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Yesterday I went sledding with my older kids. ; No, not your normal sledding.; We call this "adult sledding".orSled racing. We hike up a canyon 1-2 miles, then we sled back down the single-track 1-2 miles. It's a 1-2 mile long luge where we race each other.First one down wins.Full-contact. Adult sledding. Guess what's not full-contact? The Philippines culture. Contact usually involves confrontation and they're super non-confrontational. Yesterday Monaz emailed me and said she didn't have a good experience hiring an online Filipino specialist because they disappeared in the middle of her project leaving her high and dry. I responded and said;They probably had a problem or got stuck on something or didn't know how to do something. She said"But then rather than disappearing should he not have communicated that he does not want to do the job any more? " No, because that's not their culture. 1. he DOES still want the job. ;He's just stuck on something.2. he doesn't want to confront you about him being stuck. When someone disappears...even for the shortest amount of time (2-3 days is a really good indicator), you should take it as a sign that something is wrong. It's not that they don't want the job. It's that they're stuck and don't want to confront you. John PS. Yesterday we hiked up and raced down 3 times. My 18 yr old son is talented enough that I can't beat him anymore. ;He always wins. ;It stinks. |
My family and I are pretty healthy. ; We eat really well.We exercise a lot.We sleep 8+ hours/night.We have low stress. Generally, we're pretty darn healthy.; That doesn't mean we don't have our problems.; - 2 of my kids just had their tonsils out.- After 10 years of stomach problems I figured out about 2 years ago that I'm allergic to dairy.- I have significant mercury poisoning which affects my brain.- My teenagers have a hard time falling asleep.- My wife...nope, she's perfect. Your Filipino team are likely to have some health issues too. I got an email yesterday from the sister of one of my workers: "Hi Sir, this is [MY VAS NAME]'s sister. Today [MY VAS NAME] was rushed to the hospital. Once she got there she was rushed to the ICU. ;She has been having health problems the past few months and was getting better. But she started bleeding last night and seemingly took a turn for the worse..." At this point, I have no idea really how long she'll be in the hospital, or how long she'll be away from work. It's just part of having people work for you.; Some people expect a remote worker to be available 100% of the time. They're human.(I wish I didn't have to say this...but you'd be surprised...) They're going to have health and family problems.; When they do, it's very likely legitimate.;They're not faking it.They're not trying to get out of their job. At least, most of the time this is the case. My only advice is to;- Cut them some slack.- If the work you have them doing is mission critical, hire 2 people to do the job. Then you have a backup. ;You can even have the first person train the second person. John |
With Valentines coming up, how about a little "love" knowledge. My VA wrote this piece about "The Bachelor", but what stuck out to me is that there's no divorce in the Philippines. Maybe this is why they're so darn loyal.; Why...if you treat them well, they'll never stop working for you. Why they're so non-confrontational. When they have a problem, they're unlikely to bring it up to you unless they REALLY trust you. From Julia:-------------Why there's no "The Bachelor - Philippine edition"; We Filipinos enjoy reality TV shows as much as the rest of the world. We even have our own "Big Brother", "Idol", "Got Talent" and "X-Factor". We've tried to adapt most reality TV shows out there but there's one show we never tried to adapt: "The Bachelor" It's not that we don't enjoy watching the show. We love it. But there are certain aspects about Filipino culture that would make adapting "The Bachelor" problematic. 1.;We don't have divorce.;The Philippines is one of the few countries in the world that doesn't have divorce. If you want to leave your spouse, the only option is annulment which is costly and takes years to complete. So you'll be hard pressed to find a Filipino willing to join the show, knowing how permanent and expensive things would be if the relationship doesn't work out. 2. The influence of parents and extended family. Even though we do have the freedom to choose who we marry, our families can make it really difficult if we choose someone they don't approve of. The Bachelor's parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles might end up getting more screen time if that happens. 3. We have a mostly conservative dating culture. We date around. But there's still the expectation that you shouldn't be physically intimate with someone unless you're committed to them. And the Catholic Church still has some sway over the media. There's no way they'd allow a show like "The Bachelor" to be made in the Philippines.------------ US culture is so heavily pro-divorce. ; If you don't like them, get a divorce.You had a fight? ;Get a divorce. When I got married (20 years ago) my uncle (who is a divorce attorney) said to me:"Congratulations on your marriage. I'll help you with your divorce." I'm thankful there's a culture where divorce isn't the answer. ;It makes for great insourcing. Here's a bit about how loyal online Filipino workers are: https://youtu.be/CmbIpeTt67s John |
We skied in Little Cottonwood Canyon the other day. ;It was amazing. ;15" of new snow, a storm, backcountry, being out with my son...all the ingredients for an adventure. The unexpected piece of the adventure was the traffic. Oh sure, traffic is super common on a powder day, but we left at 2pm. ;Traffic doesn't usually start until 3 or 4.; We knew what we were getting in to.; What we didn't know was they closed the canyon road down so they could do avalanche control work to prevent a future avalanche from coming across and covering the road.; It was closed until 5:30! Fortunately for us, we weren't skiing in the resort. We had our backcountry gear with us. ;So rather than sitting in the car we put our skis and skins on again and went out and climbed another mountain and skied again! The road closure was uncontrollable. There was nothing we could do about it.How we handled the situation was something we COULD control. How do you handle the uncontrollable situations in the Philippines? Kevin H asked this week:"My experience hiring virtual assistants has been phenomenal...Do you have any suggestions for managing against the uncontrollables when hiring VAs like weather, electricity, and internet?" Suggestions, yes.Solutions, not really. 1. Typhoons are random. ;I've seen them hit all different parts of the Philippines. It happens every year. There's nothing I know of that you can do to prevent this. When it happens to your VAs, try to help them rebuild their lives. 2. Internet is tied to electricity. ;If the electricity is down, so is the internet. ;Buying a generator for your VA doesn't solve internet outages.If slow internet is an issue, often they can pay more to upgrade their speed. ;Ask them if this is a possibility, then offer to pay for the upgrade. 3. The Philippines often has options for wireless internet access. ;If your VA is having internet problems at their house, maybe offer to pay for a wireless carrier. It's not that expensive. 4. The infrastructure for power generation in the Philippines isn't keeping up with the demand (they're working on it). ;So the temporary solution is "rolling brown outs". ;They'll schedule time for the power to go out in different areas to deal with the difference between supply and demand. ;I've never seen a pattern for this, and have never seen it go on for more than a few months in a specific location. 5. You're less likely to have power/internet outages in a major city like Metro Manila or Cebu.Wages are also more expensive in those places. So how do you deal with it if this is happening to you? First, recognize that it's worse for them than it is for you.Often the power goes out at the hottest times, because that's when everyone is running their air conditioning. And it's HOT in the Philippines.They want to get their work done. If electricity or internet is preventing it, they're super worried about losing their job because of forces that are out of their control. Second, most VAs will plan their work schedules around the "brown ;outs". ;If you have timing critical work, considering hiring someone in a different part of the country so they can back each other up when brown outs happen. ;They could be part-time. Third, talk with your VA about it. ;Make a plan together. My VAs have always said "I couldn't finish this work today because the power went out. ;I'll make up for it tonight and on Saturday." (Or something like that). ;When this happens, figure out what your policy will be. My policy is to allow them to make it up, but sometimes I tell them not to make it up. Your policy might be more strict or more lenient. John |
The term VA or Virtual Assistant has bugged me for a long time. You're not hiring an "assistant".;They're not a nebulous "do anything but don't be particularly good at anything" person. Yes, I've hired a couple of those over the years. Actually, the first person I ever hired was like that. ;He knew nothing. But that was because there was no other way to hire someone back then except through an agency. And...agencies aren't particularly good at finding great people. ;They're just good at bringing in a warm body and marking up their salary. It worked out for me...but it was frustrating at the same time. Today, it's so easy to zero in on the exact talent you need, and, for the most part, I don't want an "assistant"... ...and neither do you. You want a specialist.From the Philippines.Who works online. An Online Filipino Specialist. ;OFS. Someone who is good at something. You want a;graphic designer,;or a;social media marketer,;or a;PHP programmer,or a;content writer,or someone experienced in lead generation,or an ecommerce specialist,;or an amazon FBA specialist,Or a dedicated sales agent,Or a bookkeeper,Or a data entry specialist,Or a FB ads specialistOr ...Or ...... I could go on and on with this. -----TIP:;try using quotes around your search term on OnlineJobs.ph. ;like;"Ecommerce specialist"----- The point is, yes, you can hire a "virtual assistant", and that person can be really good for you. But you can also hire a specialist. ;An Online Filipino Specialist. Someone who will be loyal and honest and hard working and have great English and help your business grow. That's who I hire. I have;Joven - Data security specialistJulia - Content specialistRaymund - PHP programmerAvery - UI designerJunelo - Backend admin specialistSydney - Data entry specialistBen - Social Media specialistHazel - HR expertPeter, Jocelyn, Bing - Customer support specialistsJessica - Process management expert ... and about 25 more people, all who are really good at what they do (sorry for not mentioning each of you by name!). I've had too many people tell me "I'm just not sure if they're capable of doing good work" because they've heard the words "virtual assistant". The Philippines culture is all about making people happy. ;All about doing good work.All about delivering results to the customer. Hire an OFS. ;Not a VA. John |
"Dad...when are we going to start paying taxes on this?" My son is super intense. He's been running businesses since he was 11.;Some made money, some didn't. ; But the one he has stuck with the longest did about $300k in sales this past year (he just turned 18). A couple years ago he wrote up a contract between him and his customers. ;He makes them sign it.; And he has always wanted to pay taxes! Weird...I know. What he didn't know was that I was running all his revenue through a business of mine so I was paying the taxes. ;This year, it's going to be on him. ;Then we'll see how anxious he is to pay taxes. So what about with your online Filipino specialists? Do you need to pay taxes?What about using a contract?Are they considered an "employee"? The short answers areNo.I don't.No. Here's a more full discussion about it: https://youtu.be/SSMPvaxzROw We also have a more;full post about taxes with your OFS. John PS.;I'm not a CPA or an attorney. ;I'm not qualified to give legal or tax advice. ;You should NOT listen to anything I say. You should talk to a professional.;Under no circumstances should you act based on what I said in the video or in this email. Ask your accountant and attorney. |
A lot of mornings I do this with my 3rd grade daughter while she's getting ready for school. "What's 4x8?""What's 7x8?""2x8?""9x8?" I'll just repeat over and over to help her memorize. Math is a lot about patterns. ;The more you recognize the patterns, the easier it is. Learning to read is the same...but more complicated at first.; When teaching my son to read we would read sentences, do flash cards, sound words out, read different types of stories... All kinds of exposure to different situations helped him to read.; Teaching an OFS is SO much easier! Here's how I teach and train: 1. If it's a skill they already have, I ask for a plan first.How would they implement this?What are the steps?What kind of content will they create?How often?How will they accomplish the task?2. I go over the plan and make modifications according to how it fits my business and my understanding and goals.3. I ask them to do the initial implementation and then show me their work.4. I give feedback.5. Repeat steps 3-5. Rarely does it happen perfectly the first time. Steps 3-5 happen over and over again. Usually...I mean, I'd say 98% of the time...the feedback is done in screen recording using Snagit. Here's a video I made this week for one of my OFS. ;She's one of my Content Specialists. She regularly contributes to this newsletter and I'm ready for her to take a more active role. I have her posting the emails to a blog. Now I want her to get the URL of the future blog post and add it to the newsletter. ;All of this needs to happen before anything is live. Here's my actual training: http://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/2021-02-11_10-48-53.mp4 After doing it, I realized I left some things out.;I need to talk about the timing of publishing the posts. Timing of adding the links is also important.;I'll make another video and explain it to her.; The magic of Snagit is it's super easy to share the video you just made.;It's also super easy to add more: just make another video. And, if you set it up correctly, you'll never lose a training you create. It amazes me how often training or feedback from years ago gets referenced in our work. Here's how I set up Snagit. http://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/2021-02-11_11-07-03.mp4 This is so prevalent that my team regularly sends me screenshots or videos now. John |
Internet problems at my house entail conversions like"Ugh...what's wrong with the wifi? ;It's so slow!""Dad, your wifi sucks!";<-- teenage kids"John, come fix my computer.";<-- my amazing wife During COVID, it's especially crappy because these happen more often and interrupt me working. In the Philippines...it's different. Julia, my Online Filipino Content Specialist wrote --------Let me start by saying that I know I am luckier than most. I have a job AND the resources that would make it easy for my child to study from home. But even with that, homeschooling/online classes are tough. You're never really prepared for it. I'm used to working from home. I'm not used to working from home plus being an unpaid teaching assistant and tech support on school days. What causes me the most amount of stress is when I'm having problems with my internet connection. Internet problems are a way of life in the Philippines. I'm used to it. So when it happens, I already have ways to manage it. Most of the time, I just wait it out or restart my router. I'll use that time to have coffee, do some chores or take a quick nap. Once my internet connection is stable again, I just go back to work. If waiting things out doesn't solve things, I just bring out my back up internet. If my back-up internet is also having problems and I have deadlines I need to meet, I go to a coffeeshop or a co-working space and finish working there. See? Everything is under control. But when you have a student at home, having internet problems feels like a matter of life or death. My daughter panics every time our internet speed dips or gets cut off. And when she panics, I panic. Funny how it always seems to happen when they're taking tests or in the middle of a very important lecture.; And I made the mistake of letting my daughter's school know that I'm a virtual assistant. For some reason, for other parents that meant I'm their go-to-gal whenever they have technical problems. I can't wait for this pandemic to end.--------- Internet outages happen.Kids happen.Pandemics apparently happen (11 months ago...who knew!?!) John PS. By reading;The Outsourcing Lever;you'll get a good idea of a lot of situations like this and how to handle them. |
I'm all about systems. ;It means I don't have to think about something.;It means something happens without me.; I've found in my life that if I have to think about something over and over again it clutters my brain so I'm not efficient at solving bigger problems. ; Take chores for a second... I have 5 kids. They make tons of messes!!! It's unbelievable.; So we've tried differing chore charts over the years (and over the past months). ;Nothing is really working. ;But at least with the current chart there's a system in place. ;Something where I can say; Have you done your chores? "What are my chores?" Go look at your chart!!! I hate micromanaging. ; That's why I use basecamp in my business. It allows tons of work to get done without me being involved. ;Maybe I should be using it at home??? Here's what my Content Specialist wrote:----------------We've used a lot of project management platforms over the years and Basecamp is the only one we've stuck with. It's not as fancy or as colorful as other platforms. It doesn't have as many features. But I think the great thing about how we use Basecamp is it helps us get things done without John having to micromanage us. When John has a project, he creates one task and assigns everybody he needs on it. There he explains his idea and we discuss what we need to get things done. That first task is where we brainstorm. We figure out what works, what doesn't, what we'd need, the timeframe, etc , etc After that, John just lets us create our own tasks list. Individually, or in teams, we would create our own group lists to get the job done. We only go back to the task John created if we need anything from him, he tags us, or we need to update the entire team. John closes the tasks only when it's really done. What I appreciate about this is we're given the freedom to use Basecamp in a way that allows us to get things done. I know for a fact that John doesn't like looking at my task lists because they're really long. I like breaking down projects into bite-sized tasks that I can schedule everyday. I have colleagues who do it differently. They just add tasks in the comments and tag the people involved.; Either way, things get done in the way that works for us. We're not forced to follow strict protocols. Doesn't matter how we work. What matters is we deliver.----------------- Find a system that works for you. Basecamp works for us.;Maybe Asana or Trello or any other other project management systems will work for you.Or maybe just email works for you. ; Just find something that works and then stick with it so you're not micromanaging. John |
2 of my kids had their tonsils out a few weeks ago: It was a painful 9 days. ; Lots of popsicles, crying, water, tylenol, ibuprofen, sleep... When the total bill came for the surgery, it was $500 each.; I was surprised at how affordable it was. ;Of course...some of it was reduced by our insurance company. In a lot of the world, health insurance has become standard. ; We don't take it for granted yet (although, a lot of people do), but it's so easily accessible (or even required, or provided by the government). For my family, we do a high deductible plan. We're healthy. We've never met our deductible (so dumb!). But in the Philippines, it's not so simple.; I've had a number of questions recently about providing benefits to VAs.;Tomorrow I'm going to give more info about it. Today, here's a bit about health insurance from one of my OFS.-----------------Having health insurance helps me become a better VA! A few weeks ago, I injured the meniscus of my left knee. As soon as it was clear that the pain wasn't going away, my husband took me to the nearest hospital. A couple of consultations, an X-ray and 6 physical therapy sessions later, my knee is as good as new. I only missed work once, after my first consultation when the pain was really bad and the meds haven't kicked in yet. And I made up for it that weekend because of deadlines. I was able to have my knee injury treated as soon as possible because John gave us health insurance. I know this isn't something most employers would consider but it is one of the reasons why we're really loyal to him. The fact that he offered lets us know he has our back. We have one less thing to worry about. Even though we have some form of socialized medicine here in the Philippines, it doesn't cover everything. Without that health insurance, I would have waited longer to go to the doctor, making my injury worse. Even if I did go to the doctor, I may have opted not to get the physical therapy because it can get too expensive. I wouldn't have been able to work because of the pain. Another great thing about having health insurance is that I didn't feel the need to get another job just to cover my medical cost. I know a lot of employers complain about VAs getting multiple jobs even when they're hired full-time. But if you look closely, you'll notice that a lot of VAs start looking for another job when they're anticipating a big expense. Like, if their child is about to start school, or they're getting married, having a baby, or when they have a major medical expense. Since I know I'm covered, I really don't need to have another job. I just need to focus on the one I have. I have job security and work-life balance. I could not ask for more.------------------- We have "Value Care" insurance in the Philippines for our team. Providing health insurance generally keeps workers happy, and prevents them from needing to have another job to find it. I'm definitely not saying it's something you need to be providing. ;In fact, we didn't do it for more than 10 years while having Filipino specialists working for us.; I'll have more info tomorrow. John |
