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

When I hired my first Filipino VA, Joven, it was a lightbulb moment. I was, like, amazed by how much he could do with just a bit of training and guidance. He freed up so much of my time and mental bandwidth that I wished I’d done it sooner. Because of that experience,...

I’ve never answered this question publicly before, so I wanted to share it with you. Hi John! I came across your content today, and am glad to have found it. I'm currently trying to figure out if it makes sense to get an EOR for my Filipino worker, as she is working...

My OFS team is all over the Philippines. Even though their internet has improved a lot since when I started outsourcing, there are still places where the connection is still inconsistent. So Charlyne and her husband (both in our social media team), finally got...

Sometimes people ask me "What would a VA do for me?" I don't know! My problem is...I only run MY business. I'm not running yours. The data entry we do is different from the data entry they would do for you. The admin work is different for me than for you. So I really...

Because I receive so many emails from people asking the same questions repeatedly, I sometimes have my OFS, Julia, answer them. Recently, I forwarded an email I wanted her to answer because it was really long and very detailed, asking why an OFS disappeared. Here’s...

I’ve been outsourcing to the Philippines for many years and have seen much of their culture change. But they still cling to some traditions. One of these traditions, hilot, is a folk medicine tradition that is still practiced all over the Philippines. I give my OFS...

I’ve already discussed this in my previous newsletters. But just in case you haven’t received them or are a new subscriber, I want to remind you that your OFS might ask for time off on November 1, next Friday. All Saints' Day, November 1, is not a regular holiday;...

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Renee. Here's what she said: This has been our biggest downfall with our Philippino hires over the past 5 years and I have found many of my previous employees have held multiple jobs through the night and even attempted to complete...

How long do you think it will take you to find a great online Filipino worker for your business? One month? One week? Two days? One hour? It took Carey two hours to find two great people for her business. Even better, she’s getting more work done while spending less....

The Philippines have so many holidays in the last few months of the year. Here in the US, we have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. That’s it. In the Philippines, there are so many holidays it can feel like there’s a holiday every week starting at the end of...

It’s October, so I’m giving you your yearly reminder to start preparing for your OFS’ 13th month. You don’t need to give the 13th month now, but ideally, you should give it before the year ends. We pay it at the beginning of December. Preparing for it now helps avoid...

I’ve learned a lot about hiring Online Filipino Specialists (or, "VAs" as you might call them) over the years. You might even say I'm good at it. Then there are the changes we've made at OnlineJobs.ph to make weeding out the bad and finding the good even easier. Here...

Jason found an amazing OFS. Then things went wrong. They worked together and everything was great for the first few weeks. Then, his work began to deteriorate. Eventually, the OFS stopped showing up. I advised Jason to ask the OFS what happened. Jason followed my...

I'm bad at sending timely news. It just doesn't work with my lifestyle or how I schedule my newsletters.  So...I'm a week late with this typhoon news. As the US deals with Helene and Milton, a massive typhoon (Typhoon is what they call a hurricane in the Pacific...

Having a child changes your life in so many ways. When you have a child, you want to give them stability, a good life, and a bright future. For Filipinos who aren’t financially stable, giving them all these things can be challenging. But when Mikel became a father, he...

My day-to-day work is looking at the big picture of our business. The decisions we're making. The problems we're facing and the solutions we're coming up with to solve them. Are these taking us in the right direction? Then I point people in the right direction which...

You're scared of hiring an OFS because of the unknown of what it actually looks like. Let me tell you what it actually looks like in my business most of the time. First, I've gone through the process I teach at OneVAAway.com. I decide who to hire and say "I'd like to...

Occasionally I talk about working 17 hours/week. I’ve done so since about 2008. During that time I’ve built an 8 figure business. How? Everyone wants to live the 4 hour work week, but few understand how. Here’s how. DON’T SELL YOUR TIME. This has been one of the key...

Last Friday, in my newsletter, I talked about how the job you provide is probably a dream job. Filipinos are really loyal when you give them a good job that allows them to work from home, treat them well, and pay them fairly. When I talked to Julia about this so we...

You are (or are about to be) a life saver. I got an email last week from someone in the Philippines who described to me how her boss had saved her life by giving her a job. My team pointed out to me something I didn't realize: Filipinos look at online boss' as life...

One common (and legitimate) concern you guys ask me about when hiring Online Filipino Specialists is how disaster-prone the Philippines is. The Philippines experiences around 20 typhoons every year. Those typhoons often come with flooding and landslides. The country...

Many business owners and entrepreneurs are perfectionists. I'm not. I'm more of a "do the least amount of effort to get it started and see what happens" kind of guy. I hire someone, see how it goes, and make corrections. If you're a perfectionist, how do you get to...

This is a concern of mine too: You found an Online Filipino Specialist who’s really good. You like their work. You’re getting along great. You ask them "What other jobs do you have?" and they respond with "I work for a company in Canada full-time." What do you do?...

Occasionally I see nasty comments online when I feature an OFS and their lifestyle. Ok, actually, I don't see them. My OFS do. The most common comment is that these people are underpaid and exploited. Their houses or neighborhoods don’t look nice, so they live in...

I asked repeatedly whether hiring a bookkeeper or accountant in the Philippines is safe. Yes, it’s safe. In fact, you’ll find so many great accountants and bookkeepers in the Philippines. People who are skilled, experienced, hard-working, and loyal. Dei is a good...

