https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka2cImM59SA The gist is, yes, they can work on your timezone. But make sure that's the expectation when you hire. And, you'll probably find it easier if you hire someone who is already working the night shift. Of course, if you're in Australia, none of this matters. John
+One of my OFS, Kiel (
the one who visited me in 2019), emailed me this morning asking to take the week off. His mother died. Our answer to that is, "Of course! Take as much time off as you want." I gave him paid leave so he can focus on grieving and settle whatever needs to be settled. He can come back whenever he’s ready. I know you guys might think it’s too generous. But I’m not worried. I trust Kiel because: He has worked for me for YEARS. In fact, he’s one of the first people I hired.He has NEVER taken advantage of our generous leave policyWhen his mom was in the hospital, he sent me a photo to let me know what was happening.
He’s going through a lot right now. The least I can do is to give him the support he needs. This is normal. Bad things happen. What’s not normal is when an OFS completely disappears after a family emergency. So, years ago I recruited someone and I emailed her her first task. She had her sister reply to me and say, “I’m sorry she can’t work. Our mom died. So she won’t be able to work for you.” And I was like, “No, I’ll just wait. You can go take care of your mom. That’s fine. I’ll just wait,” And the sister replied and said, “No, sorry sir. She’s not going to be able to work for you at all.” And I was like, that���s super duper weird.; I was frustrated because I spent the time recruiting and I thought I found a good person.; And I don’t know what happened. But I’ve seen this happen a number of times where someone has an emergency right after the job begins. I started to think that maybe they feel like they’re not qualified for the job after all. It wasn’t what they thought. So they made up an excuse for why they’re going to quit. In that case, in the beginning of a work relationship, if you feel that you recruited well, try and keep the person. But if the family emergency happens right at the beginning of the relationship, they might be using it as an excuse to get out of what they just agreed to. Maybe they found out that the job wasn’t what they thought it was. ; Consider this a blessing that you haven't gone months down the road with someone who then realizes and disappears. John
+As we gathered for Sunday dinner the other night, everybody in the family was there. This is my wife's extended family. And there are like, 20 grandkids from 6 kids, all of whom are married. The dinner was partly to celebrate my son, Austin, going away to college, which is a BIG change. It’s a change for everyone because he’s the first of the grandkids to move away and move to college. He’s the oldest grandkid.; Change is hard. Sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it’s just different.; Anna M. emailed me about change. ;She asks:; “Do you have any tips about transitioning an hourly VA to salary?” And then she continues: “I have never paid salary before. I’m not sure what the expectations are. What is included? What are the extras? For example, are holidays included? What about vacation time? What happens if she asks for a few extra days off. How do you manage productivity without knowing the hours as measurement?” Here’s my answer to this. The reality is nothing has to change except you’re going to pay her the same amount every month from now on regardless of what happens.; Are holidays included? Yes, holidays are now included. Vacation time? Well, you can give a specific number of vacation days per year. Or you can do what we do and just say, “You can take whatever days off you want, just let me know ahead of time.” I’ve never had someone take advantage of this.; What if she asks for a few extra days off? Then, fine. Good for you for making her life better. Measuring productivity without the number of hours as a measurement? Doesn’t seem to be an issue for me. You can usually tell just by the daily report. Like, what’s going on in the report. Has their productivity dropped? Has it increased? Has it changed? You should be able to tell just from what’s going on in your business without needing to say exactly how many hours were worked.; You don’t have to do any tax changes for this. You don’t have to include insurance or SSS or anything like that. They are options but you don’t have to add anything else.; Most (but not all) Filipino workers will prefer a fixed salary over an hourly wage. John
+This week I needed to make some changes in my business for a number of reasons:; We need better content editing.;The OFS doing my social media is getting burned out with social media.;I need help writing this newsletter.; So I turned to one of my most trusted OFS, Julia, to help me define the roles that we need. Actually, I turned to her because she’s involved in all these things. And she has helped me come up with some ideas. So here’s what happened. She said promoting from within would be a good idea, for the social media role . We already have someone working on social media. We can promote them and give them more responsibility. That takes some responsibility off of her (Julia).She (Julia) really prefers to write and edit. So she can not do social media. She can help write the newsletter and help edit the content. So, before I go changing people’s responsibilities, I thought it would be good to define some roles.; Content manager: Writing newslettersWriting blog postsUpdating old blog postsEditing social mediaPlans and creates a schedule for releasing the blog posts Social media manager: Planning social media posts in advancedPosting and scheduling postsCreates social media engagement guidelinesMonitors the analytics Content creators Writes the captions for social mediaWrites the updates for old blog postsMakes the videos and imagesResponds to comments and DMs on social media Content Editor Edits the newsletters and blog postsGives feedback to the content creators I don't think it's necessary for you to define roles for your OFS. ;I didn't for a long time and it has worked out just fine. Don't stress about this. Have you defined any roles for your OFS? What role titles do you have? John
+We’re trying to build an exterior detached garage right now. We met with a designer today and he said, “Well, what do you want with this?” “Well, we want this much space. We want *this thing*. We want *this thing*.” And he said, “Well, what are your needs here?” I said, “Well, I don’t NEED any of this. I don’t need this particular thing in it. I don't NEED the garage at all. I don’t know. Life changes. “ And he said “NEED. Isn’t that a funny word? What do we need?" So I got an email the other day from Jared H. who gave me a bunch of questions that he asks when determining salary for a potential team member that involves their "need". -----What's the bare minimum you need to survive and pay the bills each month?;Most people don't want to be in survival mode and want to have some extra for doing fun things and going out to eat and such, what is that number for you each month?;Do you own a house or rent? Do you travel? What kind of hobbies do you have and do you feel like you are able to spend money on those hobbies?------ Might be interesting to look at asking your OFS what they need each month and what they want each month towards determining salary. This applies to current and future hires. Let me know what answers you come up with. John
+We have chickens at my house for 3 reasons:1. I like the eggs they produce. Definitely not cheaper than store bought, but much higher quality.2. I like the feeling of producing something at home.3. I like that it gives my kids a responsibility.
At first it was hard for us. ;Having the kids take care of them was painful because they were bad at it. When I realized how bad they were at it, I did some research on my own, figured some things out, then I taught them how to better care for them. Now it's super easy. Every day kids go out and eggs come in. When you have;effective training, the limits to what your OFS can do are pretty small.; Nina H. sent me this email where she talks about all the different things her OFS does for her business. She does research for my content and does almost all of my graphics now, she does proofreading and transcription for my contracts (policies and procedures and other documents). She is now doing social media content and posting. She helps me with my schedule, she develops articles and makes slide decks for all of my presentations and courses. She created my entire course workbook and did an absolutely stunning job that required minimal revisions. She has been helping me revamp my website and course cards. She can do anything by providing her with a short how-to/training video.; And there's the key to Nina's "magic" OFS. ; Training. When her OFS was just starting out, she could only do a couple of things. But with the training Nina provided, she's now a rockstar.; With video, it's easier to explain complicated tasks. There's no room for confusion because you're showing them exactly how you want things done. Sending a video is just as easy as sending an email. I use
Snagit. John PS. Figuring out Snagit;is what changed my ability to manage 5 people into being able to manage 20 people.;
+From my OFS, Julia. Close family ties are a good thing. But it has caused us problems in some cases. In the Philippines, family takes precedence over everything. The family has influence over every important life decision. Even deeply personal decisions. Deciding what course to take in college, for example. That should be a personal decision. But not in the Philippines. The entire family has a say on this. You’re lucky if what the family wants and what you want match. Or your family understands your decision.;But if they don’t and you insist on taking the course you want, they’re going to talk about it for YEARS.; Your parents aren’t happy with the fact that your boss can’t extend your time off? It’s easier to just quit your job and give in to familial pressure. At least when you quit, your boss stops contacting you. Your parents are never going to let you forget about that ONE TIME you put your job over your family. Online Filipino workers have it worse because the older generation still can’t wrap their heads around the idea that you can have a real job working from home.; Let me give you an example. I have a neighbor who’s a single parent (husband works abroad) juggling 2 full-time jobs. She’s the designated caregiver for her sick mother-in-law. She’s also responsible for running all the errands related to her in-law's medical needs. On top of running errands for her own parents who can't go out due to the pandemic. Doesn’t matter that she’s juggling 2 full-time jobs and she’s also taking care of her son. Doesn't matter that she has siblings and siblings-in-law who can share in the responsibilities. Working from home isn’t “real” work. Her siblings and in-laws work;in an office. They have 'real jobs'.; If she has time to stay at home, she can take on one more responsibility. And another one. And another.; That's why some of us just quit. At some it point, it's just too much work.; I agree, it is;frustrating to have an OFS quit because their grandmother/cousin/uncle got sick and they have to take care of them. It doesn’t make sense. Why should we shoulder that responsibility? We have jobs too and they're just as important. Because in the eyes of the family, we’re the ones who can. We work from home so we can afford to take one one more responsibility. It's easier to just give in. Be nice to your people.; Diego emailed me this week and said;"I have been too hard on my VAs for too many years and it has backfired on me." Cut them some slack. John
+Jon D. emailed me this question. I've noticed many Filipinos are at about 90-95% with their grammar, which is usually great.The customers of one of my businesses can be a bit ... jingoistic (they tend to be older and more conservative). I'm wondering if you have any recommendations for helping your team to improve their grammar or sound "more American"? My answer to that was: You're right, most are 90-95%. I have a couple thoughts. 1. I've seen multiple people who work for me improve their grammar over the years. They weren't perfect. Now they are. I'm not sure what happened. 2. I've hired a number of people over the years with perfect English. ;100%. ;If you recruit well and are careful with it, it's not that hard to find these people. I asked my OFS’ how they improved their grammar over the years. They all gave me the same answer: assimilation. I send them a lot of training videos and emails. They all got used to the way I write and the way I talk. That influenced their grammar. Another OFS added that having a comfortable salary also helped. She subscribes to Netflix and Amazon which gives her access to so many American TV shows and movies. She also reads a lot of books written by American authors. Last but not least, I think feedback also helps. I tell my writers when I notice their phrasing is a bit off. It doesn’t sound weird to them so I have to point it out so they know what to avoid. Things like - "Fill up the form" - we say "Fill OUT the form"- "You can avail of this..." - we say "You can take advantage of this..." or "you can get this..." I finally just said "don't use the word 'avail'. It's technically correct, but we just don't use it." Small corrections like these can go a long ways toward helping them sound more like you. Do you have tips or things you've done to help your OFS improve? ;Please reply. John
+I got an email the other day from an expat in the Philippines who had a conversation on a forum about personal trainers. Someone is asking about how to find a personal trainer but she’s moving. And someone else suggests that she find a virtual personal trainer at Onlinejobs.ph. And he seconds, “Find them at Onlinejobs.ph”.;
He sends it to me and I didn’t know what kind of trainer they were talking about.; “Is it a language trainer? A marketing trainer or what? “ “No. Like a personal fitness trainer.” So people are hiring on Onlinejobs.ph a personal fitness coach in the Philippines.; It’s amazing the variety of talent you can find, especially in this new, virtual, quarantine, socially distanced world. Is there something you need help with in your business but thought you couldn't find that before? Or, something in your personal life that you need help with? Just look at OnlineJobs.ph and see if you can find someone who can help. John
+So everyday, it's the same thing with my kids. They get home and I ask, “How was school today?”. And they say, “Good.” So instead of asking, “How was school today?” I started asking them, “What did you do at recess today?”.; Or, “Who did you eat lunch with?”; “What funny thing happened at school today?” I just want a daily report from them of what’s going on. And mostly, I just want to interact with them.; With my people in the Philippines, it’s not that different. I want a daily report to know what they’re working on.I want to know what's going on in the business and what got done and what didn't. ; But also, I just want an excuse to interact with them. A reason for them to tell me what they’re doing so that I can give feedback and provide direction.; So, here’s what daily reports look like. I ask people to answer 3 questions:- What did you work on today- What problems did you run into?- What can I help you with? Some reports are super simple. Some are long. ;Depends on the person and the type of work they're doing.
I rarely get answers to all 3 questions. ;Usually, I just get "What did you work on today." But, occasionally I do get problems they ran into. Often they'll also propose a solution. And then, because they know those are the questions, every once in a while people come to me with what I can help them with.; To me, the daily report keeps the working relationship working.; What questions do you ask your OFS in their daily reports?; John
+Growing up in Southern California, we always bought our pumpkins in the grocery store because it was cheaper. But we always wanted to go to a pumpkin patch cuz it was super cool. At least, we thought it was super cool.; Well, my wife just told me she’s on her way to a pumpkin patch right now which has a whole bunch of unique, specialty pumpkins. I laughed at it because she’s really just looking for pumpkins that have warts on them and are really, really ugly.;
One of the things about the Philippines is it’s a different experience than elsewhere but without the ugly. Filipinos are super duper loyal which is different from anywhere else that I’ve ever seen right now. Especially in Western countries where loyalty towards an employer has completely gone out the window.; It used to be you would get a job and you work there for 40, 50 years and retire and they’d pay you a pension. Now, the average person stays in their job for like 2-3 years and they move on to something else. There’s no loyalty left.; Yet in the Philippines, that loyalty still exists and it’s really amazing. Like the first person I ever hired in 2005, Joven, still works for me today. And Julia who I hired in 2011 still works for me today. It’s super common that if you give people a job, as long as you’re willing to treat them well and employ them, they’ll work for you for a really long time. Which is really, really nice for a small business owner. It means you don’t have to get every single standard operating procedure right the first time because they’re still going to work for you. They’re going to work for you for a very long time and you can teach them. Fix mistakes and correct. And that loyalty will pay off over and over again.; And that’s one of the reasons we stick with the Philippines. ; ; ; ; John PS. Want to know more cultural reasons we hire in the Philippines rather than elsewhere? Check out my book at
www.OutsourcingLever.com
+When my daughter first started learning to solve the 3 x 3 Rubik's cube, she asked a lot of questions and watched a lot of YouTube videos. It took her 2 weeks to figure things out. It frustrated her that it took so much time to understand how it worked. Fast forward several months later, her 6 x 6 cube finally arrived over the weekend. This time, she solved the cube in less than 30 minutes. When I asked how she managed to do it so quickly, she responded, “it’s just like the 3 x 3, with a bit more.”
That’s the same explanation she gave me when she learned how to solve her 4 x 4 and 5 x 5.;
And when I got her the 2 x 2 and the pyramid, her explanation was “it’s like the 3 x 3, only a little different”.
My daughter didn’t automatically learn how to solve these puzzles as soon as she learned how to solve the 3 x 3. It took a lot of work and a lot of practice. She learned to solve all of them because she focused on the puzzle she had first before she asked for something more challenging.
This is why teaching and training your OFS one task at a time works. When they’ve mastered a task, it’s easier to see how one task relates to another. You’re building on something you already know. It’s easier to learn something when you’re confident about the skills that you already have. And yeah, I already ordered the gear cube. It’s like a Rubik's cube but you also have to line up the gears and not just the colors. Let’s see how long it’s going to take her to solve that one! John PS. This email was written by my OFS (all except this PS part...which I'm adding after). She came up with the concept, wrote it, added the photos, and the teaching part.;If you're questioning whether you can hire good talent or not, go look again on OnlineJobs.ph.;
+Charlie P sent me an email asking what an OFS can use if they can’t access certain sites or tools because of their IP addresses. Years ago I used to love solving problems like this. I'd research it, try things myself, then have my OFS try things. ;I loved solving technical problems. But the further along I got in my business the more I valued my time.; Technical research takes time. And mental energy.;I want to spend that time and energy with my family. So now, I ask;2 of my OFS, Jam and Dhec, for their opinions. They’re the guys who solve technical issues for me. Julia gathered their answers below It can easily be resolved using 2 things.; VPNWith a good VPN, your OFS can mask their IP to show that they are accessing online tools from your country, or sometimes, even your state! This is also the same way some people are able to watch Netflix shows not meant to be shown in their own country.;While many tools can work with VPNs, there are some who are able to detect VPNs and will block any attempts by your OFS to use them. For this, another way employers were able to resolve this is using a Remote Desktop connection.;Remote Connection Tool/Remote Desktop.;The simplest setup for this is to have a second computer in your location set to receive a remote desktop request. The OFS will then connect to that computer and use that computer as if it is their own. Since that computer is already in your location using your own internet connection, this allows the OFS to navigate and use the tools without issues.;;Another advantage of this is even if your OFS loses connection, the remote desktop will still have most of the tools available once they reconnect.;Remote desktop also has the advantage for employers with Static IP connections to have their OFS use the remote desktop with the static IP address. This is useful for tools that require IP address registration for access.;A remote desktop can also be done with an on-site server or using a cloud server (https://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/) if you have the infrastructure or budget for it. The good thing about this set up is the security. It can also be cost effective if you have a lot of processes that you need to run online. However, if your or your OFS internet connection is bad, you will experience lag or have repeated disconnections.;;;If you have other solutions (or questions about this), I'd love to hear them. John;;
+When I hired my first VA it was through an agency. They asked: "Do you want him to work on your timezone?" I was like, "Sure!" I didn't know any better.; A few weeks in he emailed me and said: "Sir, working at night is really affecting my health. I'm not sleeping during the day, I'm always grumpy, and I'm not productive. ;Would it be possible for me to work during the day my time?" I was like, "Of course!" When I asked for the night shift I didn't even think about how it might affect him. The company just offered it to me so I said yes. Now, I know better. ;People on my team can work whenever they want, except for the few for which we have a schedule (so that we can cover 24/7 customer service). Can you get people to work on your time zone? Yes, it is possible to get an OFS to work the night shift. In your time zone. In fact, some people prefer it!
Take Harold, he's part of our customer service team. He prefers to work at night because he's used to it and he can stay awake for his newborn through the night. Ben from our social media team also prefers to work nights so he can take care of his son early in the morning. His mother-in-law takes over the rest of the day. Drew, also from our social team, is a call center veteran. She works nights because it's cooler and her internet's faster at night . The key to finding an OFS who can work the night shift starts in the recruitment process. In the job post, you can specify that the person must have call center experience or have worked in the call center. They're used to shift work so asking them to work in your time zone would be easier. Another way to figure out if an OFS can work nights is to ask whether they're early birds or night owls in the email interview. There are a lot of Filipino workers who prefer to work nights because it's cooler, there are fewer distractions, and the internet is faster here at night. John
+A lot of Filipino workers are great at customer service. But the problem with doing customer service at home is that you'll always hear something noisy in the background. I’m talking about the unholy trio of chickens, dogs, motorcycles. These noises used to stop a lot of qualified OFS from going for customer service positions.; But now that a lot of Filipinos are working from home, noise cancelling headphones and applications have become cheaper and more accessible.; A good pair of noise cancelling headphones used to cost more than P3,000 (around $60) which is a lot for them. Now you can get a good one for half that price. And now there’s also
Krisp.ai, an active noise cancelling app that works with most online meeting and VOIP software. So if you’re looking for someone to do customer service, you now have more options for clear audio in the Philippines! John
+I spent most of last week bikepacking in Wisconsin with a couple of friends. It was amazing.;
(my bike fully loaded) Then when I came home, I just had overnight. And we immediately left for Moab, which is an amazing biking destination here in Utah. My kids had a high school mountain bike race. Which again, was amazing.;
(my 14yr old on top of the podium. Her first race win!) We got back Sunday and my wife left early this morning on a trip for herself. And after she left I was overwhelmed.; Like, she did so much work while I was gone in the house. The house looked great. But then we came home and it was like a tornado hit our house.; From unpacking from my bike trip, from the second bike trip, from the race, from taking care of all the food. It was like a tornado hit our house. The place is a disaster.; And then my wife’s gone all week. And I haven’t worked in a week.; And I’m overwhelmed. And I’m frustrated. And I yelled at my kids this morning when I shouldn’t have. *sigh* And then I sat down to work. I got through my primary email in 20 minutes after having not really been at a computer in a week and a half. I'm not sure how... And then... I realize how grateful I am for the team, the people I have in the Philippines who work for me. I read through multiple conversations where just really good things are happening. They’re communicating with each other. My email is reasonable. Things are just going really well.; I was thankful that I had built this team as I had built it. I am thankful for the talent that I have on my team, the talented people in the Philippines.; It’s not an overnight thing. It doesn’t happen quickly. It takes time. But you just have to start with one person.; And starting with one person will open the door to bringing in another person. And another person. And eventually building a team of people that will take care of things for you. So that when you’re overwhelmed, work is still going really well. ; If you're overwhelmed, try this.;Go to
www.OneVAAway.com. ;Buy it. It's $49. Take 1 hour and follow the steps to learn what to do and get your job posted. Seriously, it's not a long process.; This is the first step towards not being overwhelmed is posting your job. John
+I remember the first time I learned to write with block letters. It was the beginning of my 9th grade year. I drew my name in big block letters on the front of my notebook. Today I was reminded of that as my 9th grader drew her sister’s name on her lunch bag in block letters.
I was also reminded that my 9th grader drew in block letters when she was in 1st grade. And I felt really dumb that she figured it out in 1st grade and it took me until 9th grade.; But it was also amazing to me that she was so much better than me at something like this. Then, I thought about the first time I realized that one of my OFS was better than me at something. It was a programmer and it was very early on. I thought I was a really good programmer.I hired this guy and he was much better than me. ; And it was super cool to realize, 'I thought they were just going to be okay. And it turns out, they were actually better than me at it.' Over the years I've realized, quite a few times, that my team members are better than me at things. It may not always be the thing I hired them to do, but they’re better than me at something. Whatever that thing is, oftentimes it’s useful in my business. Sometimes it’s not.; Right now in my business I know they're better than me at- writing- social media- programming- design- all paid advertising- video/audio editing The interesting thing is, I used to be good at all of these except for design and social media.; What are your OFS better than you at? John
+This is just a different take on hiring overseas. A while back we did a
case study with Matt Leitz.
He said something interesting. Some people want to hire the lowest rate they can find. Matt doesn’t do that. In fact, Matt doesn't hire in the Philippines to save money. He hires there because the pool of talent is vast and gifted. He said: “We always look for the most expensive people on OnlineJobs.ph because it usually means they’re the most experienced.”; So far, that strategy hasn’t let him down. He’s happy with every OFS he’s hired. He adds, “I can say that it’s not only given me some of the best team members that I’ve ever had, but dear friends and I would go so far as to say practically family.” What do you think about Matt’s strategy?What's your salary strategy? John PS. I'm somewhere in between. ;Sometimes I go high, sometimes low. Depends on the position and the feeling I have for the people I'm interviewing.
+The first time I had an OFS ask me for a Certificate of Employment (COE) I was hesitant. I wasn't sure if I should give it.What liabilities would it pose for me?They're technically independent contractors, not employees.Would this put me on the hook for something? This is weird. Or...that's what I thought. The weird reason behind this is because the Philippine government and most Philippine businesses can’t wrap their head around the idea that a Filipino worker can have a stable job working online. That's just me ranting. The short answer is having a COE allows them to take out loans. Here's what my OFS says about it: Remember a few emails ago I talked about SSS and how taking an SSS loan helps Filipinos establish credit (
/what-sss-is-and-why-its-important-to-your-ofs/). Let’s say I now have enough credit to take out an even bigger loan, say a car loan. I can only take out a car loan through a bank. And in order to take out a bank loan, I need to offer proof of income. That means I have to show the bank I'm: 1. employed or 2. a business owner. Showing employment is easier. All we need to do is show payslips and a COE. But most OFS don't have that. Even if we show the banks that we have a salary that comes in regularly, it’s not considered proof of income. BUT the banks will recognize it as proof of income IF we can also present a COE. Their rationale for this is they want to make sure that the money that’s going into our account is coming from an employer and not from illegal activities. But what if we just register as a sole proprietor/independent contractor business? Won’t that make it easier to take a loan? Ironically, in order for us to register as an independent contractor, we would still need a COE. The first step of the business registration process requires us to go to our barangay (town) hall and declare ourselves as independent contractors. We have to make this declaration so we can be exempted from most business requirements like renting out an office and getting the paperwork to use that office (fire clearance, health clearance, utilities permit, garbage permit, etc). If we can show that we’re working from home, they’ll issue a certificate that we can take to the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) and our local government. This would waive most of these requirements. And to prove that we work from home, most barangays require that we show a COE. Why do we need a COE? The explanation they gave us is that a COE is proof that our online work is our primary source of income. However, in recent years, some banks and government offices have started changing their policies. Instead of asking for a COE, they’ve started accepting certificates of engagement instead. A certificate of engagement is essentially a COE, the only difference is that you’re simply acknowledging that your OFS is an independent contractor and that you’re currently using their services. This offers proof of income for the OFS without tying down the business with a legally binding document. What does a COE look like? Super simple,
download my template. John
+We recently did a case study with Drew Grimm from “The Schoolhouse Life.” He shared his experience with the disappearing VA phenomenon.
“Unfortunately, a little while ago, I had to let go of the lady who was doing the blog posts for us. All of the sudden she just kind of disappeared.” He didn’t hear from her for two months, and when he reviewed her most recent work, it was not up to standard. When she emailed Drew after two months, she told him she had “been out of town.” Maybe she “got stuck,” because she ;felt overwhelmed or confused about a project and she was too embarrassed to ask for help. <<<a VERY common cause of the disappearing VAMaybe she was dealing with a difficult family situation or death of a loved one.;Maybe she was hit hard by natural disaster and didn’t want to disclose the details. I’ve seen examples of all of the above situations that resulted in the disappearing VA. I’ve even had to work through some of them with my own VAs. The disappearing VA is the number one problem business owners face with Online Filipino Specialists. And almost 100% of the time, the root of the problem is bad communication and embarrassment on the part of your VA. With good, consistent communication, it can usually be avoided or resolved. But you have to navigate situations with patience and, as Drew puts it, a lot of “over-communication.” Drew discovered and shared a great tip that he uses to stay on top of communication with his VAs now: “I keep everything in WhatsApp because I feel like that’s an easy way to communicate internationally. And you can have that feature where you can see if they read [your messages] or not so you know [if they’re getting your] messages. Where email...can be ‘iffy.’” This kind of regular “checking-in” can keep you in-the-know with your VAs and help you spot issues before they develop into a disappearing VA disaster. Here's another piece of advice Drew shares about good communication with your OFS: “My suggestion is really vet people. How much do you want them to communicate with you? If you want it to be daily or within a reasonable amount of time, then communicate that like with someone a bunch at the beginning and see if they’re going to reciprocate that level of communication. And if they’re not, it’s not a good fit. Once they get going, [their communication] is not going to get better in my experience.”
https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/case-study-ofs-network-marketing-coaching-case-study-drew-grimm John
+For a long time, I had a 100 Mbps connection through Comcast at my house. It was good, but one day I was talking to them to try and sort out some billing issues and they suggested that I could upgrade my internet. The support person said, “It’s actually cheaper if you upgrade your internet. Your monthly bill will go down.” Yep! Do it. So, they put me at 200 Mbps and there was an instant difference. I didn't think there would be. I was surprised. After a couple of months, I decided to upgrade it again and see if I notice another difference, I called back and it was just a little more to go 400 Mbps. Like, an additional $10 from $80 a month. Yep, another noticeable speed bump. So, after another couple of months, I called them back and they said, ”Actually if you upgrade to gigabit internet and add a phone line, it gets cheaper. It goes from, $90 to $80 a month.” Do it! Internet in the Philippines is not the same as it is in the US.; Just how different is it? My OFS wrote about it a couple of months ago:
/what-internet-options-exist-in-the-philippines/ When reading through these internet prices, figure out how much their internet costs as a percentage of their salary.;Then think about how much your internet costs as a percentage of YOUR income.; It's quite different. John
+I got quite a bit of feedback about the email about how to improve OFS English. And they were really good. So good that I decided to implement one of them. One of the most popular tips you guys gave me is to use Grammarly. Some of you have mentioned that you have your guys use Grammarly for everything.; So I had my writers download it and start using it. I’m going to let you guys know how it goes and if I see any improvement. Another thing you guys suggested is italki.com. Ziv R. paid for his OFS to have one on one lessons. They cost him $13/lesson and he saw significant improvement after 3 lessons. And it turns out that my OFS has an Office 360 account. So, she installed Microsoft Editor. It works like Grammarly and comes free with her Office 360 account. She also mentioned that she also uses https://hemingwayapp.com/. She found this useful for blog writing and it’s completely free! I really appreciate the feedback. And if you guys have more tips to share, I’d love to hear them. John PS. it's fall here, and the riding is fantastic!;
(my wife on the coyote hollow trail in Heber, UT)
+Karina messaged me on my Facebook page, telling me about the amazing things her OFS (Juvy) has been working on.;
So in 2 weeks, Juvy has:- given Karina a bunch of ideas on how to manage her social media- create social media posts every day- makes videos for social media twice a week- responds to messages- created a TikTok account for her business- strategizing how they can market her affiliated links on social media. That's just 2 weeks. Imagine how much more Juvy and Karina can achieve in 2 months or 2 years. Gain your OFS trust. ;Then trust your OFS. John PS. In my book (available free at
www.OutsourcingLever.com) I talk about ways to gain your OFS trust.
+Setting up an LLC in the USA is so easy. ;Anyone can pay a lawyer $500 and have an LLC up and running in a week (including a minor or a foreign citizen or...whoever).Or you can do it yourself and pay the local state fee of $20-$100.So simple my kids have their own LLCs for businesses they run. Not so in the Philippines. I got an interesting email recently asking whether you need to set up a company in the Philippines. Like, you apply for a business permit and set up shop there. The reason they're asking is that they want to grow their team. A Filipino entity would show that the business is stable and serious. It might help with recruiting new OFS. Setting up shop in the country shows you’re committed to hiring in the Philippines. I’ve seen other people do it but we don’t. Here's my experience: 1. In order to own a business in the Philippines you have to be a Philippines citizen. It's not like in the US where you just set up an LLC and have to have a registered agent. ;You actually have to have a Filipino citizen be part owner. 2. We tried for a year and a half to set up a business there. It was really hard. So much red tape. So many hoops to jump through. ;Really difficult. 3. About 10 years ago I had a friend who successfully did it. Here's how.- he traveled to the Philippines- he got $15,000 (USD) cash- he had a team member he trusted to be the citizen owner- he had a connection with someone in the local government- he paid $15,000 to get his business set up in 1 week. Basically, it was bribe money for multiple people to get them to look the other way and put him at the front of the list.- he got an office and outfitted it (like $10k USD)- he got pictures of his whole team set up in this nice office space- 2 years later his business completely changed and he shut it all down. Kudos to those who managed to do it. We never pushed through with it. The process was just so long and problematic and opened up our business to a lot of new/different liabilities. In the end, we gave up.; But that doesn’t mean you can’t show stability and commitment in other ways.; Offering them a full-time, salaried job with paid leave is a good start. You can also offer your OFS benefits like healthcare or share in their SSS and Philhealth payments. Giving them a yearly raise and bonuses also shows that your business is stable, and you’re committed to your employees.; Don't over-complicate things. John PS. Want a simple way to find a great OFS?
www.OneVAAway.com. ;My system attempts to make the fastest, simplest, and most sure way to find and hire a great OFS.