I hate the word "benefits" when it comes to work related additions. In the US, most "benefits" serve to tie someone down to a job they don't like. ; "I can't quit and start out on my own, what about benefits"? But, from an employers perspective??? Employee benefits is one of the reasons why a lot of Filipinos prefer long-term employment. It makes them work for you and only you. It's the icing on the cake.; You have a monthly salary and perks?!;Why would I want to do anything else if I had that with just one job? What benefits can you give to your Filipino workers?; Potential "Benefits": 1. The benefit that most Filipinos would want (and look forward to) is the 13th month. https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/13th-month-pay-practical-advice.; If you're new to outsourcing and you feel like you don't have enough to give a lot of employee perks, this is the easiest option. It's only given out once a year and only costs an extra month's salary.This is the only one that you SHOULD be paying. ;Plan for it.; The rest of these are optional (I mean...everything is optional...) 2. Social Security System (SSS) - this is the Philippines version of social security. That's where Filipinos can draw their pension once we've completed 10 years of payments. This is also where they can get unemployment, disability, maternity and retirement benefits. <$50/month. 3. Pag-Ibig Fund (Home Development Mutual Fund) ;- It's an investment and savings fund owned and controlled by the government to help Filipinos buy their own homes. Even if they don't plan to buy a home, they contribute to it because it also offers a lot of loan programs and benefits. <$10/month. 4. Philhealth - it's their form of socialized medicine. They're all pretty much required to pay into it, one way or another. It's not much but it does help reduce medical bills and is recognized by all Philippines hospitals. <$10/month. 5. HMO - Private health insurance - This is trickier than the others...but most of the work is done by your OFS. Unless you have an official business set up in the Philippines (almost nobody does...including us!), your OFS will need to sign up for this on their own. ;You can either pre-pay them for their monthly payment or reimburse them for the monthly payment (they'll prefer the pre-payment). Either way, you should require a receipt as proof of payment.A decent HMO plan in the Philippines is a "Private Room" plan with top hospitals and will cost between $400-550 per member per year. <$50/month. Here are 10 providers you can tell your OFS to look into if you want to do this:1. ;Medicard - https://www.medicardphils.com/;2. ;Maxicare - https://www.maxicare.com.ph/3. ;Intellicare - https://www.intellicare.net.ph/4. ;ValueCare - https://www.valucarehealth.com/5. ;Pacific Cross - https://www.pacificcross.com.ph/#home6. ;EastWest health Care - http://eastwest-healthcare.com/7. ;Insular health care - https://shop.insularhealthcare.com.ph/8. ;Caritas health - https://www.caritashealthshield.com.ph/9. ;PhilCrae - https://www.philcare.com.ph/10. Avega - https://www.avega.com.ph/ We used ValueCare. Here's a lot more detail:https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/how-to-compute-for-filipino-va-benefits Look...none of this is required. ;You SHOULD pay the 13th month.We paid that from the beginning. Here's the approximate timeline for when we started paying for these:1. 13th month - right from the start2. SSS/PhilHealth - I started adding to their salary in the 2nd year of having OFS work for me (2006). It was just a salary increase one time. From there we never dealt with it again.;If I had to give advice for when to pay this, pay it when your OFS is contributing more to your business than you're paying them.3. Pag-Ibig is so small I never worried about it, but we've helped people with loans quite a few times over the years.4. HMO - We didn't start this until about 2014. Our team was asking for it. Now we provide it to everyone who joins our team.; If you have questions, just reply. John PS. Sledding with my 9yr old girl who is gutsy and giggles loudly the entire time is so fun! |
My kids laughed at me. Are you serious? "$5???" Ok, fine, you're right. ;No incentive for getting your chores done. You're a part of this house and we expect you to get them done. That's how our chore conversation went. ;The incentive didn't work. ;The punishment didn't work.; In the end, it just came down to duty and responsibility. I get this email regularly: "Hey John, I want to hire an OFS and have a set of bonuses and incentives for them rather than just paying a salary.; Thoughts?" DON'T DO IT! My kids just laughed at the incentive up front.;The incentive didn't help. With an OFS, it often makes things worse. What I've seen is that the OFS starts to worry that if they don't hit the targets that they're going to get demoted or they're going to let the employer down. Julia, my OF Content Specialist says:-------------This is understandable because this is what happens around most sales/quota/target oriented jobs in the Philippines. This is especially prevalent in the BPO industry. If you have an underperforming team (you're not hitting the desired metrics consistently), you'll get penalized. The most common penalty is you'll be given the shift that no one wants (no incentives, high volume of irate calls). Each mistake counts as a strike and the strikes are cumulative. Do it often enough the team manager or team members do get demoted or fired. There's a culture in BPOs where you have to hit the metrics at all costs. So the employees take fewer risks. They're less likely to think critically or be creative because they're worried that if they deviate from the script, it can affect their targets. That's why we have a lot of online workers from the BPO industry. The stress of shift work PLUS the pressure to hit targets (or else) gets to them. That's why Jam got hypertension which eventually encouraged him to stop working for BPOs. When you work in sales, as soon as you hit your target they'll increase your target for the next sales cycle. At first, you're motivated because the incentives are also bigger. But once you fail to hit that higher target, you'll be demoted. So it makes more sense to just stick to the bare minimum. Because when you go above and beyond, you're penalized as soon as you make a mistake. Doesn't matter if you did an excellent job prior to not hitting your current targets. The quality of the work doesn't matter. This standard in the Philippine corporate culture is the reason why a lot of VAs are afraid to take risks.; But back when I still had a corporate job, I also experienced something that actually encouraged the employees to do better. In the company I worked for before I started working online, we did indexing and analyzing scientific and academic journals for Elsevier. We had a daily quota of covering 40 journals per day. We always hit that quota and always managed to exceed that quota. There were even days where we ran out of things to do. We were able to do this because: 1. After the training period, we gave newbies time to gradually hit the target. We all started with 10 journals per day for a week. Then 15, 20, so on and so forth.2. Once we hit the target, that's when we're shown the incentive ladder. It shows us how much more we can get if we hit 45, 50, 60, etc. We're not forced to exceed the targets. But it really encouraged us to go beyond our 40 limit because we knew that 40 is something we can easily achieve in a day.3. The 40 target is easy enough to hit on a regular basis. But on the rare occasion that we didn't hit the target (we had to index a full book instead of a journal or we ran out of things to do) we're not penalized for those days. We can make up for it the following day and have our excess work cover and shortages in the previous days.4. We had flexible hours. The company allowed us to work when we were most productive. The business I worked for can afford to do this because we did have a department that had round the clock operations. So allowing people to set their own hours made sense. In my case, I knew I was most productive in the mornings. I would start working at 6am and I would hit my target before noon. Any work I did after lunch was in excess.;------------- What I recommend is to give them unannounced bonuses. ;Add $25-$50 to their salary and say "Thank you for doing great work." John PS. I talk about this and so many more things in The Outsourcing Lever |
As we summited the peak for the 2nd time today I looked south and saw thick clouds rolling in. I turned to the north and a pit formed in my stomach.; Clouds converging from all sides. Slowly, but thick.; Visibility was about to become zero. Not a good thing when you're skiing in unfamiliar territory. I said to Addie We need to hurry and transition to ski mode and get down. When we got to the bottom of the run, I looked, and miraculously winds had shifted and the clouds were receding. ;In a matter of 5 minutes! We turned around and climbed the mountain the 3rd time. ;It was beautiful! What do you do when clouds appear to be converging around your relationship with your OFS? Miya J asked me this week:"Our VA we hired has not been working on any if the tasks I’ve asked her to complete this week. She also has not replied to any of my emails or text messages, despite the fact that I see she’s been online every day this week. My first course of action is to do a formal warning... but curious if there is a particular protocol that you recommend? We liked her in the beginning but I think now she’s not really being efficient. I’m thinking it’s time to replace her." Yes, I have a protocol. First, try to solve the problem. Ask them"I've noticed your productivity has dropped;[or You're not showing up to work][or Your attention to detail has gone downhill]I have a feeling you're stuck on something. ;What are you stuck on? ;What's going on with your work? What can I do to make this easier for you?" Second, try to work it out with them.Think about this... It's hard to find a job in the Philippines.When they get a stable job (consistent, not project work, preferably not being paid hourly), they want to keep it.They don't want to jeopardize their employment. Most often, it's not that they don't want the job.;They're not lazy. Most often, something is going on with them. They don't understand something.Their sister died and they need some time.Their computer isn't working right.They're worried you're not going to be happy with their work.Your instructions aren't clear to them. Try to figure it out. ;It's easier than firing them and finding someone else. Third, If they don't respond, or don't offer something which allows you to work it out, then is the time to let them go and find someone else.; John PS. When we got to the car after the third run, I looked back up and the clouds were converging again. ;Now I felt safe enough to take a photo. |
People are always surprised to hear that I work 17 hours/week.; They're even more surprised to hear I've done it since about 2007.; It seems impossible.; I mean, everyone has read the 4HWW. But...nobody seems to know anyone actually living it. Do you? Why not? ; Why don't people accomplish this goal of having time freedom? Because, I'm telling you it's real. It's possible. ;I've done it. Here comes my 2nd secret. You already know my first: OFS The second? NO. That's it. The problem with No is that we live in a culture of more.More house.More cars.More consuming.More debt.More photos.More divisiveness.More opinion.More "friends".More, More, More. Are FB and Insta pushing this culture of more? ;Yes.So is TV.All advertising is geared towards more. To all of it I say NO. And that's the secret. When another business opportunity comes.;NO."Can we connect on the phone this week?"NO."Dad, buy a Tesla."NO.FB, Insta.NO."Dude, you should totally join Clubhouse"NO."We should do THIS!!!"NO. I say NO to everything.; Here's the question I ask before we take on any work project:"Who has to do the work on this? ;Is it me? Or is it someone else?"And then"Who is ultimately going to make this work?"If either of those fall on me, I say no. ;It adds more time. Now, I'm not saying I don't have cars or house or work projects or ... But I say no to more.; More projects.More websites.More clients.More hours.More hobbies.More partners (or partnerships).More fast growth.More money. NO! Time is precious. More takes time.; Obviously I don't say no to everything. ;You can't. ;But generally I say no to things that are going to take my time.; John PS. There are some things I feel more is good.RelationshipsGodFamily timeKidsBikes (ok...ok...this one is a problem) |
This isn't the best content we've ever written, but it's beautifully written. My OFS Julia is amazing. In the almost 10 years I have worked for John, we've pretty much survived all the possible natural and man-made disasters outside of Chernobyl together. Typhoons ;Flooding ;Earthquakes ;Government coups ;Volcanic eruptions ;Medical emergencies ;Rolling blackouts ;Internet outages ;A worldwide pandemic We're just one check mark away from winning Apocalypse bingo. Through all that, I have never experienced a time when none of us were working. There was never a time when the entire Philippine team was out. One reason we've been able to manage through disasters is even though we're all in the Philippines, we're not all in the same place. We're spread all over the Philippines. If Metro Manila was affected, John's other VAs from the Visayas and Mindanao can pick up the slack.; Another reason we've been able to manage is because of training. We've been trained to do a variety of tasks but we focus on the jobs we do best. We're aware of all the ongoing projects even if we're not working on all of them. Since we communicate regularly over Basecamp and Slack, we know where all the necessary files and information are stored. If one of us can't work, we can just jump in and take over if needed. And as much as possible, there's always a back-up VA for every job. Here at Onlinejobs.ph, we have contingencies for our customer service team. There's always going to be somebody online to respond to emails. Also, over the years we've also developed a communication channel to reach out to each other. Mobile cellular networks are more reliable than our internet connection. We know each other's cell phone numbers. So if we can't contact them online, we can always text or call them if needed. Last but not the least, we always back up our work. John has access to everything and he can share access if another VA needs to take over. Projects may slow down a bit because of the transition but we always manage to get things done. team spread outtrainingcommunicationbackups Thoughts? I'm interested in hearing your contingency plan with your team.;I can improve. John |
My daughter just got braces Braces suck!!! They're painful, eating hurts, gums hurt, they look and feel awkward. Now, instead of every 6 months, you have to go to the dentist every month!What could be worse? Even worse, it's like everyone is staring at you all the time. That's kind-of like time tracking. Jairo R writes:"How do I clock or keep track of my assistant´s working time. I have had some difficulties knowing which apps would make a good tool to register this info and keep a close watch on your money at the end of every week." Before I tell you why you shouldn't do it, let me answer the question. 1. TimeProof is free at OnlineJobs.ph. ;It tracks working time. It takes screenshots so you can verify. ;It uploads to your OnlineJobs.ph account. ;You don't have to have a subscription for this, it works with the free account.; 2. I think Hubstaff is probably the best time tracker out there. ;I don't really know because I haven't used it. It's the most popular. I don't use time tracking with my team. 1. Filipino workers don't like it.I mean, who would??? 2. It builds distrust.;If your employer was forcing you to track every second of your time and taking screenshots, how would you feel? ;Would you have good feelings towards your employer?Would you trust them? Probably not. 3. It's pretty reasonable to figure out if someone is working or not. After you've worked together for a few weeks you have a really good idea of how productive they should be. You know if they're working or not.; This is another reason I don't pay hourly wages. ;I pay a salary. ;It's one less thing to worry about. If they're working 34 or 40 hours/week, does it really matter?;The real question is, are they productive for you?;Is it working out? ;Are they contributing more value to your business than you're paying them? If not, maybe it's time to make some changes.; I tried using time tracking in my business.; I didn't like it.My team hated it. You're more than welcome to use TimeProof (or HubStaff).There's just a better way based on trust and productivity and daily reporting. John |
Meeting my team in the Philippines was amazing.; It only happened once, in 2010.I took my family to the Philippines on vacation for a month with the intent of meeting my team while I was there.; If you get a chance to meet the people who work for you, do it. ; I always feel like I should go back and meet with my current team (about 6 times larger than it was then)...but I'm such a home body. The thought of being away from my wife and kids for 2 weeks...yuck. In 2010, Joven was one of those I met. ;He was the first OFS I ever hired. ;Actually, at the time he was a VA. ;An assistant. ;He didn't know much. Today, I'd trust him with my life. ;Actually...I did once. ;But that story is for another time.; Today is about Joven.Joven life is different.;He's a stay at home dad.;He raises his kid, does the chores, laundry, dishes.He takes his kid to school and "teaches him good manners." The best part? He can watch his baby grow.; A couple years after meeting him I hired a videographer to film Joven and tell a story.We wanted it for marketing purposes in the Philippines. ;I had no idea how personal it would become. If you want some insight into the life of your Online Filipino Specialist, watch this video. Maybe you should ask your people what hobbies they have. How they care for their kids (if they have kids). What chores they do... John PS. I'm looking for different perspectives on data security. How do you handle data security with your OFS team? ;How do you handle passwords? What about sensitive info they have on their computers?Respond and let me know. ;I'm likely to feature you. You might also get a link to your website from mine. |
Some of you think I never work. You think I only ski and ride my bike and occasionally write an email. I do all of those things...I just do them in equal amounts to how much I work. Here's proof. It's just that when I work I'm ultra efficient.; I delegate everything.I purposefully won't touch any moving parts.Even if I can do it myself faster, I never do. ;I always assign it to someone else.; When I started with VAs (I didn't start with specialists) I only had 1.Then I needed someone else.Then 3.Over time I built a team. Cyrill asked me recently:Could you talk and explain a bit how do you manage a team of more than 20 VAs? How much time should you spend with each VA at that stage? How do you put structure and systems in your virtual organization? How do you build an efficient reporting structure so that you don't have to spend hours with everybody but you still have a system in place to detect quickly if there are any problems or the work stops? Here are my thoughts on managing a large team of Online Filipino Specialists. John PS. What tips do you have for managing a large team? Reply and let me know. |
My Content Specialist, Julia, sent this to me: The whole world has fallen in love with K-pop groups like BTS and BlackPink. But you know what other Korean cultural export that we Filipinos love and highly recommend to our bosses overseas? Korean TV shows. We have been watching Korean TV shows and we have been hooked since the early 2000s. ;We still enjoy Filipino and American TV shows but there's something about Korean TV that's just so good. One reason why Korean shows have mass appeal is because most of them are G rated (thanks to Korea's strict censorship board). You can watch with the whole family AND not worry about graphic scenes. They also put a lot of thought into their choice of music. If you're looking to get into KPop but you don't want to go for the mainstream groups, the official soundtracks of most Korean TV shows are great sources. And the stories are so creative and unexpected. They have storylines I haven't seen anywhere else.; The portal between life and death as a hotel? That's a K-Drama Hotel De Luna.;You prefer a pop-up restaurant? That's Mystic Pop-up Bar.;Ancient Zombies in medieval Korea? That's The Kingdom.A game developer with super powers moonlighting as a bodyguard? That's Strong Woman Do Bong Soon.;They also have "realistic" dramas and comedies where everyone is gorgeous and wearing designer clothes (What's Wrong With Secretary Kim).; Yes, some of them can be completely ridiculous but they're so good at world building you just can't help but be drawn into these make believe worlds.; And the plotlines are often unpredictable. ;Sure, they drop clues in each episode. But KDramas have this amazing ability to merge their subplots into the main plot in the last 2 - 3 episodes of the show. The pieces just drop into place the more episodes you watch. Last but not the least, most Korean shows are structured more like mini-series. The series is done in 12-20 episodes of an hour each. Shows rarely have a second season unless the story was actually long and epic (which happens with historical dramas). So there are no bad seasons. No boring episodes. No need to lose weeks of your life just to catch up. You can binge watch an entire show in one weekend. Then start a completely new series next weekend. Julia |
The worst advice I ever heard? "Fake it till you make it." Why? ; You'll never make it if you're faking it. If you're faking it, you're deceiving people.; The best business advice I ever got? Add value. Look at what you're doing and think: Am I honestly adding value to people? If you are, you're on a good track. ; If you're not, you might be making money, but it will be short-term, and eventually people find out and things come crashing down around you. I've never done the "fake it till you make it" thing. ;I don't like fake. But I have done business without adding value. ; It didn't last. John Lee Dumas (host of Entrepreneurs on Fire) says:"Become a person of value" I dug in more in this 15 minute interview with him where we talk about;- adding value- consistency 2 keys to succeeding in online business. His book is excellent John |
"How do I know if I can trust them?" <-- the #1 question I get asked "How do I trust them with sensitive information" <-- The #4 question I get asked Last week at the end of an email I asked how other people handle sensitive data.Everyone responded about passwords.I got the same answer over and over again: Lastpass and Google drive Lastpass stores your passwords and lets you share them securely with others, where they don't actually get your password. You can easily revoke access laster if you need to. Thanks Jay, Chris D, Shirley T Hanna said:"I use Google Drive to manage my staff. It allows me to share login credentials securely and I can manage who see can see what document or folder. I can then remove the staff member when they no longer need access easily. I also track what they have access to so I can modify passwords at the root source if required. This is the only thing I have been able to make work so far. I have had to change staff and been effective in removing access and changing passwords (if required) without any issues to date." Kase said:"My current assistants have been with my long enough that I trust them with my personal passwords, quickbook access, and sometimes even banking info. I'd trust them with my children. No hesitation with sharing protected systems and financials with our most valuable employees." When everyone is doing the same thing usually I say "do something different". In this case, I've used Lastpass for about 15 years. It's wonderful. The one answer I got that was different than Lastpass or Google drive for passwords was about Dashlane. Jamie B says: “I’ve hired 5/6 staff members through Onlinejobs.ph over the last 3 years and I’ve been using a premium version of Dashlane for password protection. I have all the passwords on my main account and then simply share this with my teams own Dashlane account. It means that I can securely share passwords. Dashlane also has a built in VPN if staff can’t access websites due to their location. My staff don’t keep documents on their computers, all worksheets are on Google sheets and so I can revoke access if required.” I know some of you wanted a better "data security" answer here. I don't have one. I've never dealt with HIPPA laws or financial industry scrutiny. But Thursday I'll tell you what my Online Filipino Content Specialist has to say about it. John |