You’re ready to hire another OFS for your team. Should you delegate that process to your OFS? I’d say YES…but it also depends. I understand wanting to delegate this process. It’s one less thing on your plate. If this new OFS is working with your current OFS, you’d...

The Philippines is hit by typhoons all year round, but most occur in the last quarter of the year. Just a few months ago, I talked about Typhoon Carina (Gaemi) and how it affected Metro Manila. This new typhoon, Enteng (international name Yagi), also caused flooding...

“Can you hire an OFS to work nights?” I get asked this a lot and I always reply with “YES.” Some people in my team are night owls. They prefer to work nights. “Can you find a super specialized OFS like a marketing director?” YES! A quick search at Onlinejobs.ph gave a...

The list of what Ela's OFS do for her is long: Server work Website development and maintenance Blog posts Email marketing Social media Graphic design Video editing Video posting Research Writing Ela started by hiring a social media VA through an agency. Even then, she...

When an OFS asks for payment upfront, before they start working or right after they start working, that’s ALWAYS a red flag. When I saw this email, it prompted me to write about this topic again. I attempted to hire someone from your company and the person asked for a...

My son just returned home (YAY!!!) from serving as a missionary for 2 years in the Philippines. He lived with the people. He lived in poor places. He spent his time in people's houses. He walked the streets. He rode the jeepneys. He spoke Tagalog (he became very...

This is not a very common question, but I want to discuss it today because it is important, especially given the fluctuations in currency exchange rates. Let me clarify that your OFS will receive their salary in Philippine peso. The payment platform and the banks from...

When we think about Hollywood, we think of big-budget movies, glamorous actors, and giant movie studios. In reality, there are people behind the scenes who do the repetitive, tedious work to make these things happen. OFS. There are people who do administrative work...

Today I found some really poor work done by one of my SEO OFS. The content he wrote was fantastic. The links he created were not. He linked to pages we're trying to rank with "click here" instead of "review of OnlineJobs.ph". And he did it over and over again. I was...

Should you hire a family member of your OFS? I got an email from Jeff about a topic I haven’t talked about explicitly but is related to having your OFS recruit for you. _______________________ Hey John, Can you write an article about how OFS feel about hiring family...

Sometimes it seems like I oversimplify things (sometimes I do!). You want to learn how to hire an OFS? Easy. Just go to OneVAAway.com. You’ll hire someone in under two hours. Ready to hire? Just go to Onlinejobs.ph and upload a job post. Want to train your OFS but...

You've probably experienced this. My team usually calls me “Sir” or “Sir John”. I am very rarely called just “John” by my OFS team. Some do, but not most. So, when I got this email from Jim, I was intrigued. Hi John, I've been wanting to ask this question of you for a...

You wear a lot of hats. So do I. I’m a husband, father, business owner, friend, colleague, sibling, son, son-in-law, coach, etc. Those are just the ones I wear in my personal life. But these are the ones I love to wear. These are the ones that fit best. What are...

I know many of you are looking for cold callers for your business. So, I’m sharing this email from Mitch, in which he shares how he found great cold callers for his business. I like it because it’s obvious, simple and fast. This tip might be too obvious - but I...

I just got an update from Julia that there is massive flooding in Manila (the Philippine capital) and its neighboring provinces. Manila the most densely populated city in the world. There’s a good chance you have an OFS who lives there, so you might want to check on...

I’m not a systems guy. I'm a get started now guy. I don’t need a lot of planning and preparation to start projects. I don’t need things to be organized before starting. I want it started NOW. This infuriates a lot of people when they ask me for plans, templates,...

When I started hiring Filipino VAs in 2005, I didn't know why it was working so well. I just knew it worked. There’s something about Filipino culture and society that makes it easy to work with them. Honesty Diligence English Loyalty Hard Work ... I’m not the only one...

You're busy. Work, kids, home, hobbies, church, family... Filipinos are busy too. Here's Maia's story outside of her life as a digital marketer. She cooks for her kids every day. She works full-time. She bikes every weekend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgIrovubIy4...

2020-2021 was a tough time for all of us. It was a tough time for Michael Schreiber, too. He had a baby on the way and had just started a business after years of trying to get one off the ground. Also, he just hired his first OFS to help him with his business. Most...

One of the great things about having an OFS is you start seeing more tasks that you can delegate. Some of these tasks can be odd jobs or one-off tasks that you’re not sure whether you can give to your OFS. Stuff like: - Editing vacation videos - Designing a logo for...

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

I teach how to hire someone in less than 3 hours (total time). But 20 minutes??? Here's what Adam said: John (or what ever OFS is reading this), I have four full time staff members in the Philippines- all hired from onlinejobs.ph. Today I finally decided to execute on...

Our lead generation isn’t the same as your lead gen. My business is different than yours. But lead generation is still critical to almost all businesses, so here are some ideas for you from ways my team does it for me. – Participating in forums – they regularly make...

The Philippines is a mostly Catholic country, so a lot of its values can still appear very patriarchal. But because many Filipino mothers leave the country to work abroad and because of modern values, many Filipino fathers are very involved in raising their children....

I don't do video interviews. Ever. I’ve talked about my reasons why many times before. I know they’re great for some businesses, but for some reason, it never really made sense to me. Most of my OFS do back-office and support work so it didn’t make a lot of sense for...