+Health insurance in the USA is so prevalent that often employers are scared to hire because they don't know how to do "benefits". In the Philippines, you can't pay for insurance directly unless you have an entity, and in my last email I explained how difficult having an entity is, so that's not really a good option. What we do instead is that I send my employees the money to have them pay for their own insurance.; “John, how do you know they’re actually paying their SSS and their health insurance? How do you know they’re not using that money elsewhere?” That's simple. I only send them the money AFTER they’ve shown me receipts. I’m willing to pay for a lot of things that make my OFS’ lives better.I want to help them. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to trust them blindly.I'm not just going to give them the money, no questions asked.; And this is where some of the problems come in when working with an OFS. Filipinos are trustworthy people. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn't exercise some common sense.; We also have a computer upgrade program. ;We set aside $250/year for them to buy a new computer. We don't send them the money until they show us the receipt for the new computer (and the new computer). Ask for receipts! John PS. I have a full discussion about benefits you can pay for on my blog
/5-benefits-you-might-pay-for-your-ofs/
+I got a lot of great feedback from you guys about the 'I hire the most expensive OFS' email. Tola O. said that he doesn't hire the most expensive VA. He doesn't believe that the salary set on a jobseeker's profile proves anything. What he does instead is to offer $0.50 - $1 lower than their asking price. After 3 months, after they've proven themselves, he gives them $1-$2 more than their asking price. Guiseppe doesn't automatically hire the most expensive OFS either. How much he offers depends on two things: "1) How well defined are the roles and responsibilities. If I need someone to jump in and figure it out or if I need them to tell me how we're going to do it, I set the rate higher because I need someone who can bring experience and independent thought to the table. If there's an exact process doc and instructions that they can follow to the letter, the rate is lower. ;2) Sensitivity of continuity. If this person were to leave, how much would it affect our operation? As a result, I pay VERY well for salespeople (about 2-3X what BPOs offer) because losing a sales rep would cost me over $10,000 in lost revenue during the time it would take to replace them.;Also, FWIW, I've learned that I can get way more mileage out of benefits than I can get out of salary. Health insurance, 2 weeks of vacation, 2 weeks off for Christmas, 14 bank holidays, reimbursements for going to a hotel during typhoons, and a family leave policy in case if they need to prioritize their family over work. My main sales guy just took two weeks of paternity leave and his wife said to him "you can't quit this job".; Do you do the same thing as Tola and Guiseppe? Or do you do things differently? I'd love to hear about it. John
+This is going to be controversial... I hate Halloween. There. ;I said it. Of all days of the year it's my least favorite. In fact, the only costume I've had since I was 13 is my current costume. ;The Halloween Grinch!
In the US it's a day where we teach our kids to disguise themselves as something evil and dark, then go from house to house begging, and if the people don't give you sugar for your begging you're allowed to do something mean to them ("Trick or treat!"). Then afterwards my kids and I have a battle about how much of the candy they "worked so hard for" that they get to keep. I say none. They say all.; And one more thing...It's not a "holiday" (schools don't have it off...banks don't have it off...)! Ok...my rant over...on to the Philippines... Halloween is on October 31.All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day are on November 1st and 2nd. Here's what Julia wrote:--------------------Quick trivia. Did you know that the Philippines celebrate All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day around the same time Mexicans celebrate Dia de Los Muertos? And there are a lot of similarities to how we celebrate it. We both go to cemeteries. And we both offer food and drink to our loved ones. We also have altars. We don’t do the parades and costumes like Halloween. But in some places around the country, there would be parties in the cemeteries. ; The reason is because the tradition came from Mexico. Back when Spain colonized the Philippines, Mexico and the Philippines had strong trade relations through the Galleon Trade (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_galleon). Our celebrations aren’t as elaborate as the Mexican Day of the Dead, but it’s still a beloved tradition nevertheless. Typically, your OFS might ask to take November 1 and 2 off to celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day (we call it “Undas”) with their families at the cemetery. But since 2020, cemeteries have been closed during the week of Undas to discourage people from celebrating at the same time and avoid crowding the cemeteries.; Even though a lot of places are slowly opening up for vaccinated people, most local governments have deemed it necessary to continue with the closure of cemeteries during that week.; What does this mean for you and your OFS? Even though most can’t go to the cemeteries, there’s a chance that your worker might still ask to take holiday leave. So if they open up the conversation, you’ll have to talk to them about it. Because of the ongoing restrictions, some of your workers might opt to ask for leave before or after the first week of November. If they’re already vaccinated, and their city allows cemetery visits, they might want to go and continue with their traditions even if it’s not on the exact day. Some might still ask to take a holiday leave on November 1 or 2. They might opt instead to celebrate at home and participate in online Mass or remembrance events. Some might opt not to take their holiday leave at all. Even though local travel is now allowed, the quarantine requirements might discourage them from going.---------------- Now that's the kind of holiday I can get behind. ;Gather with family. Celebrate your ancestors and those who have gone before to make you who you are. It's no wonder why Disney's Coco is one of my favorite movies. John PS. there are a lot more cultural things I talk about in my book
The Outsourcing Lever. ;It's free.
+Someone asked me the other day about enforcing contracts with workers. Here’s my answer.; First, I am not an attorney so I can give you no legal advice on how to write a contract or what is legal. I don’t have any understanding at all. You should not listen to anything I say on this subject. I’m just going to tell you what we’ve done. In my opinion, you can’t do this. You can’t write a contract and enforce it.; Actually...you could...It’s just not worth it. THIS IS JUST MY OPINION! I mean, you can write a contract. I’m sure it will be binding in the Philippines. The Philippines is a very law abiding country, generally. Their laws are strict. But if someone were to do something to you, what would you do? Would you fly there and take them to court?; There are so few things that would be worth this amount of trouble that it's just not worth it. ; You can have a contract. Most Filipinos want to sign a contract. So that part about it is completely reasonable. They expect it because they want the formality.; But typically, we don’t do it because I know I can’t enforce it. ;It’s not something I would ever go there to enforce.; I've never seen someone else enforce it either. This doesn't mean you shouldn't do a contract. ;I think contracts are a good idea. ;They put expectations in place. ;They give you an agreement to look back on. They provide some security to the person that you hired that you're serious about hiring them and providing work for them.;Filipinos like contracts. If it does ever come to having to enforce something in court, I would probably
hire a Filipino lawyer...which would not be hard on Onlinejobs.ph. You could also hire someone to help you with a contract.; John
+I bought some bamboo toilet paper the other day to try and do something good for the Earth. Just testing.When they showed up, I assigned my 8-year-old son to go and distribute them throughout the house and then to put the extras in the closet. He actually did a pretty good job of distributing them throughout the house. Although he put them on top of the toilets rather than underneath the sinks where they belong.;
But then in my closet, he didn’t know what to do with them. So, he just filled in every empty space in a cupboard which is where towels go. And it’s completely non-functional... ...But he did what I asked him to do.
Which is kind of like an OFS in the Philippines if you don’t give good instructions. I thought my instructions were pretty good. But clearly, they were not what I wanted. So, he didn’t do it how I wanted it done. He did what he thought was right given the circumstances and given what he knew. When something doesn’t go right with your OFS, consider that maybe they did what they thought was right given the circumstances and what you have given them. I can't tell you how many times I've done this over the years. ;I create some instructions. ;I think they're complete and good. ;I send it to one of my OFS.; What they do is completely different than what I imagine. I go back through my instructions and find "Oh...yeah...my instructions were super crappy!" And I've seen this tons of times from other employers. ; They're not purposefully doing it wrong. ;There's a reason they're doing it wrong. John
+Just a reminder that today is a holiday in the Philippines. All Saints' Day Tomorrow is too. All Souls' Day Not everyone will take it off, but many will.; If your OFS doesn't show up today, that's why. Want to know about holidays ahead of time? ;We created (and maintain) a calendar of holidays for you.
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/embed?src=lcvk4qcjgj299mlqs7b02b7pmk@group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Asia/Manila Add this URL to your calendar, or click it and then click the "+Google Calendar" link in the bottom right corner. We also have a
full explanation of holidays and PTO. John
+I remember the first time I hired someone from the Philippines. ; "Jake". ;(I changed his name to protect myself from you trying to hire him...although he's super loyal to me). I wanted him to do some website work for me but I didn't want to give him access to my hosting account. I was scared he would steal something or mess something up. After a week of him not being able to do his job because I wouldn't give him access, I finally gave in and gave it to him. Guess what happened? NOTHING! Or...well...EVERYTHING! He didn't steal anything or mess anything up. He didn't take my domain or my website or my idea. He just did his job. Everything I had hoped he would/could do was now happening. It just took me giving him access to what he needed. It made my life so much easier. So when other people send me the same question, like the one Jim B. emailed me: Hi John I’m considering hiring someone overseas to manage my quickbooks accounting work.; Any tips on how to secure myself?; Obviously I don’t think I would give them my bank feed information (I would scan/email those) but access to credit card accounts, etc I think is safe.;What is your experience with this? Here's my answer. Start small and then grow from there. Give them access to whatever is necessary for them to do their job. ;Then as you gain trust in them, give them more.; If this were me, at this point I'd give them my bank feed info. I want them to do everything. My opinion is that having an OFS is no different than a local employee. ;Theft risk is about the same. John
+This morning, before school, Brigg (my 8yr old) comes to my wife with her phone in his hand and says "You need to buy me this." Ummmmm...I'm pretty sure that's not how it works! In the end, he was on Amazon and wanted us to buy him a book.Ok, yes. I'll buy it. ;I always buy books.; I’m not sure how this is in the UK, Canada or Australia. But in the US, if I want to buy something, it’s never a question of whether or not I can get it or it’s cheaper somewhere else. Like, I want a new iPhone. I just buy a new iPhone. And I’m pretty dang confident I'm not going to find it cheaper somewhere else. It’s super easy.; But in the Philippines, this is not the case.; People often want to know how to buy their OFS a laptop. Or how to buy them some other equipment. Maybe an air conditioner or headphones. It hasn’t always been very easy. IN THE PAST...So, in the past, I have bought things in the US and shipped them. Which is super sketchy. You can't send it postal (which is by far the cheapest), you have to ship DHL. Shipping a laptop was like $250.I’ve bought things in the US and sent it home with a relative, who was in the US, who was going back soon.; TODAY...One of the reasons I did this was because in the past, it wasn’t always easy for someone to buy a laptop or a MacBook Air in the Philippines. It’s still, today, more expensive in the Philippines than in is in the US. A lot of consumer electronics are more expensive in the Philippines even though wages are lower. This is due to import taxes. For example, a MacBook Air in the USA costs $999.;In the Philippines it's 54,990php which is about $1082. So how do you send stuff to your people in the Philippines? Well, it turns out, with shipping, with how difficult it is, it’s still just easier and cheaper to have them buy it on their own.; Most places where they can buy electronics now are offering installment plans. It used to be really difficult. If you didn’t have cash to go into the store, you had to have a credit card. Most people don’t have credit cards. Without a credit card you couldn’t buy stuff online, so they were forced to go into a store and deal with whatever inventory there was.; That is changing now. Most people can buy things online. They have installment plans. They have ways to make payments. So, your OFS can go buy things on their own. And if you want to pay for it, that’s great. Have them show you the receipts and send them the money as a reimbursement. At least, that’s what we do. John
+We're a big cycling family...My kids are competitive with racing their bikes. We were at the Utah Mountain Bike State Championships a couple weekends ago where my two teenage daughters raced. Because it's the State Championships not everyone gets to race. Only the top 100 kids in each category qualify. There were about 25 categories; so there's 2,500 kids. Here’s a picture of the tent city that gets set up just for people to come congregate. It's about a 5 minute brisk walk from one end of the tents to the other. ;Nobody’s sleeping in any of this. This is just to hang out during the day because it’s a 2-day event with races going on all day long.;
On Friday, my daughter Bailey finished 4th in the freshmen girls category which is pretty amazing. She’s super thrilled about it. She put in a lot of hard work this year. She’s gone through a lot of adversity. In the end, she came out on top. Fourth place out of a hundred who qualified for this race. She’s super happy.
I feel like often with virtual assistants there can be some adversity and if you push through it there’s a lot of good to be had on the other side. Obviously, most of it is good but there definitely going to be some adversity with hiring a VA.; There’s gonna be a time where they disappear. It happens to almost everybody. ; There’s going to be a time where they’re not doing things right.; There’s going to be a time where they’re frustrating you. It’s all going to happen. If you push through those difficult times, which I’ve done a lot of times over the years, there’s so much good work that will come out of having VAs work for you. My daughter pushed through. ;She has and is battling depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, not sleeping well, friends betraying her... Push through. ;It's worth it. John PS. Tomorrow I'll tell you about my disappointment with something my OFS did and how I fixed it.
+So I talked about the State Mountain Bike Championship Race yesterday in my email. I told you about my younger daughter, who took 4th place in her race. My older daughter also took 4th place in the varsity girl’s race, which is a different accomplishment in itself.;
The varsity girl’s race is so unbelievably competitive. Yet even taking 4th place out of the top 100 girls in the state who qualified (the winner of her race is the current national champion), she’s disappointed because she thought she could win the race. She had hoped to win the race. All the girls who beat her she has beaten them before. She just didn’t have a great race, and she’s disappointed.; Today I got something back from my team that I was pretty disappointed in. Here's what happened. I let them take the lead on adding some clarity to IDProof on Onlinejobs.ph. They pushed it live, and I checked it, and I was pretty disappointed.Don't get me wrong...most of what they did was great...but the piece that explains IDProof links to a page intended for workers yet it's on a page clearly intended for employers. It just needed more thought put into it. The more I thought about it, the more I kind of realized that they did what they thought was right here from their perspective. Because their perspective is different from mine. Your OFS perspective is different than yours.; They actually did a really great job with the rest of this project. It was that one link that wasn’t right, and it was super easy for me to correct. I just hoped they had the whole thing correct without me being involved at all. It didn’t happen. I sent an email saying, “Hey guys. No, this is an employer-focused page. It needs to link to an employer-focused page. “, and they’ll fix it.; Just be aware that you will have times where your team, they’re trying their best, and they still have a mistake. You’re going to need to correct that mistake. Just recognize they’re trying their best, and their perspective is different than yours. That’s my point in this whole thing. John
+A couple weeks ago at the bike race, I got a text from the race director. Keep in mind there are thousands of people at the race. The text that I got says: “If you cause any more grief in the feed zone, you’ll be permanently banned from the feed zone.” ;(The feed zone is the area where we’re allowed to hand a bottle to the racers.)
I was furious.Out of my mind. There are thousands of people at the race.There were hundreds of different people in the feed zone.I didn’t do anything different than any other person and I got singled out for causing grief, which I didn’t do.; My initial reaction was to lash out. I just wanted to tell her the whole story. I wanted to tell her what did and didn’t happen in the feed zone. I had this whole conversation in my mind about what I was going to say to her the next day if I saw her.; When I saw her the next day, I didn’t say anything. I was just nice and I let it go. The race ended and we’re fine. This will never happen again. ; At the same time this was going on, Julia (who manages a team for our social media presence), is dealing with one of the people on my OFS team who is lashing out at her and lashing out at other team members. It’s making the team just not work well. It’s causing problems.; So Julia came to me for advice.My advice was the lashing out just doesn’t work for our team.You have to treat people well. We’ve tried really hard to treat this person well. This person is not treating others correctly. So it’s time to let her go.; We’re in the process of letting her go. She's actually a really great worker. Skilled, reliable, shows up, talented. Her personality is just clashing. I think part of the reason Julia came to me was because I’ve managed a lot of people. I’ve learned that people need to feel good about themselves. If someone is causing people not to feel good, work suffers. Having work suffer...well.... In managing your OFS, think about how they feel about themselves based off the way you're treating them.;Thinking about this will help you prevent the disappearing Filipino problem. John
+I get lots of questions about how to narrow the field of candidates who respond to a job post on OnlineJobs.ph. I've heard from several of you that the number of responses can feel overwhelming. We recently did an interview with Paul Staten, who runs the successful internet marketing company
SEOWerkz.com; he offered some great advice on the issue.
Paul employs over 90 online Filipino specialists, which is pretty remarkable. While some of his Filipino workers are managed by a partner SEO company based in the Philippines, Paul does much of the specialized OFS hiring himself. He's got a hiring/training/managing system set up that runs like a well-oiled machine. Paul's initial interview tactic is brilliant. After he posts a job, he invites the most qualified candidates to do a TYPED chat interview with him on Skype. The typed interview gives him a good sense of their English skills and doesn't risk scaring potential talent away (face-to-face interviews can be very intimidating for OFSs). Here's the kicker- Paul conducts all of his chat interviews at the same time, so he can weigh and consider the responses against one another (and save himself time). Before the interview, Paul prepares his questions. They are pre-typed, ready to cut-and-paste into the chat boxes. Then he opens all of the chat windows at the same time and asks the candidates identical sequential questions. His preparation allows him to focus his time on each candidate's responses. Paul dedicates about an hour to the interview process and notes that the best response time is around 6 am MST (about 7:00 pm in the Philippines). You can learn more about Paul's favorite questions to ask in these mass-chat interviews, SEO Werkz, and
view the entire case study. What kinds of questions do you ask to narrow the field when you receive enthusiastic responses to a job post? Respond to this email and educate me! John
+Oh good...now that all that mushy gratitude is out of the way, we can focus on more important things like... ...PRESENTS! Actually...wait...no. Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude. From Julia, my content OFS----------------------------------Bonifacio Day in the Philippines (November 30) is close to Thanksgiving and is a regular holiday to commemorate the life and work of Andres Bonifacio. Bonifacio is one of the heroes in the struggle for Philippine independence from the Spaniards. He is also considered by some as the first President of the Philippines. I thought it was a nice coincidence that Bonifacio Day is so close to Thanksgiving. One of Bonifacio’s best-known written works is a poem about his love and gratitude for being a Filipino. English translation here:
https://pinas.activeboard.com/t18879167/pag-ibig-sa-tinubuang-lupa-andres-bonifacio/ The past 2 years have been difficult. It’s hard to imagine being thankful, given what’s still happening around the world. But I found Bonifacio’s words inspiring because he found many things to love and be grateful for despite the circumstances. He talks about the beauty of the Philippines and how loving your country even when all hope seems lost can help us rise above anything. I’m really thankful we have this day to celebrate Andres Bonifacio. If you want to greet your OFS a happy Bonifacio Day, you can include this quote from the man himself: "Serenity, constancy, reason, and faith in whatever act or endeavor, crown with success every desire." Happy Bonifacio Day!-------------------------- FYI, you're receiving this on the 29th your time. As you read it, recognize that the 30th (Bonaficio day) is probably starting in the Philippines right about now. Your OFS isn't going to work today. John
+t’s that time of the year when I get a LOT of questions about the 13th month. I’ll try to answer as many as I can fit into this email. But if you want more information, we have a detailed blog post explaining the
13 month at Onlinejobs.ph “Very basic question. Is there any specific time when the 13th month should be paid? I was thinking of paying it at the end of January but perhaps it can be more useful for them before the Christmas Celebration? When is the best time to pay the 13th month? Dec 1? Dec 31? Right before Christmas?” The 13th month is to be paid in December. The earlier in the month the better. Also, it's not considered a Christmas bonus. It's just part of their annual salary (they budget for it). If you want to give a Christmas bonus that's separate and always very much appreciated. “How do you compute for 13th month?” The 13th month is 1 month’s salary divided by 12 multiplied by the number of months they have worked for you that year. If your OFS has been working for you for at least a year, their 13th month is 1 month’s salary. If your OFS has been working for you for less than a year (let’s say 6 months), their 13th month would be half her salary. To make things easier, add up the total you paid them through the year and divide by 12. “I hired my VA a couple of months ago (September) and she just finished her training period. Do I start counting the months to compute her 13th month? When I hired her or when she finished her training?” It’s mostly up to you. You can start when you hired her or when the training period has ended. The important thing is both of you know when you started counting. Typically though, it starts when training is finished. “I had to let go of my VA this year. Should I still give her a 13th month bonus?” If they've worked for you for more than 6 months, yes. In the Philippines, that's the practice for most companies. Otherwise, you don’t need to. “I pay my VA by the hour or on a per project basis, do I need to give them a 13th month?” You don't have to but it's still a good idea. For us, we: 1. always pay the 13th month 2. also give a Christmas bonus. $25-$50. John
+I just got an email from Rosalee asking about holiday pay for her OFS “I've hired an OFS to edit one video a week. She works about 7-10 hours a week for me. I'm wondering about the holiday pay that is often expected/appreciated for this time of year. How does that apply to someone working part-time? When is that best sent?” My answer to that is, it depends. First, about general holidays (in the Philippines it's called "Regular Holidays" ie. Christmas, New Years, Independence Day...) If your part-time worker is paid hourly and they set their own hours, you don’t need to pay them extra if they work on holidays. If your part-time worker is required to follow a work schedule and one of the days coincides with a holiday, then you can give them holiday pay (typically 1.5x normal pay), or paid time off.
https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/holidays-and-pto Either way, it's your choice if you want to give them holiday pay. Second, if you want to give them bonuses around the holidays (
the 13th month especially), it’s best to send it a few days early. Bank holidays in the Philippines can sometimes delay cash transfers. So if you want to give your OFS something for the holidays, it’s best to send them out early. John
+My nieces got a hold of my phone during Sunday dinner. They thought it was so funny to take pictures:
Not very private! VPN's are usually marketed towards giving you more privacy, but there's more use to a VPN than privacy. I recently wanted to watch an event being broadcast on the internet but it was blacklisted from the US. So I had to get a VPN in order to watch it. I subscribed to NordVPN for 1 month. I installed the VPN on my phone. I connected to their VPN location in Switzerland. Once I was connected to Switzerland I connected to the event. The filter thought I was in Switzerland. I was able to watch it and that was that. Super simple. If you run into a problem where a VA can’t access a service you want them to use, you can get a VPN for them. There are lots of different VPNs you can use: Mozilla VPN CyberGhost Nord VPN Mullvad VPN TunnelBear VPN Proton VPN IVPN Private Internet Access Hotspot Shield ExpressVPN Surfshark VPN Windscribe Strong VPN HMA VPN VyperVPN Having your OFS connect to a USA IP address will almost always solve the issue of them not being able to access the service you want them to use. Are you currently using a VPN? Have you done it in the past? What have you used? John
+My youngest child just had a birthday. Since we were traveling over his birthday he didn't get a party (we're not big on parties anyhow), but he did get some Legos, clothes, other toys and a new bike! He double dipped because the bike wasn't going to be delivered on time. (it did get delivered...)
Please don't consider the 13th month as double dipping. Here's what Moazam asked: My VA will be turning 1 year old working with me next week. I wanted to ask you a few things. What is typically expected around this landmark from a VA perspective? Salary negotiations? Bonus? Evaluation? What are your experiences? Also my VA kind of suggested if I could get him a tablet or something. He will be getting 13th month bonus should that suffice and he can then purchase what he likes? Also I remember seeing a post from you a while back where you had mentioned some website where you could buy some electronics and send to the VA’s address or something? Here's my perspective. 1. Nothing is expected. 2. The 13th month bonus is a part of their lives. It's expected and needed by them to take care of their family needs at Christmas time. 3. If you want to do something nice for them, pay the 13th month AND do the nice thing. Don't count the 13th month as the nice thing. If you haven't done a raise yet, the year mark is a good time to do it. January is too. If it were me, I wouldn't buy a tablet unless it's going to help them with their work. I might contribute to a laptop (if that's going to help them with their work). Or, if you just want to do something nice, yes, do it. Two sites where you can buy things are
lazada.com and
shopee.ph John
+One of the things I really like about having an OFS work for me is getting rid of the small things off my plate. Today, I got this email from WordPress.
WordPress is notifying me when someone follows my blog. And I’m like, “I don’t want this notification.” So I immediately went to WordPress.com and looked at it. I was like, “Oh, I have no idea how to get rid of this.” So I just came back to the email and forwarded it to one of my OFS and let them undo it for me. I didn't have to figure it out. Didn't have to look through menus. Didn't have to get frustrated by not finding what I wanted. Outsourcing a bunch of small things make a really big difference on your productivity throughout the day. The next time you have something annoying you, send it to your OFS and see what happens. John
+Julia, my OFCS (Online Filipina Content Specialist) wrote this today: ------------------ I’m proud that we have a culture here at
Onlinejobs.ph where we find ways to help people. We help Filipinos find work. We help employers find team members. But some of us go beyond. We have co-workers who do charity work and volunteer regularly. John even gets involved sometimes and sends us money to help out the causes that matter to us. Like last year when he helped us give groceries to families who struggled in the early days of the pandemic. One of our social media team, Ben, is a volunteer firefighter. For the past few days, he’s been helping evacuate people affected by the Davao River’s flooding. He even got featured on the local news. (He's the one holding the baby)
I wouldn’t have known he was doing this if someone hadn’t pointed it out to me on Facebook. He was still working while helping out in the rescue operations. He’d be evacuating people during the day and get his work done at night. ------------------- What do your OFS do to volunteer? What do they do outside work? Have you asked? John
+On this Thanksgiving day (at least...in the USA it's our "Thanksgiving" holiday) I'm thankful for a lot of things. My family. My country. My business. Jesus Christ. My home. Snow. My bike. My OFS team. ... ... Are you thankful for your OFS? Have you told them? Letting them know you appreciate their work goes a long way. John PS. These pumpkins will end up as decorations on our table today. They've been "stored" in my coat closet for the past few weeks so my wife has exactly what she wants to decorate the table for her favorite holiday. Happy wife, happy life!
+A while back I emailed about my son doing a pretty good job following instructions with the information he was given. He put the toilet paper in the closet. Here’s a picture of his recent failure to follow instructions, where the instructions were pretty clear.
I asked him to pick up his stuff from the kitchen three different times. He didn’t do it any of the three times. Every time he just migrated back to the television. I took his stuff and put it where he wouldn't get it back until I was ready. This time it was NOT my poor instructions causing the problem. I really love what Giuseppe said here about how he handles teaching people to do something new. If I would have done this with my son, the problem would have been solved the first time. “Years ago, I developed a method with my interns (had over 40 interns work for me in my career) that has served me well. When having them do something new, I have them follow a 1-2-4-8 pattern. After training, I have them do the work for one hour and then review the work. Then, I have them work for two more hours and do a review of the work. Then, 4 hours and a review, then 8 hours of work and a review. The thing I learned along the way of my career is that details would always be missing from the training and it wouldn't be until they do the work that they see what's missing. Each time we sit down to review the work, I find that I give fewer and fewer corrections, so I can have them go longer between each review. When we start a new project, we first schedule the review sessions so that we don't allow too much time go by between work sessions.” 1-2-4-8. Review. Give it a try the next time you teach something to your OFS. John
+I got this great question from Jared: “Thanks again for your emails with all of the tips and tricks! I'm curious how you deal with things or services that need paid for like a service for your company or an item for your company online. Do you pay all of those yourself with a credit card? Do you get a prepaid card to your team member? Do they have a corporate card with a limit? Would love to know how you handle this.” No, we don’t have a corporate card. I remember years ago giving my credit card to people, and it wouldn't work...probably because they're in the Philippines so it gets declined. For years I would do the sign up process and give my team the username and password. This always bugged me because I don't like being involved in small things that they should be able to take care of. Recently I've been giving my credit card again, and it's working. I think because some of my team remember to use a VPN when purchasing. So when they buy something using my card, it doesn't raise any red flags. Sometimes when using my card, we coordinate schedules so we’re both online at the same time. If I need to send them a security code, they receive it right away. We do this with text (iMessage) or Voxer. I know some services are now used to having VAs subscribe for their clients. This happens often enough that they make their check-out process easier. For one time services where my OFS is having problems using my card (it happens sometimes), they sometimes use their credit card (not on subscriptions). They just send me the receipt, and I reimburse them. Even if they don’t have a credit card, some services take online payments through PayPal or Payoneer. PayPal and Payoneer now have solid relationships with local banks and cash apps, so some Filipinos use this if they don’t have a credit card. There are lots of options. Ask your OFS how they'd like to handle it. John
+A while back I sent a newsletter about what you can do when there’s a death in your OFS’ family. I got a great response to it from Dylan: “Today, my graphic designer Danice's aunt died. Here's what I told her: "Dan, I'm so sorry. I'll keep you and your family in my prayers. I'm here for you and you can share as much or as little as you want. Take a paid week off. We'll be here for you when you're ready. I'm gonna send $100. I hope it helps with the funeral costs." One of her first replies was "Please don't fire me." I was surprised because I have no intention of firing her but you did warn me that it happens. Danice then told me her sister was fired last week because she couldn't work as much. She was running errand, driving people around and doing other tasks when lots of relatives come in town when someone is close to dying. I couldn't believe they'd fire her! I told Dan to take her time and her job is safe. I know Dan will stick with me for a long time and it's just the human thing to do!” A death in the family is hard enough. Firing your OFS because they’re helping their family grieve is just horrible. I showed this email to my OFS Julia and she just explained to me how long and complicated a Filipino funeral actually is. I’ll show you what she wrote in the next email. John
+What Julia (my OFS) writes below is super interesting and explains a lot. -------------------- Funerals in the Philippines are a family affair. The process from start to finish is so long, complicated, and time-consuming. When this happens, everybody pitches in as much as they can. For most, it starts with dealing with the hospital to have the body released to a funeral home. Someone in the family handles the payment and paperwork. This usually takes a couple of days. The paperwork takes even longer. Unless it’s a covid-related death. Then the body would be released to an accredited funeral home and cremated within 24 hours. At the same time, those at home would start arranging the religious traditions, like calling for a priest or spiritual leader and buying things for the ceremonies. Another group would be responsible for picking up the clothes and personal items buried with the dead. They would also help get clothes for other family members to wear for the wake/funeral according to tradition. Some families opt to be at the funeral home when the body is being processed. This is to ensure that the deceased is prepared according to religious practice. Once the loved one has been released to the family, that’s when the wake begins. This can happen either at home or at a chapel, so another group within the family would be responsible for preparing the place to make it presentable for guests. Different family members then sign up for shifts to cover the 24-hour vigils. In the Philippines, it’s a tradition that there always should be someone awake at a wake. The length of the wake can range between a few days to a few weeks, depending on tradition and family requests (like family coming home for the funeral). So someone has to be there all the time. It’s also expected that you should be able to receive visitors anytime until the funeral. The ones on vigil would also act as hosts and are expected to serve the guest with food and drink. This is why, if you attend a Filipino wake, you’ll sometimes see karaoke machines or card tables. It’s mainly to keep the ones on vigil duty awake. While this is happening, you have a logistics team that ensures there’s always food and drink at the wake. It’s bad luck to run out. This continues until the funeral actually happens and the body is buried or ashes are taken home. If the loved one is going to be buried in a cemetery, another team has to handle that. They talk to the cemetery and the local government to make arrangements for the funeral procession. That means talking to the police to provide an escort, renting vehicles to transport the family, getting the tent and the chairs, preparing the food at the cemetery and after the funeral. I have helped out with several funerals over the years. Not kidding about how complicated it is. We started using a free task management system to keep track of what needed to be done. That is why the entire extended family asks for leave when there’s a death in the family. ------------------ So when your OFS seems like they're making an excuse saying "My aunt died so I couldn't work for a week" it's legit. One time I had a brand new VA quit even before they started working for me. Their relative died and asking for a few weeks time off was too daunting to them. They quit instead. Have you dealt with this? John
+Todays a good day to send the 13th month payment to your OFS. They always appreciate it the earlier in the month they get it. The later it gets the more and more worried they get that you're not going to send it. They count on it. They budget for it. They need it for the holidays. Send the money the same way you normally send payments. If you need more info:
https://www.OnlineJobs.ph/13thmonth John PS. If you're planning on also sending a Christmas bonus, now is good. So is in a few weeks. Typically we send the 13th month and the Christmas bonus at the same time. $25-$50 for Christmas...depending on how good our year was.