Julia, my OFCS (Online Filipino Content Specialist): As I was checking John's emails for him, I see a lot of questions like: "How can you trust your VA with personal information?""How can you trust your VA with financial information?""How can you trust your VA with your client information?" As someone who has access to all three, I want to give you my perspective on it, as John's assistant. I want to explain why there's this level of trust between us. Why I don't feel the need to take all that information and use it for nefarious purposes. Mostly I think it's because I'm a good person. I don't do it because I know it's bad. And karma is real. John trusts us, his VAs, because we both had to work on that trust on both sides. In my case, he didn't give me access to everything when I first started out. I was hired as a writer. So what I had access to was limited to what I needed to get the job done. As John gave me more responsibilities, he gave me more access. I had to prove myself to be trustworthy to get that trust. And maintaining that trust (where I get to keep my job with benefits, bonuses and yearly raise) is worth so more than a one time big payday and the loss of my reputation. And speaking of karma, when we do get reports of Filipinos scamming clients, they're banned not just on Onlinejobs.ph. They'll be banned everywhere. What most people don't know is that we Filipino workers talk to each other. A Filipino worker who scams will get banned in our communities and smaller platforms.; We don't want these people because they hurt our reputation. We Filipinos have worked so hard over the decades to be known for more than doing domestic work. We've worked so hard over the years to be treated with respect. So these scammers, they might get away with it once. But we're watching…; Now that you've seen their perspective, here's what I've seen over the years. Generally, the Philippines is a very compliant culture.; They're obedient.The law is serious to them.They don't want to commit a crime.Punishment is serious in the Philippines. They're also very proud of being from the Philippines. ;Their reputation is important. ;When they find someone harming their reputation, they're not happy about it. My opinion:You're more likely to have data security problems with someone in your office than you are with your OFS. John |
I knew I had covid within an hour of the symptoms coming on. ; No idea where I got it. But the immediate fever and chills were obvious. I don't get sick very often. ;I haven't had a fever in years.I live a pretty healthy life. So of course I expected the fever to go away on day 2 when it broke in the middle of the night. What I didn't expect was for that to repeat itself 11 times. It just kept breaking and returning. 12 days of terrible.; I sweat through my clothes every night and lay on the couch all day every day.Fever.Chills.Pain.Headache.Weird smells. The worst part? No, it's not that I couldn't work. I didn't mind that. ;My OFS team is so reliable I knew things were still getting taken care of. ;I didn't check my email for 9 days. The worst part was not being able to go outside. My body craves snow. It fills my soul. So when it snowed and I'm laying on the couch it was so painful.;Painful enough that I endured the chills and went out with a big puffy on and stood looking up letting the snow hit my face. Oh, I paid for it...but snow! Today I'm feeling better.;Still super tired...but sitting in front of the computer doesn't take much.; Fortunately Julia sent me this today:---------------When John announced that he had Covid, we (his Filipino team) were concerned. We know how scary Covid could be. And here in the Philippines, the number of Covid cases are still rising. We have the vaccine but it's limited to our frontliners. And we were worried for John's family because we know he still has little kids. It's hard to be a parent when you're really sick. So, what do we do to make things easier for John? We just keep working. Which isn't really different from what we're already doing. We don't need John's input for most of our tasks. The only difference is that we limit the number of emails we send so John won't be overwhelmed when he opens his inbox. I'm not just saying this to flex on how awesome we are. I have friends who are also Filipino VAs who encountered the same thing. Their boss told them they got Covid. Asked for help because they needed to focus on recovery. The virtual assistants just kept on working. The boss didn't have to worry about a thing.; I hope John and his entire family gets well soon. And I hope we all get vaccinated soon so we don't have to worry about this pandemic anymore.----------------- My wife had it with me. ;Hers only lasted 9 days. Stay safe. John |
My favorite movie of all time is Home Alone. I know... I was in 7th grade and saw it in the theatre. I remember my stomach hurting from laughing so hard. ;The pain was so bad I didn't know what to do, but I also couldn't stop laughing. ; As an adult, it's not as funny, but there are so many great one liners I still see it every year and quote it all the time. ;Here goes... If you get a chance to meet your OFS, do it. ;For 3 reasons: A. You'll fall in love with them.; 2. You'll get even better work done by them and you'll strengthen your relationship with them. D. The Philippines is a great place. I've been a lot of places, and the Philippines is the one I really long to go back to. ;The people are just so good. Travis met his Online Filipino Specialist in 2019. He filmed it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldJ5npY9Srs I'm not saying you need to travel to the Philippines. ;I've only done it once (in 2010). But if you get the chance... John |
Over the years I've used a lot of different ways to pay my OFS team. I started with Xoom.com. Then they freaked out and started telling people they couldn't use Xoom for business transactions. ;I can't even tell you how many people I know got stranded because they relied on Xoom. ;Never again! I've used Paypal. It's slow and fees are high. If you're paying someone one time, fine, but for long-term use, everyone involved is getting ripped off (except for Paypal). I used Western Union for a while. ;It was surprisingly good. Fast, low fees. Just...more complicated than I wanted. moneygram.com was fine.;Transferwise...about the same. When we started building EasyPay the goal was to take all the things we liked about each different payment system and create the one we wanted to use. ; And that's what we did. Super fast transfers (this matters in the Philippines)Highest exchange rate (nobody likes exchange rate profit)Easy to use. EasyPay is a partnership with Payoneer.com. ; Because we had such high volume, we were able to push them on a couple points. Let me explain: 1. With EasyPay, there are no fees. Payoneer usually charges a 1% fee, but not when you use EasyPay to pay. 2. They use the actual mid-market exchange rate.; 3. The only "fee" with EasyPay is when the payment gets withdrawn to the bank account. Payoneer adds a 2% fee. This is their exchange rate fee. Most (including Paypal) charge a 5% - 7% fee here. 4. The initial transfer will take 5-7 days. ;After that transfers happen in 24 hours. This was another push we made with them. They've done a great job fulfilling. 5. We don't add any fees or take a cut. 6. It's built-in to your OnlineJobs.ph account. It doesn't require a subscription. You can always use it with your free account. Sending money with USD, GBP, and EUR is super simple with EasyPay.;It goes straight into your OFS bank account. It's easy for them. Now if we can just get Payoneer to add AUD...we're working on it. John |
Every once in a while something happens that changes your perspective. It gives you insight into something unexpected and it changes your behavior moving forward. Covid was that way for me. 12 days of sick after years of not being sick. I missed the mountains. ;My skis. My bike.;I gained some empathy for people who are sick. Tuesdays email about the best way to pay was another one of those perspective changes. I got a bunch of emails of people wanting more. Here are 8 payment tips. 1. Never pre-pay. If someone new asks you to pre-pay, it's likely a scam.;Always pay after the pay period. After someone has worked for me for 6 months or so, I'll be more lenient with this. 2. I pay monthly or bi-monthly. When you get started, you should probably pay weekly for the first 2 months. Filipinos are really scared of doing a bunch of work and not getting paid. ;At first, they don't trust you. ;Paying weekly is a good way to gain their trust. ;After a couple months, it's ok to go to bi-weekly or monthly payments. 3. I pay a fixed salary. ;Every person on my team knows exactly how much they're going to get paid every month. ;It's a lot easier to budget and plan when you know.; 4. Hourly pay is almost always equated with part-time work. If they're working hourly for you, they're probably looking for salaried work somewhere else.; 5. I don't pay based off of tracked time. It's a bad idea. 6. I don't track people's time. I expect them to do good work. ;If they're not, I can almost always tell. ;Usually an exploratory email about low work performance lets me solve any problems that arise. 7. I pay the 13th month at the end of the year. 8. I pay with EasyPay John |
I have mercury poisoning. Oh, I'm doing a lot better right now than I was. When I was first tested I was in the 99th percentile of people who get tested (yeah, the 99th percentile of people who think they have mercury poisoning. It was bad. I couldn't remember anything. "Hey, remember when we went here and did X"No."Have you seen X movie?"I don't know."Dad, remember when Lila said "blah blah blah""No. It got so bad that it was normal for me to walk to the other room to do something and by the time I got there I had no idea why I was there. ;In order to accomplish anything, I had to repeat my task in my mind the entire way there...and even that was a struggle. As soon as I figured it out I was able to start taking care of it.; I had all my silver fillings removed (I had 5) and I stopped eating tuna (I was eating a lot because fish is "healthy"). Today I'd say I'm about 95% better, but sometimes I still need reminders. Like, a reminder about how to onboard a new Online Filipino Specialist. Here are my 4 things when onboarding: 1. Tell them they're hired2. Finalize the terms...in writing3. Set daily reporting expectations4. The first task. Create the expectation that they'll come to you when they have a problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hykHlkl-BOQ Of these, creating the expectation that they'll come to you when they have a problem is the most important. You still have to do things to gain their trust (or else they won't come to you), but it's the beginning. John |
My first grader is obsessed with wall ball. "Wall ball" is a game involving throwing a ball against a wall with a bunch of kids and making up all kinds of silly rules to get people "out". ; He walks around with a "wall ball" (racquetball) all the time.He throws it against the walls in our house.;He throws it at people."Dad, come play wall ball" How was school today? "So good. ;No wall balls got roofed!" Getting roofed is the worst thing ever for a first grader. If someone throws the ball onto the roof (which I guess happens almost every day), the ball is gone. ;Poof. ;Done. You're not getting it back until next Wednesday when the Janitor goes up onto the roof and throws all the balls down. ;But then...someone else is probably going to get your ball. One day he came home crying because his ball got roofed.Stranded. ;No ball.; This week is Holy Week in the Philippines. ;I don't want you to get roofed. You should expect that your OFS are going to take at least Friday - Sunday off. ;Maybe more.; This gets long, but here's Julias telling of what goes on during Holy Week in the Philippines. --------- What do Filipinos do during the Holy Week The next long holiday in the Philippines you have to watch out for is Holy Week. This year, the start of the regular holiday and observance of Holy Week traditions will start on Maundy Thursday (April 1) up until Easter Sunday (April 4). Yes, some of us do go on vacation during this time. But like any other Catholic country, Holy Week is a somber and serious affair. It's also steeped in tradition that dates back to when we were colonized by the Spaniards back in the 1500's. That's why even though it's considered a holiday, for some of us it's actually going to be a busy week starting with: 1. Palm Sunday Mass. On Palm Sunday, we go to mass and bring woven palm fronds or "palaspas" for the priest to bless. It's believed that these blessed palm fronds would protect our homes from evil spirits. ;Next year, the palaspas would be burned and that's what we use for Ash Wednesday. 2. Fasting and Abstinence. One way to show your devotion is to sacrifice. That's why most abstain from meat during Holy Week. But if giving up meat isn't possible, we also abstain from other things that give us pleasure like TV or social media.; 3. ;Pabasa ng Pasyon ;(Reading of the Passion). Some parishes and homes have a "pabasa" which involves the round the clock reading of "Pasyong Mahal", an epic 16th-century poem narrating the life and death of Jesus.; 4. The 13 Stations of the Cross. The 13 Stations are basically prayers that commemorate the passion of Jesus Christ as he walked to his death. But instead of just praying in one place, we walk to different stations, as though we're following the crucifixion as it happens. And depending on where you're celebrating Holy Week, that walk could be a simple stroll around the church or a serious hike that would take you to different parts of your hometown. 5. Visita Iglesia. Another tradition handed to us by the Spaniards. Visiting 7 churches on Maundy Thursday to Good Friday is a way of showing devotion. 6. Washing of the Feet. This is a special Maundy Thursday Mass where the priest and members of the community re-create the washing of the apostles' feet during the Last Supper. 7. Senakulo. The Senakulo is a play that tells the story of Jesus' life and death, usually done in public places like in parks or on the street. In some places, the performers perform self flagellation and crucifixion as a form of penance and sacrifice. 8. Salubong. The Salubong is usually done really early on Easter Sunday. It starts with a play where we reenact Jesus and Mary meeting after His resurrection. The play would involve actors and statues representing Jesus and Mary. After the reenactment, there would be a mass to officially start the Easter celebrations. -------- It's on my calendar from Thursday - Sunday. ;I won't expect much output. John |
Sometimes when you have a bad habit you just need something to snap you out of it. I tried it today with my daughter. She has chores, homework, and other responsibilities... Yet she sat in front of the TV. We had a little chat. In the middle of the chat, when I said "TV is never an option" I also clapped my hands ;(quickly yet gently) to both sides of her head and I said "GONG!" I just wanted to interrupt her pattern of defaulting to TV.I want her to think about something else when that's what she defaults to. I see so many people who default to tracking their OFS to see if they're working. To me, it's a lazy habit that should be broken. There are a few reasons: 1. It's easy to tell if someone is being productive...just look at the output.Has it gone up?Has it gone down?If it has gone down, say something. ;See if there's a reason. "Hey, I noticed your productivity has gone down. ;Is something wrong?Have I don't something? ;Is something not clear? Is your work hard?Have you found another job?What can I do to help you?" My experience is that if you notice a drop in productivity, asking them if something is wrong is very effective. 2. Time tracking is based on distrust. ;Not a good way to run a relationship. 3. Imagine it from their perspective... Here are more details. https://youtu.be/U0AglNji3nw Build trust.Let them do their work.Verify by asking if something is wrong if you notice a productivity drop. John PS. I've tried using time trackers before.;They hated it. "It feels like Big Brother."I hated it. |
I have a friend (like a brother) who was born on April fools day. I'm not a real fan of April fools day, but... Growing up we thought it was super funny to give him rocks and dirt in a present. He was never super disappointed, he knew what we were doing. But by the time he was 8 or so...he didn't want to open our presents anymore. It took a leap of faith. Kind of like hiring your first online Filipino specialist (OFS). It takes a leap of faith. But NOT like hiring your second OFS. The second is easy...because you already know. You know- how well it works- slight cultural differences- what it's like to get work done while you sleep- how it feels to finally get help- how to pay them- what bringing them onboard entails- what kind of work output to expect- how to train them- how to find someone good- ...- ... The second time is always easier than the first. Take the leap. If you've already hired someone, what would (or do) you say to someone who is thinking about it but hasn't done it yet? ; Reply and let me know. If you haven't taken the leap yet, why not? Reply and let me know. John |
My kids had a bike race last week. We have to travel to almost all bike races, so messing up is a big deal.; We made 4 mistakes:1. I forgot my race day bag. ;Duh!2. We didn't bring any race day nutrition.;3. We forgot chamois cream. It lubricates between your bike seat and your bum. Ouch.4. We didn't bring the bike stand. ;Fortunately we didn't have any bike issues so we didn't need it. In the end, it all turned out great. - Addie won the Varsity Girls race.- Bailey took 2nd in the JV Girls race.- Austin was 15th in the Elite Men (Pro) race. Nate has made 5 big mistakes when hiring online Filipino specialists (he's been doing it since; 1. He hired a freelancer (like Upwork or Fiverr).A much better way is to create systems and hire a long-term person. 2. Paying up front. ;Don't do it. ;If they've worked for you for more than 6 months and you trust them, this can change. 3. Not doing quality control.;His online Filipino specialist (OFS) got lazy (or bored) and started copy/pasting parts of other articles as she wrote his articles. Because she had been doing well Nate also got lazy and he stopped reading any of her articles.;Trust but verify. 4. Hiring Dain.If you're going to hire someone your OFS recommends, you should still interview them. Dain made up a brother and Nate hired him. Dan was double dipping. This wouldn't have happened if Nate had interviewed Dains brother. 5. Waiting 10 years to visit his people.;The team building you'll do will be so fun! Nate has been a customer of mine since 2008. ;I've watched him grow different businesses from being very small, to doing mid 7 figures/year. ;I've watched him grow his team in the Philippines from 1 VA to 15 OFS. If you've been putting it off, nows the time. ; Hire your first OFS today.; Start here. John |
What?; There's another stray cat hanging around our house? Are you serious? No you can't keep it! She did what? ;She gave it a rotisserie chicken? And it puked all over the back porch? No you can't keep it! DO NOT GIVE IT A NAME! Get it out of the house right now! No, you can't keep it! That thing is still here??? Are you serious? No, you can't keep it! This isn't one of my fears, it's the actual conversation between me and my kids over the past few days. ; And here's one of the actual (slightly condensed because it's really long) conversations with one of my OFS from the past few days. Is there anything you think we could provide in a background check on OnlineJobs.ph that we're not providing right now? "Hi sir, Actually I have listed that in my To-Dos." Great. Let me know your thoughts. "Hi sir, Here is a draft of my suggestions for the background check pages.[he gave 8 suggestions, some of which work, some don't]I think that's all. Whoo... this email is too long already. :)" Is there something in the Philippines that exists to see if someone has committed a crime in the past, or is wanted by the police, or has defaulted on a loan? "All those questions can only be answered by an NBI clearance.The hiring process here in the Philippines does not do a background check. NBI, Police and Barangay clearances are required upon submission of job application." Could we ask for an NBI clearance from workers?; "Yes sir. ;Actually, we're already requesting them from workers when we do our address verification on new profiles. We built this in when we built the address verification system.But I don't think we should show these clearances to employers. It could be used to steal other people's identity." Great. Can you please create tasks in Basecamp for the [suggestions we talked about which make sense to add to the background checks]. Tag me and Dan. Then we can have a discussion and involve the right people to implement. ---- I often have conversations like this with my OFS. ;I ask for their input. ;We have a discussion. I find sometimes they've thought through things with the business that I hadn't thought through. Other times I have insight they don't have and their suggestions won't work (we had both of these situations in his 8 suggestions). What I learned here was the NBI clearance basically IS the background check in the Philippines. That and calling references. They don't have companies collecting tons and tons of data on every citizen of the Philippines like we do in the US.; The background data checks we do on OnlineJobs.ph are very effective at detecting suspicious behavior. ;A lot of ensuring they're legitimate happens during our address and ID verification process. The rest happens during your interview. This is just one way we try to make hiring safer for you. John |
Writes Julia, my online Filipino content specialist: Summer (more accurately known as the dry and hot season) here in the Philippines usually starts around March and continues up until June or July. Here's to give you some perspective on how hot it can get here in the Philippines: That's normal in most areas of the Philippines. In Cagayan Valley, they can reach temperatures as high as 107 degrees. You need to go to a hospital when you get a ;fever that high.; And I've been to Cagayan Valley during the dry season. It's not fun. It's the kind of heat that gives you sunburn if you stand under the sun for more than 5 minutes. Even when you're in the shade, the air is so dry you can have windburn because of the hot winds. The dry and hot season is also the time when most power outages usually happen. Mainly due to the increased energy usage from air conditioning. But fans and air conditioning are "must haves", especially for us who work from home.; Computers expel a lot of heat, especially when working on things like 3D and video rendering. It can't expel that hot air efficiently when working in an already heated room. And when it gets too hot, it can affect the computer's performance. ; So you can imagine, without air conditioning or fans, it can get really uncomfortable. This is my set up right now. I have the air conditioning on, a fan directed at me (under the table), and another fan directed at my computer (the stand fan).; If it gets too hot, I may consider working earlier in the morning (5am) or later at night (after 10pm) to escape the heat. If I get bored with this set up, I can just bring my laptop and my mobile wifi to the nearby beach. The heat's easier to bear and work is more fun when I'm close to the beach. You might consider asking your OFS what their situation is like. Can you make it more comfortable for them? ; Julia (and John) PS. What questions do you have? ;We're looking to answer them. |
