idea what you do in your business on a day to day basis. Talk with clients? Deal with computers? Think about and create marketing material? Sell! Software? Email. Employees? R&D? Invoices, accounts, bookkeeping, taxes, inventory, ... For your business: I...

When I was in college I had this conversation with a roommate ------------ I want to own my own business so I can have freedom Him: Don't you know small business owners work more than anyone else? I think I can do it differently ------------- That conversation was a...

As business owners, we know what’s going on in our business. But there are little details that we don’t have to know in order to implement. Take my FB ads, for example. I have never been on the Meta Business Suite (is that even what it's called???). I rarely open my...

Steve has a very technical business (analytics and data engineering), so the tips on using AI are really helpful. But what really caught my eye is how he finds and keeps his team of OFS engineers and analysts. I responded a couple of years ago on how well things have...

Of the 100,000 people who get this newsletter, I'd say 95% of them are experienced business owners. But the 5%... “John, I’m just starting out my business. Can I have an OFS build it for me?” My answer to this is, "Yes BUT..." - You have to ensure you understand your...

I got this fantastic response from Wyn after I sent out the newsletter about tax and accounting firms: https://johnjonas.com/ofs-for-accounting-and-tax-firms/ Wyn's advice applies to most people. Wyn is also in the same business as Cathy. He took the OneVAAway.com...

I’ve heard from a lot of business owners who tell me that they’re too overwhelmed to hire someone right now. I've felt this before. "Ugh...I have so much to do...I can't take the time to post a job and interview/hire someone right now." FULL STOP! Did you hear what...

I don't get asked this a lot, but I think it's worth talking about. I don't want OnlineJobs.ph to be like Fiverr or Upwork. If I prioritized freelance work or short projects, I would make more money because employers would need to keep coming back to hire workers. We...

How do you live the 4 hour workweek? You learn to say “NO”. I say “No” to most things that come my way. - Business opportunities - Feature requests - Bug fixes - Content to create - “We could do this…” - Customers - Requests - Phone calls - Ways to grow the business -...

Sometimes I'm a good retail consumer… other times I’m a really bad retail consumer. Once, I went to a doctor because I heard he was a good doctor, even though I wasn’t feeling anything wrong with me. I wanted to support. Good retail consumer. Recently I bought some...

I get emailed almost every day by people telling me how they got more free time by hiring an online Filipino Specialist (OFS) from OnlineJobs.PH. Super often they say “I just wish I had done this sooner!” or “Why didn’t someone tell me this would be so good!” I...

The first thing most people want to do when they get a bunch of applicants for their job post is schedule Zoom interviews. Don't do it. Here's my experience (and thousands of other people's experiences). You have 10 applicants. You ask them to schedule a Zoom call. 5...

Artificial Intelligence can be good and bad for you, your OFS, and your business. AI can be good if it makes your business and OFS more efficient. My OFS has used AI to help with idea generation when they need to come up with new content. They use Grammarly AI to...

I got an email from Cathy, who owns a brick-and-mortar accounting firm. She wants to hire an Online Filipino Specialist, but she doesn’t know how it would work for her. So she sent me a bunch of questions. I’m sharing them here in case you have the same questions, you...

I work about 17 hours/week. I have since ~2008. I hope to share some of how I do it with you.  Today is #1 out of 12 actionable ways to cut your working time down. This is how I make decisions about business opportunities I do or don't pursue. I know there’s always...