+I got an interesting email from a woman who is having some issues with her 2nd OFS. "I have concerns that she is working for someone else and it is interfering with her performance. She gets her basic work done but when I try to add more she is resistant and reluctant. Things that should take 2 hours to do take all day long. She was able to make calls but not answer with our Ooma call system. Do you have any advice on that?" My advice? Ask her. That's a critical piece of communication with the Philippines. You think there's a problem? Ask. Ask "what other jobs do you have" Ask "You seem hesitant to do phone calls. Is it something you're uncomfortable with? Is there something else wrong?" Asking solves a lot of problems. Let me give you an example. A few years back, I hired an OFS, "Manny," to help with customer support via social media. He was doing great but couldn't seem to do more. Like he only did the bare minimum. Even with training, it looked like he couldn't do more than what I initially asked him to do. So I asked him, "Hey, is there a problem? Do you have another job?" It turned out he didn't have another job. He's just not that into social media. What he's good at is customer support (he worked in a call center for years before I hired him). He helped start our social media customer support. But beyond that, he doesn't know what to do. He's afraid to do anything else. So I gave him a shot at doing more customer support. He's what he's done since: - Helped us set up a team schedule, so we have 24/7 email support. - Improved the knowledge database for our customer support team, making it easier to use. - Helped our U/X team by giving feedback taken from customer emails. - Assisted in improving backend processes (e.g., jobseeker account verification). - Helped strengthen our data privacy protocols. It turns out; this is the job he loves. I don't need to ask him to do more. He's the one who comes up with ideas of what he can do to improve our customer experience. I wouldn't have gotten all that if I didn't bother to ask and just gave up on him 5 years ago. Ask. John My nieces didn't ask when they found my phone at Sunday dinner...again. They just took pictures.
+As I lay here on the ground, completely exhausted from the workout I just did, I’m thinking about the SEO crisis we had yesterday.
I searched on DuckDuckGo to see how search results were looking only to find that Onlinejobs.ph wasn’t showing up. That freaked me out so I went to Google. I haven’t used Google in years. DuckDuckGo is my search engine but I know most people still use Google so I need to check what the results are like on Google. I went to Google and searched: hire Filipino VA. I found Onlinejobs.ph it the 10th spot but only as the URL: Onlinejobs.ph.
No title. No description. There was nothing there. Yet still, Onlinejobs.ph is on the first page on Google. So I sent an email to 3 of my guys in the Philippines and said, “Hey guys, what’s going on?” Within the day they had figured out the problem, fixed webmaster tools. Google had completely un-indexed our site, I don’t know why. They have re-indexed the site within the day and Onlinejobs.ph was back on top of the search engines with the title, description, and everything back to normal. I don’t know what happened to cause it. I don’t know what happened to fix it. But an SEO crisis was averted by having my specialists, guys who have been with me for 10,12, and 15 years, fix it instantly. Loyalty in the Philippines is a big deal. These guys know our business. They know what's going on. Their job isn't SEO, but they instantly knew what to do to fix it and they fixed it. Hire good people. Treat them well. Make your life easier. John
+It’s not that Filipinos don’t want to have their own business. It’s because setting up (and closing) a legitimate business in the Philippines is complicated. It has been made easier in the past few years. In World Bank’s 2019 Doing Business Report, the Philippines ranked 124th out of 190 countries. In 2020, we jumped to 95th place. But compared to our ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) neighbors, we’re still lagging (7th out of 10 nations).
Starting a business in the Philippines means you have to contend with: the local government, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (our version of the IRS), and the Department of Trade and Industry. The problem with these agencies is that their policies can be inconsistent. An example of this is the BIR. When we interviewed 2 employees from the BIR to help us write a blog post (for Filipino workers who want to pay taxes), they couldn’t agree on how to implement the same policies. Same with the local government. They have different business requirements depending on where you live. To make things worse, sometimes these three agencies don’t coordinate with each other. This makes it hard for business owners to start and register their businesses quickly. Depending on the type of business, you may also have to deal with other government agencies. If you have a food business, you would need sanitary licenses with the Department of Health. If you have employees, you work with the Department of Labor. This adds to the red tape and cost of starting a business. Let's say you're done with all that and you’re lucky enough to have a profitable business. Yearly, you'll have to pay up to 40 different types of taxes per year depending on the type of business (local taxes, national taxes, employment taxes, license renewals, etc). The cost is manageable for the most part. It’s the paperwork that complicates the process and takes so much time. If you’re unlucky, the process of closing a business is even more convoluted. You can muddle through if you’re organized, and you managed to keep all your original paperwork. But if you lost your original paperwork, there’s the additional step of filing an affidavit of loss for all of them. Let’s say you started a business but didn’t register with the government to avoid all the paperwork. It’s okay if you have a really small business. But as your business grows, you’ll have no choice but to register your business because you can’t do business with big companies without registration. Here's another complication. Years ago we tried to get some office space for some of our OFS to come and work together. No way. We were told that in order to get an office you have to have a full, legitimate business set up. If you don't, you can't rent space. If you do manage to rent space, the local government is going to come check on the space and if you're not legit you get in trouble. We asked our OFS "what about just renting a house and putting computers and offices in bedrooms?" No way. Local government will find out and will shut you down. With all these obstacles, it’s no wonder why Filipinos prefer employment. John
+One of the things everyone looks forward to during the Christmas season is the food. Not me. As my wife says...I don't have an emotional relationship with food. For me, food is to fuel my body. Oh sure, I want it to taste good. I don't like eating brussel sprouts. They're gross. But I still eat them. I don't eat sugar...and I don't ever have a "cheat" day. If something isn't good for me, why cheat? Anyway...I'm not normal...I know. For the rest of you, here are some Filipino foods that get served around the holidays. Yes, you can get most of these foods year round; they just taste better during the holidays (at least, that's what my OFS says). Queso de Bola: This literally translates to “cheese ball.” Usually made of Edam, cheddar, or processed cheese, and covered with red wax. They open it just before the midnight feasts and serve with ham, bread, and fruits.
Ham: The most popular one served during the holidays is pork ham with pineapple glaze. The glaze is what makes it extra special when you use the leftovers to make ham and cheese (from the Queso de Bola) sandwiches.
Castañas: Wok-roasted chestnuts that are sold everywhere during Christmas. Best eaten while it’s still warm and sweet.
Puto bumbong: These are cylindrical purple rice cakes steamed in bamboo tubes. It’s usually served on a banana leaf and topped with margarine, shaved coconut, and brown sugar. They get it fresh and hot after midnight mass. It pairs really well with Kapeng Barako(a strong coffee varietal that grows only in the Philippines) if you’re having it for breakfast. If you’re having it for midnight snack, you can pair it with tsokolate, hot chocolate made from roasted chocolate bean paste and brown sugar or sugarcane molasses.
Bibingka: Another type of rice cake. This one is flat and usually has a salted egg topping. Unlike the puto bumbong, this one is baked/broiled over charcoal while wrapped in banana leaves. Traditionally served with margarine and shaved coconut on top. Also pairs perfectly with coffee or chocolate.
Julia my OFS says "I got a Queso de Bola early hoping to avoid the Christmas rush. But sadly, my daughter found it and I think there's only half of it left. I'll need to get another one. Hopefully, this one will last us until the New Year." John PS. If you're thinking about hiring someone, now's not a great time. Wait until the new year. I'll explain in my next email.
+A couple months back as I rode with Lila the wind was howling from the north. It was a cross wind (which is better than a head wind) that makes riding no handed really hard. As soon as you take your hands off the bars the wind grabs the front tire and turns it sideways.I kept trying anyway. Lila (10) keeps wanting to try it too."No!" She hasn't yet ridden no handed on other rides.Then we had a stretch of the trail which turned south and the wind blew at our backs. Free speed. Free stability."Now's a good time to try riding no handed."She's scared, but takes her hands off the bars.
Look ma, no hands!This is kind-of what it's like when you hand a process off to an OFS the first time.The wind blows sideways.It's scary.Things don't go as you want them to."What if I crash?!?"All these things happen.Then you have the personal fears.What if it's not done how I would do it?What if it's done totally wrong?What if they mess something up?There are all kinds of things that could go wrong.And sometimes things do go wrong. Projects don't get done right. Work isn't perfect and it gets published.But when you get it right with your new OFS, it's like riding no handed. "Look ma! No hands!"It's one of the most liberating feelings. Work getting done without you having to do it.And the next time it's easier. And easier.If you start by outsourcing a task that you know how to do, the whole thing is easier.- You know what skills to look for when hiring- You know how to fix mistakes- You know how to train- You know how to give feedback- You know what to expect- You can help them get it right = You get time back and are then more effective at everything else.It just works really well.It's a new year. The wind is blowing at your back right now. What task are you scared of letting go of? Now's a good time to try.
OneVAAway.com will help you find the right person if you want my help.John
/letting-go-of-a-difficult-task-give-it-another-shot-2/
+This picture is from last August from the first bike race of the season.(this is relevant...I promise)Addie won the Varsity Girls race. No surprise. She's won every high school race she's been in except for State Championships. She works her butt off.
(At the finish line. Top 3 finishers)This week she starts her training so she can win races for next August. Hard work.Cold rides.Long days.In 2005 I hired my first Filipino VA.(They weren't an OFS, they were just a VA. They didn't know anything!)It was hard. It was scary."I don't know if they can actually do good work.""I don't know if I can keep them busy full-time.""I don't know if I can afford it."When I took the leap it was the most liberating experience of my life. Today I have 35+ full-time people in the Philippines. It's not always easy. Hiring someone isn't easy. It's not fun.But it's the hard work that makes the difference between working 50 hours/week and working 17 hours/week. If you're putting off hiring someone because it's hard, todays the day. Do the hard work. It won't cut your work load down today, but in 8 months from now it will. That's hard work. If you want to know the system I figured out to make hiring quick and easy:
www.OneVAAway.comJohn
/do-the-hard-work-today-stop-putting-it-off/
+What Julia wrote will make you smile. ------------------ We Filipinos are more excited about Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve rather than Christmas and New Year’s Day. Christmas and New Year’s Day are when we sleep in. The real celebration happens the day before. Both celebrations start the same way. Early in the morning, families start cooking for the midnight feasts (Noche Buena for Christmas, Media Noche for New Year). This is when the big family gathering happens so we all come together in one house. It’s usually a massive feast with enough food to last to the New Year. I’m not exaggerating. A lot of the things we make (if it’s not easily perishable) get served again for New Year’s Day. Everybody brings food. Everybody eats while cooking. Throughout the day, people will party harder and make a lot of noise. Videoke machines at every corner. People playing with noisemakers and firecrackers. The party (and noise) builds as the sun goes down. Then, at midnight, that’s when everything happens. Everybody starts feasting. Fireworks, firecrackers, and noisemakers are in full blast. When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was my favorite holiday. We don’t wait for Christmas morning. As soon as the clock strikes 12, it’s morning. That’s when we open our presents. It’s the same for New Year’s Eve. We stay up until midnight to do different traditions like: Switching on all the lights and making a lot of noise (to ward off the evil spirits) Jump as high as we can (to grow taller) Put on polka dot clothes (to be richer) Serve 13 round fruits (to be richer, again) But there’s a bad side to all this partying. Christmas and New Year’s Eve are also some of the busiest times for hospitals. So many people are rushed into the ER for fireworks injuries, fights, and heart attacks. Another thing I don’t like about the parties is the noise. Working while the entire country is making enough noise to trigger an earthquake is hard. Trust me, I’ve tried. There’s also the clean-up to contend with. When everybody cooks, nobody wants to do the dishes. Happy Holidays everybody! -------------------- Almost makes me want to be in the Philippines for this week... ...but then I'd miss the snow and skiing. I'll stick with Utah. John
+In preparation for next year, we just updated our
online Philippine Holiday calendar to include the holidays for 2022. In addition to updating the calendar, we also changed the way we labeled the holidays. Now they start with the letters: RH - for Regular holidays SNW - for Special Non-working Holidays SW - for Special Working Holidays Regular holidays (RH) are the ones most Filipino observe. These are the holidays where you offer paid time off. These are days where banks are closed. If you need to make them work over the holidays, you’ll want/need to pay them more. Special working (SW) holidays are regular workdays; Filipinos just mark it in their calendar to commemorate an event. This is not a day off work. Special non-working (SNW) holidays follow the “no work, no pay” principle. They are entitled to time off but you don't need to pay them for that day. Most of my team don't take these days off, but some do. We don't deduct from their salary if they don't work...we still pay them. These holiday benefits don’t apply to all. If you want to know more about Philippine holidays, paid time off, and benefits, we have a blog post about it here:
https://www.onlinejobs.ph/holidays John
+Julia (my content OFS) offered me this: ------------- When people find out that I work for Onlinejobs.ph, they immediately ask me whether we have job openings. They ask because it’s known throughout the Philippine outsourcing industry that Onlinejobs.ph employees get 13th month pay. Not to brag, but we’re the envy of freelancers all over the country. It’s such a big deal that some workers are willing to lower their asking salary if the job also offers 13th month. To be completely honest, it’s one of the reasons why most of us continue working for Onlinejobs.ph all these years. Why is 13th month such a big deal in the Philippines? 1. 13th month equals job stability. We know you have it made when the job offers 13th month. It tells us that the business we're working for is profitable. It means we have a job all year round. If there’s no 13th month, it implies that we could lose our job anytime. 2. No need to hustle harder over the holidays. Freelancers can flex about how much they make because they’re handling multiple clients at the same time. But you know what they don’t have? Rest over the holidays. To afford the added holiday expenses, they have to work harder and find more clients. That kind of defeats the purpose of enjoying the holidays with your family. With the 13th month pay, we keep working as we normally would and still make more money. 3. 13th month allows us to budget for big expenses. Christmas and New Year’s are when many Filipinos make big purchases, like appliances and furniture. This is when businesses clear out their inventory and sell at a huge discount. If you’re a freelancer, you can work harder over the holidays, but there’s no guarantee you’ll meet your earning target. There’s usually a hiring slump over the holidays (even pre-pandemic) so looking for work around this time is more challenging. It’s easier to just find a job that offers 13th month and budget your expenses around that. This is why we’d always choose a job that offers this benefit. Even freelancers who work by the hour would prioritize clients who provide this benefit. So if you want your OFS to stay for a long time, offer the 13th month. ----------------- I know I've talked about this a number of times now. Now you see why it's important. If you haven't sent it, it's not too late. John
+My daughter usually plugs her AirPods in the kitchen so she doesn't forget them in the morning when she leaves for school. This morning: "Where are my AirPods?"
I didn't take them, but I was glad they weren't where she expected them. I hate those things. Hate that they're in her ears all the time. And...she's not even bad with them. She's pretty respectful and good about taking them out when she's around people. We live in a different world... Speaking of different worlds, it's amazing how Christmas gifts have changed. When people ask me what they can send their OFS as a Christmas or birthday gift, I always say cash. It’s easy. It’s convenient. I know it’s something your OFS will appreciate. I also know that giving cash feels impersonal. Personal gifts have more meaning. If shipping things to the Philippines were easy, this wouldn’t be a problem. You can also use
Lazada.com.ph or
Shopee.ph to buy them things...but at this point it may be too late for Christmas. So, what can you do? Is there another way? If you know your OFS enough (you know their likes and interests), you can give them digital gifts instead. Is your OFS a gamer? You can give them gift cards from Epic or Steam. If your OFS is a booklover, ask what book they have on their Amazon wishlist and get them a digital copy. Or if they have a favorite artist, why not give them a copy of the album through iTunes? If you don’t know their taste in music, but you know they love music, a 1-year Spotify subscription might make more sense. So if you want to give your OFS something for the holidays, take the time to know what they like. This makes your gift personal and memorable. By the way...NONE of this is required or expected. I just keep getting questions about it... John PS. Now's not a great time to hire someone. Wait until the first of January to post your job.
+In the US, there’s this long-standing friendly debate among family about when Christmas is allowed to start. In my family, we start the day after Halloween. That’s when it’s acceptable to play Christmas music. Often my wife puts up her Christmas decorations in early November. This year has been a steady stream of decorating from November 3 up until about 2 weeks ago.
Other family members insist that you cannot start Christmas anything until December first. Christmas lights don’t go up. Christmas music doesn’t play. Nothing until December first. I have a sister-in-law though who feels like she can listen to Christmas music any time of the year, and she does, sometimes. In the Philippines, Christmas started in September. Here are some cultural things around Christmas in the Philippines. I like that the Christmas season in the Philippines starts early. As early as September. This is where the term 'Ber months' comes in. As soon as September 1 hits, you can expect Christmas songs playing on the radio and Christmas decorations being prepared for display. I’m a Halloween Grinch, so I don’t mind celebrating Christmas early. I also like the solemnity of 'Simbang Gabi,’ the night masses that Filipinos go to from December 16 to 24. Filipinos put family first, so they ALWAYS spend Christmas and New Year with the family. It's considered rude to spend it with friends. You can often tell there’s a family reunion nearby when you see a bunch of people wearing the same t-shirt. This is especially common on New Years Day.
Christmas is also when Filipinos visit their godparents (or their godchildren). There’s no guarantee you can get a gift from Santa, but you can always expect something from your godparents.
/filipino-godparents/ Employees from the Philippines are looking forward to receiving their extra salaries in the form of '
13th Month' (as per the law in the Philippines) and 'Christmas Bonus' (this, in particular, would depend on the company's prerogative). They would usually use these earnings to purchase or buy gifts or food for the upcoming Christmas Season. With all the lead up, a number of things happen. - Filipinos are super hesitant to start a new job from mid December through January 2. they're worried their new boss won't let them spend Christmas/New Years with their family. - They want to take time off. Not that different than you, but for them there's probably more family pressure. - They're a bit hesitant to tell you all of this because they don't know your holiday traditions. John
+Hopefully you're reading this on Christmas Eve, December 24. If so, recognize that it's Christmas Day in the Philippines because they're ahead of you (Except if you live in Australia...then you don't do any conversion...). Today is a good day to send them an email wishing them Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays or whatever you want to say to them. Tell them you're thankful for them and for the work they do. Remind them they have the day off. Depending on your business needs, remind them of your work policy for the next week. For us, we let them have the whole week off but I ask that they check their email in case something goes wrong. Merry Christmas. John
+Where I live in the US (I live in Utah), the week between Christmas and New Years is relaxed. People are off work. People get together with family. People stay home. I go skiing. Generally, traffic is less because offices are closed. Unless of course, you're going to a Mall (who does that anymore???) or to Walmart (who doesn't do that?!?!). In the Philippines, it's different. Something weird happens in the Philippines between Christmas and New Year. Julia says: We experience something that we call ‘Carmageddon Christmas’.
Traffic is not unique to Manila or the Philippines. It seems to get worse though around the week between Christmas and New Year. I think it’s because almost everybody is out and about. That week is when we catch up on everything we couldn’t do for Christmas and weren’t able to schedule in by the New Year. Things like: Visiting extended family (go or risk the wrath of family) Last-minute Christmas parties Last-minute Christmas shopping Visiting Christmas displays for photos Grocery shopping for what you need to cook for Media Noche (New Year’s Eve feast) Going to the malls to take advantage of the ‘Buy Now, Pay Next Year’ shopping deals. The deals you can get during this time are really good. We actually mentioned it in our
laptop buying guide for Filipino virtual assistants. Cleaning up the Christmas mess and prepping up the house for the New Year. These are just some of the things I know most of us do. I haven’t even taken into account the local traditions that would cause traffic during this time. Like in Bulacan, the traffic would be caused by people going to Bocaue to buy fireworks. Here in Davao, the traffic would be caused by people going to the beach. There are cities in the Philippines that have festivals around this time too. I’m sure the festival parades would be back now that many of us have been vaccinated. The week between Christmas and New Year is when you visit extended family. Either you have one big reunion where everybody comes together or visit/meet up with aunt/uncles/cousins individually. I had to mention this twice because visiting extended family is probably the main reason I had to endure Carmageddon almost every year (except the past 2 years). Oh well, everything for family. John
+Have you ever noticed how we name things after landmarks? Where I live there are mountains all around. Mt. Timpanogos Lone Peak Mount Olympus Twin Peaks There are tons of businesses, parks, traditions, cemeteries...named after these mountains. Does that happen where you live also? In the Philippines, it's Rizal. Julia (my OFS) writes: ----------------- Every December 30th, we celebrate our national hero, Dr. Jose Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda. We celebrate it on December 30th to commemorate his death when he was executed by firing squad in 1896. The holiday is just before New Year’s Eve, so many Filipinos start their holiday celebrations on this day. Because Rizal was such an important figure in Philippine history, there are activities around the country that we participate in as part of our holiday celebrations. One tradition is laying down flowers and wreaths to shrines set for Rizal. Going on a picnic in Rizal Park (almost every town has a Rizal Park) is also a popular pastime. For those of us who prefer to spend our holidays at home, we’d watch movies, documentaries, and government programs about Rizal.
We’re all required to study his life in school. But even if you find history boring, studying Rizal’s life is fun because it was fascinating. He was a polymath. He lived the bohemian lifestyle, so he had a lot of lovers and enemies. He traveled to so many countries and wrote a lot of books, essays, and poetry. How amazing was Rizal? On the night before his execution, he wrote Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell). The poetry moved former US Congressman Henery A. Cooper so much he read it in Congress in 1902 to lobby for Philippine independence. Indonesian soldiers would recite it before going to battle when they struggled for freedom in the 1940s. I tried to memorize it in college because the original text (in Spanish) was so beautiful. I never made it past the 1st stanza. There are 14 stanzas. At least I didn’t attempt to memorize the Filipino translation. That one is 28 stanzas long. -------------------- The point is...December 30 is a regular holiday in the Philippines. Everyone is going to take the day off. December 31 is also a regular holiday, as is January 1. Don't expect anything to get
+When I was in high school, I made a new group of friends. The first time we hung out we were going out to dinner. This is right after school and I didn’t have any money. So, they decide they were going out to dinner and I told them, “I can’t go with you guys, I’m sorry. I don’t have any money.” One of them said, “That’s okay. I’ll pay for you.” I grew up pretty poor. We didn’t have much. My parents didn’t have a way to give me money. Between my workload in school (which was really heavy) and sports, there was no way I could work. There wasn’t time. The next time I went out with them, I said I didn’t have money for dinner tonight. They were like, “It’s okay, we’ll pay for you.” That became a thing. At some point, I asked that friend, “why do you pay for me?” He said, “Well, my parents spoil me so I want to spoil my friends.” Recently I had a conversation with my daughter because keeps billing this friend in Venmo for small things. Like, “Pay me $4 on Venmo.” So I told my daughter my story about my friends in high school and I said, “Stop doing this to your friends. Stop billing your friends.” Here’s a question about billing and OFS from Anjali: Does your OFS handle billing? I have a consulting business, and charge high ticket prices for large packages. I’m very hesitant to have my OFS get involved with the billing or even know how much I am charging because I feel that if they do, the discrepancy between their salary and these fees will be shocking for them and awkward for me. We don't have billing in our business. However, yes, I would definitely have them handle it. They have no idea what other expenses go into the business. They don't know what's involved. Even if they do, it doesn't really matter. They know they're an employee. It won't be awkward for them and it shouldn't be awkward for you. In fact, it may give them some security. If they know your business is profitable they'll feel like their job is secure. If you trust them, let them do it. Also, with very little going on right now (in most businesses), now's a good time to get your OFS started working on a.new project for you. Start creating training (a video with Snagit is a great start), think through what they'll need and what they'll need to do. Get an early jump on your New Years resolutions. John
+The first time I hired someone in the Philippines it was "easy". I told the agency who I wanted and they came back a few days later with my VA. He lasted a couple days before he said "Sorry Sir, I don't know anything and can't do this job." He quit. The agency apologized profusely and then provided me someone else. He lasted about a week and quit saying "Sorry Sir, I can't handle the office politics at this agency." The agency repeated the process. They found me someone who knew nothing. "Here's your webmaster! He's all trained and everything!"
Nothing. He knew nothing. But...at least he was willing to try. That was 2005. He still works for me today, only today, he's amazing. I can ask him to do anything and he'll get it done. My hiring process (through the agency) was not smooth or efficient. If one of your New Years Resolutions is to get some time back in your life, I want to help. My
One VA Away Challenge was created to make hiring an OFS easy, smooth, and efficient. - It shouldn't take you hours and hours - You should never have to schedule an interview (unless you really want to) - You won't make mistake after mistake like I did - I guarantee you'll find someone great or I give your $49 back. If you're worried about hiring, worried you'll make mistakes, worried you won't find a good person, or worried you just won't get it right, try my
OneVAAway.com program today. John
+Short email just to update you. Typhoon Rai is pounding the Philippines right now.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=typhoon+rai Ask your OFS if they're ok. If they don't respond, assume they don't have power or internet. Give them a break. If your OFS is affected, you might offer to help them. John
+If you didn't know, the Philippines just had a super typhoon come through. Here's what I know. In the US we call it Typhoon Rai. In the Philippines it's called Typhoon Odette. They call it a typhoon. We call it a hurricane. This was like a category 5 hurricane. The death toll is 200+. There are cities where there's not a roof left on a single building. A couple quotes from my workers: "Most of the areas here do not have electricity and water and as per the local government, it will take two to three months to get it back. We are one of the affected families but lucky enough, my family is safe.” "We are badly hit with the recent typhoon. No internet, no data, no electricty, drinking water is getting scarce. Currently, i am looking for atms/banks for us to withdraw cash. Most banks are also down. It has been the 4th day already in this situation. I am able to get data since we borrowed motorcycle to go to the cebu city (im from mactan island). Only 2 wheels are able to pass in out area since posts and trees are on the road. If i get a hold of cash then me and my family will go to our province since we heard its in a better situation than here. We will go there asap since we also have a baby and its super hard with no electricty and scarce drinking water. Please bear with me sir this coming days. I will cover up for the time whenever im already in a stable situation, hopefully within the week." "Our area here in Cebu is badly hit by typhoon. If this email reaches you it is still impossible to work right now. There is no water, electricity, cell signal is spotty and no internet as of now. And my family is safe." "...we're expecting it to take months for electricity to come back on..." I've gotten numerous photos like this:
Here's what you can do: - Show compassion - Expect they won't be able to work for a while - Send money to help them relocate or rebuild (or both) I've been working with the Philippines since 2005. This is the worst typhoon I've seen. John
+It depends on where your OFS lives. To be more specific, it depends on who runs the power distribution center. Here’s some context. Back in the 1990’s, the Philippines experienced a power crisis. To address it, their government started privatizing the power industry to introduce investments and upgrade the country’s infrastructure. So businesses began popping up to help generate more power and improve power distribution. This allowed the government to focus on building infrastructure in hard-to-reach places like rural areas, mountains, and island towns. For metropolitan areas like Manila, Cebu, and Davao, this system worked. Private businesses took over distribution. They upgraded the power grid and made it more resilient to natural disasters. They have an organized system that manages problems, so those cities have been experienced fewer blackouts. But in smaller towns and cities, the system didn’t work as well. These places continue to suffer regular blackouts because the private businesses who took over the power distribution failed to: Invest in updating the distribution infrastructure Build more grids to serve their growing number of customers Anticipate the rising demand for power, so they didn’t buy enough from power generators These are the places most affected by blackouts when there’s a natural disaster. There is greater demand for power during the hot and dry months in the Philippines. When this happens, the industrial and commercial zones are prioritized. This is why rural areas would experience rotational blackouts from March to June. If their power distribution company is well managed, these blackouts are kept at a minimum, like 1-2 hours every few days. If not, they can experience 4-6 hour rotational blackouts every day. If the summer is really dry (El Niño), the whole country does experience power shortage due to: Increased demand for power Low water levels in the 12 hydroelectric power plants and Reduced efficiency of the 20 geothermal power plants That’s when most of the Philippines would have to go through rotational blackouts to manage supply. But thankfully, more renewable power plants are being built. So hopefully, there would be no more rotational blackouts in the future. Progress is being made. Just in the time since I've had OFS working for me the situation has greatly improved. You might never be affected because of this depending on where your OFS lives. My advice is don't try to hire in a specific location to try to avoid power outages. Just hire the right talent wherever they are. You'll be better off. John
+When I was just starting my business, I didn’t have time to hire someone to help me. I just bought a house. I had a brand new baby. I had a fledgling business. I needed the business to grow because I didn’t want to go back to working for someone else. I also knew that I could do more if I just had someone to help me with this one task. If I can get this task off my plate, it would make things easier. I’d be more productive. I could grow my business, and I’d have more time for my family. So I made time for finding someone. It wasn’t a lot of time. I was still working 40 hours a week at that point. But taking that first couple of hours away to just find my first VA, Joven, was so worth it. Sure, I lost a couple of hours’ worth of work finding him. But I gained thousands (hundreds of thousands?) since. Every minute I spent training him gave me hundreds of work hours and productivity I couldn’t do alone. That was 2005, he still works for me today. Then when my business started growing and I needed more help, I just repeated the process. The more people I hired, the more time I got. That’s what led me to my 17 hour work weeks. If you’re worried that you don’t have time to hire an OFS, think about what happens if you don't. NOTHING! Unless you take action to make a change, everything stays the same. It’ll only take you 2-3 hours (total) to go through the recruiting process I outlined in
OneVAAway.com and find that one OFS that can change your life. Isn’t that time well spent? It's likely the best ROI you'll ever get. John
+My "New Years Resolution" started last August. I needed to be more understanding of my teenage daughters. I started working on it. Started praying for help. Started reading a book about it. It's working! We all start the year with the best intentions. We want to be better versions of ourselves. But studies show that 80% of Americans fail to keep their New Year’s Resolutions. Only 8% manage to keep them the entire year. I think this is because people have unrealistic expectations about themselves and the results they want to achieve. Like losing weight or quitting a bad habit. They’re good resolutions, but they’re tough to accomplish when you: Don’t start early Don’t keep things simple Don’t do things consistently. It’s the same with outsourcing. Most people hesitate to outsource because they think they have to hire a team of 20 people to take over entire business processes right away. I’d be intimidated if you told me this was what I had to do when I was just starting. I’d never get anything done in my business if I was always hiring to build a team. Outsourcing doesn’t have to be like that. It shouldn’t be like that. That’s why I always tell people that they should always start by: Hiring just one person, To do just 1 task, and Train them to do one job you already know how to do. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Hiring just one person takes less time than hiring a team. Looking for a person who has 1-2 skills that they’re good at is easier than finding a person who’s an expert at everything. Training your worker on a job you already know how to do makes it easier. You already know what to teach them. You can answer their questions and give them feedback right away. You’re not just guessing on whether they’re working or not; you can see it in their work. This is what I teach at
OneVAAway.com. This is how I get Filipino rockstar workers. That’s why my recruiting process won’t take you 100+ hours. I start with people who do one thing really well and build them from there. That’s how I started. That’s how I got things done. I’m reaping the benefits now because I started outsourcing in 2005. For you, 2005 is NOW!