It's spring.Everything is blooming.;Animals are out.Flowers are out. It's warm (at least…sometimes). My wife is in heaven. ;She thrives on the warm. ;I thrive on the cold. ;Snow does something magical to my body and soul. Heat does it to hers. Right now is my wife's time.; It feels like everything is coming back to life.; Unless…it isn't. I got an email this week from Patricia W. who's OFS sister died. What do they do? For starters, Patricia did the right thing and gave her OFS a week off with pay. Death is hard.; Dealing with death in the Philippines, when you work for a foreign boss, and you live far away from family, is very uncertain. Here's their thought process. Family is super important in the PhilippinesYou live far away from them, because that's where you got your last job (before becoming an OFS)Getting home to be at the funeral entails a 14 hour boat ride and then a 3 hour bus ride. ;That means getting back to your house after the funeral also takes 2 days.The funeral is going to take you 3-5 days to sort-out/help/attend/grieve.That's 7-10 days away from work.You're scared about letting your boss down.You're also scared about losing your job.You just lost a loved one. It's hard. Often, it leads to an OFS disappearing. ;They're worried about asking you for 10 days off. ;You might be disappointed.; But they HAVE to go to the funeral. Hopefully you've already established trust with them before this happens. It will prevent them from disappearing and hopefully they ask you for the time off.; Give it to them. One time this happened with a new recruit of mine. ;She was too afraid to email me. ;She had her sister do it. "Sir, This is Mayas sister.;Maya is sorry but she can't work for you. ;Our mother died and she must go to the funeral."; I'm sorry about your loss. I'm willing to wait until she's back. I still want her to work for me. Silence. She was new. ;She didn't trust me. We didn't have a relationship yet. At least…this is what I think happened. The second thing you might do is send some money. $25 - $200. ;Just say you're thinking of them and hope this helps with funeral expenses. Not required. ;Just nice.; Let them know you care. ; Their work may not be perfect for a while.Let them have time to grieve. ; They'll come back from it. If you've treated them well, they'll come back a rock star. John |
Sunday dinner is a big thing at our house. Has been since I got married. My wife's family all lives close.;We get together for family dinner almost every Sunday. It's great. We talk.We play games.We ignore the kids.The kids run wild.We share food responsibilities.We laugh.We clean up together. Every week my 7 yr old comes to me to ask for dessert. Did you eat your dinner? "ummm...not all of it" Ok, let's go eat your dinner. But this week was different. Did you eat your dinner? "Yes!" Where is it? "In my belly!" Wheres your plate? "In the trash." Ok, you can have dessert... ...but then I spotted it.; His plate was on a different table. ;I recognized it because it had the single green bean and single zucchini on it that I put there originally. He lied to me! Trust... It can be an issue with kids... And the first time you hire an online Filipino specialist. But not the second time... Why? I recently got an email from Katie Thies. She's a copywriter and was hiring her second OFS. She's good with words. She had asked about using TimeProof because she was used to tracking workers from Upwork. Then she realized... ---"I had been sold by past mentors on the whole Upwork big brother time tracking feature as a selling point, but... I used to freelance on Upwork. I should have known better. That time tracking BS is insulting. I’m guessing most of your customers may be hiring their first ever freelancer... So “trust” feels like a big deal. Passwords, hours worked, and ...what if they read my personal emails??? OH MY! …Until you’ve hired your first couple freelancers. And you realize you had hyped up something in your head that didn’t matter. I remember when I hired my first Filipino VA (on Upwork, unfortunately) and I was tracking her time, the difficulty I had was actually getting her to track all her hours. Yes: convincing her to get paid for the hours she had worked. My (American) mind nearly exploded. She kept making mistakes (reasonable) and then to make up for it she would try to work free hours (devastating). I kept begging her to track those hours, and she wouldn’t. So I had to give her a bonus for that extra time so she got paid. From my experience as a copywriter (I’m so used to using words to get people to do what I want), my thought is that stories like that might help some folks... Because what they don’t know yet is that: Filipino workers aren’t just cheaper. They’re actually better, too. They’re more reliable, hard-working, and loyal. Time tracking is the wrong way to get productivity from people.----- John PS. I talk through time tracking, and TONS of other better ways to outsource in my book The Outsourcing Lever |
Every year in February/March we get a warm spell. My wife always tells me "How about you put your pants away and pull out your shorts? Because I know better. ;It's going to get cold again. Every year during that warm week all the people with Jeeps take the tops off their cars, only to complain a week later "Can you believe it's cold again!" Yes, it's going to get cold again. After skiing today we went into a restaurant. ; "You skied today?!?!" Yes, there's still lots of snow in the mountains.; And yes, it's going to get cold again. Every year it repeats itself. ; It's kind-of like the repetitive question I get from people: "Are there actually talented people in the Philippines?" Yes, there are talented people. "I mean, like, can I really find someone good?" Yes, there are really talented people. "I don't think the talent is actually legit, is it?" Yes, there are legit talented people. If you haven't hired someone yet because you're worried you're not going to find someone talented, consider this.; You've probably seen a video I created.;I filmed it and uploaded it. Someone in the Philippines- edited it- uploaded it- transcribed it- created sub-titles for it- posted it on youtube- wrote the description for it- wrote the blog post for it- wrote the social media post for it- posted it on social media- created a PPC ad for it- set up and ran a PPC campaign for it- added it to our list of videos to promote- added links to it from other blog posts of ours The list goes on and on.;The detail gets deeper.;The talent gets better. Yes, there are really, actually, legit talented people in the Philippines. Hire one of them. ;An Online Filipino Specialist. John PS. If you want my help to walk you through the process, head over to www.OneVAAway.com |
My son butt dialed me today. A butt dial!!! Who knew that was still a thing in 2021. Don't we all have passwords on our phones? Apparently his is glitching. While he rides his bike with his phone in his sweaty jersey pocket, I guess it unlocks and makes phone calls. Ugh...technology issues we have to deal with. At least the internet is really good. Reliable. Fast. Unlike sometimes in the Philippines. I hired my first OFS (actually, he was more of a VA, he wasn't a specialist at anything) in 2005. Internet in the Philippines was like 256k still. Really slow. Things have changed a lot. Internet is much faster there. More reliable. More options. Here's generally how it works (from Julia, my online Filipino content specialist) ------------------------------- *Information below updated as of December 2022 In the Philippines, we have three types of internet connection. - Fiber ( Includes VDSL, FTTH, Cable Broadband)- Direct Service Line (DSL – currently being phased out by Fiber) - Wireless broadband. (Using mobile networks 3G, 4G, and 5G)When working from home, land-based connections like Fiber and DSL are preferable. They’re more stable, faster, and provide more value.Unfortunately, the Fiber and DSL connection for some areas is limited. In our neighborhood, for example, we had a limited number of Fiber connections allocated for our area. You have to apply early if you want to get one. The rest have to settle for wireless internet.Or they’d have to wait for someone to end/cancel their subscription. Or wait for more lines to be made available.But since the pandemic, more Fiber lines have been built all over the country. It is somewhat easier to get a land-based connection now, but it still depends on where you live. It’s easier if you live in the major metropolitan areas and harder in the provinces. For those who can’t get DSL or Fiber internet, wireless broadband is available everywhere as long as there’s a cellular connection. Most of us use wireless internet as our backup internet when the land-based network is down. We can buy this anywhere, from convenience stores to malls.You have the option of - getting a data-only SIM card and using your phone as a router or - get a wireless internet router like this one for a stronger signal.Wireless internet is not good enough for some online work, though. In my experience, while download speeds are faster now (up to 50mbps), the upload speeds are much to be desired. It’s also not as stable or as reliable as Fiber. A strong enough storm is enough to slow down most wireless internet connections. You can feel the connection slowing down when a lot of users are on the network at the same time. But despite these disadvantages, wireless internet is a popular option because we can easily get prepaid plans. The lowest offering is 5GB of data for three days at $1. For $4, you can get up to 30GB of data for one week. Other packages offer higher data allowances, longer package expiration, or special packages depending on the apps used. PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company)PLDT is the Philippines’ first telecommunications company. A lot of our internet infrastructure uses the phone network established by this company. That’s why a lot of their plans come bundled with a landline. These are their basic plans. The cheapest plan here (25Mbps) is around $23/month. Their highest plan at 1Gbps requires those interested in contacting their sales. The 400Mbps plan is the one we’re using here at home. So far, it’s been able to support me, my husband (who also works at home), and our daughter’s online classes.Globe Communications Globe is PLDT's main competitor in providing wired and wireless internet. Below are their Fiber plans. Like PLDT, they also provide landline services, but only for subscriptions Php 2499 ($45) and higher. SkyCable They’re a cable company that also offers Fiber over Cable Broadband. You can get it with or without a cable subscription. The ones shown below are the plans without cable.ConvergeConverge used to be a small player providing home and business Fiber connections in Metro Manila but has slowly grown and expanded to many places in the Philippines. Their speed offerings are comparable to what the bigger players have and are offered at a slightly cheaper rate. They also offer special rates based on time and usage. If your OFS exclusively works nights, they can get “Night Plan” which has double the speed at night.I can’t recommend which internet service provider is the best because the availability and strength of connection of these ISPs depend on the area. To find the best ISP, you really need to do your research and ask a lot of questions.All over the Philippines are smaller ISPs like Rise, Infinivan, and DCTech. These smaller broadband ISPs used to only service businesses but have recently started creating plans for homes and individual users. Their service coverage is localized. You have to check their websites to see what cities they offer coverage. ------------------------------------- If your OFS is having internet problems, ask them what their options are. Usually they already know because their livelihood depends on it. I don't recommend you pay for their internet, but you might increase their salary a similar amount to how much upgraded internet costs. John |
I remember the first time I saw the culture of loyalty in the Philippines. I had this amazing programmer working for me.I'd put him up against anyone. He sent me an email: "Sir, This is a hard email to write. I got offered my dream job. ;I'll be going to Singapore working for a company making $2500/month! I need to take this job. It has been my dream to work overseas. But don't worry sir. ;I'm not quitting. I'll continue to work for you part time at the rate you are paying me.; Kates" I was shocked. I was paying him $500/month (this was 2006).He was going to make 5x that much yet he was still willing to work for me? Loyalty. The second time I really realized it was when I friended one of my OFS on Facebook. ;I did it just so I could get to know them better. Within a few days I started noticing public comments offering them jobs.; Jobs making quite a bit more. She never skipped a beat. ;Her work just continued, great as always. When I unfriended her and told her why, she just said; "Oh yeah, I got lots of job offers. I'm not leaving you." The third time I wasn't surprised.The fourth time it was normal. Filipinos are loyal. ; It's one of the great qualities that makes them such good employees.; Especially if you're running a small business. ;They're not going to jump ship when they get a better offer. Of course...all of this is conditioned on you treating them well. Hire an Online Filipino Specialist. John |
"I'm sorry it's taking so long Sir. ;I had to learn a new programming language to accomplish what you wanted. ;The way you asked me to do it was impossible." I was shocked. I'm a programmer.; I thought the task I had given him was pretty reasonable.; It should have taken a couple weeks.; But after about a week I stopped hearing from him.; No daily reports.No emails. I was frustrated.; After a few months of me being too busy to check on the project, I'd check in. "Yes Sir, I'm working on it. ;It's just harder than we thought." He had done good work for me in the past, so I trusted him. After 6 months he finally started communicating with me. "Sir, the project is done. The data wasn't being delivered in HTML like you thought, it was being delivered via Javascript/Ajax.The way you asked me to do it was impossible. ;I had to learn a new programming language to be able to interact with the data. But I learned it and got it done. Check it out! Nino" He was right.;The software worked. He was also right.;What I had asked him to do was impossible.; Yet he wanted so badly to make me happy that he learned a new programming language so he could create the software.; 2 lessons: 1. Filipinos want to make you happy. ;If they can't, they often disappear. ;If they disappear, ask them.; 2. It's possible that what you're asking them to do is impossible, even if you think it's simple. ;I've done it. ;I've seen lots of others do it.It's also possible that your instructions aren't as good as you think they are. ;I've done it. ;I've seen lots of others do it. This was 2007. ;He still works for me today. John PS. My book The Outsourcing Lever covers so many more situations like this one.Get it.Don't make the same mistakes I have.(You'll probably still make some of them, you'll just recognize them faster than I did.) |
Since 2009 we've provided hundreds of thousands of jobs in the Philippines. It's something we're proud of. Here's why (from Julia, my Online Filipino Content Specialist): -----When I was growing up, coming from a single parent home was actually pretty common. But it's not because our parents are divorced. There's no divorce in the Philippines. The reason why a lot of us come from single parent homes is because one parent usually had to work abroad. When I got pregnant, this was actually an option presented to me and my husband. We knew we wanted to have a family but we weren't sure if we could afford it. The best option at that time was for me to work abroad, since I had the best prospects. Imagine telling a new mother that? That in order for me to provide for my family, I had to be ready to leave them. I threw a tantrum. I'm not proud of it. I blame my pregnancy hormones for that. But if I'm being completely honest, I probably would have thrown a tantrum even without the hormones. Having a family of my own was something I have always wanted. Breaking up my family for the sake of money just didn't make sense. I didn't care if this was the norm. Doesn't matter that this option was supported by friends, family, and generations of overseas Filipino workers before me. ;I really didn't want to do it. So when the option of working from home was presented to me, it was a godsend. I had to take a significant pay cut but it meant I could stay at home. We'd save on childcare and the expenses associated with my commute. Our combined salary barely covered all our living expenses. It was hard for the first couple of years but we made it work. Eventually I started making enough for us to be comfortable and start saving for the future. Now, our daughter is the odd kid at school. She's one of the few kids where both of parents attend all the school events. Unlike other kids in her class, she's never experienced that lingering sadness of knowing that your family isn't complete for the major milestones in your life. She can count on the fact that both Mama and Papa are going to be there, even if it embarrasses her sometimes. Do I envy my peers who make more money or have more lucrative careers working abroad? A bit. But I also know for the fact that they're just as jealous of all the birthdays, Christmases, family vacations, and major milestones that we're able to celebrate as a family.; - Halloween event we attended as a family. Not seen here is the laptop my husband was carrying so he could work while our daughter played with the other kids. - An ordinary day. My husband taught our daughter to make muffins. She was so proud of the fact that she did it all by herself.------------- I love that families get to stay together because we provide work at home jobs.; Legitimate work at home jobs.Julia has worked for me for more than 10 years.;Her husband has worked for me for more than 5 years.Their daughter lives a different life than most of her peers. John |
When my wife had our third child it was rough. She had spent 3 weeks on bed rest before having the baby. The doctor told us that was necessary. What I didn't expect was how rough it would be for her after she had the baby. For 2 months my wife really struggled.; It was hard to get out of bed.It was hard to make food.It was hard to get up with the baby.It was hard to take care of our other kids. Everything was hard. Fortunately, I worked from home and was there to fill in the gaps. I'll always be thankful for that time. ;It's what propelled me from working 40-50 hours/week to the 17 that I've worked since then (2008). For your OFS...things might be different.; I asked one of my OFS about maternity leave. Here's what she said: -----I recommend it. Here in the Philippines, employers are required to offer maternity and paternity leave. ;The maternity leave period is to one hundred and five (105) days for female workers with pay and an option to extend for an additional thirty (30) days without pay. ;Paternity leave is seven (7) ;days for the 1st four (4) children. If the worker is paying into the SSS (social security), the employer doesn't actually have to pay salary during those leaves. SSS would cover it.----- Yes, that's right. ;It's a paid maternity leave, but the Philippines government pays it... ...IF they worker has been paying into SSS.; Most (all) should be paying SSS, so this should apply to your OFS. Whether or not you give this maternity/paternity leave is up to you but I'd definitely recommend it. You're not in the Philippines so Philippines law doesn't bind you.I understand how difficult it can be to go without someone you depend on. ;It's terrible. ;Maybe when they're pregnant would be a good time to hire someone else...double down on your outsourcing. Just trying to make you aware of their customs. John The Outsourcing Lever will make you aware of a lot more of their customs. ;There are so many things I've learned over the years which will save you so much time and headache. |
I exercise almost every day. ; Not every day is a big adventure...but often they turn into adventures. 4, 5, 6 hours in the backcountry skiing or riding our mountain bikes to the mountains, up over the mountains, and then back over to get back home. We do lots of fun stuff. ; When you work 17 hours/week you still have to fill your time. I fill it with my wife and kids usually. Today I wanted to add to the videos we've been making from these adventures so I created instructions for my online Filipino video editor specialist. They're not super complex.;They don't instruct on anything you'd want to teach your OFS to do.They're not even interesting. But this is how I create instructions for my OFS.This is how I give feedback to my OFS. I record on my computer using Snagit. ;Then Snagit uploads it to a server. My instructions to my OFS said: "Here's an easy way to add content to adventure videos.Here's how to download the gpx file.http://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/2021-04-13_10-33-02.mp4 And here's how to use the relive app to create their video filehttp://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/RPReplay_Final1618336278.MP4 Let me know if you have questions." A couple things to note: 1. I used the iPhone screen recorder to take the video of my phone. ;Simple.2. I used airdrop to get the video from my phone onto my MBP.3. To share the iPhone video which was too big for email, I imported it into Snagit and had Snagit upload it. ;Super simple. ;File -> open. Find the video. Click Share.4. I customized Snagit to upload my trainings to my own hosting account. That way I never lose anything. If you want to know how I set up Snagit, it's in the 2nd video on this page:/how-to-easily-train-your-ofs/ I almost always use screen recordings to teach processes. It's so easy. It's so fast. It's so easy for them to follow since they can watch it over and over again if they need to. John PS. I use Snagit. It's $50 one time.Others like the subscription ($10/month) of loom |
"Sir, I'm coming to Utah in 2 weeks." And then...he actually came! Kiel had worked for me for 9 years when this happened. ; He and his family came to the US to tour (he comes from a family of doctors).; They drove from Vegas to Salt Lake in the afternoon, stayed the night at my house, spent the day with me, then drove down to the Grand Canyon in the evening. ;Lots of driving. But it was important for him to come see me. And it was awesome for me to see him. I learned a bunch of things: 1. How to pronounce his name. ;I had said it wrong for 9 years. 2. He wasn't comfortable having his boss drive him around. The Philippines is very high on the Power Distance Index. 3. I learned that they don't always understand my Snagit videos...or...actually...it's my business partner Dan they don't understand because he speaks really fast.But the videos are good because they can watch them multiple times to make sure they understand. 4. Working online 9 years ago was super uncommon in the Philippines.Today it's rather common.(OnlineJobs.ph has been a big part of this change) I pulled out my phone to record video a number of times while with him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzQHr5Y2GQE&t=506s If you get a chance to meet your OFS, take it. It's an amazing experience. John |
One of my kids chores (on Wednesday specifically) is to ask mom for a chore. "Mom, what can I do for you." Ummm…you can wipe the counter down.Ummm…you can break down all the boxes and put them in recycling.Ummm…you can help Brigg find his shoes. We're constantly making things up. What would happen if they came up with the chore themselves? "Ummm…I could eat some chocolate chips.""Ummm…I could watch some Minecraft videos on YouTube." What about with your Online Filipino Specialist? The conversation would be totally different. Branda Albano did a case study with us this week (to be released soon).;In it she said that she regularly asks her OFS what they can do for her: “I continually asked [my VA], ‘give me some ideas; what kinds of things have you done for other people?’ I think that’s the key. ‘What have you seen other [VAs] do for other people that you think you could bring to my business? Please help me.’ And letting them know that you’re not just looking for them to just follow you step by step, but you’re looking for initiative.” - Brenda Albano I've done this a number of times over the years. ;It's always interesting what they come up with: "I could build you a social media presence." (I didn't have one at all)"I could find influencers who might be interested in using OnlineJobs.ph" (lead generation)"I've been studying Wordpress and working with it. I could work on our Wordpress site." Part of the Philippines culture is progress. ;They want to learn more and they want to progress. Most of them are studying something new. If you ask them what else they can do for you, it might surprise you. Just ask. John |
