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

I realized recently that I'm sarcastic with my kids. Too often I joke with them by being hard on them or making fun of them. It's not good. I had to take a step back and change my approach. Just be nice. I'm working on it...I fear it's a long road. One of the things...

Another Philippines holiday?  Already? If I look at my calendar it feels like we (in the USA) have about one holiday per month. It feels like the Philippines has about 1 per week! They don't. But sometimes it feels that way. Tomorrow, Feb 25 is one of those days. The...

Did you know that the Philippines actually has two official languages: Filipino and English? I didn't really realize this until I went there in 2009 (my first...and only time there). I was so surprised that I took pictures while in Manila: Filipinos start learning...

Over the past 2 years it has become more and more apparent to me that I need help. For a long time I ran OnlineJobs.ph. I managed the developers. I thought through features. I thought through solutions. I pushed projects forward. I reminded people of their pending...

My son came home from college this past weekend. He's having the time of his life. He skied 4 times the past week. I had to ask him "Are you going to class???" He says he has all A's in his classes...we'll see. Should you hire an OFS who’s still going to school? It...

I love getting useful tips from other employers. I just got one from Vin Carrano when he responded to my email about using LastPass with my OFS. It turns out he was using LastPass too. This led to an email exchange about a problem some of you wrote to me about: giving...

My wife came home from the gym the other day: "I got there at 9:15 and there were a bunch of parking spots. Just 3 weeks ago I couldn't even park on the street because so many people were there! Oh, how quickly people give up on their New Years resolutions." New Years...

I've said before that I'm not a holiday/celebration kind of guy. Halloween is my least favorite day of the year. Valentines day is up there with it. I know not everyone feels this way...but for me... Yuck! But this email is more about relationships than it is about...

The first time I hired a designer I was actually hiring a programmer.  This was 2007 and I didn't really know what I was doing.  I just knew that I had found a really good programmer, and he also said he was a designer! I thought I had just struck gold! ("Nino", the...

In a previous email, I mentioned that the Philippines is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, that’s why they have a lot of active volcanoes there. One of those active volcanoes, Taal, has been showing increased activity in the past week and a half. They’ve had 31...

On Facebook, I (and by "I" I mean my OFS) get occasional comments from business owners who say they’ve tried outsourcing who insist that there aren’t any talented workers in the Philippines. “I’ve been outsourcing for years. Workers in the Philippines are crap!...

My OFS Julia writes: ----------------------- In the Philippines, there’s this custom called “Bayanihan” (pronounced as buy-uh-nee-hun), where people come together to lend a helping hand. It’s more than just people helping each other out. It’s about working together as...

In 2004 I figured something out I hoped the rest of the world would never figure out. I had quit my job (the only job I ever had, I worked there for 8 months right out of college) and was working from home.  I worked my butt off. My wife was also at home with our...

It seems like there’s news about another hack or data breach every other week. Big companies have their security breached, and information from millions of users or employees is leaked online. I used to worry about it with my team.  But then I realized that worry was...

OFS = Online Filipino Specialist. I invented it because I don't like the term VA. People think a VA is a secretary. Someone who can only do mundane tasks. Someone who doesn't really have skills. Someone who can do data entry. Someone who can only follow step by step...

Well...I was going to talk about background checks, but then I read what my OFS wrote for this email: "No background check beats doing the work yourself." I laughed. Out loud. My OFS gets it! We’re so used to background checks here in the US it’s impossible to think...

People ask me regularly who writes this email. 2 people: - Julia, my OFS: - and Me (my wife gets me a formal picture every year when we take family photos): The next question is What did you look for when hiring her? Simple. English skills. That's it. Although, when I...

I'm not a big holiday person. Halloween...my least favorite day of the year. Valentines day?  Thursday. St Patricks day?  Huh? I'm just not a big celebration kind of guy. I just can't get into it. For me, the only reason I even know Chinese New Year is happening is...

I understand why many business owners prefer to have their OFS work in their timezone. It's just more convenient. You don't have to worry about things like scheduling meetings and whatnot. There's also the added benefit of monitoring your OFS work hours. The first...

Last week after an amazing day of skiing, my 8yr old had a rough last run down the mountain: He wasn't even going very fast.  He just got tangled up and fell flat on his face with his legs spread as wide as they could be.  He couldn't get himself up.  I had to scoot...

I HATE when I solve a problem and the problem keeps coming up over and over again. Like passwords with my kids. "Dad, what's my password?" ARE YOU SERIOUS!!! We've saved this password to LastPass. I've told you to get LastPass on your phone. Why? Just why!?!? This is...

When Filipinos talk about their neighborhood, they often refer to the barangay, the Philippines' smallest political and administrative unit. Barangay comes from the Malay word balangay, a boat used by the Austronesian people when they migrated to the Philippines. ...

I love to ski. My wife...not so much. Part of it for her is just fear. What if I'm cold? What if I get hurt? What if it's not fun? At some point she has made mistakes (we all do) and each of those things have happened to her. On occasion, it has stopped her from going...

We’re finally at that point where things are somewhat going back to normal. Yes, Omicron is raging, but we’re close to getting back to the lives we had before we ever heard of Covid. Kids are in school. Travel is opening up (depending on the day...) We've all realized...

In December, Typhoon Odette decimated the central Philippines. I've seen dozens of typhoons affect my workers since 2005.  I've never seen anything like Odette. Destruction like this doesn't happen that often...but it does happen. The Philippines is visited by an...