When are you going to start? John
+"I'd just feel more comfortable hiring someone you or your team recommends" Yes...yes you would... But...I can’t recommend someone for you. Nothing personal. I don’t give recommendations to anybody. If you ask other business owners, they’re not giving referrals either. Why? Because once we find a great OFS, we hire them. We’re not going to spend our time finding a great worker and then recommending that person to someone else. Smart business owners don't. Even though it only takes me 2-3 hours to find a worker, that’s still 2-3 hours of my life that I’m not going to get back. Think about it this way. If you take my course at
OneVAAway.com, you’ll find a great worker in 2-3 hours. That’s faster than waiting for a referral, and it’s basically a sure thing. Even better, it’s a Filipino worker you know who’s going to be good for your business because: You know them You know how to communicate with them You know you’re going to work well together, and You know they have the skills for the job because you interviewed them yourself. Want to know if there are actually talented people? Or how timezones work? Or tax implications? I answer all these questions at
OFSGuide.com John Family ski day!
+In December, Typhoon Odette decimated the central Philippines. I've seen dozens of typhoons affect my workers since 2005. I've never seen anything like Odette. Destruction like this doesn't happen that often...but it does happen. The Philippines is visited by an average of around 20 typhoons per year. They also get at least one alert from any of the 27 active volcanoes spread all over the country. What is it about the Philippines that makes it a magnet for natural disasters? It's the location. The Philippines lies along the Pacific Typhoon belt. Every time a typhoon forms around that area, it's almost guaranteed that they'll be affected by it.
In the past, most typhoons don't affect them that much or happen as often. But with climate change, like here in the US, they've had more destructive storms in recent years. They're also located in what's known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. That's why they have a lot of active volcanoes on land and underwater.
Because they're in the Typhoon Belt and the Ring of Fire, they're also more susceptible to other disasters brought about by typhoons and volcanoes like tsunamis, landslides, storm surges, and flooding. But they are working to make themselves more resilient. In 2012, the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act institutionalized disaster reduction and management in all government and the private sector. This requires every institution, no matter how big or small, to plan what to do during a disaster. They also have a more robust disaster reporting system. Like here in the US, they get weather or flooding alerts on their phones. It tells them whether they need to evacuate or prepare for a storm. The Philippines is also part of the Asian Disaster Reduction Center, which has helped improve its disaster planning and management. It's a group where different Asian countries share best practices and technology to help them with disaster management and response. The US serves as an advisor country in this group. At some point one of your OFS will be affected by a typhoon, volcano, flood. You know what's surprising? How quickly they recover! Quite a few of my OFS lost their houses in Odette. Obliterated. They're all back to work. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten emails from OFS saying "Sir, we're having flooding here in my town. My house has 1.2m of water in it, I had to climb on the roof to escape. But don't worry sir, I brought my laptop with me so I saved all my files and can get back to work soon." They're resilient. They're smart. They work hard. They recover. It's what they do. John
+We’re finally at that point where things are somewhat going back to normal. Yes, Omicron is raging, but we’re close to getting back to the lives we had before we ever heard of Covid. Kids are in school. Travel is opening up (depending on the day...) We've all realized remote work is good. Now’s the best time to hire an OFS (online Filipino specialist). Yes, you're busy. Hopefully your business is growing or recovering. As you build your momentum, there’s going to be more work ahead. Want to build your business differently? Build it based around having other people do the work. Here's how to start. Pick one task you think you can get someone else to do. Hire an OFS to do that one task. Since it's something you know how to do hiring that person is easy! Go to
OnlineJobs.ph and search for the skill you need. Look at some profiles. Then post a job. You'll find the process super simple. It won't work out perfectly the first time (well...it might, but often it doesn't). Work with them to get it right. It won't take long. Then...when they're getting that one task done, ask if they can take another task. Without needing to hire someone else, go through the process again. What happens next is AMAZING! The next time you sit to do something you don't want to do, you'll think "hmmm...I wonder if I could get someone else to do this for me?" From that point on, your business is different. You'll work less, be more effective, and be better at creating growth. ------------ Want my help through the hiring process?
www.OneVAAway.com Ready to jump in?
www.OnlineJobs.ph If your business is drowning you, grab the lifeline! John
+I love to ski. My wife...not so much. Part of it for her is just fear. What if I'm cold? What if I get hurt? What if it's not fun? At some point she has made mistakes (we all do) and each of those things have happened to her. On occasion, it has stopped her from going with me. Like this day:
Which was a day with no mistakes, and everything was beautiful. In hiring OFS, I see the same story from you. Fear. Fear of making mistakes. Fear of everything not going perfectly. Fear of spending time and having it go down the drain. When I started I had that fear too. The first thing I did was a mistake. I went to India. I know they have a lot of fantastic workers there, but the culture just didn’t fit with how I ran my business. Now I know to go to the Philippines. The whole experience is better. My second mistake was hiring freelancers. The freelancer I hired was great. He did an excellent job writing. But it was the only thing he could do, write. I couldn’t ask him to do more because that’s not part of the deal we had. I still had to do everything else with what he wrote and I hated it. The more work I gave him, the more work I had to do myself. Now I know to hire long-term people. The business starts to automate itself when you have stable people working for you. Next I tried the agency route. It was fine until both me and the VA realized I was paying $750 and he was getting $250 (today this is more like you pay $2000 and he gets $500). He quit. That stinks. Today I know that going direct is a lot more efficient both in terms of money and time. The OFS gets the full amount I pay him. Finding someone myself is faster and easier and more reliable than going through an agency (I went through 3 workers at the agency because they just kept pulling people off the streets and telling me "they're super qualified"). I've made mistakes since, but they're a lot less consequential. Most of my mistakes since don't flush my time down the toilet like these first 3 did. Here are the 9 biggest questions people ask me about hiring OFS (and their answers). OFSGuide.com John PS. If you never take the leap and get over the fear, you never get the reward! Today I have ~40 OFS working for me building my business every day.
+When Filipinos talk about their neighborhood, they often refer to the barangay, the Philippines' smallest political and administrative unit. Barangay comes from the Malay word balangay, a boat used by the Austronesian people when they migrated to the Philippines. They travel in groups like the boats at the end of the movie 'Moana' because like in that movie, those who traveled in the same group settled in the same place. That community formed the first barangay.
There are 42,046 barangays all over the country. The barangays are governed by their respective cities and municipalities. In order to be a barangay, there has to be at least 2,000 inhabitants. Each barangay would have its executive, legislature, and judiciary branch. The chief executive is called the Barangay Kapitan (barangay captain). Councilors or 'kagawad' form the legislative branch. The judiciary comprises a group of people called Lupon Tagapamayapa(Justice of the peace). The barangay even has its police system called tanod (neighborhood watch). The local government empowers all barangays to provide essential services to their residents. Within a barangay hall, you would often see a health center or small clinic where people can come in for free healthcare and essential vaccines. Voting is also done in the barangays. Small claims and disputes are mediated with the Lupon Tagapamayapa. Most barangays would also have a daycare and an elementary school. This is why every Filipino is required to register with the barangay. It's a big part of their day-to-day life. The Philippines doesn't have "background checks" like we do in the USA. But a
Barangay Clearance is pretty close. It's a government-issued document used to certify a person with good moral character and a law-abiding citizen of a certain barangay. You can ask potential OFS for their Barangay Clearance when hiring from
OnlineJobs.ph John
+I HATE when I solve a problem and the problem keeps coming up over and over again. Like passwords with my kids. "Dad, what's my password?" ARE YOU SERIOUS!!! We've saved this password to LastPass. I've told you to get LastPass on your phone. Why? Just why!?!? This is what they look like when this happens:
Passwords with my kids is one thing. With OFS it's another. Although...is it really that different? For me it's not. When I was first starting this was totally an issue for me. I did not want to give them passwords because I didn’t know what would happen. I didn’t know if I gave them the password to my hosting account, they would take over my hosting account, destroy everything and leave. I didn’t know if they would not leave, make a mistake, and ruin something. I just didn’t know so I didn’t give them passwords. Then I realized a little bit in that it was making my life harder. They couldn’t do the job because they couldn’t access the site they needed. I quickly realized I had to give them access to my stuff. Well back then, there wasn’t a great solution. Today, there’s a really good solution to this. You’re still going to give them access to your accounts but if you use LastPass for this, you don’t have to give your passwords. They never see your passwords. Anjali had the same problem so she wrote to me about it. I also am having difficulty handing over my passwords for things like email and contract software. Although I feel comfortable having my OFS onboard clients and follow up with clients, I don’t feel comfortable yet about the OFS having my passwords as they started about 2 months ago. For Google, it turns out that as an admin I can always lock the person out if there’s ever a problem. But for some other things, like Adobe DocuSign, I don’t think that’s possible. Use Lastpass. It lets you share a password with their LastPass account. Then it lets them login to the website, but doesn't give them the password. You can revoke the sharing anytime you want. For things where LastPass won't work, give them the password if you trust them. If something goes wrong, you can change the password. Keep a list of passwords you give them. For some reason, my OFS don't seem to have problems keeping track of passwords like my kids do! John
+Last week after an amazing day of skiing, my 8yr old had a rough last run down the mountain:
He wasn't even going very fast. He just got tangled up and fell flat on his face with his legs spread as wide as they could be. He couldn't get himself up. I had to scoot over and help him. Frustrated and helpless. Then, I felt the same way yesterday with my OFS. Last year I started a podcast: The Secret Sauce of Outsourcing Podcast where I talk about outsourcing to the Philippines and OFS and culture and lifestyle and...It's really just a parallel to this newsletter. Then, a few weeks ago I decided to start recording podcast episodes as video episodes. It requires almost no extra work from me and my team publishes the podcast and also publishes the content to YouTube! Extra distribution for no extra work from me. Except...as they published episode 54 (which was like the 20th video episode) they told me it was completed and sent me the YouTube link. I looked at it. I was horrified. The video started mid sentence. It referenced how I reacted to a feeling I hadn't described. It was a terrible edit of the video I had recorded which was meant for something else but got published as a video episode of my podcast. I immediately sent the message: DO NOT PUBLISH THIS! and asked why it got published, why it wasn't checked, what would make you publish something that makes me look so dumb... I was frustrated. About 3 hours later the video was down and a new, correct video was published. I thanked them. We're now having 2 people (that are not me!) look at everything before it gets published. I told them I want them to look at everything and say "Is this right? Does this make us/John look good? Or is there a problem here?" We'll see if it works. John PS. I send this so you know outsourcing isn't all roses for me. It takes work. I have my frustrations. But overall it allows me to do so many things there's no way I'd do otherwise. In fact, all of this newsletter, my entire YouTube account, and the podcast would never happen if not for them. All 3 of these take me like 2 hours/week.
+I understand why many business owners prefer to have their OFS work in their timezone. It's just more convenient. You don't have to worry about things like scheduling meetings and whatnot. There's also the added benefit of monitoring your OFS work hours. The first time I hired someone the agency said "Do you want them to work on your hours?" I didn't know that's an option. Yeah, let's do it! A few weeks in he came to me and said: "Sir, working at night is really hard. It's affecting my family. I'm not sleeping well which is also affecting my work. Can I work during the day my time?" The problem with having an OFS work in your timezone (if they're not used to working nights) is that it affects their health and productivity. Usually it ends up affecting the quality of their work. There is a way to use this time difference to your advantage. Here's the current (daylight savings) time difference between the Philippines and the timezones we have here in the US. EDT - 13 hours behind - USA Monday: 9pm - Philippines Tuesday: 10am CDT - 14 hours behind - USA Monday: 9pm - Philippines Tuesday: 11am MDT - 15 hours behind - USA Monday: 9pm - Philippines Tuesday: 12 noon PDT - 16 hours behind - USA Monday: 9pm - Philippines Tuesday: 1pm And for those in the UK GMT - 8 hours behind - UK Monday: 9pm - Philippines Tuesday: 5am Depending on where you live, most of your OFS work hours would happen while you're sleeping. So what I do during the day is: Respond to their daily reports if needed Give feedback on the projects they're already working on Give them new/additional tasks Give instructions Give training What I don't do is touch the things they're supposed to be doing. It took me a long time to realize that if something didn't get done while they were working, I DIDN'T NEED TO DO IT MYSELF! I work on other important tasks. I work on improving systems. I work on giving better training and feedback. What's great about the time difference is there's nobody there to distract me from getting actual work done. Now...if you find that you need to talk with them, figure out when your work schedule overlaps with theirs. You'll find that some of your work schedule overlaps with some of theirs in almost every case because they rarely work 9-5 Philippines time. Want someone to work on your time? ; https://youtu.be/xOnJpydKGyU John
+I'm not a big holiday person. Halloween...my least favorite day of the year. Valentines day? Thursday. St Patricks day? Huh? I'm just not a big celebration kind of guy. I just can't get into it. For me, the only reason I even know Chinese New Year is happening is because of my team in the Philippines. It's a big deal for a lot of them. Chinese New Year falls on February 1, a Tuesday this year. It's a "special holiday" in the Philippines, so people will still work. Some might take it off...but most won't. If you have workers who are Filipino Chinese or of Chinese descent, you can wish them a Happy New Year.
This year it’s the Year of the Water Tiger. The weird thing about Chinese Horoscopes is your sign is considered your unlucky year. Like, if you’re born in the Year of the Tiger (1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998 or 2010), 2022 will be a tough year for you. But for everybody, this could be their best year ever. Again...something I really can't get into... Plus...what about everyone else in 2020? That wasn't everyones birth year and wasn't it the worst year in history...for almost everybody? The best way to have a good year, regardless of when you’re born, is to do what you can to make it possible. Like making a change in your business. If you’re tired that your business isn’t growing, stop working in your business and start running it. If you’re tired of doing everything, get help and hire an OFS. If you've never done it before, spend 4 minutes and read this:
https://OFSGuide.com If you've done it and you're procrastinating hiring the next person, please respond and tell me why. John
+People ask me regularly who writes this email. 2 people: - Julia, my OFS:
- and Me (my wife gets me a formal picture every year when we take family photos):
The next question is What did you look for when hiring her? Simple. English skills. That's it. Although, when I hired her I wasn't hiring her to write my newsletter. I hired her like 12 years ago to write other things. Over the years she has written countless pieces for me including my personal blog, my personal social media, articles we've published... So how do you find someone to write for you? Obviously English skills. That’s a given. Here are a few questions I think would be great to ask when you’re interviewing an OFS for a writing position. 1. Do you like reading for fun? If yes, what do you like to read? If they don’t like to read, that could be a problem. Because to write, you have to read, A LOT. That’s where the ideas come from. If they don’t like reading, how will they keep writing? If they like to read, ask them what they want to read. What they read for fun is going to influence how they write. Most Filipinos are exposed to American culture. If your potential writer reads a lot of American literature, that’s good. It means their writing would be close to a native English speaker. 2. Do you write every day? Do you journal, or do you have a blog? Writing is a skill. The more you practice, the easier it is to write on cue. A ‘writer’ who doesn’t write every day will struggle if you ask them to write something quickly. 3. Do you know how to create an outline? Writing every day requires a lot of creativity AND organization. When doing research, you need to know how to organize the information you’ve gathered. This makes the writing process faster and more efficient. That doesn’t mean that disorganized writers aren’t good. But if you need your writer to create newsletters, articles, and blog posts regularly, having a system helps. 4. Go read these 4 articles I wrote, then write an intro paragraph about X in my voice. This let's them hear my voice (reading what I've written) and then write something short to see how well they pick up on my voice. Finding a great writer isn't exactly a science...but it's not that far from it. Follow my steps at
www.OneVAAway.com. I'll give you like 50 more questions I ask people. I guarantee you'll find someone great. John
+Well...I was going to talk about background checks, but then I read what my OFS wrote for this email: "No background check beats doing the work yourself." I laughed. Out loud. My OFS gets it! We’re so used to background checks here in the US it’s impossible to think that there are places in the world that don’t do it. We go through background checks to get a job, rent an apartment, do business, volunteer, establish credit. It’s so ingrained in our culture that we think nothing of it and expect it from everybody else. So it surprises people when I tell them that there’s no way to do a background check on a Filipino VA. At least, not in the way that we’re used to. When Filipinos look for jobs, a typical job requirement is the NBI clearance. It’s a document that states whether or not they have a police record. It’s the closest thing they have to a background check and something you could ask for. It could be a deterrent, but it won’t make much sense because you could get a record in the Philippines for littering or jaywalking. The Philippines has started rolling out a National ID System similar to our Social Security. But it’s going to be years we can use it due to COVID delays. I understand why background checks are important for many people. It gives them a sense of security. But I think the best way to really know the person you’re hiring is really to do the recruiting yourself and exercise some common sense. That’s why in
OneVAAway.com, I emphasize the importance of doing multiple email interviews. Really get to know the person you’re talking to. Ask for references and check them. Aside from the NBI Clearance (or the Barangay Clearance I talked about recently), the
Background Data Check at OnlineJobs.ph is the closest thing you'll get. We have all kinds of data on people. We noticed patterns for people who are problems. In the end, Julia is correct: No background check beats doing the work yourself. JUST HIRE SOMEONE! Get someone else doing the work. Stop procrastinating because you're worried about their background. John
+OFS = Online Filipino Specialist. I invented it because I don't like the term VA. People think a VA is a secretary. Someone who can only do mundane tasks. Someone who doesn't really have skills. Someone who can do data entry. Someone who can only follow step by step instruction and nothing else. ...that's not who you're hiring. ...that's not who I hire. You want someone who is an independent thinker. Someone who will read between the lines of your instructions and solve problems when you leave something out. That's an OFS. You want someone who is skilled at Ecommerce, writing, programming, social media management, CAD, design, eBay, or whatever it is you're going to have them do for you. That person exists. Highly skilled. Talented. Knowledgeable. That's an OFS You want someone who is honest, loyal, hard working, not entrepreneurial, and who is a good stable employee. That's an...well..that could be anyone from the Philippines. It's just part of their culture. This is Avery.
He's a UI/UX designer. He works on OnlineJobs.ph. He's not a graphic designer. He's not a web designer. He's not a logo designer. (I've tried to have him do all those things and he wasn't very good at it). He's a user interface and user experience designer. He shows up every day. He speaks his mind. He solves problems. He proposes solutions. He's an OFS.
Online. Filipino. Specialist. That's who you want to hire to help your business. John PS. Today is Chinese New Years. Recognize your OFS might not be as productive today.
+It seems like there’s news about another hack or data breach every other week. Big companies have their security breached, and information from millions of users or employees is leaked online. I used to worry about it with my team. But then I realized that worry was making me less money because I was less good at pushing the business forward while I was worrying about something out of my control. Today, I’ve worked with much of my team for years. I’ve never had a problem with them. But, my business isn't your business and you probably have legitimate things to worry about. What can your small business do? You can do some common sense things to protect your data when working with an OFS. Things like: Hire an OFS who have their own computers and internet access as much as possible. If your OFS has to share their computer with other people, there’s a possibility that strangers can log in to their profile. Emphasize and enforce data security and awareness with your OFS. Most data breaches are due to negligence, not malice. Remind your OFS that data security and protection help keep the business running. Without your business, they won’t get paid. Use apps like LastPass so you can give your OFS access to your accounts without access to your passwords. Have them sign a contract. Contracts carry a lot of weight in the Philippines. Last but not least, don’t give your OFS access to your accounts right away! Make sure there’s trust on both sides before you share anything. Nothing beats common sense when it comes to protecting yourself. John PS. I spent the weekend in St George, Utah riding bikes with my kids. Some stuff there is otherworldly.
+In 2004 I figured something out I hoped the rest of the world would never figure out. I had quit my job (the only job I ever had, I worked there for 8 months right out of college) and was working from home. I worked my butt off. My wife was also at home with our little child and she started inviting me to go on walks with them in the middle of the day. Like, 10am. It was amazing. I could get a little exercise in right in the middle of the workday and still get my work done before and after. Over the years this turned into more and more, longer and longer daytime activities. Hiking, biking, skiing... The best part, nobody else knew so wherever we went we were almost all alone. Then 2020 happened. People worked from home and discovered my secret world. Then people started resigning from their jobs because they had this new freedom. The Great Resignation isn’t just happening here in the US. It’s happening in the Philippines too. Filipino workers are resigning from their office jobs and companies are having a hard time keeping their employees. Lately, we’ve noticed a weird silver lining to it. In the past 2 years, we’ve noticed a significant spike in jobseeker profiles at Onlinejobs.ph. Our database has been growing steadily over the years. But what made the recent spike interesting was the greater number of highly experienced workers signing up. These are workers who have years of practical work experience. Some of them even have advanced degrees. Some even have management experience. These are people who normally wouldn’t work online or have never considered working from home until the pandemic happened. So what does this mean for you? If you’re looking for an OFS with specific technical skills, now’s the best time to find them in our database. If you’re scaling up your business and you’re looking for an OFS with corporate experience, now’s the best time to look for them. If you're short on time, use my
OneVAAway.com system. It shortens the process for finding a great OFS you can trust. John I always do my work at home and then go play. Here's the one time I took my laptop out with me. I was post surgery but my family still wanted to play. I sat and worked while they skied. It was beautiful.
+My OFS Julia writes: ----------------------- In the Philippines, there’s this custom called “Bayanihan” (pronounced as buy-uh-nee-hun), where people come together to lend a helping hand. It’s more than just people helping each other out. It’s about working together as a community. Bayanihan is what makes the Philippines a resilient country despite natural disasters.
I was reminded of this because of an email from one of my team mate OFS “Good day! Hope all is well with you guys. I would like to ask permission to go on a 1 day leave this coming January 21, 2022, due to the fact that I was tapped to be one of the leaders of the 2nd wave of relief operations for the Typhoon Odette victims in Surigao City. I will be leading our team in terms of the preparation, distribution, and security of the said relief packs up until we are done distributing to an estimated 420 families. I apologize for the short notice, rest assured all my tasks for the following date, Jan. 21, 2022, will be properly endorsed and properly coordinated with our team. Looking forward to your understanding. “ To get to Surigao City, he and the other volunteers must travel for 8 hours straight by land. It will take them the entire day to provide aid to those affected. Then he’d have to travel back home for another 8 hours. It would have been easier for my teammate to keep working and let someone else do it. Instead, he made sure he finished his work to go and help. The work these volunteers are doing may seem like a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. But efforts like these help places affected by Typhoon Odette recover faster. --------------------- You'll notice your OFS wants to help. They want to help you. They want to help those around them. John
+On Facebook, I (and by "I" I mean my OFS) get occasional comments from business owners who say they’ve tried outsourcing who insist that there aren’t any talented workers in the Philippines. “I’ve been outsourcing for years. Workers in the Philippines are crap! They’re only good for data entry jobs.” At the same time,
I see many people who say they’ve found lawyers, accountants, nurses, programmers, designers... at Onlinejobs.ph. In fact, I'm contacted every single day by people saying they love their OFS. So what is it really? Are there good, talented workers in the Philippines or not? There are! The fact that I and hundreds of thousands of others like me have found these people is proof enough that Filipinos are a great workforce. But why is it that some people can’t seem to find good workers? The problem primarily lies in the recruitment process. I see it all the time. When complainers tell me what they did to find someone I can almost always see the mistakes they made. You will attract the right people when you have a good recruitment process. That’s what I teach at
OneVAAway.com. It’s a process I’ve worked to perfect over the years. I and many others grew our businesses this way. I know it works because I’ve taught it to friends, family, and thousands of other business owners, and it’s worked for them too! The problem also lies with the person doing the hiring. You’ll never find the best person if you're not doing the hiring yourself. You’re the one who knows your business best. If you delegate this task to an agency, they don’t have the insight into your business and your personality to make the right hire so they’re not going to take the time to find the best person. They’ll take the first person who’s just “good enough” (barely qualified). This is why some people will never find good workers in the Philippines. Finding a great OFS starts with posting a job. Get the ball rolling. John
+In a
previous email, I mentioned that the Philippines is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, that’s why they have a lot of active volcanoes there. One of those active volcanoes, Taal, has been showing increased activity in the past week and a half. They’ve had 31 earthquakes and 9 small phreatomagmatic (both magmatic gases and steam from groundwater are expelled) eruptions in total. They’ve issued a ban on any aircraft flying close to the volcano, as well as boating and hiking on the island. Hopefully, that’s the worst of it. But Philvolcs (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology) and the news outlets there are keeping a close eye on it because the volcanic activity is increasing. Also, Taal has a history of being really destructive despite its small size.
Back in January 2020, it caused an ashfall that affected most of Metro Manila and nearby provinces. There were several casualties and damaged powerlines due to limited visibility and the amount of ash that fell on the area. It was bad and affected quite a few people on my team, as well as thousands of other OFS. I got a lot of emails from people saying they couldn't work because they couldn't breathe. It hasn't happened again...but I'm just warning you that it could. John
+The first time I hired a designer I was actually hiring a programmer. This was 2007 and I didn't really know what I was doing. I just knew that I had found a really good programmer, and he also said he was a designer! I thought I had just struck gold!
("Nino", the Programmer/Designer I hired in 2007...he still works for me today) And, he was actually a reasonable webpage designer. Not great, but reasonable. Which, is almost impossible to find in the same person. Programming and design are generally driven by opposite sides of the brain. A graphic designer is one of those workers that nearly every business needs, but not everybody knows how to recruit. It’s easy if you’re a designer or are creative yourself. But if you’re not, it can be difficult. So I asked my graphic designer, Elijah, what people need to know about hiring a Filipino graphic designer. I also asked him about people's misconceptions about hiring graphic designers that prevent them from finding a great one. “The number one misconception for the designer or video editor, is that every design has to look BEAUTIFUL, every video has to have FANCY Text and motion graphics. Each design has to be aesthetic or "Pinterest" worthy. NO! Designers and video-editors (media people) need to understand that they are here to create for the brand, the client, and of course the medium. Some brands and clients seek simplicity and minimalism (John is the best example). Some mediums also are geared toward minimal editing like TikTok. In other words, when hiring, employers should not just look for creativity, but versatility. Can this person adapt to my brand? Or is this person stuck with one style of editing and creating. If possible, look at their portfolio to see how they change their styles with different clients. If the style is consistent, the artist is not able to adapt to different brands and mediums Creativity is very hard to judge – one of the easiest ways to judge an artist is through their skill of adapting and changing their style to suit their client. For graphic design, you have to know what you are after. Some artists can pull off everything, which isn't that rare. But there are some artists who specialize in logo making, character/cartoon design, typography, and content layout. Knowing what you want will help you refine your job post and expectations.” Graphic designers are not magicians. They can’t pull rabbits and ideas out of thin air. It’s your business; the direction has to come from you. You've got to have an idea of what you want so they know what to give you. Also, recognize that a logo designer is not a graphic designer and a graphic designer is not a webpage designer. These are all different skill sets. John
+My wife came home from the gym the other day: "I got there at 9:15 and there were a bunch of parking spots. Just 3 weeks ago I couldn't even park on the street because so many people were there! Oh, how quickly people give up on their New Years resolutions." New Years Resolutions are a sorry thing. I stopped doing them years ago. If I want to make a change in my life, why would I procrastinate making that change until some magical January 1 comes. How is January 1 different than February 18? If you already gave up on your New Years Resolutions, let's take another look and restart. Make your change a SMART change This last week I've been working with my teenage daughters on setting goals. What's your goal this year? "To be the fastest" Ok...but that's not very SMART. If your resolution was "to lose weight" it's not very smart. If it was to "work less and spend more time with family" it's not very smart. If it was to "improve and grow my business" it's not very smart. Go back and make your goal - Specific - Measurable - Attainable - Relevant - Time Bound (search "SMART goals" if you need more help) It changes your ability to stick with that goal past the first time you fail. My daughter changed her goals to be - Win the region championships so I wear a Leaders jersey at State Championships. - Win a State Championship Then we set smaller SMART goals which will get her there (blacked out)
My two other kids have pretty big goals that still need to be worked on... My advice for you (this isn't going to work for everyone...) Set a SMART goal that involves a specific number of hours/week you'll cut your workload down. Then define what you're going to delegate to someone else in order to cut it down. Be specific. Drill down with the goals. Then IMMEDIATELY start working towards it. Here's a 13 minute process you can do right now to get the ball rolling: 1. Read
OFSGuide.com - 4 minutes that will answer most of your questions 2. Post a
job on OnlineJobs.ph - 8 minutes that will start the ball rolling Just starting the ball rolling is the hardest part of this process...and it's not actually that hard. 3. Respond to this and let me know that you posted your job. If you have questions before posting, read
OFSGuide.com. If you still have questions, respond and let me know. John
+I love getting useful tips from other employers. I just got one from Vin Carrano when he responded to my email about
using LastPass with my OFS. It turns out he was using LastPass too. This led to an email exchange about a problem some of you wrote to me about:
giving your OFS access to your credit card when paying for subscriptions or services. He shared how you can give your OFS access to your credit card to make payments without giving them access to your card. Here's what Vin did. He uses the Capital One Spark card which allows him to create virtual card numbers that only work on one URL He created a virtual card for Jane (his OFS) and assigned it to the vendor URL he has to pay invoices on. He shared access to this card through LastPass. He created a video to teach Jane how to pay invoices. Jane takes over paying the invoices for that site. Vin said it saves him hours of time every week. It's just brilliant. He's secure because the card is only used on one site. His OFS can't spend it anywhere else. If he needs to pay on other sites, he can easily create another card and share access to his OFS. He's secure because he can set a spend limit on the virtual cards. There's no chance his OFS would overspend. (This would have been super helpful back when
my OFS overspent on FB ads.) He's secure because he can deactivate the card at any time. He gets hours back because Jane has taken over that job. He recommends using the Capital One Spark card. There's also Privacy.com and Wise.com being advertised in a lot of places. So yeah, virtual cards are amazing. Thank you so much Vin for the tip! If you guys have other tips for me, I'd love to hear them. Let's share the wisdom and help make our businesses and lives better! John
+My son came home from college this past weekend. He's having the time of his life. He skied 4 times the past week.