"What are your goals?" I ask it regularly. ; My teenager asks "Should I go with friends and do this or should I do my bike training ride?" What are your goals? Do you want to win? Training ride.Do you want to relax? ;Social. You can't always have both. My wife asks "Should I shower now or wait until the kids are gone?" What are your goals? Do you want to have a peaceful shower alone? Wait.Do you want to just get it done at the cost of having little kids screaming for you or walk in on you? ;Now. Answering a question by looking at the motivation behind it often makes the answer much clearer. Could this help you figure out tasks to have your OFS do for you? Ashwin S. emailed me the other day and said"Your email gave me an idea. I will be asking my OFS her goals and how she wants her life to be in a couple of years from now. ;I will work towards getting her there." Does your OFS have goals? ; Maybe. If you ask them their goals what happens? 1. They instantly know you care about them.;They know you're interested in their life.;They trust you more. 2. You find things they want to work on. What they're good at. What they're interested in. 3. You might just find they have other skills. 4. You might find nothing. But hey, you still gained more of their trust, which goes a long way towards having a rock star worker. Ask your OFS if they have any goals.- If they have any employment goals- If they have any financial goals- If they have any family goals- If they have any skill related goals John |
My OFS Julia writes: Years ago, John wrote this post about how you can determine your VAs English skills based on what they watched when they were kids. /philippines-outsourcing-tip-sesame-street-vs-batibot-determining-english-skills/ This technique worked 10 years ago when most Filipino VAs looking for work were exposed to shows like Batibot and Sesame Street as kids.; However, that won't work because Batibot has been off the air for years. And we don't get Sesame Street on free TV anymore.; Even though these shows are long gone on the Philippine airwaves, we've noticed that there is still a correlation between English skills to the kind of children's television Filipinos were exposed to. Our kids are still exposed to Western children's media. The difference lies in whether they were exposed to 'Tagalized' (translated) shows or the ones in the original English. When a foreign TV show is really popular, the TV networks would invest in localizing it so it would reach a broader audience. If you watch anime or K-dramas in the Philippines, the biggest hits are usually the ones that came with Filipino dubs. Having Filipino dubs for children's television was encouraged. It was seen as a way to help kids learn educational concepts easier because there's no need to translate from English to Filipino. This was a great idea on paper but didn't really work for a lot of Filipinos. What most people don't know is that the Philippines has around 120-187 languages. For most of us, Filipino isn't our native language. Growing up, I learned my native tongue first (Cebuano), then English, then Filipino in grade school. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Philippines For some parents, exposing their kids to "Tagalized" children's television actually made it harder for them to learn. ;Instead, they'd go out of their way to find children's television in English.; Don't get me wrong. Filipino is a beautiful language. It's very poetic. Very descriptive. It really lends itself well to literature and poetry. But it has a lot of compound words. So many prefixes and suffixes that determine tone and tense. And so many words with the same spelling but have different meanings.; Kind of hard to use when you need relay information quickly. So the next time you interview a Filipino worker, ask them what shows they watched as a kid. You'll see that they watched the same TV shows as you did growing up. Dora the Explorer. Yo Gaba Gaba, Peppa Pig, etc. Then ask them if they watched it in the original English or the 'Tagalized' version. Trust me, you'll see a difference with how they write and speak. John |
I know, I know…You want to hire someone and pay them hourly. It's just so much simpler that way. Paying hourly is low commitment.Paying hourly is an easy out for you.Paying hourly means if they're not working, you're not paying for it. But paying hourly kinda says that you’re not that interested in growing your business. Paying a salary is the opposite. It's a commitment to yourself that you will work ON your business.It's a commitment to yourself that you will grow your business.It's a commitment to the person you hire. Tamara R. recently got more than just help, because she made the commitment: "I just hired and am working with two Philippa moms. They both have two kids under age 5. (Found them on your site.) I’m really excited about this aspect of employing them. I never had biological children, although I wanted to. It made me really happy when one of my workers said she might have gaps in her time screen - which I explained to her I won’t use - because she’s breast feeding her 8 month old! I thanked her for being a good mom and told her that I value what she’s doing for her children. That they are both moms supporting their children from home motivates me to make sure I have enough for them to do. It also motivates me to grow my business so I can change the one who is starting part-time to full time. Thank you for what you do, John! So happy to be supporting my families overseas!!!" You're making a difference in other people's lives.It's a big deal. John |
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 dance performances, my kids were always half a step behind. Every one of my kids! How is that possible?; We ride bikes probably because we're good at it. My kids, as soon as they got on their bikes, were always half a step ahead of other kids. ; Interesting. What are online Filipino specialists not good at?Are there limitations? Here's my experience. ;These aren't hard and fast rules. ;They're just what I've noticed over the years. ;Some of you are going to email me and tell me you have a great project manager or that you have had great experience doing X, Y, or Z. ; Great. ;Please do. ;I always hope to find better answers than those I already have. On with it. Filipinos are not great at - Project management. ;At least, not up front. ;I have people doing project management on my team, they're darn good at it. ;But they started doing the work, not managing the work. - Creating sales information. I've hired great copywriters from the Philippines. But even with them their understanding of the market wasn't the same as someone from the US would have been. ; I've had pretty good success with everything else I've tried. I talk in more detail here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghhKrs5hMB8 If you've had a good experience hiring a project manager in the Philippines, or have had them create good sales information, I'd love to hear from you. John |
It's the last day of the Alta ski season for us and my family is skiing. I had a minor setback so I'm not skiing. Just sitting in the parking lot enjoying the sun and snow and mountains. I didn't have to come, but I came to help.To help them get packed.To help them get ready.To help them pack up. Plus, I love being with my family and I love the mountains and the snow. When is the right time to help an OFS? Ben G. Said: -----I got this message from an editor that I've been working with since January now: "By the way Sir, can I ask for your help, just $60? I just really don't have enough money to pay for my medical bill. Maybe a cash advance if it is okay? :)" I did pay him an extra $100 to help him out - did I do the right thing? It's been a good few months working together now, and he's done really great so far. how do you judge when the right time is to help out with that sort of stuff?----- It's a good question, and Ben used the right word: judge. You have to use your judgement. I'll give you a couple thoughts of mine. 1. If this happens right off the bat when someone is new, say NO.A brand new OFS asking for money or for a new computer is likely a scam. 2. We've helped lots of OFS over the years. And with a lot more than $60. But when I did it I had a relationship with them. They had worked for me for a long time. I knew them. 3. If someone is newer (like a few months) you need to use your judgment. How much are they asking for? How good have they been for you? Sending money when they're down can really buy you more loyalty.Plus, $50 to you is different than $50 to them. 4. Just be careful that this doesn't get out of hand. If they start asking for more and more money maybe have a conversation with them about their financial situation. I've done this a number of times with my people. Things like, "Why are you struggling so much financially?" or "Can I look at your income/expenses? I want to make sure I'm taking care of you." I've reviewed their entire finances with them. I've found usually that they're budgeting pretty well....sometimes they just need a little extra help. One time I found that I just wasn't paying them enough. You don't always have to help. We haven't always. John |
I'm currently an hour into seeing the 9th Star Wars movie for the first time. I watched the original 3 when I was young. Then I hadn't seen any of the newer ones until a few months ago when my youngest son wanted Star Wars Legos. ;I figured he should actually know where this cultural icon comes from. We started watching them. ;Slowly. I watched an hour of the 9th one with my 7yr old last Saturday. ;Then we had stuff to do (bikes to ride, soccer to play...) I almost never get all the way through a movie in one sitting. ;I have 5 kids. ;3 teenagers. They always want something or we have something going on. Other things are more important than television. I'm so glad it's my kids and wife pulling me away and not work.; If you're considering hiring an Online Filipino Specialist, consider this: 1. You're too busy to spend the time hiring someone right now. 2. Work will always be there. ;It never ends. Projects never end. Opportunities never end.YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO BE NOT BUSY! 3. If you ever "have the time"to hire that OFS you've been meaning to, email will be there to make sure to stop you. ;Email is the great equalizer. It sucks everyones time equally. It endlessly requires responses. Endlessly pings you. Endlessly has a number in the red bubble on your phone.Endlessly forces you to work IN your business rather than ON your business. 4. If email doesn't, Farcebook will. It's such a joke. When I finally decided to take the leap and hire someone I had to get to the point where I said "This is madness! ;I'll never get ahead if I keep working like this." My life has never been the same. Nows the time for you to do it. Block off the next 30 minutes to get started. Start here. Then it will take you 2 hours over the next week. Then you'll be buying time... May the force be with you. John PS. My wife has never watched a single Star Wars movie. ;She's too "cool" to watch such a nerdy movie. |
My best friends sister died last week from Covid. 35 years old, mother of 5.; It has been terrible.Her kids have been swimming at my house multiple times in an effort just to occupy them. ;Crying.; At least I got to go to the funeral. About the same time, Julia (my OFS) sent me this: One of my friends, 'Cathy', lost her father to Covid earlier this year. That in itself is a heartbreaking loss. What made matters worse is that she's based in Singapore for work. Cathy's sister was working in a different city in the Philippines.; They couldn't go home when their father was in the hospital dying. Cathy's sister almost didn't make it for the funeral. Cathy's father dying reminded me of how different our experience was, simply because we're able to work from home. And how the pandemic just made it even harder. For the longest time, she took it for granted that she could always come home anytime. Singapore isn't that far. It's only 4 hours away by plane.; But it didn't matter because she couldn't leave. I've attended more funerals than I can count. I don't like this fact. But I'm thankful that I've had those moments to say goodbye to my loved ones. I just wish Cathy had the chance to do the same. Death is hard.;Cut them some slack if they have a death in the family. ;They're stressed about it. John |
Training doesn't have to be that hard. Just putting a little effort in makes a big difference. Julia:-----------Homeschooling my daughter has forced me to teach her a lot of things I know nothing about. One of the things she learned how to do, even though I had absolutely no talent for it, was music. My daughter is musically inclined but she's not a genius. She's just really interested. But interest can only get her so far. I think what allowed her to keep going was how invested we were in her training. I think it's the same with training your Filipino virtual assistant. ;Whether or not it's a task you know how to do, it's not enough to just throw resources at them. They might learn on their own if they're interested, but what if they're not? If you want them to acquire skills that you can use, you need to do a bit more. 1. You need to follow up on them. I could have easily just let my daughter study music theory on her own. But I wanted to make sure she was learning. So every once in a while I would ask her how she's doing. Can she show me what exercises she's done? Can she show me why her answers there are correct? I still can't tell you the difference between chromatic and pentatonic scales. But I know my daughter can because she's shown me her work. She knows how to play those scales. And she will go out of her way to correct me if I say something wrong about them. It's the same with your VA. They'll know you're invested in their training when you ask about their progress. You'll know that they understand the resources you sent them when they can explain what they learned. 2. You need to give them opportunities to practice what they have learned. We have a small house and a trumpet can be really intense. But she can't really develop her skills if she can't practice them. So whenever she can, she'll play our national anthem for online class. She'll play "Happy Birthday" on Zoom for friends and family. She played Christmas Carols. Played along to music videos of her favorite bands.; These little exercises did help her to gain more confidence. Same thing when training your VA. Like, when John had me learn ebook marketing years ago, he gave me small tasks that I could manage everyday. And if I made a mistake, it was okay. Since they were small tasks, ;it's something I could easily fix. That gave me the confidence to keep working on it and eventually explore other things to learn on my own. 3. Give them room to learn on their own, if they want to. As I mentioned, my daughter has expressed wanting to learn to play the trombone. That means I'm going to have to go through it all over again. Months of listening to her:;;* play out of tune;;* playing her scales again and again and again,;;* play too loud or too soft;* learn to play a song and get frustrated when she doesn't get it.But the good thing about this is I don't have to be as involved anymore. I know she's interested. She knows I'm invested. The challenge doesn't scare her anymore. She knows she's going to rock it. That's what I felt when John sent me stuff to learn on my own over the years. When I first started, I was so afraid of making mistakes. I emailed John a lot. But now, he just sends me stuff and I learn on my own. He gives me room to try stuff out. People make mistakes. ;John forgives. I guess that's why, years later, he has a team that can do practically anything.---------- Next week I'm going to have tips from my OFS team for how to better manage them. John |
Over the past few months my copywriter has been really slow with doing work.;I finally said to him Hey, are you able to do this work or do I need to get someone else? He replied and let me know "I'm dealing with some really serious health stuff. ;I can't do it. Let me refer you to someone else." He referred me to a couple people and I also posted a job on OnlineJobs.ph I found someone really great (from OnlineJobs.ph, not from his referrals). She did a couple copy projects (she wanted to work on a per-project basis) but then she insisted on getting paid a specific way, something we don't do. Sorry...that doesn't work for us. So I'm now hiring my second choice. I hope he's as good...but I don't know. People often come into this thinking "I just want to hire the BEST person!" But sometimes you can't hire the "BEST" person. ;Sometimes you have to hire the best AVAILABLE person. Sometimes the BEST person isn't the best person for your company. Sometimes the effort required to find the "BEST" person isn't in the cards. Hire the best available person. Getting the work done is more important than getting the work done perfectly. John |
Sometimes I wear knee pads when I ride my mountain bike. Crashing is just part of riding a mountain bike.; So, I wear protection (sometimes). This week I got an email asking about how to protect yourself with your sensitive information and your OFS: "I'd like to hire a bookkeeper but am concerned about how to make sure I protect myself from providing too much financial information, but also making sure the VA is enabled to get the job done." When I started, this was how I felt too. ; What if they steal my credit card info?What if they steal my hosting account?What if they steal my domain? I got over it when I realized it was holding me back and making life harder by not giving them access.; Here's my take: 1. How can they do this job without having sensitive information? They can't. 2. If you hired someone locally, would you give them the information? ;You would. 3. If someone locally does something bad, you have to find them and go through the lawsuit process. 4. If someone in the Philippines does something bad, you have to find them and go through the lawsuit process.; Here's the good and the bad. THE BADThere's nothing I know of you can do to withhold required info from them and still let them get their job done. You really are at risk here. ;But...that risk is no different than if you hire someone locally. THE GOODLaws in the Philippines are stricter than laws in the USA.Enforcement in the Philippines is stricter than in the USA.The culture of the Philippines makes them LESS likely to steal your info than someone in the USA. At some point, if you want to get the right help for your business, you have to trust someone.;You can trust someone locally.;You can trust someone in the Philippines.You can trust someone somewhere else (Just probably not if they tell you they're a Nigerian prince). One of the reasons we hire from the Philippines is because we've seen over and over again that the trust factor is easier there than almost anywhere else in the world. Ask anyone who has someone in the Philippines working for them: "Do you trust your OFS?" But you won't know for yourself until you do it. John PS. In my www.OneVAAway.com framework I show you how to start building trust during the interview process. ;Trust is really important here (for both sides). It's a lot easier if you start building it before you hire them. |
On Tuesday my email was about protecting yourself from your OFS. What if your OFS needs protecting from themselves? I have someone who runs our advertising.; She has done it for a few years for us.; Facebook adsInsta adsGoogle adsLinkedin ads She sticks to budgets.She gives reports.Generally she does a pretty good job (I think...I don't really know anything about FB type advertising so I have no idea how to evaluate what she's doing. ;At least it's getting done.) On Thursday she made a typo. The budget was supposed to be $18,500 She typed $185,000. Accidentally adding that extra zero made FB go crazy with the ads. $58,000 in 2 days before we caught it and shut it down.; Most of it was unprofitable. ;Facebook increased our CPM a LOT and showed the ads to less relevant people.; Monday morning she resigned.; It was an accident. ;A typo. I told her I didn't want her to resign, I just wanted her to be better.;Try to get some of the money back from FB since it was so obviously out of our normal patterns and obviously a typo.Anyone could have made the mistake (someone in the US included). She's still with us.; I hope I did the right thing. John |
Recently, I had a Jr. High kid in my neighborhood text me to ask if he can interview me for his Entrepreneurship class.; Ok. Sure. He comes over. And then asks me questions.Questions that you would expect from someone with an academic background in Entrepreneurship. What do you sell.Where did you get the idea for it.How did you start your business.Who are you primary customers.What was important when you started your business.What mistakes did you make.What was your biggest challenge so far.What was your pivot point.How did you grow it. The list goes on. As I answered, I knew it wasn't what he expected. His replies were in the range of "oh..." to "oh.... kay...."; For a successful entrepreneur, all those things are irrelevant. So I asked: Are you writing a paper or do you want to learn... then I would have different answers for you. "I want to learn, what advice would you give me?" So I gave him three. Sales is the only thing that matters.Learn to sell. Whatever it is. Sell your product before you make your product.The first time I talked about outsourcing, I taught people what I knew to help them outsource better. I sold it, and a lot of people bought it... and that time, I thought well... I guess now I have to make a product. I got the assurance that there was a market for it. Same with my son who sold bikes. He posted ads, and when he got a bunch of guys interested, that was when he knew he had a market and he proceeded with the purchase of those products. Typically people would do it the other way. Set up the inventory only to realize later on that no one wants to buy it. Everything you learn in the academic world about entrepreneurship won't matter.Accounting is silly. What they'll teach you in marketing is silly. The terminologies they teach you is silly. How to start your business is silly. I mean...don't get me wrong. ;Those things are fine. There's a lot more you can learn... But... The only thing that matters is making sales. Learn to sell.Hire a great OFS to take care of the other details of your business.I'll walk you through the process. John |