My "New Years Resolution" started last August. I needed to be more understanding of my teenage daughters. I started working on it. Started praying for help. Started reading a book about it. It's working! We all start the year with the best intentions. We want to be...

When I was just starting my business, I didn’t have time to hire someone to help me. I just bought a house. I had a brand new baby. I had a fledgling business. I needed the business to grow because I didn’t want to go back to working for someone else. I also knew that...

This picture is from last August from the first bike race of the season.(this is relevant...I promise)Addie won the Varsity Girls race.  No surprise. She's won every high school race she's been in except for State Championships. She works her butt off.(At the finish...

"I'd just feel more comfortable hiring someone you or your team recommends" Yes...yes you would... But...I can’t recommend someone for you. Nothing personal. I don’t give recommendations to anybody. If you ask other business owners, they’re not giving referrals...

It depends on where your OFS lives. To be more specific, it depends on who runs the power distribution center. Here’s some context. Back in the 1990’s, the Philippines experienced a power crisis. To address it, their government started privatizing the power industry...

The first time I hired someone in the Philippines it was "easy". I told the agency who I wanted and they came back a few days later with my VA. He lasted a couple days before he said "Sorry Sir, I don't know anything and can't do this job." He quit. The agency...

A couple months back as I rode with Lila the wind was howling from the north. It was a cross wind (which is better than a head wind) that makes riding no handed really hard. As soon as you take your hands off the bars the wind grabs the front tire and turns it...

When I was in high school, I made a new group of friends. The first time we hung out we were going out to dinner. This is right after school and I didn’t have any money. So, they decide they were going out to dinner and I told them, “I can’t go with you guys, I’m...

Have you ever noticed how we name things after landmarks? Where I live there are mountains all around. Mt. Timpanogos Lone Peak Mount Olympus Twin Peaks There are tons of businesses, parks, traditions, cemeteries...named after these mountains. Does that happen where...

Where I live in the US (I live in Utah), the week between Christmas and New Years is relaxed. People are off work. People get together with family. People stay home. I go skiing. Generally, traffic is less because offices are closed. Unless of course, you're going to...

Hopefully you're reading this on Christmas Eve, December 24. If so, recognize that it's Christmas Day in the Philippines because they're ahead of you (Except if you live in Australia...then you don't do any conversion...). Today is a good day to send them an email...

In preparation for next year, we just updated our online Philippine Holiday calendar to include the holidays for 2022. In addition to updating the calendar, we also changed the way we labeled the holidays. Now they start with the letters: RH - for Regular holidays SNW...

If you didn't know, the Philippines just had a super typhoon come through. Here's what I know. In the US we call it Typhoon Rai. In the Philippines it's called Typhoon Odette. They call it a typhoon. We call it a hurricane.  This was like a category 5 hurricane. The...

What Julia wrote will make you smile. ------------------ We Filipinos are more excited about Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve rather than Christmas and New Year’s Day. Christmas and New Year’s Day are when we sleep in. The real celebration happens the day before. Both...

Short email just to update you. Typhoon Rai is pounding the Philippines right now. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=typhoon+rai Ask your OFS if they're ok. If they don't respond, assume they don't have power or internet. Give them a break. If your OFS is affected, you might...

Julia (my content OFS) offered me this: ------------- When people find out that I work for Onlinejobs.ph, they immediately ask me whether we have job openings. They ask because it’s known throughout the Philippine outsourcing industry that Onlinejobs.ph employees get...

In the US, there’s this long-standing friendly debate among family about when Christmas is allowed to start. In my family, we start the day after Halloween. That’s when it’s acceptable to play Christmas music. Often my wife puts up her Christmas decorations in early...

My daughter usually plugs her AirPods in the kitchen so she doesn't forget them in the morning when she leaves for school. This morning: "Where are my AirPods?" I didn't take them, but I was glad they weren't where she expected them. I hate those things.  Hate that...

One of the things everyone looks forward to during the Christmas season is the food. Not me. As my wife says...I don't have an emotional relationship with food. For me, food is to fuel my body. Oh sure, I want it to taste good. I don't like eating brussel sprouts....

It’s not that Filipinos don’t want to have their own business. It’s because setting up (and closing) a legitimate business in the Philippines is complicated. It has been made easier in the past few years. In World Bank’s 2019 Doing Business Report, the Philippines...

As I lay here on the ground, completely exhausted from the workout I just did, I’m thinking about the SEO crisis we had yesterday. I searched on DuckDuckGo to see how search results were looking only to find that Onlinejobs.ph wasn’t showing up. That freaked me out so...

I got an interesting email from a woman who is having some issues with her 2nd OFS. "I have concerns that she is working for someone else and it is interfering with her performance.  She gets her basic work done but when I try to add more she is resistant and...

Todays a good day to send the 13th month payment to your OFS. They always appreciate it the earlier in the month they get it. The later it gets the more and more worried they get that you're not going to send it. They count on it. They budget for it. They need it for...

What Julia (my OFS) writes below is super interesting and explains a lot. -------------------- Funerals in the Philippines are a family affair. The process from start to finish is so long, complicated, and time-consuming. When this happens, everybody pitches in as...

A while back I sent a newsletter about what you can do when there’s a death in your OFS’ family. I got a great response to it from Dylan: “Today, my graphic designer Danice's aunt died. Here's what I told her: "Dan, I'm so sorry. I'll keep you and your family in my...