I had to ask him "Are you going to class???" He says he has all A's in his classes...we'll see. Should you hire an OFS who’s still going to school? It depends. The minimum age required to create an
Onlinejobs.ph jobseeker account is 18. Someone who is 18 is college-age in the Philippines. We have profiles in our database who are still in college or went back to college during the pandemic, so you may encounter students while recruiting. School is a huge commitment in the Philippines. One college unit there is equivalent to 3 hours of school work per week (1-2 hours in-class + 1 hour recommended study time). Most Filipino college students are required to enroll in at least 12 units per semester to graduate on time. That's 36 hours of school work per week. This is equivalent to (or more than) most universities in the USA. Whether they could work full-time while going to school is a legitimate concern. If that OFS is going to school full-time (12 units or more), I would caution against hiring that person because: They won’t be able to focus on the work because their education is going to come first (which it should) or They wouldn’t be able to focus on their education because of work. It might cause them to drop out or fail in their classes. If that OFS is going to school part-time, (night school or weekend college allow their students to take fewer credits but it takes them longer to finish their education), I’d consider hiring them if: They don’t have any other jobs, AND They can do their schoolwork outside of work hours. I've learned that having a college degree in the Philippines is a big deal. Like, family members will look down on you of you don't have a college degree. A lot of people think you're only qualified to be a nanny if you don't have a college degree. Let them finish their schooling. It will affect them for the rest of their lives.. John
+Over the past 2 years it has become more and more apparent to me that I need help. For a long time I ran OnlineJobs.ph. I managed the developers. I thought through features. I thought through solutions. I pushed projects forward. I reminded people of their pending tasks. I kept track of things. And...I still run OnlineJobs.ph... ...but it's time for me to have some help managing all those things. So I promoted from within. Meet Joven, the new Operations Manager at OnlineJobs.ph
Joven is a VA turned OFS. You've already met him. He was the first person I ever hired in the Philippines. He has worked for me since 2005. When I first hired him he knew NOTHING! Since 2005 he has had countless roles for me. - article writer - SEO - webmaster - trainer - admin verification - VA - checker on other OFS - team lead - running PPC campaigns - other things I don't remember... Today he's an OFS. There are 2 takeaways: 1. Filipinos are super loyal. They want to stick with you and your company. If you're willing to invest in them, it pays big dividends down the road. 2. Filipinos want to contribute. Recently Joven emailed me and said "Sir, I'm ready for more responsibilities. Right now I'm not being utilized enough. I want a change and to do more for the company." This tells you Joven's attitude, which is not unique to him. Lots of OFS want to do more for you...it just requires you letting them. They want to make a difference. They want to contribute. They want to do meaningful work. They don't want a dead-end job. Try asking your OFS "How happy are you in your current role? What else could you see yourself doing for the company? What other skills do you have?" The things they tell you might not align with your vision, but it might just give you a different perspective on your OFS. John PS. This email may be a little premature. He's just starting in this new role. I don't know if it will work yet. It may not be natural to him. But we're going to try to make it work because it will help me so much!
+I've said before that I'm not a holiday/celebration kind of guy. Halloween is my least favorite day of the year. Valentines day is up there with it. I know not everyone feels this way...but for me... Yuck! But this email is more about relationships than it is about Valentines day and I found it quite interesting... Julia (my content OFS) writes: ------------------ Valentine’s Day is one of those celebrations we’ve learned from the US. Because of that, we celebrate it pretty much the same way, with flowers, hearts, and cupids. Couples would go out on dates and love songs playing everywhere. The jaded part of my brain thinks Valentine’s is just a marketing campaign designed to sell more flowers and chocolate. But the romantic in me appreciates the love and courtship traditions that come out in full force on this day. Here are some of those traditions. 1. Harana. It’s the serenade tradition where young men sing to single women as a form of courtship. Traditionally, it’s done at night outside the girl’s home. Sometimes accompanied by his friends, the man would sing ballads while playing the guitar.
Nowadays, it’s not safe or practical to do that. The modern Haranawould have the man serenading the girl on their break in school or at work. If you can’t sing or play the guitar, you can hire a Harana service where professionals can sing for you. 2. Umakyat ng Ligaw. It means to court someone romantically. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. When a man woos a woman directly, this is traditionally considered disrespectful. Direct courtship implies that your intentions are not honorable. The proper way to do it is to court a woman AND her family. You visit the girl at her home (usually at night or on the weekends, when everybody is at home) and bring gifts for everyone. You have to try to win the girl’s affections while winning her family’s approval. Yes, it’s as uncomfortable as it sounds. There’s nothing more romantic than being interrogated by the parents of the person you want to date. That’s why we find the “Meet the Parents” movies so amusing. We can relate, but we’re also relieved that we’re done with that meeting early. Now, most Filipinos date. But a modern adaptation of this is still practiced by some. The guy goes to the girl’s house (and vice versa), is introduced to the family, and announces their intentions to date. You can still date even if you’re not introduced to the family. But it’s polite to do the introductions first before you start dating. I like this adaptation as a parent. I can’t stop my daughter from dating when she comes of age. I would want to know who my child is dating. 3. Level of in-laws. That’s the name I made up for the unspoken rule of what to call the parents of your partner at different stages of the relationship. I included this on the list because many people change their relationship status after Valentine’s Day. You’re never supposed to call the parents of your partner by their first name. It’s considered rude. Instead, you use honorifics depending on where you are in the relationship. Casual dating: Use the formal Mr. and Mrs. Last Name or the more informal Aling[Mom’s First Name] and Manong/Mang[Dad’s First Name] depending on their preference. Serious relationship: You call them Tito(Uncle) and Tita(Aunt). Why use Titoand Tita? It signals the level of closeness. You’re not really family, but you’re always welcome in their home. Married: You call your in-laws Mom and Dad or Mama and Papa, depending on their preference. They’d be in the same level of importance or closeness as your parents. What happens if the relationship ends? Etiquette states that you can keep using the last honorific. Suppose the relationship was serious, but you broke up before getting married. In that case, you may continue calling your ex’s parents “Tito” and “Tita” when you see them socially. --------------- I call my in-laws mom and dad. At first it was uncomfortable...but they're so good that it didn't take long to become easy.
+Did you know that the Philippines actually has two official languages: Filipino and English? I didn't really realize this until I went there in 2009 (my first...and only time there). I was so surprised that I took pictures while in Manila:
Filipinos start learning English from pre-school until college. It’s a required subject for all schools. It’s used in government and business. Filipinos have to learn English, one way or another, to get by. My second day in the Philippines I was in the hotel lobby and I heard an argument. I looked over to the front desk to see the hotel clerk and a guest, both Filipino, arguing in English! So why did the Philippines include English as an official language? Why not just use Filipino? The weird thing about Filipino is it’s not a language that developed organically; the Philippine government created it. The base language of Filipino is Tagalog, with words from other dialects mixed in. Even though Tagalog is the most used language in the Philippines, only 31% of Filipinos speak it. There are 120+ languages spoken in the Philippines. Non-native Tagalog speakers have to learn Tagalog to learn Filipino. Some non-native Tagalog speakers have a hard time learning Filipino because their language is entirely different from Tagalog. It’s hard to practice Tagalog if your family or community doesn’t use it. It’s often easier to learn English because even though they don’t use it at home, they use it in school or work. They’re also constantly exposed to English through TV, movies, and books. Here’s what my OFS, Julia, told me about how this weird language barrier affects their life. I’m not a native Tagalog speaker, so I’m not that fluent in Filipino. I’m a Cebuano speaker. My husband, Jam, is a native Tagalog speaker and is fluent in Filipino. Jam’s parents are native Ilokano speakers who are also fluent in Filipino because they live amongst native Tagalog speakers. If you forced us to only speak in our native language, we wouldn’t understand each other. I don’t understand Ilokano. My in-laws don’t understand Cebuano. So when we get together, we use Filipino AND English to understand each other, but I lean more towards English because my Tagalog isn’t that good. People often ask me if they can find someone who speaks good English in the Philippines. YES! It's completely reasonable to find someone with perfect English. When recruiting, see if you can find someone who uses English slang. If they do, you know English is deeply entrenched in their life. John
+I got this question through my Facebook page: “Do you experience high turnover among Filipino Remote workers? We have gone through at least 30 of them in the last 3 years despite providing 13th-month bonus, health insurance, and higher wage than if they were to work through a staff agency company. We also do daily huddles, so communication shouldn't be a problem. It seems like they always have personal issues.. It's really giving us an operational headache and I'm starting to think it's not working out outsourcing in the Philippines. It's kinda sad because they are usually smart but also often have 2 full time jobs..” This sounds more like a position issue or a management issue than a salary issue. We almost never have someone leave. I've probably had 12 people leave (or us let them go) over the past 15 years TOTAL. We have 38 full-time OFS right now. Filipinos are super loyal culturally. Maybe you should ask your current team why they think people are leaving. Tell them to be honest with you and that you're prepared to hear some hard things. What are these hard things? Here are a few examples 1. They’re bored. The work isn’t challenging enough. There’s no need to focus or do better. There’s no professional fulfillment, so they’re looking for it elsewhere. 2. They don’t feel heard. Yes, you can have daily meetings with your team, but are they comfortable enough to really tell you what they think? 3. Are they worried they might lose their job if they contradict you or make mistakes? 4. Do you always shoot down their ideas or ignore their suggestions? It takes time to learn how to listen. It’s something I still struggle with. Some OFS still don’t feel comfortable talking to me directly about their concerns. We keep encouraging them to speak up so we know what we can do to improve their work environment. They sometimes course it through a teammate. We also allow them to send us their concerns anonymously. 5. Your workers see themselves as freelancers. At OneVAAway.com, we have this list of questions for applicants to know more about their personalities. We want people who look for stability and long-term work. There are a lot of Filipinos out there who want this. They’re the ones who make the best employees. But there are Filipino workers out there who live to hustle. The freelancers. That’s the culture that sites like Upwork and Freelancer promote. You’re rewarded when you’re always chasing that next job. You’re a rockstar when you have a long list of clients. This is why I don’t promote the review system at Onlinejobs.ph. It’s good that it tells you what workers to avoid. But it also worries me when I see a worker get good reviews from many employers. Why can't this worker stick with one employer? Look, I feel for this employer having all this turnover. It can get frustrating when you spend time recruiting and giving your employees "benefits" and not getting the work you expect. That’s why a good recruitment process is so important. It took me years to develop
OneVAAway because I went through all those mistakes and kept improving my process. I designed it so you don’t have to make the same mistakes as I did. John
+I realized recently that I'm sarcastic with my kids. Too often I joke with them by being hard on them or making fun of them. It's not good. I had to take a step back and change my approach. Just be nice. I'm working on it...I fear it's a long road. One of the things people call me out on is that I’m too nice to my Filipino team. How can I give my employees benefits and all that time off? I keep someone on for too long when their performance declines! Most importantly, how do I protect myself from being taken advantage of? Have you found yourself in this situation? "I have done everything to be very accommodating and understanding to my Filipino worker. He has been with me over the years and we have had a good working relationship. But what I noticed recently is that it's always one excuse or another. From family members dying which I am sympathetic about and understanding to disappearing for 2 days in a row. They reappears apologizing and I always understand and forgive him. It's like because he knows I am an understanding boss. He takes advantage of my kindness and takes it for WEAKNESS . I know you promote being understanding and kind to the Filipino workers but at what point does one draw the line from being abused and taken for granted to where their actions affect our business performance. His disappearance has yet again affected our targeted web design project completion dates. This has happened time and time again and he acknowledges it but he is still doing it at what point does one say enough is enough and fire?" First, I think it’s fantastic that Desi O. is going out of her way to help out her worker. I agree it seems like she’s being taken advantage of. So, how do you prevent this from happening? What do you do when this happens to you. I can afford to be nice because I set expectations early on. I tell my OFS team that I expect a daily report. I want to see the things they have done during the workday. I also set deadlines for critical things. My team knows that they need to focus on important work. I call them out when I notice things are not moving fast enough. In fact, just today I sent an email to one of my web people and said "Hey, it has been 5 days since I've had an update about X project. Why? You do good work, but I need better updates from you." Most importantly, I give feedback. I call them out when I see they’re making mistakes or taking advantage of the situation. I have called out a few employees about their lack of productivity or when they’re not paying attention. I talked about it when
my OFS uploaded the wrong video. My OFS team knows that I’ll go out of my way to be the best boss that I can be if they go out of their way to be great employees. If that doesn’t work, it is your right to let them go if you've given them multiple chances. Also, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is why a good recruitment process is essential. Listening to your gut is important. The one I laid out in
OneVAAway.com can help prevent most of this from happening. As far as I can remember, I only have two people who were always out because they were sick. One eventually resigned because she was really sick. We didn’t want to let her go and offered to keep helping. But she chose to leave because her health problems were getting in the way. The other one came back to work and took on more responsibilities than she did when she first started working for us. John
+Another Philippines holiday? Already? If I look at my calendar it feels like we (in the USA) have about one holiday per month. It feels like the Philippines has about 1 per week! They don't. But sometimes it feels that way. Tomorrow, Feb 25 is one of those days. The EDSA Revolution Anniversary commemorates the series of peaceful demonstrations back in 1986 that led to the ousting of Ferdinand Marcos (then president of the Philippines). It used to be a regular holiday until 2019, when the Philippine government changed it into a special non-working holiday to reduce the number of regular holidays. Maybe they were planning for the future when so many Filipinos would be working as OFS! For the most part, this holiday shouldn’t affect your operations. Your OFS will probably work. They probably don't commute. But the thing about this holiday is that some people (mostly political groups) commemorate it by staging rallies along the EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue). EDSA is a major road; it connects the different cities of Metro Manila. So whenever there’s a disruption along EDSA, it causes a traffic jam that affects most of Manila. If your OFS has to commute along EDSA to get to work, it might affect your business. This happens to call centers and VA agencies whose employees work from an office. If your Filipino team works from home, you’ll be fine. This is just another perk of hiring your OFS directly instead of going through an agency. Although...it is still a "special non-working" holiday, so there may be some OFS who take it off. If you don't get a daily report from your OFS tomorrow, don't be shocked. John PS. If you want more info about holidays and how to handle them:
https://www.OnlineJobs.ph/holidays
+A while back I sent a newsletter about
how my OFS had published a video that was horribly edited. The video started mid-sentence, had no context, and was just a bad edit.
Yet, someone else (who didn’t do the edit) still published it. Why? A subscriber (thanks! Dennis Yu) replied with: The “mindless” activity is one of the biggest challenges we have with VAs. Dennis runs a social media agency and told me how one of his OFS was posting immigration Law posts (intended for one of his clients) onto his agency social media accounts. How does that make sense? Why would the agency audience care about immigration law??? I’m sure Dennis and I aren’t the only 2 to have this happen to them, so I decided to press my team about why work sometimes gets done mindlessly. Here’s what I found out. 1. Fear is a large driver of Filipino behavior 2. The Power-Distance of the Philippine culture is strongly at play. 3. Often for VAs, quantity gets emphasized over quality because it’s visible 4. Sometimes they just get lazy. “I just want to complete my tasks” 5. Lack of company culture - Filipinos are very family-oriented. If they feel disconnected in the business, they just don’t care. Fear Fear of being embarrassed came up over and over again in people’s responses. When a Filipino fears embarrassment, their reaction is to keep it as simple as possible. Try really hard not to do anything wrong by not doing anything different. “Just do what I’ve been told, even if I think it’s not right.” In the Philippines, fear often has the opposite effect as what you might expect. If you fear failure you’re likely to make more effort, do more, try harder. In the Philippines, it’s often the opposite. Fear says to them to do as little as they can get by so they don’t make a mistake when doing extra. This is a big driving factor in mindless/poor work. When I asked my team "What causes someone to do mindless work? Or, to not care if there's an obvious mistake in a final product?" fear came up over and over again in their responses. Here are quotes from a number of people on my team. - “Being afraid of making mistakes. This is something I've experienced when I started working for you. I was absolutely terrified that I'd lose my job. I know this is something a lot of us still feel. Don't rock the boat. Being mediocre is better than making a mistake.” - “We’re scared of retribution or any attack (verbal or physical even) from someone who's on top of them or even on their level.” - “Fear of getting fired for expressing his/her own opinion or challenging someone's idea to the point that even sometimes getting personal.” - “Getting shouted at or receiving an email that sounds like it.” - “Failing to impress or get challenged/questioned of the small achievements they were able to get in their life.” - “Some are also hesitant to talk because their opinion might not be accepted. They are afraid that their ideas will be rejected.” - “Americans are very opinionated that some even get to the point of being pushy or bossy, Filipinos are the exact opposite, we were trained to be submissive(religiously) and just do whatever someone asks of them.” - “Another thing is, Filipinos won't even engage or stand up for what he/she thinks the best nor strike up a conversation or argue the topic, there's even a Filipino saying that goes with it, it's called "sumunod sa agos" or "just go where the (river) flow" in English...which develops this passive attitude.” - “They can't relate much and choose the right word to express what is on their mind, even to some extent, working with a fellow Filipino. Much worse if they have to talk in English.” Maybe the most telling quote comes next in the Power-Distance section. Power-Distance Index If you’ve never heard about Hofstede’s Power distance Index, it’s worth looking up. You’ll understand the mindlessness a lot better. The Philippines has a very high power-distance index. They respect authority. If they don’t have a clear picture of who is in authority, they’ll often assume others are in authority and they’re below other people. This makes them less likely to question things they see wrong. Less likely to fix mistakes. Less likely to try hard when someone in authority has already worked on it or is going to work on it. Here are quotes from my team: - “What was on my mind at those times was... "you are my boss; why would I question or correct you?"” - This was one of the more telling quotes --> “We trust "professionals" and are afraid to point out the mistakes of these professionals (graphic designer, writer, editor, ect) because we are afraid that maybe we are the ones who made a mistake. And we don't want to "embarrass" ourselves. - It takes me around 4 drafts just to show [team member] a mistake. Should I start with "Sorry to correct you?" or "Hi [name], I might be wrong but", or "This might be because you didn't see this, but..." - “As children, we are taught “huwag sumagot sa nakaka tanda” which more or less means we cannot defend ourselves or argue against elders. This ingrains the Filipino habit of never talking back to authority, even if we know they’re wrong.” What this comes down to is if you (or someone else they see as being in authority) asks them to do something, they’re unlikely to correct a mistake you make, even if it’s obvious to them that you’re wrong or left something out. Go back and read through the Fear section above. You’ll see evidence of the power-distance built-in to their fear. Quantity over Quality Often, quantity is more visible than quality. An OFS knows that you’re going to see how many support tickets they responded to but you’re unlikely to see how well they responded. You're going to see how many images they edited, but not how well done every one of them is. You're going to see how many articles were written, but not read every sentence of every article. Quantity is emphasized by YOU over the quality. Plus, often it’s easier to do a mediocre job of a lot of things than it is to do a great job with a few things. This appears more in online work too. Employers look at “How many X did you do today?” Employers use time trackers to see how many hours someone worked. Employers create metrics to track productivity. All of this leads to quantity rather than quality being emphasized. Plus, when you combine this with the power-distance at play, you get someone who feels like it’s the boss's job to make sure the work is high quality. It’s the VAs job just to get it done quickly. Here are quotes from my team: - “The quantity issue, I feel that too. I feel a bit of pressure to deliver more because I'm getting paid more. But it's not just the quantity; it's the turn-around time. Like, we all have regular tasks that fill up most of our workday. But when a special project comes in, there's this pressure to get it done as soon as possible, on top of the regular work.” - “But maybe some factors causing it is the thinking that "I need to accomplish more". "I need to respond fast." "I need to impress my boss that I have done a lot of things." Sometimes the daily report encourages this. "What did you do today?" "How many things did you get done today?" They know you're going to see the report and going to look at how much. You might not see the actual work... Let your OFS slow down. Laziness Sometimes, people just get lazy. Sometimes, this just happens. Some say the rising generation is lazy. Sometimes the work lends itself to laziness. Sometimes it happens as an OFS gets more comfortable with the work. For a lot, they think the only online jobs are data entry jobs. Data entry jobs are mindless by nature. This is changing with the push to remote work with Covid. Quotes from my team: - “For some Filipinos, Mediocre/Mindless work is the standard. Yes, there are many out there who still want to do their best, but there are also so many who are just exhausting. “ - “Sometimes people just performed what exactly told them to do, especially those already employed long enough. As long the particular tasks are done, they think it's already OK. They no longer care or think more about the possible problem that it may cause.” - “Sometimes, it's not mindless work. Sometimes, it's just a work shlump. They care very much, they just need a little push to get them out of it.” To me, this is often the employers' fault. Often we’ve given mindless work. We’ve trained them to be mindless. We’ve made sure they always run everything by us before pushing it to a client. This curates laziness. Sometimes the OFS just needs a little push. "I need you to do better quality work, this quality of product just isn't working for me. How can I help you?" Sometimes they may have taken on another job and their laziness is due to exhaustion, both mental and physical. Ask. "Hey, I noticed the quality has declined recently. What's causing this? Are you overworked?" Family Culture Surprisingly, I had quite a few different people talk about family with regards to mindless work. Like, when they don’t feel like they’re part of a family, they don’t care about the work. This translates to the culture of the company and how much they’re cared for. Quotes from my team: - “Some never felt that they are part of the "family" organization...thus, they would never care. “ - “Lack of respect from peers, colleagues at work or even at the personal level.” - “When we were still starting, it really felt like a family, and once you were introduced to one person, we wanted to talk to each other a lot when we had problems. I loved every one! We would also reach out to each other when there were problems. However, the team has grown so much, the industry has changed, and the work from home environment is also very different now.” - “Most Filipinos today no longer look at their online work as a family, as we have. They just see work, with the same weight and value as they see any 8-5 job.” Filipinos are caring. Loving. Very service oriented. When they don't feel this being reciprocated, it's very off-putting to them. If they don't feel cared for, they return the lack of care. They don't care about the work. They don't care about the quality. They don't care about the outcome. I'm not saying you need to send birthday cards to your OFS, I'm just saying things you do to show you care about them matter. Solutions A bunch of my team members also offered solutions. A lot of it has to do with decreasing the power-distance or with dealing with the power-distance. Decreasing their fear is baked into their solutions. These both also create more of a family feeling. - Acknowledgment for their great work to level up their self-worth/pride but not overdoing it. A simple gift matters, it could be anything, food or coffee mugs will also mean a lot. Sometimes, when I worked in an office I'd put 500 pesos discreetly on their desk telling them (only if they asked) Santa had come early to those who put on a wonderful job - I think you already did this before, but maybe giving rewards to people who contributed more than their expected role/responsibilities? Either cash or non-cash (experiential rewards) - Sometimes work may get boring, but if people see dynamics on their job, maybe that will motivate them to think/work better? - My main point is that incentives in the workplace help employees feel that their extra contribution is valued. - Filipinos need more understanding of their job roles, what's the scope, oversight, and responsibilities. - Most Filipinos love to talk, chat, and even gossip about a lot of things not related to work, which keeps most of us happy and have fun while working on a task. It also helps lose the edge and stress. Usually in the vernacular but sometimes it also works in English, It's important to have a sense of humor and remain respected. - Getting a little bit personal, but not going to the extent that we tell them what they'll need to do and how to go on with their lives. Empathy is greatly appreciated. - Talk about food, experiences, and dreams. If they open up about their love lives, just go with it and don't judge, just give them support and suggestions to resolve things. - Quality assurance is important, but what makes QA work is there are designated people in charge to call out mistakes. When we know we are allowed to call out mistakes or know specific people are allowed to, it's fine. We respect the "law". For some reason, I always understood that [team member] checks my work. She makes me fix my edits. I never took that personally. I just thought that's how it was. I don't know how you trained her, but she's straightforward. She's the best example of how it's not cultural. She's not afraid to correct me. There's a lot going on here. It's unlikely that any one of these is going to solve all situations. My Solutions A few solutions I’ve tried that have worked include giving people a title, job security, giving responsibility and having people take ownership, and adding a quality assurance process. - In the Philippines, titles are important. More important than in the USA. So over the past couple of years, I’ve been giving titles to people. “Content Manager”. “Operations Manager”. In giving these titles I also give responsibilities and authority. The authority tends to mean they’re in charge of making sure things are done correctly in that area. - I try to assure my people that they're not going to get fired for making a mistake. Their job is secure. Even if they do something wrong, they're still going to have a job. I try to make this clear. - I’ve found that giving people responsibilities and including “making sure it’s well done” has helped. I’ve also told people that I want them to take ownership of the final product. Like, think through “Does this make us look good? Does this embarrass John? Does this embarrass the business? Should this get published?” If any of those things are wrong, your responsibility is either to fix it or to say something to the person in charge. Basically, I’ve given them authority to question the final output. - Recently I added a person to double-check work. That person's job is to make sure the quality is where we expect. In software, this means that the feature performs as people expect it should. They check for bugs. They look for anything that feels odd. In content, they make sure everything reads perfectly. They make edits. They make sure the final product makes sense. They make suggestions if they see a way to improve a process. For both of these QA positions, I included a large list of things they’re supposed to check and speak up about. Now they have the authority to say something is wrong so they feel confident in finding problems and speaking up about them. All of these things have made a difference for me. I'm getting better work done. I fix problems less often. My OFS tell me they're happier. For me, this is a constant learning experience. I hope you're learning too.