You never know when you're having an affect on someone more than you can see. Yesterday I got a letter (yes, a snail-mail letter) from a 17 yr old boy who is using OnlineJobs.ph to hire OFS.;He has struggled with depression. Something I wrote caused him to change his path.Thanks Milo. It wasn't something I intended.; As you work with OFS, you'll likely affect their kids. And probably their kids' kids. From Julia ------------One of the best pieces of advice John gave me was to start teaching my kid practical skills that she can use for online work. Doesn't matter what career she pursues. These skills will be useful anywhere. And once people know you have them, they'll come to you. Well, I followed John's advice. I taught her everything I knew and gave her resources to learn more. Now, my daughter regularly complains about how she's always the one assigned to do technical stuff for her online classes. Because she knows this stuff. Because she has a VA mom. A video project needs editing? The kid with the VA mom can do it. Nobody knows how to use Photoshop? The kid with the VA mom can do it. Transcribe and clean up an audio recording? The kid with the VA mom can do it. She was doing all this on my old crappy computer. And she's doing it faster and better than I could ever do it. Eventually, that computer gave up. So in the meantime she's using my laptop while we're in the process of fixing up our back up PC.; She's not old enough to work yet. But knowing that she has these skills reassures me as a parent. I know she'll always have these skills to fall back on. Even now it's opening a lot of doors for her and she's still in school. I can just imagine what it would be like in the future when she is old enough to start working. So if you want to get amazing VAs in the future, encourage your current VAs who have kids to start training them while they're young.;------------- Offer free advice to your OFS.Buy them a book that has affected you.Help their kids. John |
My daughter got her drivers license last week.;This week she thinks everything in life has changed.; She doesn't have to come home from school.She doesn't have to tell us where she's going.She doesn't have to check in. We just had a good conversation about it. Not dissimilar from the conversation I had with the 6 programmers/server admins who work for us. Most people know I'm big on daily reporting.;I require it. ;Every day. But sometimes I get relaxed and some OFS get relaxed and they stop doing it. I don't think about it because I'm thinking about how to grow the business. This time it caused a problem. We're trying to significantly improve the messaging system on OnlineJobs.ph. Complex, but not super hard... The issue is when I stop getting reports and the project drags out for months. In an attempt to figure out why it's dragging on, this week we sent an email to all 6 of our OFS programmers saying basically We need a daily report from each of you.If you don't have something to work on, please tell us. ;It's not your fault, it's ours.This is non negotiable at this point. Then all the issues came out. One of the server admins is struggling with his diabetes.;We thought they were all working on different parts of this upgrade, but it turns out the whole thing is bottlenecked with him right now. The other programmers aren't sending reports because they're not working! They all;started emailing us saying; "Yeah, I don't have something to work on right now until this upgrade gets completed." Problem solved. All it took was an email from us saying; I need a daily email, and your employment is conditional on me getting it. My business partner Dan added You're supposed to work 8 hours/day. It seems to me a 10 second email should be pretty easy to incorporate into those 8 hours. We'll still be lenient (not going to fire someone over not sending a daily report) but for me, I can't emphasize enough how important the daily report is. John PS. I talk about the daily report in my book The Outsourcing Lever. |
A couple years ago I had an OFS who was super productive. ;She's really smart, perfect English, willing to come to me with suggestions. Just really great. Then over a couple month period I noticed her productivity dropped.; I didn't say anything for a while, but I wondered "did she get another job?" One day I got an email from her which was intended for her other employer. She was really embarrassed. I was grateful to finally know. Her and I talked through it. Why she got the other job.Her financial situation.Her work with me.What we're going to do moving forward. She still works for me. ;She makes more now. Her productivity is back up. I've found out my OFS have other jobs 3 ways over the years: 1. I get an accidental email intended for their other boss2. TimeProof. Screenshots show work for someone else;(I don't use TimeProof but did years ago...I just don't like it)3. I asked and they told me. To me someone getting another job is an indication of one (or a combination) of the following:- I'm not paying enough;- I'm not keeping them busy enough- I'm not a good enough boss and they're worried about losing their job- They're more ambitious- They're bored with my job (I've created a dead end) I've always been able to work it out with them and keep them working for me.Sometimes their other job fizzles.Sometimes I incentivize them to just work for me.Sometimes they maintain both and keep their productivity up (this usually doesn't last super long). Again...asking them is key to me. John |
Yesterday my son went to mow a neighbors lawn who can't do it themself.; When he got there, our lawn mower died and wouldn't start. I stopped what I was doing and went and helped. We got it working. 5 minutes after I got home the lawn mower ran out of gas.; I stopped what I was doing and brought him gas.; Talk about a productivity killer. ; A couple weeks ago I got a text from a friend Lanny: "My OFS productivity dropped...a lot. ;What do I do?" He caught the OFS working for someone else on his time.He knows the OFS has overcharged him for hours. But...he also knows the OFS is a really good designer and he wants to keep him. My advice was Confront him about it. ;Tell him the evidence. a. You know he hasn't been honestb. You know he's working elsewhere on your time Ask What and Why and How. - Why are you cheating me?- What do you want to do about it? ;Keep working for me and be honest? Me let you go and I find someone else?- How do you propose we move forward? Yesterday I texted Lanny to follow up. "He has gotten better! Thanks for the advice." They worked it out. ;Lanny didn't have to recruit someone new. The OFS is being honest and his productivity is back up to normal.; If your OFS productivity has dropped, ask What and Why and How. - I noticed your productivity is down. ;Why?- What can I do to help you?;- How do you propose we move forward? Let them know you need them to be productive. You're unlikely to offend them. ;You're more likely to build trust. John |
We're about to release a new product: Fundamental Training for Virtual Assistants It's a training that you hand off to your VA (probably not to a specialist) to get them up to speed with VA tasks and get them started. It helps you not have to teach them every single little thing. Here's my process for building out the website: 1. Copywriter OFS writes the sales copyI have to be involved here. ;Direction, market, angle... 2. Editor OFS (another writer) edits the sales copy 3. I proof read and make suggestions 4. UI Designer OFS lays out a design for the page based on the copy. 5. Graphic designer OFS creates graphics for the page 6. Front-end developer OFS takes the design and creates a page from it 7. I read it. ;There are things I don't like. ;I ask for changes. I really wish all of this was one person.;I want a; Copywriter-Designer-Developer OFS But I don't think that person exists. ; Or, if they do they're really difficult to find. The point is people want "someone to build my website" but there is so much that goes in to building something functional (at least...into something that converts prospects into buyers). These are separate roles. ; No, you don't have to have all of them. ;I started with a front-end developer and hired a designer on a contract basis. ;I hire a copywriter on a per-project basis.;It's just easier when people work for you rather than having to go out and find them every time you need something. John PS. If you're looking to fill one of these roles, my www.OneVAAway.com challenge will make it easy to find the right person. |
I don't like the term VA. People think a virtual assistant is a secretary. They're not skilled.;They can only follow basic directions.They can't really help my business grow. That's why I hire OFS. An OFS is skilled.They want to, and are capable of, helping your business grow.They work hard and they're good at what they do.They deliver high quality work.They show up. They want to work.They're loyal, honest, hard working, and well educated. OFS = Online Filipino Specialist.; For years I've had OFS working in my business, yet I still called them VAs. About a year ago I realized the damage I was doing. Both in the Philippines and around the world.; Filipino workers don't want to be "assistants". ;They want a career. They want to be skilled. ;They want to grow. Employers don't want an assistant (well...some do).They want someone who is good at their role. Hire an OFS. John |
Nature is close to my heart.;Mountain biking, hiking, trail running, backcountry skiing, camping… But since I live in a desert, trees don't grow naturally. ;They require a lot of work. At my home I have a big cherry tree in front. Two years ago, we noticed its condition deteriorating. We had to cut off dead branches, monitor it, prune it, and generally take better care of it hoping it gets better. Unfortunately, last year we lost more of it… And this year, it had to come down. As I was mourning over the loss of our tree, I remembered Shel Silverstein's book, The Giving Tree. Through the years my kids grew up with this cherry tree, climbing it, using it as a playground, building forts in its branches. We also use it as shade, even firewood on occasion. My kids love to eat it's cherries. I have deep feelings for this tree. And now it's gone. I feel the same with my team of virtual assistants.;They give and give and give.;I hope I'm giving to them too. I try. I also hope to be able to give to entrepreneurs and small business owners around the world. If I can give the gift of finding a great OFS, an entrepreneurs life is never the same again. https://www.OneVAAway.com John |
My wife is in Zion National Park today, riding her bike through the park and then hiking the famous Angels Landing. With her gone, I'm in charge at home. Make breakfast.Make lunches.Get the kids to school.;Work.Work out.Get the kids home from school.After school snacks.;Soccer practice.Make dinner."Drive me to Aunis house?""Pick me up from Aunis house""No, don't pick me up, it's too soon!"Family scriptures.Family prayers.Put the kids to bed. I wish I could say "aaahhhh...it's finally quiet", but I have teenagers who want to stay up later than I do. It's only quiet while they're at school. Fortunately for me, most of this isn't different from what my normal days are like. ;I already know what happens at home. That's different for me than running Facebook ads, where I know nothing. Here's how I have online Filipino Specialists (OFS) run FB ads for me - I create video ads. ;Super simple. ;Hold my iPhone up and talk.- Upload the video to Basecamp. Assign it to people.- My video editor edits out my stumbles and ums and pauses. He creates a graphic image for the first slide (I'm not exactly sure how this works...but I know he creates them because I see the images)- My social media specialist writes a caption and uploads it to FB. ;I don't actually know if she uploads it as a post or as an ad or what...- My ads specialist creates the ad campaign and decides on targeting and budget.I don't really know how this works...but we've had conversations about who we should and shouldn't be targeting. I know she's letting poor performing ads die and boosting ads that perform well. This isn't how it has always been. ; At first I hired an online Filipino ads specialist.;She created the ads and ran them. ;I didn't do anything.No editor.No social media specialist.No me. It's more effective with me creating ads and it doesn't really take much time.; You can start your process with just one person. ;As you find you need more, hire another.;Too many people feel like they need to hire a team all at once and it keeps them from doing anything. Start with one person. ;An Online Filipino Ads Specialist. John |
Ben works on our social media team.;He helps with the social media schedule, with posting, and with engagement.; He was hired by Julia (one of my OFS) who needed more help. Ben is also a volunteer firefighter.; Here's what he says---------------Hi! My name is Ben! I'm a volunteer firefighter with the Knighthawk Rescue Team. I've always wanted to do volunteer work, even when I was a child.; During my stint as a senior scout one of our merit badges is Fire Fighting. With that I was introduced to the world of fire, at a very young age I got myself into it and made it a passion of mine. Then we have this Emergency Service Corps and the Emergency Service Auxiliary Corps which is a special group with special skills under the Boy Scout program. With this group we were taught how to do radio communication, cordoning and crowd control, traffic, First aid, evacuate, fire fighting, etc.; From there, I humbly say we were the first 911 group since back in the day we only had the emergency number 110 which is under the Bureau Fire Protection Davao.; That's how the KRT which was known before as Knighthawk Foundation Inc. (KFI) was found and eventually we became Rescue 110 which is compose of 3 groups, (KFI, Kabalikat Radio Com, and ESC-BSP) At the early age of 13, I was molded to volunteerism with the help of other volunteer groups. It was a very risky thing but eventually it paid well seeing those people who I have helped smiling back at you and a simple thank you that made my day.; Having that experienced, surely made our days as a volunteer glorious. That's why from that moment, I told myself I will never think twice to help out or do volunteer work once they need my services or called by chance.; Many people called themselves as volunteers but in their hearts they never will be one. Being a volunteer is not an easy task, it requires a lot of sacrifices, dedication, discipline, and responsibility. Some they called themselves volunteer but men without actions. As I grow old now, the spirit of volunteerism still burns inside of me and I hope someday I will be able to pass on to my son and to his son's and son of his son's and so on.; But it's hard to support a family (my wife and son) doing volunteer work. For years I worked in the call center industry. I tried to volunteer while working there but it was really difficult. You need to be physically present and make sure to attend all of your incoming calls and assist them properly. This is hard especially when there's a fire and we're called to respond to it. But since I started working online two years ago, it made it easier for me to provide for my family and help those in need. I just make sure to take note of my deadlines and work whenever I can. As long there is an internet connection I can do my work anytime of the day or any place. I can pause my work when there is a fire. Once I get back to base, I just need to get my laptop and ;get back to work again. -----------There are a lot of pictures because Ben REALLY loves talking about this- 2 pictures of Ben and his team bringing goods to those affected by fire;- 2 pictures of Ben in his firefighting gear with his team, doing drills- 2 pictures of Ben and his team before and after they responded to a fire- 1 picture of Ben with his fire station logo? ( I don't know the correct term) I'm glad I could provide Ben a job that also allows him to do what he loves. John |
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 project on their own, with their own money. When we saw in the news how dire the situation was in the early days of the pandemic, we sent them funds so they could help more people. But even before that and until now, there’s this sense of camaraderie. They check on each other. They send help to one another and help other people. Some volunteer regularly. I even have an OFS who is a volunteer firefighter. |
Letting an OFS go is never fun.Having one quit is just as bad. I've rarely let someone go.;And I've only ever had one quit. Holly's OFS had worked for her for a couple years. ;She had suspicions of him not being honest for a while. I like how she handled the situation. I discovered my OSF was stealing time last month. Not only was he not working, he was not even available to respond on slack when he was clocked in but simply not there. I realized that I should have been giving him training to do in the down time and I told him that. I also told him that he should have simply been straight with me and let me know he didn't have enough work to fill the hours. He quit yesterday. We did a video zoom call and he told me he had taken two other VA jobs. This was disappointing but not shocking. I had hoped he could at least continue working part time. I asked him how much he was being paid - $8 per hour by one employer - I didn't get the rate of the second. I reiterated to him how disappointed I was in how it had turned out. ;I told him that I would like to know how he had gamed Time Doctor so it did not show poor time use on the report. He said that he had his cousin suppress one of the keys on his computer so all he had to do was move the mouse. On the day that I caught him doing it, he had his cousin moving the mouse while he left the house to go shopping. I repeated that he needs to be honest in the future because what he did is criminal and even if his employer does not catch him and fire him the universe will catch him and something bad will happen.; I also told him that I had not put any black mark on his record in OnLinejobs.ph because I believe in giving people a second chance. I let him know that I had emailed the founder of OnLineJobs.ph and shared the situation - so if it happens again with another employer it will be on record that it is the second time at least, not the first. He expressed concern about the fact that I emailed you about the situation since he depends on OnLineJobs.ph for his livelihood. I told him that I was sure that it would not present a problem for him as long as he didn't do that with his future employers. I advised him to do something good in the world to make up for his dishonesty - help train some of his friends to be VAs, pick up garbage, volunteer in some way whatever. He said that he had already trained 4 of his friends to be VAs and he even offered to volunteer for an international group I am involved with - World Creativity and Innovation Week/Day (https://wciw.org/). That was nice and unexpected. At the end of the call we discussed the transition - I have a lot of documents shared with him that we would need to sort out and some that are owned by him. I let him know that it would be helpful to communicate from time to time as I transition and find his replacement. He agreed. After our call he slacked this message: "Thank you for everything Holly, I will keep close to my heart the learning and everything you said. It is painful to be associated with the word criminal. I will do better and be a much better person after this. I appreciate you in everything and the years we work together. I wish all you the best and your beautiful family. I will always be here ready to response for you. Thank you again. I am sorry that it ended this way." In response to that, I let him know that I could really use his help this month while I find a replacement. He responded that he would help me off the clock - again, something that I had not expected. It won't be a lot of work each day, less than 30 minutes for the critical things I need, but it will lift a load. I hope that he does it. Anyway, that is where the story is for now. I will do things differently moving forward. For one thing, I will check screen shots more closely. In my business, it is really important to know how long things take to do so I can gauge what we promise our clients - so honesty is critical. For another, I will have a nice training program that my new VA can work on to increase their skills once they finish their tasks. Being nice and respectable is always a good way to go. I don't use a time tracker, but that doesn't mean a time tracker is bad. Holly uses one because it fits her personality and her business needs. John |
School is out. ; I have 5 kids.; Without school they think staying up late is a right.Getting up late is just part of it.Hanging out with friend is a must! I've worked from home for 15+ years, so this isn't my first summer…but I feel like I've lost my freedom. It's not quite the same as losing face which is part of the Philippines culture. When I explain why OFS disappear, I often equate it to losing face.; I recently asked one of my OFS if this was a good analogy. Here's what she said: Yes, losing face would be the closest thing to it. When something goes wrong, there's this strong fight or flight response that we just can't shake. Even when it's not our fault or something we can't control. I think it's a cultural thing. We know it doesn't make sense. We just feel it. Not just in work but in everyday life. Like, just today. Jam ordered lunch for us and had it delivered. The food wasn't what we expected. It wasn't good. For other people, the first response would be to be upset at the restaurant because it wasn't good. Jam's first response was to feel bad because my daughter and I didn't like the lunch that he ordered. Does it make sense? There's a social and a relationship component to it.;Filipino culture doesn't like to disappoint.;Letting them know you're disappointed generally doesn't help your relationship. John |
In 2010 I went to the Philippines and spent a month on the beach with my family.;I also met my team. ; On the second day with them I lined them all up and had them give tips to employers.;They were so embarrassed.The video quality is poor, but it's worth watching just to understand what's important to them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUKTv9zQjds The one who thought he was going to drown was the first person I hired (in 2005) and who still works for me.; Tip 1: Communication - maintain constant communication with your employee. ;FYI - this comes from one of my worst communicating employees (he's still with me today) Tip 2: Correct them nicely when they make mistakes Tip 3: Training - They really value training. ;A lot. Tip 4: Video/audio instructions Tip 5: Be patient with them. It takes time.Tip 5a: Pay regardless of results. Tip 6: Provide feedback. Comments. You'll notice the theme. ;Communicate with them. Train them. Talk with them. They're human. John PS. At the end I talk about ReplaceMyself.com. Ignore that.;Go to https://www.OneVAAway.com. ;That's the best place to start. |
When my OFS "Twinkle" got sick last year, our first reaction was to encourage her to get better. Her first reaction was; "OH no! I'm going to lose my job!" I had no idea that was her big worry...she's just now telling us. Here's what she says---------One of the downsides of working online is that a job can be easily taken from you, and this was a big fear for me.; Last year, in the midst of a lockdown in our city because of COVID-19, I started feeling sick. Being sick in a pandemic is the worst. Going to the doctor is not easy -- I had to get a clearance from our barangay (village) before any doctor would agree to see you, and if you have a fever (which I did because I had an infection), they would cancel your appointment. It was because of this that I wasn’t able to get the treatment that I should have. Early this year, my infection grew so much worse that my body had gone into septic shock. I was brought into the ICU and had a very scary two weeks in the hospital. But what’s scarier was being not able to work and knowing that I won’t be able to work for a couple of weeks more. It was a huge possibility that I’ll be out of a job. But it wasn’t the case. John and Dan reached out as soon as they found out what happened and assured me that I can take my time to heal and get my strength back. They reassured me that I just have to focus on getting better and that I still have a job waiting for me when I’m ready. This was a big deal. Especially when I’ve never ever met them personally. It was a testament to how John cares for us, his OFSs. And his care is a guarantee that he won’t just give up on us just because we’re not in a good place, he trusts us enough to pick ourselves back together and come back. I’ve always thought that working from home is great, but having a boss who cares and trusts you is the best.;----------- We don't have deadlines of mission critical work that HAS to get done right now.It's fine if she misses a month of work. ;We're just happy to have her working for us. If YOU have mission critical work, deadlines, tasks that MUST get done on time:;How do you handle if an OFS doesn't show up? Please respond and let me know. John |