+I think most people who have raised teenagers will agree that it's hard. There's almost always something that you don't see eye to eye about and the teenage years is when they're willing to push back. Right now we're having this about an iPhone. My 14yr old wants an iPhone and we don't want her to have one. Phones...it's a different world than the one I grew up in. In the Philippines, phones are different too. When you’re asking for your OFS phone number, make sure you get both of them. Most Filipinos have two phone numbers. My OFS, Julia, explains why they have 2 phone numbers. There are two leading cell carriers in the Philippines: Globe Telecom and Smart Philippines. Both also happen to be the largest internet service providers in the Philippines. Both carriers are supposed to provide nationwide coverage, but there are some places where one has a stronger signal over the other. Sometimes you don’t even have to travel far to lose the signal of one carrier. Because of this, it makes more sense for us to get 2 SIM cards, one from Globe and another from Smart. Dual-SIM phones are very popular here because it makes it easier to carry both in one phone. Having the SIM of both carriers ensures that we stay connected, no matter where we are. Another advantage of having the SIMs to both networks? We’ll know which ISP is stronger or out of service. This information is so important that we have a local virtual assistants’ Facebook group where we mainly talk about which carrier or ISP is down/or slow that day. For example, if we know that Globe is down in some areas, we would take out our backup Smart internet or move to an area where we know Smart has a stronger signal. For the most part, this system works. We can keep working because there’s always a backup. You’ll only hear us complain that the internet is down when both ISPs are out. My team doesn't complain about the internet being down very much anymore. It used to be a problem...but infrastructure has gotten better over the years. Not much of a problem...maybe because they now carry backup internet with them all the time! John
+I have a lot of talented people around me. Not just in the Philippines, but at home and at church and with family. I keep telling my wife and kids that I'm consistently surprised at the talent of the people around me. There's a lot of talent I don't have...but others do. I’m not alone in this. Just a few days ago, I got this email from John Murphy: I am writing you to inform you that the best decision I ever made was to use your service and find the most talented person I have ever worked with. I wasn't surprised to get this. With almost 2 million profiles at Onlinejobs.ph, it's not real difficult to find someone super talented to work on your business. We have hundreds of stories like this from real business owners. We add to this list almost every day right now. You also don't have to spend hundreds of hours finding that "most talented person". You don’t have to go through bad hires before finding a good one. With my recruiting process at OneVAway.com, you should be able to find a talented worker in 2-3 total hours. That takes less time than doing laundry or running errands. If you’re worried that going through the course will be a waste of time, I’ll give you your money back if the process doesn’t work. That’s how confident I am that the $49 and the 3 hours you spend going through the OneVAAway recruiting process is going to be the best decision of your life...like it was for John Murphy. I've had very very few people ask for their money back. John
+I talked about this in a previous newsletter on how SMART goals help make changes happen. My daughters and I recently finished planning their race season (basically all of 2022) which includes some big SMART goals as well as some big objectives. (she blinked...but she ran off and got on her bike before I could retake the pic...) We practice what we preach here. It’s the same when you’re managing an OFS team. You want to see projects completed. You want to see work continuously improving. For that to happen, you need to have SMART expectations. Goals and expectations are two sides of the same coin. The goal of your OFS is to meet your expectations. By setting expectations that are: Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timely you’ve given your OFS a goal that they can achieve. Why is this important? Having SMART expectations ensures that you and your OFS team are on the same page. Your OFS knows exactly what you want, and you know exactly what you’re getting. Giving your OFS achievable goals also keeps them motivated even when things aren’t going their way. It’s just how the human mind works. You’re more likely to keep working towards your goal when you’re making progress, no matter how small. The best example I have for a SMART expectation is when I tell my employees that they have to send a daily email. Even when they’re having a bad day at work and nothing’s going their way, the daily report is the one thing that can’t go wrong. The daily email works on so many levels. It allows them to talk about their problems at work, so they don’t disappear. It lets us know what the problem is to start fixing it. Lastly, it keeps them motivated because they know they did one thing right for that day. Setting SMART expectations is also how we get projects done on Basecamp. I start by telling my team what I want. We talk, exchange ideas, and break down the project into achievable tasks. The tasks are assigned to the right people. Deadlines are set. Feedback is exchanged. Repeat steps 2 to 5 until the job is done. It’s a system that works. It has worked so well that I needed help with project management because we had so many things going on. I don't think you need to go through the SMART acronym with everything you give your OFS...but being clear and realistic and having deadlines and being measurable... are all really helpful for your OFS. John
+Ruben Kanya runs a successful podcast and agency doing $20,000+/month. He's super accomplished, and it shows in his work. His clients notice the quality and amount of work. They often ask how he manages to produce all that content and run an agency simultaneously. They don't realize it's his VAs doing the work. Ruben isn't new to outsourcing. He's been hiring Filipino VAs since 2014. He's happy with his team, but he needs to hire more with his growing business. But...Ruben had a problem finding VAs. At first glance, there's no reason why he shouldn't have hundreds of applications. He provides training and benefits. His Filipino team loves him and has been with him for years. But his job posts weren't working out super well. They're not attracting the attention of qualified applicants as he wanted. The One VA Away Challenge fixed it… Don't believe me? Check out this video he sent me out of the blue! https://youtu.be/1n2YEugwgvI Then he sent me another video. In this video, he explains how the One VA Away Challenge changed how he hires OFS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjmINaON2MY Ruben realized that he needed a good outreach process in his recruitment. He integrated what he learned in the One VA Away challenge, and now he's getting really good results. It just shows that even though you've been outsourcing for years and you've had great success with your current process, we can always learn more to make it better. If you haven't taken the leap yet because you're just not sure...take the One VA Away Challenge! Most people are one VA (or OFS) away from changing the way their life runs by changing the way their business runs. John
+Getting poor work back from my team has been one of the pitfalls of turning tasks 100% over to my OFS. At times it has been really frustrating. When something gets left undone and it seems so obvious to me, I get frustrated. And I wasn't sure how to fix this...until now. About a month ago I wrote about a terrible video that got published by my OFS and about how I then assigned people to do quality assurance (QA) work. It has changed my life! I put a QA person in charge of software and a QA person in charge of content. They look at everything that happens and they critique it. They catch the problems that I was previously catching...before it gets to me! They don't always catch everything, but it has been so good that I often just read through conversations my team is having and don't even have to look at the actual software or content outputs. Watch this video example of how it's working for me: http://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/2022-02-16_10-28-10.mp4 If you're struggling with poor output from your team where it seems like simple fixes, consider hiring (or promoting, or...shifting someone) a QA person. John
+I just got this email from Brian Wallace. He runs a small-IT company based in Miami. He’s interested in hiring an OFS for his business but is having trouble finding them. “Any tips or approaches on finding more specialized experts in technical areas? In my case it’s tech support, network engineering, the cloud - AWS & Azure, etc. but I imagine others might be looking for experts for their own businesses? The schedule and cost advantages, or even lack of local talent can be just what’s needed.” I get this question from people looking for workers with specific skills. But I don't think you should have any problem at all in finding tech support/network engineering people. There are tons of people with those skills. I did a quick search on Onlinejobs.ph for the skills Brian listed here. For network engineers, I found 1,000+ profiles. For AWS, I also found over a thousand resumes. For Azure, I found around 700 people. Here are reasons you might not be finding people: - Maybe your job post wasn't attractive enough? - Maybe the salary was too low? (don't post "TBD" for salary, post a number, you'll get more applicants) - Maybe you just need to post the job post again (this almost always garners more applicants). - Try proactively contacting workers from their profiles by searching for the skills you're looking for. If I don't get enough applicants, that's what I do. I'll contact 10-30 people from their profile and then hire from those who respond. - I contact many people because even though they have a profile on Onlinejobs.ph doesn’t mean they’re available. They could already be working and just didn’t bother deactivating their profile. - When searching on OnlineJobs.ph, try putting your search terms in quotes. Like "azure developer" rather than azure developer. You'll get better search results. Which...now's probably a good time to mention that improving search results on OnlineJobs.ph is one of our top priorities. We have 3 people working full-time on it. Yes, you can find really people who are really talented with technical skills. John
+Here's what "Clean up your play mess" looks like to an 8 year old boy: He wasn't careless or mindless about it...he told me "I did clean up...I'm still playing with those!" At least he thought it through. A while back I sent a newsletter about how my OFS had published a video that was horribly edited. The video started mid-sentence, had no context, and was just a bad edit. Yet, someone else (who didn’t do the edit) still published it. It wasn't thought through by either person. Why? I talked about this with my friend Dennis Yu, who runs a social media agency and has hundreds of OFS working for him. It turns out I’m not alone in this. He replied: The “mindless” activity is one of the biggest challenges we have with VAs. Dennis told me how one of his OFS was posting immigration Law posts (intended for one of his clients) onto his agency social media accounts. How does that make sense? Why would the agency audience care about immigration law??? I’m sure Dennis and I aren’t the only 2 to have this happen to them, so I decided to press my team about why work sometimes gets done mindlessly. I wanted them to be honest with me about it. So I encouraged them to send me their answers anonymously. Here’s what I found out. 1. Fear is a large driver of Filipino behavior. 2. The Power-Distance of Philippine culture is strongly at play. 3. Often for VAs, quantity gets emphasized over quality because it’s visible 4. Sometimes they just get lazy. “I just want to complete my tasks.” 5. Lack of company culture - Filipinos are very family-oriented. If they feel disconnected in the business, they just don’t care. That’s just a summary. My team gave me detailed answers. So I figured I would talk about these answers one by one in the following emails. I’m also going to show you the solutions that my OFS team recommended, the solutions that I thought of and implemented, and how these things are going so far. I also compiled the entire series here. Fixing the mindless work of OFS -- starting next week. ; John
+This is the first email in a series of 5 about why OFS sometimes do mindless work. In the Philippines, fear often has the opposite effect as what you might expect. If you fear failure you’re likely to make more effort, do more, try harder. In the Philippines, it’s often the opposite. Fear says to them to do as little as they can to get by so they don’t make a mistake when doing extra. This is a big driving factor in mindless/poor work. When I asked my team "What causes someone to do mindless work? Or, to not care if there's an obvious mistake in a final product?" fear came up over and over again in their responses. Here are quotes from a number of people on my team. - “Being afraid of making mistakes. This is something I've experienced when I started working for you. I was absolutely terrified that I'd lose my job. I know this is something a lot of us still feel. Don't rock the boat. Being mediocre is better than making a mistake.” - “We’re scared of retribution or any attack (verbal or physical even) from someone who's on top of them or even on their level.” - “Fear of getting fired for expressing his/her own opinion or challenging someone's idea to the point that even sometimes getting personal.” - “Getting shouted at or receiving an email that sounds like it.” - “Failing to impress or get challenged/questioned of the small achievements they were able to get in their life.” - “Some are also hesitant to talk because their opinion might not be accepted. They are afraid that their ideas will be rejected.” - “Americans are very opinionated that some even get to the point of being pushy or bossy, Filipinos are the exact opposite, we were trained to be submissive(religiously) and just do whatever someone asks of them.” - “Another thing is, Filipinos won't even engage or stand up for what he/she thinks the best nor strike up a conversation or argue the topic, there's even a Filipino saying that goes with it, it's called "sumunod sa agos" or "just go where the (river) flow" in english...which develops this passive attitude.” - “They can't relate much and choose the right word to express what is on their mind, even to some extent, working with a fellow Filipino. Much worse if they have to talk in English.” The most telling quote will come tomorrow. In it, my OFS talks about being afraid of being wrong about the thing that is obviously wrong. Fear of being embarrassed is such a driving force that they'll question their own judgment when they see something is wrong. They fear that it's not wrong, and if they say something about it they'll be wrong, which will cause embarrassment. So instead, they just say nothing. A couple ways I've tried to quell the fear is by - reassuring them that their job is secure. Even when something goes wrong, I'm not going to fire them. - giving positive feedback before giving negative feedback. Not always easy. - lavishing on extra praise when something goes well. More to come tomorrow. Or read the entire series. John
+This is the 2nd email in a series of 5 about why OFS sometimes do mindless work. If you’ve never heard about Hofstede’s Power distance Index, it’s worth looking up. You’ll understand the mindlessness a lot better. The Philippines has a very high power-distance index. They respect authority. If they don’t have a clear picture of who is in authority, they’ll often assume others are in authority and they’re below other people. This makes them less likely to question things they see wrong. Less likely to fix mistakes. Less likely to try hard when someone in authority has already worked on it or is going to work on it. Here are quotes from my team: - “What was on my mind at those times was... "you are my boss; why would I question or correct you?"” - This is so telling about their behavior --> “We trust "professionals" and are afraid to point out the mistakes of these professionals (graphic designer, writer, editor, ect) because we are afraid that maybe we are the ones who made a mistake. And we don't want to "embarrass" ourselves. - It takes me around 4 drafts just to show [team member] a mistake. Should I start with "Sorry to correct you?" or "Hi [name], I might be wrong but", or "This might be because you didn't see this, but..."” - “As children, we are taught “huwag sumagot sa nakaka tanda” which more or less means we cannot defend ourselves or argue against elders. This ingrains the Filipino habit of never talking back to authority, even if we know they’re wrong.” What this comes down to is if you (or someone else they see as being in authority) asks them to do something, they’re unlikely to correct a mistake you make, even if it’s obvious to them that you’re wrong or left something out. Go back and read through the previous Fear newsletter. You’ll see evidence of the power-distance built-in to their fear. You can use this to your advantage sometimes. Give someone authority. Spell out their authority. Give them a job title and specific responsibilities. Tie those responsibilities to outcomes. Because they are now the ones with authority and power, they take the responsibilities seriously. On Thursday we'll talk about quantity over quality. Read the entire series. John
+This is the 3rd email in a series of 5 about why OFS sometimes work mindlessly. This one is often your (the employer) fault. Often, quantity is more visible than quality. An OFS knows that you’re going to see how many support tickets they responded to but you’re unlikely to see how well they responded. You're going to see how many images they edited, but not how well done every one of them is. You're going to see how many articles were written, but not read every sentence of every article. Quantity is emphasized by YOU over the quality. Plus, often it’s easier to do a mediocre job of a lot of things than it is to do a great job with a few things. This appears more in online work too. Employers look at “How many X did you do today?” Employers use time trackers to see how many hours someone worked. Employers create metrics to track productivity. All of this leads to quantity rather than quality being emphasized. Plus, when you combine this with the power-distance at play, you get someone who feels like it’s the boss’ job to make sure the work is high quality. It’s the OFS job just to get it done quickly. Here are quotes from my team: - “The quantity issue, I feel that too. I feel a bit of pressure to deliver more because I'm getting paid more. But it's not just the quantity; it's the turn-around time. Like, we all have regular tasks that fill up most of our workday. But when a special project comes in, there's this pressure to get it done as soon as possible, on top of the regular work.” - “But maybe some factors causing it is the thinking that "I need to accomplish more". "I need to respond fast." "I need to impress my boss that I have done a lot of things." Sometimes the daily report encourages this. "What did you do today?" "How many things did you get done today?" They know you're going to see the report and going to look at how much. You might not see the actual work... Let your OFS slow down. Emphasize that doing better work is more important than more work. This is tricky and every situation is different. I wish I had better advice for how to fix this... Tomorrow we'll talk about... Read the entire series.
+This is the 4th email in a series of 5 about why OFS sometimes work mindlessly. Laziness. Sometimes, people just get lazy. Sometimes, this just happens. Some say the rising generation is lazy. Sometimes the work lends itself to laziness. Sometimes it happens as an OFS gets more comfortable with the work. For a lot, they think the only online jobs are data entry jobs. Data entry jobs are mindless by nature. This is changing with the push to remote work with Covid. Quotes from my team: - “For some Filipinos, Mediocre/Mindless work is the standard. Yes there are many out there who still want to do their best, but there are also so many who are just exhausting.“ - “Sometimes people just performed what exactly told them to do, especially those already employed long enough. As long the particular tasks are done, they think it's already OK. They no longer care or think more about the possible problem that it may cause.” - “Sometimes, it's not mindless work. Sometimes, it's just a work shlump. They care very much, they just need a little push to get them out of it.” To me, this is often the employers' fault. Often we’ve given mindless work. We’ve trained them to be mindless. We’ve made sure they always run everything by us before pushing it to a client. This creates laziness. Sometimes the OFS just needs a little push. "I need you to do better quality work, this quality of product just isn't working for me. How can I help you?" Sometimes they may have taken on another job and their laziness is due to exhaustion, both mental and physical. Ask. "Hey, I noticed the quality has declined recently. What's causing this? Are you overworked?" On Monday we'll talk about family culture...and how important it is in the workplace. Read the entire series. John
+This is the 5th email of 5 about why OFS sometimes work mindlessly. Surprisingly, I had quite a few different people talk about family with regards to mindless work. Like, when they don’t feel like they’re part of a family, they don’t care about the work. This translates to the culture of the company and how much they’re cared for. Quotes from my team: - “Some never felt that they are part of the "family" organization...thus, they would never care. “ - “Lack of respect from peers, colleagues at work or even at the personal level.” - “When we were still starting, it really felt like a family, and once you were introduced to one person, we wanted to talk to each other a lot when we had problems. I loved everyone! We would also reach out to each other when there were problems. However, the team has grown so much, the industry has changed, and the work from home environment is also very different now.” - “Most Filipinos today no longer look at their online work as family, as we have. They just see work, with the same weight and value as they see any 8-5 job.” Filipinos are caring. Loving. Very service oriented. When they don't feel this being reciprocated, it's very off-putting to them. If they don't feel cared for, they return the lack of care. They don't care about the work. They don't care about the quality. They don't care about the outcome. I'm not saying you need to send birthday cards to your OFS, I'm just saying things you do to show you care about them matter. Tomorrow I'll have solutions my OFS proposed to help stop mindless work. Read the entire series. John
+My previous 5 newsletters have described cultural reasons why OFS sometimes work mindlessly. Today is about solutions. When I asked my team why this problem exists, I didn't ask for solutions, I just sought to understand the problem. A bunch of my team members also offered solutions. A lot of it has to do with decreasing the power-distance or with dealing with the power-distance. Decreasing their fear is baked into their solutions. These both also create more of a family feeling. These are direct quotes from my OFS. - Acknowledgment for their great work to level up their self-worth/pride but not overdoing it. A simple gift matters, it could be anything, food or coffee mugs will also mean a lot. Sometimes, when I worked in an office I'd put 500 pesos discreetly on their desk telling them (only if they asked) Santa had come early to those who put on a wonderful job - I think you already did this before, but maybe giving rewards to people who contributed more than their expected role/responsibilities? Either cash or non-cash (experiential rewards) - Sometimes work may get boring, but if people see dynamics on their job, maybe that will motivate them to think/work better? - My main point is that incentives in the workplace help employees feel that their extra contribution is valued. - Filipinos need more understanding on their job roles, what's the scope, oversight and responsibilities. - Most Filipinos love to talk, chat and even gossip about a lot of things not related to work, that keeps most of us happy and have fun while working on a task. It also helps lose the edge and stress. Usually in the vernacular but sometimes it also works in english, It's important to have a sense of humor and remain respected. - Getting a little bit personal, but not going to the extent that we tell them what they'll need to do and how to go on with their lives. Empathy is greatly appreciated. - Talk about food, experiences and dreams. If they open up about their love lives, just go with it and don't judge, just give them support and suggestions to resolve things. - Quality assurance is important, but what makes QA work is there are designated people in charge to call out mistakes. When we know we are allowed to call out mistakes or know specific people are allowed to, it's fine. We respect the "law". For some reason, I always understood that [team member] checks my work. She makes me fix my edits. I never took that personally. I just thought that's how it was. I don't know how you trained her, but she's straightforward. She's the best example of how it's not cultural. She's not afraid to correct me. There's a lot going on here. It's unlikely that any one of these is going to solve all situations. Before you respond to me and tell me all your problems (which...is actually fine), I don't really have all the solutions. I can just tell you what they said will work (this email) and what I've done that I've seen work (Thursdays email). Or read the entire email series. John PS. If you have thoughts about this I'd love to hear it.
+My newsletters from the past 2 weeks have taken a lot of work. They're all about why OFS sometimes work mindlessly (their thoughts) and how to prevent it (their ideas). Today is some of my personal experiences. A couple of solutions I’ve tried that have worked include giving people a title, creating job security, giving responsibility and having people take ownership, and adding a quality assurance process. - In the Philippines, titles are important. More important than in the USA. So over the past couple of years, I’ve been giving titles to people. “Content Manager”. “Operations Manager”. In giving these titles I also give responsibilities and authority. The authority tends to mean they’re in charge of making sure things are done correctly in that area. - I try to assure my people that they're not going to get fired for making a mistake. Their job is secure. Even if they do something wrong, they're still going to have a job. I try to make this clear. - I’ve found that giving people responsibilities and including “making sure it’s well done” has helped. I’ve also told people that I want them to take ownership of the final product. Like, think through “Does this make us look good? Does this embarrass John? Does this embarrass the business? Should this get published?” If any of those things are wrong, your responsibility is either to fix it or to say something to the person in charge. Basically, I’ve given them authority to question the final output. - Recently I added a person to double-check work. That person's job is to make sure the quality is where we expect. In software, this means that the feature performs as people expect it should. They check for bugs. They look for anything that feels odd. In content, they make sure everything reads perfectly. They make edits. They make sure the final product makes sense. They make suggestions if they see a way to improve a process. For both of these QA positions, I included a large list of things they’re supposed to check and speak up about. Now they have the authority to say something is wrong so they feel confident in finding problems and speaking up about them. All of these things have made a difference for me. I'm getting better work done. I fix problems less often. My OFS tell me they're happier. You'll need to experiment for yourself. John
+I recently sent out a newsletter about hiring Filipino students. In that email, I discouraged hiring full-time Filipino students because they would need to prioritize their education. A college education is a big deal in the Philippines. If they don’t get that degree, they’ll never hear the end of it from their family. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a system where a student can still be a great OFS. That’s what Brett showed me when he responded to my newsletter. Just a word of encouragement! My VA (Full time student) is EXCEPTIONAL! She works about 7 hours per week for me. She never misses a task, is kind, and is way better at the things she does than I ever was before I hired her. There are two reasons why the working relationship with her works so well, that might be helpful to others. 1) Each task has 7 days to be submitted. If something large comes up, she can move things around to accommodate other areas of her life; school personal, or anything. Certain recurring tasks are done daily, and those tasks are predictable and she is able to accomplish some of them on her mobile phone. 2) At the start of her onboarding we met weekly to establish a healthy working relationship built on honest constructive feedback. While meeting with her, I was able to understand how to best set her up for success, and she was able to understand the types of things that were important to me. By taking time personally to be about 14 days ahead of her, I can give her a heads up if a large project is coming, and she can give me feedback if she will be unable to do something so I can plan. This set up means neither of us are frustrated. It's an AMAZING win. This wont't work for everyone BUT, I think a lot can be accomplished by a part time VA, even if they are in school, if you take the time to DEVELOP them as individuals, and UNDERSTAND what will allow them to do the best work for you. My job has gotten easier, and I am accomplishing WAY more with her help. Actually, at this point, I am not sure how I would be able to run my business without someone like her. I hope this is helpful and insightful! Best, Brett This is a great tip. I love how Brett emphasizes the importance of communication and having realistic expectations. Things often work out when you find ways to work together. If you set your OFS up for success, they can do amazing things.
+Bob Shape sent me a message through Facebook a few weeks back and showed me a YouTube Video: Adventures in Employment (in the Philippines). "Hi John Your podcast reminded me of this. It is unbelievable what a person has to go through just to get a job in the Philippines. No wonder people are looking for work on onlinejobs.ph! This videos shows the process. I thought you might be interested. https://youtu.be/xSPRM7sFrz4 I was amazed at all the red tape I saw in the Philippines any time you had to do anything with the government, except for renewing a visa. Thanks for your great service!" The video is around 20 minutes long. If you don’t have the time to watch the whole thing, it shows all the red tape Filipinos have to go through to get a job in the Philippines. I asked my OFS, Julia if she encountered this when she worked for a Philippine company years ago. “Yes, I did go through the same process back when I was looking for work after college. It was just as infuriating back then. I think harder now because of the (COVID) restrictions. They don’t tell us about this in school. When we start applying for jobs, we learn about these requirements. As you can see, it can take somewhere from 2 days to a week to get all these documents. That’s what makes the process is so frustrating. ” I mentioned in a previous email that the Philippines doesn’t have a system to do background checks. I think this is how Philippine companies compensate for that. Most employers at Onlinejobs.ph don’t require these documents. So finding an online job is still easier than finding regular work in the Philippines. But in the past few years, we have required job seekers to get a valid, government-issued ID verified on the site. The job seeker would have to get the same paperwork shown in the video to get a government-issued ID. Why did we do this? Shouldn’t it be easier to get an online job? Why did we make the process harder? We did it for the following reasons: As a security measure to make sure that the people creating an Onlinejobs.ph jobseeker account are real people. To encourage job seekers to take online work seriously. The requirements tell them that they need to show online work the same level of dedication they would show to a “regular” job. Payment platforms also require these documents and government-issued IDs for verification. Having these documents ready would make it easier for jobseekers to get paid once they're hired. Should you ask your jobseekers to get the same requirements? No, you don’t need to. The verification process at Onlinejobs.ph deals with most of that. The more important question is what you should do in your recruitment process to ensure that you’re hiring a talented and trustworthy OFS. That’s the question I answer at OneVAAway.com. John PS. I skied in an unusual place the other day with my daughter (no connection to the rest of this email). We started in a neighborhood in the valley and climbed from 5500ft up to 8800ft. It was spectacular.
+My daughter who is a Junior in High School just took the ACT. Yuck. It's interesting that High School prepares you to take standardized tests. It doesn't prepare you to work a real job. And...come to think of it, neither does a college degree. Yes, it helps you. Yes, it teaches you to think. Yes, it prepares you to learn what you actually need to learn. But it doesn't give you actual work skills. The same thing is happening in the Philippines with "VA courses". You may have seen jobseekers on Onlinejobs.ph bragging about their VA training certificates. So you interview and give them a test task, thinking that they're qualified because they've gone through VA training. But once you get the results or hire them, you end up disappointed? I know some of you have experienced that. You're the ones who comment on my social media saying that Filipino workers are low-skilled and overestimate their qualifications. I understand where you're coming from. Over the years, we've seen VA training programs proliferate all over the Philippines. Some of these programs are actually good. They help their students develop valuable skills to turn them into great VAs. But a growing number are just bad. There are people out there who take advantage of Filipinos desperate for work. They sell these useless training programs that guarantee high-paying online jobs. They reinforce these 'guarantees' with promises of new houses, cars, and computers. "With this training, you can get multiple high-paying, easy online jobs! No experience is needed! You don't even need a laptop! " This is the thumbnail for a popular YouTube video in the Philippines promising easy jobs: Ads like this are widespread in the Philippines. They sell dirt cheap training to hundreds of thousands of desperate people. As a result, these people make jobseeker profiles thinking they're qualified. They believe they can do the job they "trained" for and that the work is so easy they can juggle multiple clients simultaneously. It's only when they get rejected and reprimanded by employers like you they realize that maybe this job wasn't as easy as they thought. I'm not defending their actions. What these job seekers are doing is wrong. But I also understand the kind of desperation that tempts people to fall for these schemes. This is why I always say in my emails that you never assume that a VA is "trained." Be clear about your expectations and know exactly what you want before outsourcing. Unless there's concrete evidence that they're qualified (like a portfolio), you should always give training and onboarding. I'm close to rolling out actual training that you can give to an OFS once you hire them. This is the correct way for training to happen. In the real world. Under employer supervision. With actual work happening after the training happens. Stay tuned for more... John
+Everyone says VAs can't meet with clients. "They'll mess things up." "Clients won't like it." "Clients will see the insides of your business, and they won't want to work with you." None of this is true. Ruben sent me this video recently and talked about the misconception that VAs can only do back-end work...they can't meet with clients. https://youtu.be/UTWsfsCvzO8 Your clients know the difference between you and your employees. They know that your VA is working for your business. If you train and manage your Filipino VAs well, your clients might even like interacting with your VA more than they like interacting with you! They might learn that the person in the Philippines gets things done! Filipinos value their jobs. They know that making a client happy is how they can keep their job. If you give them the tools they need to do the job well, isn’t that a win-win for everyone? Don’t believe me (or Ruben)? Check out these case studies I did with Ethan Kap and Jill Sessa. So how do you get an OFS who can meet with clients? You provide them training. When you provide training to an OFS, they recognize you care about them. They become more loyal to you. They recognize the potential for growth in their current job. They really want to do a good job for you. Training an OFS makes them a rockstar. Next week I'm going to make years of trainings available to you for your OFS. Trainings that are done for you. Trainings that will make your OFS more productive. Guaranteed. John
+About a month ago I made Joven the manager of OnlineJobs.ph. He's managing and coordinating our design/dev/QA/marketing teams. Was he always capable of this? Heck no!!! I hired Joven in 2005. In 2007 he told me "Sir, when I started working for you I knew nothing! I was so scared you were going to get mad at me and fire me..." So what changed? Well...me for one. I realized he (and so many others) were capable of running teams like this. But...he did too. He went from knowing nothing (and I can confirm...he knew almost nothing relevant to my business) to - building websites - doing SEO - creating and running PPC campaigns - doing all kinds of online marketing - Helping create the verification system OnlineJobs.ph uses to verify millions of Filipino workers - Managing a team of people - Managing multiple teams of people Here's what did it. Training. In that 2007 conversation he continued "I was so scared you were going to get mad at me and fire me...but then you started to give me training. You taught me how to do things. I realized you cared about my success. That training gave me confidence so I could try new things. It gave me confidence to learn new things on my own." The rest is history. I kept giving him training. He kept learning. Kept trying new things. Kept getting better and better. Today I have 10 other OFS similar to him. Training. But what if you don't know how to train someone? What if you don't have the time? What if you don't want to create this training? Is there a shortcut? There is...starting Monday. On Monday I'll show you the training I've created over the years to train OFS like Joven. It's one of my secrets...and it becomes available Monday. John
+Here's some Philippines culture we don't often talk about. Training a new employee in the Philippines is such an ingrained part of the culture that they have an acronym for it and government backing for it: OJT On-the-Job Training It's so prevalent in the Philippines that I've had applicants ask me "Is there OJT for this position?" "How long is the on-the-job training for this position?" "Will there be training provided for this position?" If you don't provide training to a new OFS, you alienate them right away. It's part of their culture. Plus, to them, training them shows you care about their success with your company. But creating training is hard... So we've created the training for you. Introducing VAs Made Easy Done-for-you trainings you hand off to your OFS. I've spent the past couple years creating trainings that are built specifically for the employer-OFS relationship. They separate the CEO role from the OFS role. They give your OFS skills. They give your OFS confidence. They let your OFS know you care. They set quality of work expectations. The done-for-you training library covers 29 different topics. All you have to do is read (or watch) the short employer instructions and then hand the full training over to your OFS. They'll learn new skills. They'll come to you with specific questions you need to answer. They'll implement processes in your business. VAs Made Easy Plus it comes with free access to OnlineJobs.ph for 6 months. Bonus. John
+Yesterday I talked about how training is so important for your OFS. - It shows you care about them - It shows you care about their success - It shows you care about your own business success - It sets expectations - It sets the stage for future work deliverables - It creates rock star OFS If you don’t want to create training for your OFS, or you don’t know how to create the training, we’ve done it for you. Done-For-You Standard Operating Procedures Training Library We spent months on every one of these. We spent thousands of dollars on every one of these. There are currently 29 different training courses you’ll get to hand off to your OFS (Please don’t hand off all 29 at once…give them one at a time) Here’s how it works. 1. You buy the training library 2. You decide which training is best for your OFS right now. 3. You download the training and hand it off to your OFS. 4. Your OFS learns you care about them and their success. 5. Your OFS learns. They get trained. They begin to implement the process in your business. 6. You guide the process with them. 7. Tasks get done This is training that comes straight from you to your OFS. It’s training we created, but when you hand it off to your OFS it doesn’t come from us. It comes from you. That builds your OFS trust in you. We tried to make this as easy as possible. If you don’t need this right now (maybe because you haven’t hired someone yet, or because you just now created a full training library yourself), no pressure. This isn’t going away. There’s no pressure to buy. No false scarcity. I want you to buy and use my training if it makes sense for you. If it saves you time. If it makes your OFS more productive. If it will improve your business. If none of that is the case right now, at least you know it’s there in the future when it does make sense for you. I’m just trying to make the process of growing and scaling your business easier, whether that happens right now or in the future. Giving your OFS any of these trainings WILL make them more productive. I guarantee it. John PS. In May I’m taking my family (wife and 5 kids) cycle around Europe. I’ve been buying this gear over the years in preparation for something like this. Now it’s happening! Sometimes, when you prepare, good things happen.
+There are four (4) Philippine holidays this April. I know, it’s a lot. That’s why I’m sending out this email early, so you guys can get ready for what’s ahead. The first one would be Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) which falls on April 9 (Saturday). It’s a regular holiday (day off work, with pay if you're on salary). Holy Week is in April this year. Maundy Thursday (April 14) and Good Friday (April 15) are regular holidays. Black Saturday (April 16) is a special holiday. With the Philippines easing up on COVID restrictions, your OFS may ask for a week-long break for this one so they can go home to visit their families in the provinces. Yeah, a lot of people in the Philippines haven't seen their families in a couple years because of Covid. They haven't had the chance to travel home. If they ask...let them go. I’ll update you on the Philippine holidays coming up through the newsletter. But to make sure that you’re updated and get these notifications in advance, you can get our Philippine Holiday Calendar. John PS. In winter, all I want to do is ski. My body has a weird connection with snow. I crave it. We skied where a forest fire denuded the trees recently. It was eerie and amazing at the same time.
+My newsletter regularly gets read by 20,000+ people. I get good, kind, insightful responses from people every day. But this one was nasty. Lisa responded to my email last week with: So, as a teacher, I completely disagree with your assessment of school. It absolutely does not just prepare you to take tests and gives you no real skills. Reading is a real skill. Speaking in front of groups is a real skill. Writing is a real skill. Math is a real skill. But wait, there's more! (she continued to list other real life skills education provides) Thank you Lisa! Thanks for helping me see a more clear picture of what education does for us and our society. But here's the line from her email that really got me: School exists to empower people with the skills they need to become what they want! YES! THAT'S THE POINT! You educate your OFS to empower them. Yes, providing them with education and training helps grow your business. Yes, it makes your life easier. Yes, it makes things run more efficiently. But... It does the same for them! It gives them understanding about how business works. It gives them skills that can be used in your business. It gives them ideas to help grow your business...so that they deserve a raise! It helps them contribute. It helps them progress in their career. It empowers them with greater understanding, confidence, and a desire to do better. And...if that training and education is provided by you... - it shows them you care about their career - it shows them your company is a good place to work - it makes them loyal to you All of this is why I advocate for training the OFS you hire. Even if you hire an expert. Provide them training. It carries like a 100x ROI with it. This is why we created VAs Made Easy. Done-for-you education. You give the training to your OFS. They progress. Your business progresses. Win-Win. https://www.VAsMadeEasy.com John
+I've written about how expensive it is to ship to the Philippines. But I understand how important it is to send something to your OFS to make them feel like they're part of the family. That's exactly what Danny had in mind when he sent me this email. Hi John, When we bring on staff or contractors in the U.S., we often give them a company baseball hat, a couple of stickers or other promotional products with our logo on them. I think it helps them to feel like they are part of our business family. Shipping to The Philippines can be expensive and complicated. But I want my people over there to know that I value them and consider them to be important to us. But this brings up questions. I hope you'll (ask your own OFS to) consider responding. 1) If we send a gift to our staff, does it put them in an awkward position? Do they feel they would need to reciprocate? (That's NOT what I'd want them to feel or do.) 2) Besides company stuff, are there universally desired -- and lightweight -- items from the U.S. that we should consider sending? 3) Are there any definite no-nos, things we should not consider sending? BTW, I found this page on the USPS website. Best thing in it: If the value of what you're sending exceeds 3000 PHP (about U.S. $58), the Philippines government tacks on a U.S. $30 fee. Thanks for considering my question. - Danny Filipinos who live in the U.S. know this well. They want to send gifts to the family back home but sending gifts can be expensive. There's also a big chance things could get lost or stolen. One solution they came up with is to ship in bulk using a corrugated cardboard box they call "Balikbayan Box." Balikbayan boxes usually come in several sizes. The smallest ones are 24in x 24in x 12in, and the largest ones are 24in x 24in x 45in. These boxes are seen as care packages by the Philippine government. They don't tax it as much as items imported for sale or sent as gifts. So people would cram these boxes with as much stuff as possible, which helps with the shipping cost. If you have a lot of employees in the Philippines and you want to send them gifts, this can be a good option. If you're going to send something, it's best to ship items that don't have to go through a customs inspection or don't require a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance. Items like are: Children's toys Small perfume bottles Assorted cosmetics Household products like cleaners or deodorizers Vitamins and supplements Processed food (canned goods, jerky, etc) Shampoo, lotion, and soap Liquor, wine, and other spirits Clothing and accessories (shoes, bags, etc) Stationery (pens, notebooks, etc) Customs will inspect the box if they suspect you're sending contraband or trying to smuggle something into the country. You don't want to give Philippine customs a reason to open the box because they're notoriously corrupt. So avoid sending electronics and jewelry. You'll also want to avoid sending the following items: Seeds and plants, Anything perishable Batteries Cash Lottery and sweepstakes tickets Guns, ammunition, and other related items (gunpowder, shell casings, etc) Anything related to gambling like loaded dice, marked playing cards, etc Anything flammable (lighters, lighter fluid, etc) Cigarettes, cigars, vape pens Drugs and narcotics, including items infused with hemp or cannabis. Another thing to remember is to avoid sending one item in bulk. For example, don't fill an entire box with just shampoo. Customs will think you're trying to sell stuff to the Philippines. Using balikbayan boxes to import items for sale is illegal because it looks like they're avoiding import/customs taxes. When filling a balikbayan box, a good rule of thumb is that it should have enough variety of items that a family can use. LBC and FedEx are the safest and most reliable options if you're shipping from the U.S. They're also familiar with the balikbayan box system, so they can give you answers if you have more questions. That's why my OFS, Julia, recommended that if Danny sends his team a gift, to send them candies and chocolates. It won't attract the attention of customs. Also, sweets are traditionally given as gifts in the Philippines. His team will appreciate it.
+I’ve mentioned before that buying electronics and computers in the Philippines can be more expensive than buying them here in the US. But just how expensive is it? Let me give you a scenario. One of my OFS, Jam, likes Apple products. He’s been thinking about getting a new iPhone, and the one that caught his eye is the iPhone SE 3. It’s set to retail here in the US at $429. That’s P22,409 Jam then checked Apple Philippines to check how much it would cost him to buy the SE 3 locally. The price is P28,990, which is equivalent to $555. That’s a difference of $126. When you look at the price difference, it doesn’t make sense. These iPhones come from China and they’re shipped directly to the Philippines. If they were shipped from the US, the iPhone would be more expensive but not by much. Not only that, these phones are shipped in bulk. That should have reduced the shipping cost then and there. Even if you account for the overhead cost the stores put on top, that’s just too much to put on just one device. So what possible explanation could there be for this? One possible explanation would be with how Philippine customs computes for import taxes. That’s a lot, but at least you know where some of it is going. You might look at this and think shipping to the Philippines might be cheaper after all, given all the taxes. But the problem with shipping electronics and computers is that they could be damaged or lost during shipping or customs. Customs is notoriously corrupt in the Philippines. For Filipinos, buying their electronics from the store is still a better option because they can have them replaced if there’s damage, and they can have it covered by warranty. One more reason to take good care of the people you hire. John
+I’m happy when I get thank you emails from business owners. But it warms my heart when I get emails from people who make it their life’s work to make the world a better place. “I do my podcast in the day "my time." He edits it and uploads it in the day "his time”, and it is ready to go in the morning I want it posted. It works great. Thank you so much for your program and letting me find my Filipino VA. I have been to the Philippines 5-6 times on missions trips and loved the people and culture. I just didn't know how to find what I needed, and your program was perfect.“ That email was from David Baker, a non-profit ministry pastor, and chaplain of a county jail. He also runs a men’s home to help people who got out of jail put their lives back together. On top of that, David’s a prolific author and the vice president of an online Bible college. He does all that while being an active father and grandfather. As you can imagine, David is busy. He works non-stop, not to enrich himself but to help his community. Yes, most ministries have volunteers. To get everything done, volunteers aren’t enough. Non-profits need workers too! David needs full-time help so he can serve his flock every day. But you can’t afford to waste money when running a non-profit. You want most of that money going to work that would help people in need. So what did David do? He found full-time help by hiring Filipino workers. He figured out how to do it through OneVAAway.com and Onlinejobs.ph. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbYzcs8njm4 The fact that he’s doing all that work and managed to find an amazing OFS tells you that OneVAAway.com makes finding an OFS faster and easier for anyone. He loves that his OFS works while he sleeps. He can focus on his ministry and recording his podcast in his time. At night, his OFS edits and uploads it. It’s one less thing David has to worry about. I often talk about how having an OFS helps both the business owner and the Filipino worker. What David has done here is making a positive change for the world. John
+I grew up near the beach in California. I grew up wearing flip flops. But it wasn't a cultural thing like it is in the Philippines. Filipinos really love their flip-flops. My OFS, Julia, explains why. ----- Like other Asian countries, we take off our shoes here in the Philippines before going inside the house. Once we’re inside, we use slippers, aka tsinelas. And we love, love, LOVE our tsinelas. This is the tsinelas. They’re also called sandals, flip-flops, or thongs in other countries. Most Filipinos have at least two pairs of tsinelas, one for indoor use and another for outdoors. But it’s not unusual to see Filipinos have more than two pairs. In my house, we have slippers exclusively for the toilet and bathrooms. I also keep extra pairs for guests to use when they visit. Not to mention the “going out” pair we use if we want to wear something “dressier.” And even though it’s safer to drive using shoes, some people keep a pair of driving tsinelas in the car. We love our tsinelas because it’s so comfortable. They keep our feet cool in this tropical climate. It’s easy to clean and dry off when it gets wet. We’re so used to tsinelas we can hike for hours through rough terrain and not develop any blisters. We can bike and swim in them. We even have uses for tsinelas when they wear out. We use worn tsinelas for art and crafts, as cockroach killers, toys (our version of NERF toys), doorstops, makeshift swimming paddles, pool and bath floaties, or DIY bike brakes. When we travel, we always make sure to pack a pair. In offices, people will slip off their shoes and wear slippers under their desks. When I was in college, my go-to outfit was a t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of tsinelas. Tsinelas, though, are really informal. Most schools and offices with dress codes ban them (but allow under-the-table slippers for comfort). And you know how fancy restaurants have a “no shoes, no shirt, no service” policy? Here in the Philippines, the sign often includes “no slippers” because of the loophole that slippers are technically shoes. Entertaining. And I love the culture. John
+The tropical storm "Agaton" entered the Philippines over the weekend. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1581329/fwd-agaton-weakens-into-tropical-depression The good news is it's not a strong storm and it's weakening. The bad news is it brought in more rain than expected and is expected to make rainfall again. Some places in the Visayas and Mindanao did experience some flooding and landslides but rescue and relocation efforts are being done. They are ready for this. So if you have VAs in places like Samar, Leyte, and Biliran, better check on them. The worse news is that a bigger storm is expected to affect the same area soon. Once it enters the Philippine Area of Responsibility, it will be named 'Basyang'. https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/04/11/news/agaton-weakens-stronger-typhoon-to-enter-par/1839661 Ask your OFS if they're ok, and if they're going to be ok with this one coming. John
+Every once in a while, my OFS team and I talk about our kids. Most of mine are older than most of theirs...but not all. I have 5, with a 19yr old and an 8 year old. That's a big span. My OFS Julia mentioned recently that her daughter would be starting high school this year. I thought this was kind of weird because I knew her daughter had just turned 12. In the US, 12 and 13-year-olds go to middle school and start high school when they're 14-15. In the Philippines, it's normal to start high school when you're 12 or 13. They don't have middle school, so the kids go immediately to high school. Like here, you finish high school in 4 years. But they can't go to college or start working right out of high school. They have to go to senior high school first. Senior high school is a recent development in the Philippines. This was the result of the K to 12 Basic Education Program instituted back in 2012. The program was meant to help improve the quality of education by introducing universal kindergarten and learning tracks. Another aim was to ensure that students could enter the workforce with only a (senior) high school diploma. What makes senior high school different from regular high school? Senior high school is when students choose what track they want to pursue. Finishing that track means that you should have basic skills that could get you hired right away in your chosen field. Having these tracks is also meant to improve the quality of college education in the Philippines. If you've completed the basic track in senior high school, you should be able to specialize or take on more complicated concepts in college. Filipinos can register for an Onlinejobs.ph account when they turn 18. That's when most of them would finish senior high school. Yet, most people you find have a college degree because it's so important in their culture. The Philippines government is really invested in improving their education and economy in the coming years. John
+Ah yes, the 80/20 principle. Everyone has heard of it... 20% of the work produces 80% of results. It's true in almost everything we do. I worked all year to get my 8yr old to like skiing. - I made him ski almost every Saturday - I got him good skis - I let him pick the runs we ski - I forced him to ski steep gnarly runs - I let him ski with friends - I gave him rewards In the end, skiing with friends was the only thing that mattered. He loves it when friends are around. 20%. In my business, the 20% is content creation. I force myself to work on content creation FIRST every day (even though I don't love it) because it produces results. I even delegate and outsource a lot of content creation to my OFS. For you, what's your 20%? Can you delegate some of that 20% to an OFS? Can you hand off most of the 80% to an OFS. For Steve Raiken, the 20% is sourcing products and making YouTube videos. He’s been running an online business for almost a decade. He kept his company growing through the pandemic because: - He understands how important it is to focus on the 20% that makes money - He has a team of Filipino workers to do everything else Want to know how he got started and what his hiring process is like? Watch the video below: https://youtu.be/j7_A2MIgYUA Steven talked about how important it is to be patient with your OFS, especially during training. If you want to give your OFS training but don’t want to create it yourself, you can get them started with VAsMadeEasy.com. It’s done-for-you trainings on 30 different topics you can hand off to your OFS without needing to do anything yourself. Just help them succeed in the work they're doing. John
+Should you be providing health insurance to your OFS? Here in the US, having health insurance is required. But it's not required for companies to provide it. In the Philippines, it's not legally required. Private health insurance is a perk for businesses that can afford it. However, Philippine companies must get their employees Philhealth, their socialized medical system. You’re not required to give this benefit as a foreign employer, but it’s one of those things that you should give because it can help with hospitalization when your OFS gets sick. We provide an addition to each OFS pay to cover their Philhealth payment. We’ve also been offering our Filipino workers health insurance through an HMO (health insurance organization) for several years now. We did this so our OFS team would have something they could use for check-ups, preventive care, and outpatient procedures. I’ll be using the terms HMO and health insurance interchangeably here because they’re practically the same in the Philippines. The main difference is the size of the network, fees, and coverage (HMOs are bigger). Because we don’t have an entity in the Philippines and our OFS are considered independent contractors, we can’t give them health insurance directly. Instead, we asked our team to research the best HMOs/health insurance in their area. We let them pick the one they each wanted to use. HMOs are different in different regions of the Philippines. Hazel (our HR) coordinated with the HMOs and the team to manage their paperwork. They pay the initial premiums, and we reimburse them. The cost depends on the HMO provider, the age of the plan holder, and the coverage. It costs on average P20,000 ($390) per year per plan holder. I can’t tell you which health insurance is the best. It depends on a lot of factors. What you can do is have your OFS go to this website (https://www.mariahealth.ph/). It’s the most popular health insurance aggregator in the Philippines. Businesses and individuals can get private health insurance either as a contract or prepaid card through their website. Our team is not under group insurance because we don’t have a base in the Philippines. They have to apply as individuals. I agree this puts us at a disadvantage because individual health insurance is more expensive compared to group insurance but not by much. The biggest problem we encountered with this setup is that individual health will ALWAYS have less coverage than one given to a group. The cap on their health benefit is usually lower. When one of my OFS got sick, we had a hard time having her surgeries covered because it’s only been a year since she got her health insurance. But the longer they stay on the health insurance, the better their coverage becomes (at least for the HMO she signed up for). You do NOT need to provide this. If your OFS is short term, it doesn't even make sense. But if you find you have an amazing OFS (or amazing team) and you want to better take care of them, this is a great (and super reasonably priced) way to do it. John
+Once upon a time I commuted to work. I was fresh out of college and rode my moped to work, 30 minutes each way. It only lasted 8 months. I quit the job and have worked at home running my own businesses ever since. I don't really know the pain of commuting. Others do. Before my OFS, Julia worked for me she worked in an office in Manila for years where she had to commute every day. Sometimes she had to travel for work which also took her all over the country. That required her to commute in those places as well. Turns out, when you commute in the Philippines, you have options. -------- We have buses and trains like most countries in the world. We’re world-renowned for our jeepneys. But we also have other options that make commuting an adventure. If you live inside a subdivision (our version of a suburb), the best way to get around is to ride a "tricycle" or a "trisikad". These are motorcycles (tricycle) or bikes (trisikad) with sidecars that either follow a regulated route or take you anywhere you need to go within the community. Because of their small size, most "tricycles" and "trisikads" are not allowed on major roads. But in places where public transportation is limited, you’ll find these vehicles sharing the road with cars, trucks, and buses. Another commuting option is the "kalesa" or a horse-drawn carriage. In Manila, the kalesa is mainly a tourist attraction. But in places like Tuguegarao and Vigan, a kalesa can get you where other vehicles can’t go. If you go deep into the rural areas, you’ll see carriages drawn by carabaos (Philippine water buffalo). The more “modern” version is called “kuliglig” where they use a motorized hand tractor instead of a carabao. Last but not least is the "habal-habal". It’s a motorcycle modified to fit up to nine people instead of two. It’s also called “skylab” because it kind of looks like a space satellite (if you're squinting). These motorcycles are used in mountainous areas. Yes, I’ve tried all of them. No, there are no seatbelts. ------- I've ridden in the tricycles. Not something I'd want to do on a major road...or commuting long distances (which people do). When outsourcing to the Philippines, it's helpful to understand their culture. You can read about Philippine work culture in my book, the Outsourcing Lever. $7. John
+Our last inbounds ski day was last week. Instead of being a warm spring day (like normal in late April), it was a stormy winter day. I loved it! I got some feedback from my wife: "I'm a fair weather skier! I don't like winter storms!" This is our 8yr old who got to ski with some older friends on the last day of the year: I’ve often talked about the importance of giving good feedback, but what does good feedback look like? What kind of feedback would your OFS best respond to? 1. Timely and immediate. Don’t wait for days or weeks before giving feedback on your OFS’ work. Give feedback as soon as you notice something. If they’ve done well, they’ll remember what they did. If you’re giving constructive criticism, they’ll know what went wrong because their memory of what they did is still fresh. If you wait days or weeks, they’ve forgotten details. 2. Specific. Snagit has been really helpful for this. I take screen recordings of their work, and I point out exactly what I like and what needs changing. I'll say, “I like the color for this button,” or “The text for this part of the page needs to be a little bigger.” I'll record and explain and talk for as long as I think necessary. Sometimes I go overboard. Here's how I setup Snagit to save my videos permanently. (scroll down on the page) 3. The Sandwich Method. Before giving any negative feedback, I make sure to start and end the conversation with sincere praise. I’d say, “Good job on fixing that issue on project A. However, I noticed that you missed this mistake on project B. I know you can fix this because you’ve done a great job fixing a similar issue on project C.” Filipinos are people pleasers. When they make a mistake, they take it really hard and would get easily embarrassed. I talk about this in-depth in my book, the Outsourcing Lever. By sandwiching your criticism with praise, you’re letting them know that you still have faith in their abilities even though they did something wrong. As foreign bosses, we can come across as aggressive. If you’re giving negative criticism without any praise, it feels like you’re scolding them, even though that’s not what you’re doing. Recognition helps tone it down. It signals that you’re not angry. You just want to point out problems that need to be fixed. This is really important in Philippine culture. 4. Re-usable. This is another reason why I use Snagit often. When you save and organize your video feedback, you can add it to your OFS training. This saves you time when you hire a new VA. Speaking of training...what about just giving your OFS my training? VAsMadeEasy.com John
+If you're in the US, Daylight Saving time started a few weeks ago (unless you live in Hawaii or Arizona). Never really been a fan myself. In the summer months it doesn't get dark until 9:45pm at my house. Try putting kids to bed when it's light outside. It's almost a revolt every night. DST also bugs me because time zones are something some OFS have problems with. They don't do Daylight Saving time in the Philippines. A lot of them don't understand the concept. Why would they? They've never done it and it's really weird. I know from our customer service that we’ve had complaints about missed interviews or meetings. Then it turns out the OFS didn’t understand the time zone difference, especially once DST kicks in or when it goes back to Standard Time. If your business is affected by DST, make sure your OFS understands this. If part of their job is setting up appointments, then this is something that they NEED to know. One easy solution is to have your OFS install a world clock on their phones or computers, so they know what the time is on your side of the world. This will help them get used to your schedule. This isn't the only thing about Filipino culture that you need to know. I talk about meetings, interviews, having your OFS work in your timezone, and so much more in my book, The Outsourcing Lever. John
+Health insurance...yuck. This is one of my least favorite topics. If we (in the US) thought of it as an insurance product rather than as a charity that "must" pay for our health costs it would probably be different... ...but I don't want to get political here. I want to talk about the Philippines. One of the perks our team gets is Philhealth and health insurance coverage. Even companies in the Philippines don’t offer this because private health insurance isn’t required for employers. We started offering health insurance on top of Philhealth when we saw that Philhealth wasn’t enough. I bet you're a little confused by this. Isn’t Philhealth health insurance? It’s socialized medicine, and everybody pays for it. Philhealth is socialized medicine in the Philippines. All hospitals accept Philhealth but it only covers hospitalization, and it doesn’t cover all hospitalization costs. realistically, Philhealth just lowers their bill if they are hospitalized. This is where health insurance fills the gap. Health insurance and HMOs in the Philippines supplement what Philhealth can’t cover. To sign up for an HMO, you have to be a Philhealth member and be up-to-date with your contributions. So if you’re hospitalized, the HMO should cover whatever fees are leftover after Philhealth pays their share. Another good thing about health insurance is that it covers preventive health services and outpatient procedures. Our team can get a physical exam, check-ups, emergency treatment, and inpatient hospital care without worrying too much about the cost. Our team is also able to visit the dentist for annual cleaning. Some of our workers even pay extra to extend the coverage to their family members. They’re willing to pay for this out of pocket because it ends up cheaper in the long run and gives them ease of mind if anyone in their family has a medical emergency. This isn’t something we offer to all employees right away. To qualify for this perk, our Filipino workers have to render at least six months of continuous work. Some employers require at least a year. I think this is a good policy because if your worker hasn’t paid into their Philhealth yet, six months of regular payment will make them a member of good standing. Got questions about hiring an OFS? Get the answers at OFSGuide.com John
+On May 9, 2022 (Monday), the Philippines will be holding a general election for the executive and legislative branches of the national and local government. What does this mean? It means that on May 9, the Philippines will be electing a new president. It also means that on May 9, your OFS may ask to take a day off. Why? This day isn’t a regular holiday, but it is often declared a special non-working holiday to allow Filipinos to have ample time to go to the polls. Your OFS may ask to leave because the polling precincts are open for only 12 hours, from 6 am to 6 pm. That’s not enough time to vote, considering they have to commute to the limited number of polling places and the inefficient voting process. Here in the US, many places can serve as polling stations. Schools, churches, even private homes can serve as precincts if the government approves it. However, in the Philippines, voting is done mainly in public schools. These schools would house several precincts. On election day, it can get crowded with thousands of people all going there simultaneously, causing traffic all over the country. When they get there, finding their precincts and voting can take a lot of time. It might take longer to vote because you have to wait your turn in the polling booth. They could also encounter problems like not finding their name in the records, or they can’t find their precinct. The Philippines does have mail-in and early voting, but this is only given to Filipinos overseas and frontline workers like public school teachers (who serve as poll workers), police and the armed forces (to maintain the peace), and medical personnel. This is also a big election in the Philippines, making world-wide news. The son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos is running for president. A lot of people like him. John
+I spent last weekend in Fayetteville Arkansas at a bike race for my daughter. It was an important lead-up race to mountain bike national championships which are in July. Friends kept taking pictures of Addie on the big screen which they had at the start/finish line as she moved up in the race. She started 32nd. After lap 1 she was 18th. Lap 2: 11th. Lap 3: 7th. Lap 4: 6th. She finished 5th and on the podium. It was exciting to see her pick people off one by one as she moved forward. Here's what's interesting. Her training so far this year has been all slow riding. Lots of it. Like, 12-17 hour/week on her bike. She's not a fast starter because she hasn't done any high intensity riding yet. The girls who finished 1-4 have all done high intensity riding. They ran away with it from the beginning. How you train matters. With OFS, how you train isn't necessarily what matters. But providing training is. I got this email from Ryan recently. Actually, what he sent me is an email exchange between him and his OFS. He shared my email about Joven (the OnlineJobs.ph manager) with his team and he used that email to explain what he wants to achieve with them in the future. The response he got from them was so sweet. It’s also really telling of the benefits good training can do for you and your OFS. Thank you so much for sharing this email to us Sir. Based on my 7+ months working with you, I must say that you are like John Jonas, you help me grow Sir. I basically know nothing about your business Sir, but because of you & Ms. Katie's training, I was able to perform my daily job. I know I have a lot to learn but never once you made me feel that I'm not good enough. You appreciate & acknowledge my hard work, and because of that I felt motivated to do more. Thank you Sir for being a blessing to us. This is what we wanted to achieve with VAsMadeEasy. The VAsMadeEasy program has training that you can just give to your OFS so they can learn the skills they need. It also has short, easy-to-follow training materials for you. Because you’re still the boss and you’re the one who has to make the decisions. Why did we do it this way? Because we want to make it easy for you to train your VA, so you can get the work that you need faster. And we want to empower your OFS so they can do their work better and they’re motivated to improve. When you work together with this training: You learn to communicate and manage your OFS Your OFS learns the skills they need and are empowered to do more You and your OFS learn to trust each other because you’re growing together. Training matters. John
+My favorite thing to do outside is to ski in the backcountry. It's exhilarating and requires both physical and mental strength and awareness. Last week we skied 3 steep lines of fresh powder. Part of skiing in the backcountry is managing risk. - What if someone gets hurt? - What if this slope avalanches? - What is a safe stopping zone? - What are emergency numbers to call? - What are conditions like? There's a lot of risk management in skiing in the backcountry. There's risk management with OFS too. One of the biggest fears of outsourcing to an online Filipino specialist is security. How can you protect your data and your customers’ data when working with an OFS? Can you trust them? How sure are you that they’re not going to steal your information? What if something goes wrong? What can you do to make sure your business is protected? I have a bunch of tips I think can help you. Cultural Factors Filipinos are honest, for the most part, especially with foreigners. Once they get a job, they want to keep that job. They know stealing from you will get them fired, and it’s just not worth the risk. Personal data isn’t that valuable for them. In the Philippines, it’s not easy to sell data. In the Philippines, they respect authority. Theft is a serious crime with severe penalties. The Philippine government has made cybercrime laws stricter to encourage more online businesses to come to the country. Theft of digital information carries double the punishment compared to common theft. Sharing Tips Sharing Passwords - The best thing we have found to protect you is to use password managers like LastPass. You store your passwords in a password manager, allowing you to share passwords with your OFS. So your OFS can log in to the accounts they’re working on, but they can’t see or edit your passwords. If you need to let your OFS go, or they don’t need that account anymore, you can easily revoke access to that password. Sharing Data and Files- Google Drive allows you to manage permissions to specific files. You control who can see, comment, or edit your files. In Google sheets, you can even lock specific cells. Like with password managers, you can revoke access whenever you want. Security While Working Make sure that the person you’re hiring has their own computer. Any information you’re sharing stays on their device, and it’s not going through public Wi-Fi. Even if your OFS sometimes works in an internet cafe or a coffee shop (if their internet at home is slow), you want them using their device and not a shared computer. The more people share a computer; it’s more likely someone else will have access to your stuff. If they are using a shared computer (with family), ask them to create their own separate computer user login with a password so no family member can accidentally access their work. Many families sharing a single computer do not bother creating multiple user profiles, so having them do this can help. Are Filipinos more likely to be hacked? Generally no. Security and privacy there are the same as in most places globally. Most Filipinos don’t access unsecured websites, so they’re not at greater risk of being hacked. But if you want to be sure, you can subscribe to a VPN and have them use it. It only costs $2-3 a month. It’ll encrypt everything and help them access geo-locked websites and content. If you don’t want to send sensitive data and want everything to stay on your computer, you can set up a remote desktop. Your OFS goes online to log in to your remote desktop, and they work on your computer. It’s almost like having them work in your office. There are problems with this setup, though. The work is going to be slower because of lag and connectivity issues. And if you have several OFS, you’ll need to provide computers for each of them because you can’t have two people working on the same computer. Using virtual card numbers. Having your OFS make payments for you is one of the things I know many people want to delegate but are afraid to do. Sharing your credit card information is scary. But you don’t have to worry about it if you’re using virtual card numbers. Capital One has this feature where you can create virtual card numbers, control their use, and set spending limits. If your OFS tries to use or uses it without your permission, you can revoke access. The last thing I want to say about this (this is totally my opinion) is that I think that you’re more likely to have data stolen by someone in the US, somebody in your office who can access your computer, than by someone in the Philippines. It’s not in their culture. There’s no incentive for it. The cost of getting caught is too high. It’s just not worth the risk for them. I hope these tips have helped you feel more secure about hiring an OFS. In my experience and the experience of thousands of business owners, Filipino workers are pretty honest. You can trust them.
+I previously talked about how training can help your OFS improve your life and business. After I sent out that newsletter, Billy responded. He talked about how he empowered your OFS and built a stronger work relationship with her. Aloha, John! I appreciate your emails, they are very helpful. In June it will be one year with my VA, who is now our Operations Manager and I have given her AUTHORITY. I had to remind her that she is the boss several times, and now she finally is becoming more assertive. I asked her if she would like for me to help put together a 5 year plan for her life goals. I let her know it's important for the company to know her personal goals so that we can help her achieve them while meeting company objectives. She is still a little shy and I was surprised when she did not hesitate to accept my offer of helping her make a 5 year life plan. She was very happy.It took us less than an hour to write down the plan - wow - you should see her now. I am very proud of her, and it makes me want to work harder to ensure that she achieves those goals for herself and her family. Thanks again, John! Billy The way I outsource and built Onlinejobs.ph is based on the idea that you and your OFS will be working together for years. When you know you’ll be working together for a long time; you want to make plans. You want to set goals. You start hoping for a better future. But sometimes, it’s hard to believe this when you see people losing their jobs left and right. The unemployment rate in the Philippines has risen due to the pandemic, and people there are worried about job security. It’s also hard to think of this when you’re an online worker and everybody around you is freelancing. You can’t make a 5-year plan when you don’t know where the next paycheck is coming from. The great thing about what Billy did is he empowered his OFS to dream big. By helping her achieve her goals, he’s also achieving his goals for his business. If his OFS wants to double her income in 5 years or manage a bigger team, Billy and his OFS can work out a plan to help achieve that. What can they do to increase their sales? What can they do to make the business more profitable? His OFS is motivated because she’s taking an active role in achieving her goals. His business grows because he has a worker who’s just as dedicated to growing his business. When you empower your OFS, everybody wins. Here are 3 ways to empower your OFS: 1. give them a title 2. give them authority. Make sure they understand what they're responsible for. 3. give them training. VAsMadeEasy.com.