When I started college at BYU I wanted to go to law school. My 3rd semester in I took the pre-law class and decided "what the heck am I doing??? Attorneys all hate their jobs!" I graduated in computer science.; I don't do programming anymore (I hire developers in the Philippines) but I still use the knowledge I gained in computer science classes as I run a software based business. In hiring developers, I have a major knowledge advantage which I can't transfer to other people simply because I understand programming. Here's MY best advice.In hiring a programmer/developer (they both mean the same thing these days): - The more experienced they are, the better they are. This also means they're more expensive.This isn't always the case...but if you don't know what you're doing hiring someone newer is a major risk. - Someone who says they can do everything isn't likely to be very good. - Programmers aren't designers. ;Stuff they make looks crappy. Hire a designer. - Tests are usually helpful in weeding out bad programmers. Here's a test we've used over the years:https://www.onlinejobs.ph/phptest/phptest.phpBut it's really only useful if you're going to look at someone's code.I never got into more advanced tests. - If you don't know what you're looking for, ask a friend who is techie. ;Or, preferably 3-4 friends. They're all likely to give you different answers. ;Find a commonality.; ---------What I'm really looking for here is your advice about hiring a programmer/developer.How do you know if someone is good?;How do you test people?;What's your process?I'm offering a free month at OnlineJobs.ph for really good answers.Reply to this email. It comes to me.--------- John Dan (my business partner) and I in 2005 still doing the programming work ourselves. We thought we were so cool! |
Pay raises...the first time I did it I had no clue what I was doing. ; I just thought my OFS was doing such a great job with work that I randomly gave him a $50/month raise. Actually...before that raise happened I had given him a $50 bonus one time because of something great he did that month. To be honest, I still don't know what I'm doing. I just try to treat people fairly.; If I think someone does really well, I give a bigger raise. I've never done a "performance evaluation" with someone. Maybe I should? It's not my personality or management style.; I talk through it in full detail in this video: https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/pay-raises-work-practical-advice In the end, there isn't a standard for pay raises with OFS. Do what you think is fair.Be generous. John |
You know how sometimes you just need a little nudge... For months now I've been meaning to hire someone but I've just been stuck in this loop procrastinating it because hiring is hard. Then the other day I got this email from Dan S. "I’ve been thinking about outsourcing, or retrying outsourcing, for a long time and your emails are nudging me a little. I’m still stuck in the loop of needing help and trying to find time to articulate the requests and do a little training!" His email nudged me a little.; So today I finally just went onto OnlineJobs.ph and posted the job and it was like...instantly there was a light at the end of the project tunnel. ;Just posting the job, starting the ball rolling towards getting help alleviated the mental burden I've been carrying of knowing I need help but I don't have time to find it (not that I'm SUPER busy...but...) If you've been putting it off, go to OnlineJobs.ph and post a job. ;It's free and will lift a burden off you.;If you do, I'd be willing to bet you're excited to check your email Monday morning. If you don't know what to post or who you're looking to hire, head to www.OneVAAway.com where I'll walk you through the process. My steps aren't long...they're designed to be quick because I know you're busy and you've been putting this off. https://www.OneVAAway.com John |
We're a pretty adventurous family. ;Not that we skydive or bungee jump or do crazy things...We just like to get out and we're willing to take our kids. Now...take our kids needs an explanation. ; I have 3 big kids (college freshman, HS junior, HS freshman) who are super easy to take on an adventure. ;They're strong, they're in shape, they're skilled bike riders or skiers. I can take them bike packing easily. Then I have 2 littles. ;2nd and 4th grade.; They're not so easy to take just because they're little. So I'm figuring it out. How do you take a 2nd and 4th grader bike packing? You buy tiny Ebikes.; Yesterday I took the 2nd grader and his friend on a test ride. We rode 12 miles on a paved trail near our house. ;I wasn't sure how it would go, if they'd be able to keep up, if they'd get worn out too quickly. It almost killed me! They immediately got it. They were WAY faster than me. It was so easy for them. (me taking a photo from way behind) The test worked! This week we did a case study with Matt Leitz. He had some great advice on testing someone's English skills: If you're hiring for a position that requires proficient English writing skills (customer service tickets, copywriting etc...), do a live typing "chat" interview with your candidate. Then you really get to see their raw skill/timing/grammar with typed English. So smart. ;Especially considering the Filipino hesitation towards doing a live video interview. ; John |
Julia (my OFS - Online Filipino Specialist) writes: In the past few years, there's been an increase in the number of virtual assistant (VA) training programs provided by the government and private individuals/groups. They're being advertised here in the Philippines as intensive, skills development programs that can make anyone work ready as long as they finish the course. Some jobseekers even showcase their certificates of completion on their jobseeker profiles. Seeing them, you might start thinking that jobseekers who have undergone these programs might be the best people to hire.; If they've undergone these training programmes, that means you're automatically getting skilled workers, right? Maybe you can even forgo training them yourself! Do VA training programmes really work? Is this something you should include as a job requirement? The short answer is, it depends. Not all VA training programs are alike. Some programs are more intensive while others just offer an overview of what they need to do. And like school, the people who take these training programs vary. Some take it seriously. Some just managed to finish the course by doing the bare minimum. You still need to listen to your gut and check whether this person has the right attitude for the job. You also have to consider the fact that most of those who take these VA training programs are people with little or no work experience. They did the exercises in a controlled environment with little or no context. You still have to check whether or not they really understand what they're doing. And just because a virtual assistant didn't go through a training program doesn't mean they're not skilled. A lot of experienced VAs are self taught or started learning on the job.; Even if you got the VA who was the top of the class of the best VA training program out there, it doesn't mean you don't need to train them.; Why?; Because your process is unique to your business. They way you do things and the quality of work you want to see is specific to your standards. Having some training prior to being hired just makes things easier. They can be onboarded faster. They'll make fewer mistakes compared to someone who's starting from scratch. And if they're really good, they can even help improve the training you already have. Or they can train any new VAs you want to hire in the future. Having that training allows the VA a head start, it's a shortcut. It doesn't replace training. Having your VA to handle the tasks without your input can get frustrating, especially when you don't get the result you want. You have your own style, methods, and quirks, you'll still need to train your VA the way you want things handled. I agree with her. John |
All growing up (and into adulthood) I remember seeing ads from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about families.; The ads always show families spending time together. ;It's not always happy time. It's not always productive time, but they're together. The tagline at the end of the ad was always: Family: Isn't it about...TIME? Time...it's been a driving force in my life. I try really hard to get others (OFS) to do my work for me so I can spend my time with my wife and kids. ; But I wasn't always there.I didn't always have Online Filipino Specialists. I was probably about where you are now.; And where James M is right now. James (a college roommate of mine) and I had lunch recently. ;He said: "I want to have someone do this marketing for me and I have someone, but she's only really good at following instructions and I don't have the time to teach her how to do it. ;I just want to hire someone who already knows how to do it." I thought 2 things: 1. You can probably find someone with those skills so it will take a lot less instruction from you to get them doing it for you.; James wants her to do lead generation marketing. ;Not that hard. 2. This is the best time you can spend. ;The time that creates a multiplier. He doesn't realize in saying "I'm too busy to train her" he's saying "I'm too busy working IN my business to work ON my business and make it grow." Almost any time you spend working ON your business creates a multiple. It multiplies your efforts and your time. That's where your time is best spent. John |
One of the reasons I encourage my kids to ride and race their bikes is that it doesn't have a dead end.; When you finish high school, your cycling just continues. It doesn't matter at what level. ;Recreational, just for exercise, racing, competitive racing... There's no dead end. In a case study we did with Brenda Albano, she talks about not creating a dead end for her OFS. As Brenda trains and gets to know her VAs, she loves “spotting” what they really want to do (in contrast to what they were hired to do). ;If they show promise, she encourages them to grow in those new areas and she finds ways to implement their new skills.; For example, Hazel (her SEO OFS) started out doing SEO and blogging. But her passion is design. So Brenda paid for Hazel to take the time to learn design basics. Now Hazel is also teaching herself how to do video and infographics. She’s contributing in new ways to the business and she’s so happy to be doing what she loves. I have someone who I hired to build websites and do marketing, who now manages my social media. I have someone I hired to do content writing who now manages multiple projects. I have people who have learned programming, SEO, social media marketing, quality assurance testing, customer support, ... All while working for me. ;Their roles have changed significantly since I hired them. They're now working on things they like better than what I originally hired them to do. A good question to ask your OFS might be: What else are you good at?What else do you like to do or would you like to do? You might find they have other skills and interests. Don't create a dead-end job. John |
When I was engaged to my future wife (we've now been married for 20 years!) both she and her father made it clear that they wanted someone with a good stable job with good "benefits". Someone who would go to work every day, work hard, and bring home a stable paycheck. Yeah...that's not me.; When I told my wife (about 3 years into marriage...we were still quite poor) I wanted to quit my job, she supported me, but she said "You have 6 months! ;If it's not working in 6 months, you have to go get a job!" Being an employee just didn't work for me.;The incentive structure. The stable paycheck. Leaving my little kids at home all day and feeling like I was missing them grow up. But...this isn't the case for a lot of people. A lot of people really like the stability of a job and a paycheck. Including most Filipinos.; In fact, most people in the Philippines will work better with a stable job. Scott Marlow says to give your VAs the security of a good paycheck and adequate rest and they will perform at their best and be happier employees. I agree. Paying per hour where their hours go up and down is a rough way for them to live.Constantly working per project, where you constantly have to find new work is also a rough way to live. Most Filipinos prefer a stable, long-term job.; Scott has some really good advice for hiring and managing Filipino workers. His company, Themeco, has a really great product. We do case studies to give you a different perspective. ;Something other than just mine. ;There are hundreds of thousands of people successfully working with OFS. If you're not, I hope you're next. John |
Before learning about disappearing traditions...Covid has been really rough on the Philippines. ;Parts of the country are still in lockdown.;Might be good to ask your OFS how they're doing. Julia (my OFS) writes:---------------Now that more people are getting vaccinated, we're starting to see some things come back to normal.; But sadly, there are some things that I fear are going to be lost forever. The pandemic just accelerated the process. One of the things we've seen slowly disappearing in Philippine culture is the traditional Filipino greeting of "Mano Po". 'Mano Po' is a distinct Filipino greeting. You won't see it anywhere else in the world. It's usually done within families. The younger members of the family lightly bow in front of an elder, take their hand and press it against their forehead. This is what it looks like. This greeting is packed with meaning. And we've been doing this greeting long before we were colonized by Spain. ;It's a gesture that shows deference to your elders. It's a blessing from the older generation to the younger generation.; And it's very intimate. You don't do this greeting with anyone. You only do this greeting with people you consider as family. Sadly, this tradition has been going out of fashion for several generations now. Some people don't want to do it because it makes them feel old. Some see this gesture as a symbol of the overreach of the older generation on the lives of their children and grandchildren. And in the time of Covid-19, it's also a really effective way to spread the virus.---------------- Did you know that the #1 export of the Philippines is People?Around 10% of the population of the Philippines lives abroad working and sending money home. ;The government calls them OFW - Overseas Filipino Workers. We're slowly changing this tradition also. ;More and more Filipinos are choosing to be OFS rather than OFW. Online Filipino Specialists get to stay home with their families.Overseas Filipino Worker are gone...often for years at a time. You're helping change this tradition for the better. John PS - If you want help jumping in, get my book for free:www.OutsourcingLever.com |
Yesterday was the summer solstice (and Fathers day...Happy Fathers day to the dads).Days are long. Nights are short. ;Kids are home from school. When I was in the Philippines I was surprised at how different the days were from home (I'm in Utah, USA). Their days were long. The sun came up early. And it was hot. In March! The Philippines is close to the equator. ;The sun comes up early. ;At home in Utah I don't like to get up before 7am. When I was in the Philippines it wasn't uncommon for me to get up in the 5's. ;I never do that at home. As you work with people, you may find they're morning people and get up in the 4's to start work. They probably overlap with your afternoon. Heat is also an issue. It's hot in the Philippines.;Ask your OFS what the temps are like and what their working conditions are like. Bob H. just bought air coolers for 3 of his OFS: In fact, because it's so hot, and air coolers use so much electricity to run, in different parts of the Philippines they plan for this electricity usage...by shutting off the power.;They call it "rolling brown-outs". ;Their electricity infrastructure can't handle the demand so they plan to shut off the power to certain parts of cities at specific times. They publish a schedule so people know ahead of time when their power is going to go out.; When we asked our people a few years ago if they wanted us to buy these they said no because running another one was so expensive (electricity is expensive in the Philippines). We haven't asked about buying air coolers in a few years...it's time to ask again. John |
Nicknames...in the Philippines they're more than just nicknames. ; Julia says:--------------One of the odd things you might discover once you hire a Filipino workers is how some of them have nicknames that are completely different from their legal or given name. Like there's no relationship at all between the legal name and the nickname, Most people have nicknames that are shortened or simplified versions of their first names. Like Chris for Christopher or Kate for Katherine. Or they would sound similar, like Bill and William. Or there's a historical connection like Hank for Henry and Becky for Elizabeth. When I was just starting out at Onlinejobs.ph, sometimes I would use my nickname as my email signature. I remember John and Dan would get confused because my nickname was a guy's name and I'm not a guy. And we have a few more employees here at Onlinejobs.ph with nicknames that don't make sense. Nicknames like Sweet and Ding Dong. Here in the Philippines, we don't just see nicknames as a quick way of calling someone. For some families, the nickname sometimes serves as an extension of your name. It's a way of giving people more information about who you are in addition to what they can gather from your name. Sometimes our parents just wanted to have fun with our names. And unfortunately, the nickname stuck. That's why in the Philippines, you'll see people using adjectives as nicknames like "Pretty" or "Happy". My husband has cousins named "Tiny" and "Jumbo". Long story about how they got it. And no, those nicknames didn't fit anymore. Sometimes, nicknames are used to honor family members. Like if you're named after your paternal grandfather, your nickname would be from your maternal grandfather. In my case, my dad wanted boys but he got girls instead. So he gave us boys' names for nicknames. That's the short version of that story. The whole story is going to need a separate email. If you have the time, ask your OFS what their nickname is and how they got it. There's going to be a good story behind it.---------- She left out a couple of others nicknames our team has:Twinkle (Charlyne)Nino (Paolo)Jamie (Julia) There are a lot of other cultural things I talk about in my book:The Outsourcing LeverWhich is free if you'll pay the shipping cost. John |
I remember the first time someone ever called me "Sir". "Sir, Here's what I worked on today1. ...2. ...3. ... Thanks and God bless you, Joven" It was the first daily report I ever got from someone in the Philippines. I remember my stomach turning over. ; I was 27. I had never been called anything but John. I was shocked. I immediately started an email back that said "Please don't call me Sir. ;Call me..." But I didn't send it. I thought about it for a bit, and realized that if this is what they want to call me, that's fine. ;I'm glad I didn't send it. ;I've been called "Sir" every day of my life since. In the Philippines it's a sign of respect or courtesy, not a sign of subservience. When I took my family to the Philippines in 2010 I learned a new term. They called my wife "Sir Ma'am". I don't know why. I don't know the story behind it. I don't know why they don't just use "Ma'am", but I know I've had a number of female employers email me and tell me they call her Sir or Sir Ma'am and they generally don't like it. It's part of their culture. Over time some of your OFS may change and call you by your first name. ;Some of mine do. ;But Joven, my first ever hire (in 2005), still calls me Sir. John Here's the earliest one I can find, from April 2006 |
My family went to Glacier National Park a few weeks ago. Glacier is amazing. We rode our bikes on the "Going To The Sun" road. The road is closed to cars so it's just bicycles until they can clear all the snow off. In the late spring the snow is melting like crazy and there are waterfalls all over the place. ;Waterfalls that are full on rivers flowing onto or under the road.; Even in June there are still walls of snow 20 feet high on the side of the road. To get there, it's a 10 hour drive. We spent 3 days there, then 2 hours to Missoula Montana for a bike race. 2 days there. Then 8 hours back home. 6 days away from work and I didn't tell anyone on my team I was leaving.;And I didn't bring a laptop (I never do anymore). Not one person on my team knew I was going to be gone for 6 days, and nothing changed in my business. ; Customer support still got done.The OnlineJobs.ph software was improved.New jobseeker profiles were approved or rejected.Social media posts were made.Ads were created and posted.Leads were generated and followed up with. Nothing changed while I was gone. ;Everyone still did their work. People are always shocked to hear I could leave my business for a week, not tell anyone I'm leaving, and have things run smoothly. Now, I'm not saying your business can do this. ;Maybe your business depends on you.;But I'm saying I've never seen a business that couldn't benefit from a little human automation to free up the owners time. Whatever help you need, you can find a Specialist who will work Online from the Philippines (OFS = Online Filipino Specialist). Head to OnlineJobs.ph and search for the skill you need. It's free. You can post a job free. You can see job applications free. ;You just can't see contact info until you pay. John PS. I rarely tell people I'm leaving. It never affects my business. Although...I probably should just to be courteous. |
My family loves to ride our bikes. We do it daily for exercise and also to hang out and spend time together.; A while back, my daughter, Addie, and I were riding our bikes as usual and came to an area with a broken trail. I went ahead to cross that section but saw my daughter getting off her bike ready to walk it off in fear she couldn't make it through on her bike. I didn't mind that, but I also knew that if she doesn't do it now, she'll just get off her bike and walk every single time she's in the same situation. I nudged her with some encouragement. She also knows that I won't push her to do anything that I know she couldn't do. And more importantly, that I was there for her when she does it. That made her get back on her bike to try... failing and crashing, only to get back up, crashing, and trying again. She crashed at least 4 times, but that didn't stop her. And she managed to ride through. It was a feat. It was a good day. Thinking about it now, I realized that this may be a common scenario for some employers with their OFS. When the OFS encounter a problem, there are instances where they either stop trying (and disappear) or they take the easy way like asking us what exactly they should do next. And that's not a bad thing.; But I don't want my VAs to stop trying, let alone not try at all. No employer wants that. But it's also our job as the employer to be the support system for them when they're stuck. You want to trust them just as much as they trust you to maintain a relationship. And when you do that, they become more loyal and go beyond expectations.; All my current OFS know that they have access to me when they really need support. I look at their daily reports. I don't always respond, but I often do. I provide feedback on their work. I nudge them to do better and try new things. If you want my help finding an OFS, look at www.OneVAAway.com John |
Yesterday was the 4th of July, which in the US is Independence Day. It's the day we celebrate our freedom.; But this isn't about "our freedom", it's about their freedom. ; I often talk about how hiring OFS has given me freedom.;Financial freedom.Time freedom. I don't talk enough about how you hiring an OFS gives them freedom too. Freedom from 2 hour commutes.Freedom from needing to go overseas to support their family.Freedom to raise their own kids.Freedom to travel. Elijah works for us. ;He's my Online Filipino Video Editor Specialist. He created this video about the freedom online work has given him. With OFS, you don't just change your life. You change theirs.And their kids lives.And their parents lives. John |
Last week I told you about Elijah who dubbed himself the "Hip, new, young" OFS. Today I want to tell you a different kind of story.; Meet Danny. He struggled with life.; Finding a job through OnlineJobs.ph changed everything for him. He doesn't work for us, but he came to us wanting to tell his story in hopes that he might help another fellow Filipino find hope with OnlineJobs.ph. He's now helping others find jobs through OnlineJobs.ph At 1:55 of the video you find out how hiring OFS really makes a difference. John |
When I hired my first OFS I knew exactly what I wanted them to do. Write and post articles. That was it. I didn't know there were other things I could get them to do and I didn't really have other ideas. ;I had no idea that 16 years later I'd think there's almost nothing I can't have them do for me. Here are my "off the top of my head" thoughts: And here's a list of ideas which we have search results for: Virtual Assistant ;;Data Entry Specialist ;Project Manager ;;Researcher ; ;Appointment Setter ;;Excel Expert ;;Recruitment Assistant ;;Personal Assistant ;;Web Developers ;;Web Design ;;WordPress Developer ;;Joomla Developer ;;HTML / CSS Expert;Optimizepress Developer ;;Webmaster ; ;SEO – Search Engine OptimizationSales Representative ;;Marketing Specialist ;;Social Media Marketing ;Facebook Marketing ;;Lead Generation ;;Google Adwords ;;PPC Expert ;;Affiliate Marketing ;;Email Marketing ;;Instagram Marketing ;;ClickFunnels Expert ;;Internet Marketing ;;Craigslist Expert ;;YouTube Marketer ;;CPA Marketing Experts ;Link Building Specialist ;Private Blog Network ;Digital Marketing ;;Online Marketing ;;LinkedIn Marketing ;;Graphic Design ;;Video Editor ;;Photoshop Expert ;;Illustrator ; ;Graphic Artist ;;Animation Specialist ;;Multimedia Artist ;;UI / UX Designer;Autocad Expert ;;Adobe Indesign Expert ;Real Estate Virtual Assistant;English Teacher ;;Spanish Language Expert ;Architect ; ;Shopify Developer ;;Infusionsoft Specialist ;;Ecommerce Expert ;;Amazon Expert ;;Ebay Listing ;;Woocommerce Expert ;;Customer Service ;;Call Center Agent ;Customer Support ;;Accountant ; ;Quickbooks Expert ;;Bookkeeper ; ;Xero Expert ;;Project Manager ;; Hiring the right person isn't hard and doesn't take a lot of time when you follow my hiring process:https://OneVAAway.com John |
I spent this weekend with my brothers and their sons.; One of my brothers has an 11yr old son who is notorious for doing funny stuff without meaning to. My brother says "Things I never thought I'd have to say" "Josh, why would you stick your head in the toilet!?!?""Josh, why would you touch your own poo!?!?" He regularly calls my 18yr old son and says "Sup Bro?"He disagrees with his dad and says to me "Parents! Am I right?" Today I got a question about taxes with OFS. "Death and Taxes. Am I right?" Here's the thing about taxes. The OFS you hire is an independent contractor. Every country has their own laws about what an independent contractor is, and I've never seen anything that would put an OFS in any category except an independent contractor.; And, since they're not in your country you don't have to give either government a notice of how much you paid them.; Here's our full treatment of taxes with online Filipino specialists. Should your OFS pay taxes on their earnings? ;Yes.; I don't know how you would make sure of it any more than you make sure an independent contractor in your country is paying taxes. ; But, you can send them our full tutorial on how OFS deal with taxes in the Philippines. John |
It's always interesting to me to see what Julia writes about for my newsletter. I rarely give her a topic. ;I just ask that she does it once a week. ; I had no idea she's using a learning journal. ;It's an interesting idea. From Julia, my OFS:--------------A daily report is something you should require when you hire an online Filipino worker. Being able to see what they've done day after day makes it easier to keep track of their productivity and progress. But what if you just hired your Filipino worker and they're still undergoing training? How would you know if they're really going through the training resources you've given them? Do they understand it? How would you know if they're stuck?; I recommend that you have your OFS send you their learning journal as part of their report. What's a learning journal? A learning journal is a diary where you write down your thoughts about what you've learned for the day and how you feel about it. It's a studying hack some teachers use to help their students engage with subjects better. I have a simplified version of it with my daughter for her summer classes.; She shows me her journal at the end of the day. She tells me what she's learned in her summer classes and her feelings about what she's learned. And to motivate her, I give her a sticker for doing well. This is how I make mine. I take notes on what I'm learning. I highlight the questions I have about a topic and I research the answer until I get it. I prefer handwriting my learning journal but to make it easier for them to submit it through email, making a doc file might be better. This is also going to help your OFS because it forces them to think about what they've learned. They're not just watching a video or following examples. Asking them what they're feeling about what they're learned and how much of it they understand makes the learning process more active.;------------- I think I'll try it with my team. ; John |
After I sent Julias message yesterday, I decided I'd implement it.; Here's how. I posted the following message in our Basecamp Message Board-------------------- @Julia ;made an interesting suggestion yesterday as she wrote an email for my newsletter. She suggested using a learning journal as part of a daily report.Here's part of what she wrote:----A learning journal is a diary where you write down your thoughts about what you've learned for the day and how you feel about it. It's a studying hack some teachers use to help their students engage with subjects better.This is how I make mine. I take notes on what I'm learning. I highlight the questions I have about a topic and I research the answer until I get it. I prefer handwriting my learning journal but to make it easier for them to submit it through email, making a doc file might be better.This is also going to help your OFS because it forces them to think about what they've learned. They're not just watching a video or following examples. Asking them what they're feeling about what they're learned and how much of it they understand makes the learning process more active.;----- I like this for 2 reasons:1. Thinking about what you learned throughout the day is a good brain exercise. You guys know I've struggled with my brain. Remembering what I did is tough. Journaling has been something I've done to help. 2. I would love to know what you're learning. I don't care if it's about work or hobbies or kids or school or...;Me knowing what you're learning would be good for me to know you better, and good for me to be able to help you grow in your career. I don't think you all need to start a learning journal. ;I also don't think you need to include something every day about what you learned. ;But, I'd love to have "What I learned today" be a part of your daily reports sometimes. It would be great for me to know if you're studying something for work, or if you're learning about cars, or if you learned a new skill in badminton... I'll start it with me right now.;This morning I learned that saying "I like that dress!" to my wife is a lot better for me than saying (snarkily) "What are you wearing?" ;Now it's just a matter of implementing this in future conversations...------------------ I don't know if this will work or not...but I'm trying it. John PS. I have a lot more suggestions for things like this in The Outsourcing Lever. Including the 3 questions I ask my people to answer in their daily reports. |
I get emailed almost every day by people telling me how they got more free time by hiring an Online Filipino Specialist 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've tried!!! One notable email and success story I remember clearly. Starting a business is difficult. Running a successful agency that runs the social media for Nike, Rosetta Stone, and the Golden State Warriors (among a bunch of others) doesn't happen overnight and isn't easy. Dennis Yu has had a lot of successes. His process for finding and hiring through OnlineJobs.ph is one of them.It includes;# Did they include the correct keyword in the subject line?# Did they include a one minute video?# How good is their English?# How strong is their portfolio and profile?# Do they have a cheerful, positive personality? Read Dennis' full post >; Getting an OFS (or lots of OFS/VAs) to help you with your business will make your schedule more flexible, give you extra hours to spend with your family, and lets you focus on the more important things.; I'd like to help you make that time for yourself.;https://OneVAAway.com John |
From Julia Yesterday, I was chatting with one of my VA friends. She casually mentioned that she just received her salary from her employer. That salary was already 3 WEEKS late. That means in a week, she'll be invoicing her boss for the next month's salary. She's been working with that guy for several years now. She's lucky she's not the sole breadwinner. And she was making enough that she had a bit saved up. She doesn't have to worry whenever her salary came late. But because her boss has this habit of paying late, the turnover in that business is really bad. He's always hiring someone new every few months to replace someone. Even though he gives all his employees a generous salary, the inconsistency has driven a lot of them away. I even know one of her former co-workers who now works for a smaller company. They don't pay her as much but at least they always pay her on time. This was one of the biggest fears I had before I started working online. I don't mind making less than what I was making working in an office. I just wanted to make sure I made enough to cover my expenses and that I'd be able to pay everything on time. I can't delay buying groceries for my family. I can't work if I can't pay for electricity, internet, water or rent. That's why a lot of VAs are demotivated when their salaries are late. It's hard to focus on work when: * you have to worry about stretching out the food that's left in the refrigerator, or * thinking about where you can borrow money quickly to pay for tuition, or * worrying whether you have extra money hidden somewhere to cover for your maintenance meds. And the thing about us Filipinos is that we won't complain. We'll tolerate it as much as we can. We don't want to seem like we're complaining too much because we're worried it might cost us our jobs. If attention to details like this isn't your thing I suggest you set a date on which you pay people. If payday is the 1st, on the 30th of each month set a reminder on your calendar and do it right then. John |
In building an online business there are 2 kinds of people who are going to struggle: "I don't really know what to sell and I'm not sure what to have my OFS do" Yeah…if you don't know what to have someone do, you probably shouldn't be hiring an OFS. ;They're not going to run your business for you unless you know what you're doing first. "John, I have the best idea for a product…listen to this…" Stop. I don't care. I don't care what your product is until you show me how you're going to sell it. Because selling is the only thing that matters. My second best advice for someone hoping to start a business is to sell the product first. ;Then create the product. Once you've proven that it will sell (the hard part), you can do the fun work of creating the product (the easy part). Here's a couple examples of how we've done this over the years. Set up a simple website describing what you have to offer.Run google ads to it (or FB ads).When someone checks out ask for their name/email to start the checkout process.Once they've entered their name/email, on the next page tell them;"Sorry, the product isn't quite ready yet, we're still working on it. For being early we'll give you a discount when it comes out. ;BTW, what's your biggest question about this?" You prove people are willing to buy.You get instant customers when the product is done.You get your sales info given to you as they tell you their questions. Find your product and create a listing on the marketplace where you will sell (FB, craigslist…). If you get interest, it will sell. Go source the product.We've found this second method super effective with classifieds.; Obviously these aren't the only path to success…but I see so many people fail at the selling part. Most people are willing to find the product. Most are unwilling to do the hard work of selling. John PS. An OFS won't do the hard work of selling it for you.;PPS. Where do you see this 'sell first, build next' principle in action? ;Kickstarter! |
I love when people share their processes with me. Getting a different perspective on how others manage OFS is so helpful. Maximilian F. sent this to me a few weeks ago about how they handle pay raises.Its different than how we do it, but works well for them. -------------------I thought about sharing how we do raises and why we do it this way. Goals:- Our OFS really appreciate openness, transparency and security in their work and life.- We on top like to ensure clarity on costs and a long term perspective for our OSFs within the company. - Lastly, we want to minimize competition in the group, where unfairness in pay (or the perception of it) is a major problem. Process:So we decided to decouple individual performance (which is overrated anyways) from pay. Some jobs are just more visible or impactful. That does not mean that it has less value. Instead everyone progresses every year by a published chart with payment. There are different roles that are mapped on these salaries, but everyone has clarity and security. It might be a bit boring and too predictable for very ambitious people, but works well for us. At the end of the year we evaluate the whole company performance and everyone gets their share depending on role and time-with-the-company - so we went from individual to team performance. Combined with regular retrospectives to foster efficiency and learning, this enables us to meet the goals of everyone. -------------------- John PS. Is there something you do well that you'd like to share? ;I'd love to hear it. For example...I'm gathering a list of tests employers give to workers during their recruiting. Putting them into a guide. I have some really creative ones.;Do you have tests you give when recruiting? I'd love to hear it. Just reply to this email.If I use yours in the guide I'll give you the guide free. |
From Julia:------------------Maternity leave is a long established employee benefit here in the Philippines. Lately, we've been getting questions on how this system works and how it's applied to their VAs.; How long does maternity leave in the Philippines last? Under Philippine law, women are entitled to up to 105 days of maternity leave with the option to extend that maternity leave for an additional 30 days without pay. Where is the pay going to come from? Does the employer pay for that? No. The maternity leave with pay is covered by the SSS or our social security system. Women are entitled to this maternity benefit IF they have contributed (or paid into) the system for 3 consecutive months in the past 12 months.; The amount they receive would depend on how much they contributed. We have a table here that shows how much VAs should continue to their SSS depending on their salary: https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/comprehensive-guide-to-virtual-assistant-salaries-in-the-philippines The bigger their salary, the bigger their contributions should be.; What if they're a new employee and haven't started making their contributions yet, does that mean they can't avail for this benefit? They can still get SSS maternity benefits if they pay for the 3 months worth of contributions in one go. Once they do that, they can start applying for the process of getting their maternity leave benefits. When they're done with the filing, they'd receive a check or direct bank transfer from the SSS. What else does a female employee get with their maternity leave? If the worker also paid into our socialized health care system (Philhealth), they would be entitled to the Maternity Care Package (MCP).; To avail for the MCP, they need to:- pay into Philhealth for at least 9 months straight within a 12 month period AND;- give birth in a Philhealth accredited hospital (most hospitals in the Philippines are).; The MCP would cover the costs of standard natural or C-section birth procedures and up to 45 days hospital confinement.; What if the employee hasn't may 9 contributions yet? Are they still entitled to the Philhealth benefit? Like the SSS, they can choose to pay all 9 contributions in one go. But it's strongly encouraged that women start contributing to the fund as soon as they find out they're pregnant to make the payments easier. What about paternity leave? Is that a thing in the Philippines? Yes, it is. Men are entitled to 7 days paternity leave. Women can opt to allocate 7 days of their maternity leave to their partners, giving men up to 14 days leave. How to file for maternity leave? The SSS and Philhealth recommend that women start processing their maternity leave paperwork 30 days before their expected due dates to avoid delays in receiving their benefits.; For the most part, all they need to do here is to:- update their SSS and Philhealth records to show that they have paid their contributions- start filing up the SSS and Philhealth paper to apply for these benefits- for Philhealth medical benefits, make sure that the hospital and their doctors are Philhealth accredited.;------------------- Here's what usually happens (in my experience)- You worker will tell you they're about to have a baby, so they'll need some time off- They'll estimate how much time off they'll need. ;It's unlikely to be 3 months.- They'll try to come back to work asap for 2 reasons:; 1. they want to double dip. They get paid by the government for maternity leave, and they get paid by you for working.; 2. They care about you and your business. They care about their job. They want to make you happy. John |
Covid is super polarizing...I get it. Volunteering and helping is not. Here's what Julia says:---------------The good thing about working at home, unlike other workers, we've been able to minimize our exposure to the virus. We still have to go out from time to time for our necessities. But compared to most, we've been lucky that we can forgo going out as much as we could. Despite that, we still know that there's a risk. Which is why my husband and I volunteered to be part of our city government's vaccination drive.; We could have opted not to volunteer and continued our hermit lifestyle. But recognizing our privilege, we know volunteering was the least we could do. It's one more thing we could do to end the pandemic. Because we volunteered, we also got vaccinated earlier than most people working from home. What most people don't know is you don't need to be in the medical field to help with the vaccination drive. We were able to use the skills we have as virtual assistants in the admin, logistics and organizational tasks needed to undertake a huge project like this. We were able to vaccinate around 1,500 people in 3 days. And if everything goes well, if the vaccine supplies keep coming in, we expect to vaccinate more people. --------------- Where I live (in Utah), it feels like life is back to normal.I was in Colorado this weekend and it felt like life was pretty normal too. But the Philippines isn't there yet.;Ask your OFS what restrictions they still have. John PS. This is my daughter after crashing hard in her national championship race last week in Colorado. Still has a smile. |
I just spent the last 6 weeks on vacation. Yes. 6 weeks in a row on 6 different vacations back to back. 1. Glacier national parkHome for 1 day2. Camping with my brothers in St George.Home for a few days3. Boating at Lake PowellHome for 2 days4. Rafting the Colorado river helping at "Girls Camp"Home for 2 days5. Boat at Lake PowellHome for half a day6. Mountain bike national championships in Colorado Here's our 2nd Lake Powell group: Families, left to right: Jonas, Jolley, Goggins, Brunson I have 2 weeks at home then more trips. This is what we do during the summer. There are lots of reasons to run an online business. ;Time freedom is one of them. It's the same with OFS. There are lots of reasons why people in the Philippines get online jobs.- Time freedom- Pregnancy- Health;- Loss of another job- ... For Gabby, it was pregnancy. Here's her story. ;It shows some of how things work in the Philippines. https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/finding-happiness-big-changes-gabby-found-security-onlinejobs-ph John PS. Does your OFS have a story they'd like to share? ;Let me know. |
Tropical Storm Fabian entered the Philippines yesterday. The storm intensified as it entered the Philippines…there was little warning. I got this warning late, so this email is a little late to let you know. Winds were expected to uproot trees, but not tear down buildings. ;50-60mph (85kph) winds. It doesn't have a lot of moisture, so hopefully no flooding. It's supposed to be leaving the Philippines late today. Ask your OFS if they're ok. John |
I have 5 kids ages 7-18. ;They're very social kids. ;They have friends at my house every. single. day. I make a lot of small talk with them. It's not super easy to do small talk with 7 year olds...except for one of my 7 yr olds friends. ;James. ;That kid LOVES to talk.; What about small talk in interviews? While I personally do not do live interviews there are plenty of people who do. If you're going to do it, here are some suggestions from Jam, an OFS who used to train call center agents. In the addition to the usual interview questions like:- what are your plans in 5 years, or- what are your strengths and weaknesses Jam recommends that you start and end the interview with a bit of small talk. Ask about the shows they like to watch or what their neighborhood is like. He writes:------------Small talk during an interview does the following:- It puts the person you're interviewing at ease, inviting candor and encouraging them to give more honest answers- These are questions they don't really prepare for. How they talk when answering these questions are closer to what your customers would likely hear when they're answering calls.- Even if you have training materials and standard scripts ready, it's important that your customer service VA would know how to react when things go off script.;------------ I've usually found that it wasn't a "tell me about your skills" type of question that makes the difference when interviewing.; There's way more to hiring than skills. John PS. My hiring process includes 6 specifics to look for when interviewing OFS: OneVAAway.comWhy would you not use it when it has a 100% money back guarantee? ;Find someone great or I give your $49 back. |
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