+This is going to be weird. After I sent out the newsletter about balikbayan boxes, I got a great response from Edward. His wife is from the Philippines, so they regularly send balikbayan boxes to her relatives in the Philippines. He had a lot of good tips that I want to share with you if you ever plan to send a box to your OFS team. We’ve sent Balikbayan boxes to the Philippines to my wife’s relatives. Things that make the most impact are: Canned meats (Spam, Vienna sausages, corned beef, canned chicken, roast beef, tuna) – meat protein is very expensive in the Philippines. A single tin or two is sufficient to feed an entire family since it is always eaten with a plateful of rice. Make sure to limit to two dozen of each to minimize the risk of Customs opening the box. Also, while canned fish is everywhere in the Philippines, the percentage of fish in the can is much smaller – sometimes, half the tin is comprised of oil or water. Spaghetti noodles, sauces, Kraft Dinner (not too much as they take up a lot of space) Toiletries (toothpaste, makeup, eyeliner, perfume, soap, shampoo and conditioner, deodorants, lipstick, lotion – note: Seal with tape the lids of anything that can leak) Fruit preserves (fruit jams of every kind, especially strawberry and raspberry) Vitamins and supplements OTC medicine (Tylenol, Aspirin, cough, cold, flu medication) Clothing and shoes (use socks and t-shirts as packing) Cheap handbags (my wife brought a dozen Coach and Michael Kors handbags with her when she went home a number of years ago since it was too risky putting them in the Balikbayan box) Candies and chocolates (especially the large Toblerone bars from Costco during Christmas) Batteries (Duracell or Energizer. Keep in the pack – the ones sold in the Philippines are crap) Flashlights/headlamps (a good quality, high lumens light is invaluable over there) American-made tools (screwdrivers, wrenches, socket sets – the Chinese stuff in the Philippines is junk) Dollar store knickknacks to stuff the box to the gills since weight is no object (stationary, pens, pencils, crayons, markers) – this is to show the inspector using the scanner that the box’s contents is for a family and not a business Make sure the balikbayan box has the recipient’s address AND phone number printed in huge bold font and taped to the box on at least two sides. Use lots of packing tape and do not leave any corner untaped. Wrap the entire box in 18-inch plastic wrap. I don’t understand the prohibition on batteries – they are not a problem AFAIK. Do NOT send any alcoholic beverages – that’s a huge temptation to the inspectors. Same with expensive electronics like smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Don’t bother with household cleaners – they’re everywhere in the Philippines and very inexpensive. Children’s toys are the same quality – they all come from China. Take care, Edward I showed the email to my OFS, Jamie, because of some contradictions with the last email. Some of the things she added were her personal preferences. So I think you can also put other items in a balikbayan box, as long as it’s not something prohibited. Regarding sending alcoholic beverages, she referred to those mini bottles instead of the big ones. But I agree with Edward; it might be best not to send them. I told you this would be weird. I can't imagine sending canned meat...but that's what's effective. John
+Earlier this week I talked about security with OFS. Let's go a little deeper. Like, deep into your business with a bookkeeper. They're likely to see everything! Here's an email from Tatiana: Hello, I have hired my first OFS at the beginning of the year and it's going great. I want to hire another one to do bookkeeping but worried about sharing bank/ credit card information.I heard some people give remote access so an OFS cannot download information on their end.Any other suggestions on how to mitigate risks? Regards, Tatiana I understand why Tatiana is worried. Just the thought of your clients’ banking and credit card information getting out there; it’s terrifying. I thought of the same thing when I interviewed Ethan Kap for a case study a few years ago. https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/outsourcing-insurance-finance-businesses-ethan-kap Ethan has an insurance agency. He’s been outsourcing for over ten years, and he has a team of 22 OFS who do everything from answering the phone to preparing financial statements. Ethan had the same fears as Tatiana when he was starting. But he was smart enough not to trust his VAs right away. He has to earn their trust and vice versa before they handle anything sensitive. Another reason he’s able to trust the people he hires because he has a solid recruitment process and provides training. One way you can find honest Filipino workers is through OneVAAway.com. To give your OFS training, you can use VAsMadeEasy.com to get you started. Does his Filipino team have access to sensitive financial information? Yes. Could they access and steal that information? Definitely. Has his Filipino team ever stolen from him? Never. Why? Because Filipinos are honest. I also asked my OFS, Jam, about this. He has a data security and finance background. Here’s what he wrote: “Remote access allows the OFS to access and control the employer's computer as if they are right there. There are many types of remote access, and it depends on the permissions given whether they can download from the employer's computer to their own or if file transfer is not allowed. Since they have another OFS, they may want to look at the possibility of making that first OFS they trust work in a supervisory capacity to check and vet the new hire first. Also, is it possible for them not to include full bank and card info in their bookkeeping software/spreadsheet? You can also hide numbers in Excel or Google Sheets if they’re not using a bookkeeping program. At the very least, that would allow the Bookkeeping OFS from handling sensitive data.” I can’t guarantee that the tips I’ve provided above work 100%. There’s always a risk. Hiring a bookkeeper to work in your office isn’t a guarantee they won’t steal or use your banking information. But with a Filipino bookkeeper, they’re less likely to steal because there’s no benefit. If you treat your OFS well, you'll see really quickly if you can/should trust them. John
+I've always been driven by freedom. It's a primary motivator for me. Time freedom. Money freedom. Responsibility freedom. I always work towards systems which will provide me freedom. Like, if there’s a task that takes too much time I either outsource it or say no to it completely. Or, if there's a business opportunity that I can see will require me to always be there, I say no. Freedom requires consistently making conscious choices. Training sets you up for freedom. That's why I encourage my kids to train for their biking competitions. I go with them because I know it motivates them. I give them all the tools they need so they're confident whenever they compete. When you're fit, you're free to go fast or slow. You can climb any hill you want. It's all doable. When you have a trained team, it's similar. You can take on a project. You can be more efficient. You can hand tasks off easier. If I need to train a new hire, I make time for it. I make sure my OFS gets what they need. Because even though it’s a lot of work for me right now, it saves me hours in the future. But there are still some who think that setting aside time for training isn’t worth it. Instead, they have these misconceptions. Misconception # 1: Training isn’t necessary if you hire the right person. Here’s a reality check. In the Philippines, everyone expects to get "On The Job training". It's part of the culture. Sure, you may not have to train them on things they're an expert at, but you'll still need to provide expectations, feedback, and help with what the output looks like. Even if you do find that perfect hire, you still need to train them, at least a little bit, so they know how things are done in your business. Misconception #2: Training takes too much time. Yes, training does take time. But it’s also time well spent. Time working ON your business rather than IN your business. Plus, if you use Snagit, training only takes the amount of time it takes you to talk through it. Then it's permanently recorded and can be given to others in the future. Spending that time today saves you hours in the future. Misconception #3: My VA doesn’t need training. They can just learn on the job. I’ve talked about the disappearing Filipino before. This happens when your OFS is placed in a situation where they feel helpless and they don’t know what to do. Instead of asking for help, they’ll just ghost you and disappear. This can happen when you tell your OFS that they can just learn as they go. When you tell them that, what your OFS hears is, “I can’t be bothered, just figure it out yourself.” So what happens when they run into problems? They disappear. They disappear because they feel like they can’t come to you when they need help. They’re afraid to ask you to make decisions because they don’t know if they should. But when you give them training, you’re showing them that you want them to do a good job. You’re showing them that you’re willing to invest your precious time in making this working relationship successful. So when they do need your help, they’re not afraid to ask you. I know training an OFS is hard work. That’s why, as I started hiring more people to work for me, I wanted to create a solution for this. So if you want an easier way to train your VA, just go to VAsMadeEasy.com. John
+This email probably should have happened 2 weeks ago, but that's not how the Philippines does it. May 3rd was Eid'l Fitr or the end of Ramadan. It was a regular holiday in the Philippines (full day off for almost everyone). But they didn't announce it was a day off until two days before. I try to keep you updated on holidays, but I need to schedule my newsletter ahead of time. Monday I'll let you know why. Eid'l Fitr is one of the holidays celebrated in the Philippines, particularly in Mindanao. If you have a Muslim OFS, this is like Christmas for them. They feast, party, and give gifts. You’re probably wondering why the Philippines, a predominantly Christian country, celebrate an Islamic holiday. Islam is the 2nd biggest religion in the Philippines. Around 5% of the population is Muslim, most residing in Mindanao. http://rsso11.psa.gov.ph/article/factsheet-islam-mindanao#:~:text=With%20a%20total%20of%206%2C064%2C744,of%20Population%20(2015%20POPCEN). If you go to Mindanao, you’ll see mosques, madrasas, and restaurants catering to the Muslim community all over the place. Why is the Muslim population concentrated in Mindanao? Historically, Islam flourished in Mindanao because the Spaniards couldn’t establish a strong foothold on that island. Spain was able to take over Luzon and Visayas; that’s why most Filipinos converted to Christianity. Mindanao was harder to conquer due to its mountain ranges, thick forests, and strong resistance by the indigenous Muslim communities. Also, if you look at the map of the Philippines, you’ll see that Mindanao is close to Brunei and Indonesia, which are predominantly Muslim. Throughout history, these places have traded with each other, which allowed Islam to thrive. This relationship continues until today. There’s a group called BIMP-EAGA, which stands for Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asian Group Area. This group was established to spur economic growth in that area. One of the things I love about OFS is their willingness and ability to contribute. I had no idea about the Eid'l Fitr holiday until my OFS told me. Then they wrote this email about it. They want me (and you) to understand the culture. John
+There's some big stuff happening in my life and in the Philippines. 1. Philippines elections happened last week. This is a big deal, electing a new president. I started getting texts Monday night from my team about the outcome. More to come about this. 2. I'm taking my family to Europe (tomorrow) to ride bikes. We'll be there for a month. Going to ride our bikes From Paris -> Germany -> Switzerland -> Austria. This has been months in the making. Planning, logistics, Covid, gear, training... We're going to carry all our clothes with us on our bikes...so there's a lot of prep work going into it...especially with taking 5 kids!: And, because you asked for it: 3. We're making individual trainings available for sale at VAsMadeEasy.com. I had so many people say: I want 2-3 of the trainings, but most of them aren't relevant to my business. We heard you and my team got to work making them available. You know I'm big on providing training to OFS. It's one of the keys to my success. We have done-for-you training courses on: Content Writing Customer Support Digital Advertising ECommerce Management Email Marketing Fundamentals for General VAs Mininets Social Media Marketing Fundamentals Social Media Marketing (Advanced) Basic Photoshop Basic SEO ECommerce Email Marketing Facebook Ads & Instagram Ads Google Ads Lead Generation for Premium Content (E-Books) LinkedIn Ads LinkedIn Marketing Pinterest Marketing Podcasting Shopify Video Editing for Davinci Resolve Video Editing for iMovie Wordpress Build an Attractive and Compelling Website with Wordpress Forum Commenting and Posting How to promote YouTube Videos Influencer Lead Generation and Outreach Campaign Plus 5 more that are completed but not published yet...those of you who previously bought will be getting access to those 5 new trainings soon. If you just want one or two, they're now individually available. John PS. If there's a training you'd like to see us create, let me know. We won't be able to create everything, but there are about 8 more we're currently working on and more in planning.
+A long time ago in a galaxy far far away... Sorry...I missed May the 4th. I went skiing. Deep powder. But really, a long time ago as I was going through my email on day I thought This is dumb. Why am I the one dealing with all this garbage. So I started teaching someone to deal with some of my email for me. Waking up with an inbox free of spam and free of garbage I don't want to see is such a relief and so rewarding. It's a simple process I was able to work through with someone else to accomplish something significant. I succeed. They succeed. We have interaction with each other. Win. Win. Win. Over the years it evolved into more. She now responds to some of my email for me. Usually she doesn't send the emails, she just makes drafts so I get to review them first. But I know a lot of you aren’t comfortable with the idea of sharing your email password with your OFS. If you use your email to sign in to websites, you wouldn’t want anyone to have access to your email. If you use Google Workspace or Gmail, what you can do is turn on Gmail delegation. https://support.google.com/a/answer/7223765?hl=en Email delegation lets delegated users (your OFS) read, send, and delete messages on the account owner's behalf. How is this better than giving your OFS your username and password? It’s better because they don’t need to log in to your account to manage your email. They don’t know your password, so they can’t log in to websites using your account. You don't have to deal with 2FA and getting them into your account. Take note that if your OFS sends an email on your behalf, it will show a “sent by” (your OFS’ email) in addition to the “from” address. Unfortunately, the “sent by” can’t be removed so people will see that your OFS is emailing for you. And...you might be surprised by people's reaction to your OFS sending emails for you. Some people won't say anything. But some will love it and they'll let you know. John
+My OFS, Jamie, sent me this link last week. It’s a news article from the American Journal of Transportation, and it mentions Onlinejobs.ph as one of the websites last-mile carriers use to help them with their labor shortage. https://ajot.com/news/last-mile-carriers-look-to-overseas-help-in-the-face-of-tight-jobs-market Last-mile carriers are the trucks and vans that bring everything we buy from ships and trains to the stores and your door. I didn’t know that last-mile carriers even used VAs or OFS until recently when we saw quite an increase in this industry. But with the pandemic worsening their staffing issues, some of them looked to the Philippines for help. Turns out it was a great fit because a lot of the skills Filipino VAs have are things that they could use in their business. Skills like: Customer service Calendar management Email management Administrative support Online marketing I liked the article because it emphasized that training is needed, and it’s going to be a steep learning curve if the worker you hire has no experience. Jamie talked to a VA for a last-mile carrier. He’s an experienced virtual assistant, so he didn’t have a hard time learning the ropes of the business. But he needed training on US geography to dispatch drivers and track and trace packages. Now he can navigate across California. I want to know if other industries out there use Filipino workers that I don’t know about. We’ve done case studies on e-commerce, finance, web development, SEO, and real estate. If you have a different kind of business and you have a Filipino team working for you, I’d love to hear from you.
+Filipinos don’t want to steal data. In my opinion, you’re more likely to have your data stolen by someone who’s working with you in your office. I know it’s a pretty bold claim. I have no empirical data to support this, just anecdotal, so you can take everything I’ve said here with a grain of salt. But in the 17-plus years I’ve worked with my Filipino team, I have never had my information stolen by them. The worlds outsourcing has moved to the Philippines. If Filipinos want to steal your data, how come many big businesses set up call centers in the Philippines? These call centers have access to information from billions of people, and there are Filipinos who have been working with that information for years. If big businesses can trust their thousands of Filipino workers, why can’t you trust the OFS you hired yourself? Big businesses trust their Filipino employees because they know that the Philippines is pretty high in Hofstede’s Power distance Index. I think this is where the deep-seated mistrust comes in. If you didn’t hire the worker yourself, you can’t trust them because you don’t know them. You can’t give sensitive information to someone you don’t know because who knows what they’ll do with it. But if you hired your OFS yourself and you took the time to know who they are, it’ll be easier to trust them. If you took the time to find someone trustworthy, it’s easier to give them your trust. That’s one of the things I considered when I was developing OneVAAway.com. I knew it was important to find someone trustworthy early in the recruitment process. I’m not saying that Filipinos will never steal your data. There are going to be some bad apples out there. In case that happens, you can report them to their Department of Justice, and they can launch an investigation. Give them their OFS information, and the Philippine government will likely do something about it. They take theft seriously. Digital theft punishments are double that of normal theft in the Philippines. I talk about this a lot. The reason is because I see too many people who don't hire someone because they're scared. They're scared they can't trust the person they hire. They're scared something will go wrong. They're scared the worker is just in it to steal from them. And...I understand. I was scared the first time too. But the only way to verify what I've said is to do it yourself and see if it works for you. ...Or you could read from hundreds of others. John
+I haven’t been in Paris for about 10 years. The last time I was here we saw all the big tourist sights. Notre Dame, Versailles, Eiffel Tower, Catacomsbs, sewers, museums, Seine… This time…not so much. I have my 5 kids with me. They weren’t interested in going into the Louvre. Notre Dame is closed for rebuilding (after the fire). We didn’t have time for the Catacombs or sewers or boat trips on the Seine. But…we had our bikes. We made 2 circles around the Arc De Triumph roundabout. That was insane. We rode our bikes through the whole city. Wow…Paris riding is definitely different than the riding we do at home. But the biggest difference was the security around the Eiffel Tower. The last time I was here you could walk under the tower from anywhere. Now it’s all walled off and you have to pass through security to get under. Speaking of security… One of the ways you can have some degree of security with your OFS is by controlling their access to files and information. We do the same, using Google Drive to share files with the team. With Google Drive, we can control who gets access. We can add them one by one or send them a link. Some people need to see the files—some need to have the ability to comment or edit them. In one of my previous newsletters, Tatiana didn’t want her bookkeeper to see her client’s bank account numbers. With Google Sheets, you can control permissions for specific sheets, even cells. Editing permissions helps ensure your OFS can’t change anything. You can also hide specific sheets if you don’t want your OFS to see them. If you use Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) and OneDrive, you can also give your team controlled access to files and folders. They don’t even need to have Microsoft 365 since they would be able to open and edit shared files and folders online. The part that’s better than Google is you can set the sharing links to expire. If your OFS is using Excel, you can also control what parts of the spreadsheet they can edit and whether they can copy and paste the data there. This is good if your OFS is working on a short-term project and you don’t want them to have access after they’re done. Now...a word of caution. I talk about security and options because you've asked me to. But...if protecting cells from someone seeing them isn't something you'd do if the person was working in your office, you shouldn't do it with your OFS. It builds distrust. It handicaps your OFS. It takes your time. John
+The Philippines just concluded its elections and it looks like Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. is going to win. This was a really controversial election for them. Emotions are running high because there’s so much history with his family. Some are really happy about the results and some are really bummed about it. If you don't know the history, this is worth learning at least a little. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. is the son of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr who was the 10th president of the Philippines. Read the Wikipedia summary, it's pretty damning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Marcos Is this a good or bad thing for the Philippines? We don’t know. It’s too soon to tell. We don’t know if Marcos is going to make things better or worse. Is this going to affect how you outsource to your OFS? Probably not. Filipinos are going to find a way to make things work. It doesn’t matter who’s the president, they just want to work and provide for their families. However... There's more at play here. Anxiety for your OFS. Here's a conversation Greg had with his OFS that he forwarded to me. ----------- OFS: Hello, Sir. To be honest, I'm actually very anxious. Election results here are very disappointing and really depressing. I've been seeing foreign clients backing out on local artists because of politics. And it scares me. hehe I hope our political situation won't affect our employment. Because I really sure that whatever's happening here won't affect the quality of work I deliver. OMG. Greg: that’s really unfortunate to hear about foreign clients backing out on employees because of politics. shame on the clients. I want to assure you that there is no negative sentiment with me or anyone on our team about working with you. we are working with people in over 4 countries, and their regional politics are bound to change. In the US ours changes drastically every 4 years! there’s no reason for me or our company to let go of an employee because of political changes. you represent yourself in this company. your politicians do not. and you represent yourself very well! ---------- And another quote from Andreas OFS: I am having anxiety right now, considering what happened in the elections. Plus, I am somehow scared for my life. This is because my university is known to be a place for activists. For the past 6 years, there are graduates of my university who were killed.We received a chain message advising us to change our profile pictures on facebook and lock our profile. A lot of people are already redtagging students from my university as communists and such. The scary thing is that, the police force are now permitted to redtag people who they think oppose the government (and also people who vocally supported the candidate against the winner of the presidential elections) John
+We’re on day 4 of 30 as we passed through the gates of the medieval city of Provins. I wondered what life must have been like 1000 years ago for the people here. The primary focus of daily life was still survival for most people. After 52 miles of riding survival was on our minds too! Interviewing people wasn’t… …but I get asked about doing video interviews with ofs all the time. I don’t usually do video interviews when I’m hiring an OFS. I know many people do it, and it works for them. But I don’t do them for the following reasons. Many Filipino workers don’t like it. They’re worried that employers might not understand their English. Employers might also notice their background, which could be messy, and people walk behind them. Video interviews take up a lot of time and require asking a lot of questions. It’ll probably take you 30 minutes or longer to interview just one person. If you’re interviewing many people, that’s hours wasted on people you’re not hiring. It puts good applicants who don’t interview well at a disadvantage. Some jobs don’t require excellent spoken English. But a lousy interview can discourage you from hiring someone who could be good simply because they don’t speak English well. For example, I have a few developers who I know don’t speak English well. I avoid going on calls with them because I really can’t understand their English. But when I email them or chat with them on Slack, their English is really good. That’s fine because I don’t need them to have perfect English; I just need them to be good developers. I would have missed out if I had let the way they spoke English affect my hiring decisions. That being said, I understand why people still insist on doing video interviews. Doing a video interview does come with distinct advantages. A video interview is a quick test of whether they have the equipment and internet speeds to do the job. If their setup can sustain a video call, they can do most online work. A video call is more personal, which can help you get to know your applicants better. Seeing how they talk on a video call shows how well they’ll be on the job that does require good English-speaking skills (phone customer support, cold calls, etc). The interview is one thing that takes up time when hiring. It doesn’t have to be that way. If you still want to do a video interview with your applicants, there are ways to do them faster and make them more efficient. Don’t do video interviews early in the hiring process. Doing the interviews later in the hiring process lets your applicants know you enough that they’re not as self-conscious. They’ll be more relaxed and less guarded with their answers. Do your interviews with your top 2-3 applicants. This way, you’re not rushing through each interview. Also, you know your top applicants enough to ask them specific questions relevant to the job. Prepare your interview questions ahead of time. You don’t want to lose track and waste time talking about things unrelated to the job. In the end, here's the experience most people have with doing video interviews: - If it's the first thing you try doing only one out of 5 people will show up for the interview. Super frustrating for you. Super frustrating for them. They're scared. - If it's at the end of the interview process, 2/3 will show up. Now this is a good way of making your final decision. John
+I’m currently on a mini-retirement like Tim Ferris talks about in the 4 Hour Work Week. We started in Paris and cycled east. We moved into Germany and the Black Forest: The riding has been amazing. As has been the food! We’re here for a month and I didn’t bring a laptop! Just my phone. The first time I took a mini retirement was in 2008 and it taught me a bunch of things. How do I know my Filipino team is working while I’m on vacation? To be honest, when I first had to step away from my business years ago, I didn’t know if they were going to keep working. All I knew is they have everything they needed to keep working. They have the training and the tools. They knew I wouldn’t be back for a while. So, I was half expecting my business to be in shambles when I got back. It wasn’t. It was even better than before I left it. - unnecessary things got dropped - important things got solidified and improved upon So, over the years, I’ve realized that when your OFS has: The right training The right tools, and A clear set of responsibilities. You don’t have to worry about them not working at all. Now that I have around 40 people working for me, I also have Joven, my project manager, who keeps things running smoothly. There’s also our Basecamp. We’ve reached that point where my OFS team adds their own tasks on Basecamp. So I’m not worried they’re going to run out of things to do when I’m not around. The only thing I really need to do is to let them know how long I’ll be on vacation and when they can expect me back. This lets them know what projects we need to put on hold and which ones need to be rushed. Do they take things easy when I’m away? Yeah. But that’s mostly because there are some things they can’t do without my feedback. Other than that, things still get done and the business keeps running. By the time I get back, I’ll be ready to catch up on all the emails and messages they sent me. To get to this point, the best place to start is to give them the right training. VAsMadeEasy.com. John
+When we arrived at the Paris airport I really thought we were making a scene. 7 people, 5 bike bags, an obvious family all walking in a line together: It was a mild scene compared to when we put our bike “kits” on (“Kit” is what we call a cycling uniform): I didn’t realize the effect of 7 people all wearing these bright colors and riding in a line would have. We’ve almost caused a couple accidents from people turning to look! We’ve had a lot of pictures taken of us. Weird! I’m sure Marcos Jr has had a lot of pictures taken of him too. Here’s an update on the results of the Philippine elections. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been declared the presumptive president but it’s not going to be official until he’s inaugurated on June 30. Outgoing president Duterte sent out a press release to reassure people that government services will continue during the transition. So that’s a good thing. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1174270 Will the Marcos administration have an impact on the way we outsource? Is it going to have an impact on our OFS? At this point in time, it seems like business as usual. There are a lot of emotions and opinions. Some people are anxious and some are excited. It’s hard to predict anything at this point. They’re still in the transition process and the whole world has its eyes on what Bongbong is going to do. There are concerns that he’s going to do the same things his father did. But there are also those who are excited by his campaign promises and are looking forward to seeing them fulfilled. This election has been interesting because I have OFS who voted for Marcos and OFS who went with Robredo, so I can see both sides of this situation. What’s happening in the Philippines is a lot like what’s happening in our US politics right now. It’s messy. Talk to your OFS. See how they feel about the results. John
+We do big projects all the time. These big projects can be improvements to Onlinejobs.ph. Or when I launch new products like OutsourcingLever.com, OneVAAway.com, OFSGuide.com, or VAsMadeEasy.com. Or just stuff that I've always wanted to try because I know they'd be good for business, like making a podcast. We have so many ideas we have a long list of them on our Basecamp. We all have ideas for projects. This creative part is something I know a lot of business owners love to do. Coming up with ideas is easy. The hard part is implementing these projects. Implementing is easier when you have a team of Online Filipino Specialists. This is how I usually start a project: I create tasks, tag the right people, give instructions, and ask for input. We communicate on the task in Basecamp for as long as the project keeps going. Because more people are involved, I admit managing them can be tricky. It was easier when I had a small team of 10 people. Ten years and 40 employees later, it's gotten to the point that I had so many projects going I needed someone else to keep track of them. So, I promoted Joven to be the overall project manager of OnlineJobs.ph. He's overseeing all our website work. Managing developers, designers, copy, bugs, features... Joven mainly handles the website and app. It involves a lot of troubleshooting and changes depending on how things work—so having everything in one place works for him because it's easier to track changes that way. I'm used to how Joven works because that's how I usually do things. But it doesn't work for all projects. In the cases like the podcast or VAsMadeEasy.com, where we need to create and update content regularly, things have to be done differently. This is where Julia comes in and how she runs the podcast. Julia is a list person. When I look at her task list on Basecamp, it overwhelms me because there are so many tasks. But it works for her because that's how she keeps track of things. She created an assembly line system where my newsletters are turned into blog posts, social media posts, podcasts, and videos to keep things going every day. It looks like a lot to me. But I can see why her system works here because we need to deliver content regularly. Having groups lets me know what process is taking too long, which ones need to be ramped up, and what adjustments we need to make to publish on time. Jessica, another project manager for us, does things differently than us both. She’s kind of an in between. She separates projects into tasks (more than me, fewer than Julia) and manages them throughout the project. I'd love to know how you work with your OFS team when working on big projects. What software do you use? How do you/your ofs handle it? Any specific insights? John
+I’m a typical dad. When we pull up to something interesting, I want to point it out to my kids and maybe explain it. Sometimes they want to hear it and sometimes they don’t. We’ve visited a number of cathedrals since we’ve been here in Europe. They’re pretty amazing. This time I was explaining to my kids what a confessional booth is. My son took a picture to show evidence of me explaining things. Today, after we walked over a real draw bridge (they’ve never seen one before) I pointed it out and they made fun of me for the rest of the day. That’s the price I pay for being a good dad and explaining things. I never know what they’re going to like and what they won’t. Here’s an explainer about PhilHealth. If one of the benefits you’re paying for is your OFS Philhealth contributions, this is something you need to know. Philhealth (Philippine socialized medicine) just sent out an advisory announcing an increase in their premiums for the year 2022. They just announced it but the rate hike is retroactive. https://www.philhealth.gov.ph/advisories/2022/adv2022-0010.pdf For the past few years, the minimum contribution for Philhealth has been Php300 ($5.75) per month. Philhealth set that as a minimum assuming that most Filipinos have a monthly salary of Php10,000 ($191) and at a 3% premium. Now, the rate is at 4% or P400 minimum. That’s an additional Php100 ($2). Why is this happening? Under the Universal Health Care Law of the Philippines, that rate should be at around 5%. https://www.philhealth.gov.ph/about_us/UHC-IRR_Signed.pdf For the longest time, the premiums were around 2% and the Philippine government was having a hard time covering hospitalization claims. So what the government did was introduce the increases gradually. They did an increase back in 2019, raising the premium rate from 2.5% to 3%. The increase was supposed to happen every year but was delayed for 2 years due to the pandemic. Again, the rate hike is retroactive. This means that if your OFS paid their Philhealth contributions early, they need to pay the balance so their contributions would be credited. They also need to pay the difference for the previous months’ contribution starting with January 2022. This could be a big burden. Ask your OFS about it. John
+I believe when you do good in the world, it comes back to you 10-fold. We see this all the time but still, sometimes it's hard to believe. Also, as people, we have self-protective instincts. We want to make sure that we get our fair share and that nobody takes advantage of us. But when we go out of our way to show trust, consideration, and kindness to people around us, what we get in return is just overwhelming. I got this email from Danielle. She shared with me a message she got from her OFS (Online Filipino Specialist). Danielle: “Just want to say thank you for all the work you do! You really have been so great at tracking so many different and new tasks - thank you for your input, suggestions, and the willingness to try and learn new things!” Danielle’s OFS: “Wow. Thank you for your appreciation. 😊 I love what I am doing because of your trust, consideration, kindness & everything 😊” Consideration and kindness I would expect. That's part of being a human being. But the trust part is so interesting to me. This OFS feels like her boss trusts her. Because of that she loves her job, she does good work, she contributes to the company. Try gaining your OFS trust, and trusting them to do good work. They’ll love their work, They’ll love working for you, and They’ll do what needs to be done to make your business successful. One way to show your OFS that you care is to give them training. You can give them that training with VAsMadeEasy.com. John PS. Today we visited the Hohenzollern castle. The castle itself was great. But the view point we were able to ride to was exceptional.
+I got this great email from Kymn. She writes: Hi John, LOVE your newsletter! Quick question: 99% of my communication with my VA is via email. We used to meet on zoom frequently and now we do not anymore. Her work is still excellent. I’m wondering if it is a mistake not to connect with her face-to-face more often and wonder what you think about this. She seems satisfied; I’m satisfied yet this is a nagging question. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this!Kymn Honestly, I don't know. I NEVER meet with my people via video. Always via project management or email. Often I send them a video of me, but rarely do I get a video (screen recordings) of them. I asked them about it and got different responses. Some of them are okay with just the video message, email, Slack, or comments on our Basecamp. They don’t like doing face-to-face meetings because they don’t want me to see laundry or hear their loud chickens/dogs/tricycles in the background. I’m okay with it, but I understand why they’d be self-conscious about that. Some like regular meetings, but they're okay with how things are. These are my OFS (Online Filipino Specialists) who’ve worked in offices before and are used to meetings. The closest thing we have to a company meeting is when we do a Campfire on Basecamp. That’s where we post if we need to tell everybody something, and anyone can respond. For team meetings, we have our Slack channels. This system works for us, for how we do things. But I know this might not work for everyone. Meetings get a lot of flack for being too long and tedious, but some businesses need regular meetings. I think the important thing to think about is: Does a regular meeting serve a purpose? Does it help you run your business? Will it help your OFS get their work done? If the answer is yes to all three questions, then go ahead and have a meeting. If this is something that you want to do and would make you feel more comfortable working with your OFS, go for it. When you do it, you'll get a feeling from it. Might be great for you. Might be great for them. It might not be. I'd be interested in how you hold meetings with your team and how productive you feel they are. If you want to know more about how I work with my Filipino team, check out my book, The Outsourcing Lever. John
+I’m on holiday right now. In the past week we rode our bikes from Germany to Switzerland to Austria. The Bodensee borders all 3 countries and is beautiful: This coming Sunday, June 12 is the Philippine Independence Day. It’s a regular holiday celebrated all over the country. It commemorates the Philippines’ independence from Spain back in 1898. They declared independence on the balcony of Emilio Aguinaldo’s home (1st Philippine President) in Kawit, Cavite. This house has been donated to the government and is now a museum. If you visit the Philippines, that balcony where they first waved the Philippine flag still exists. Also in that place is this plaque commemorating the event. The plaque is in English! This year, Philippine Independence falls on a Sunday. This reminded me of an email I got a while back asking what the practice is in the Philippines when a holiday falls on a Sunday? Is the following Monday declared a non-working holiday? I know this was the practice back when the Philippines followed holiday economics, a policy that was created to boost domestic tourism and spending. But they don’t do that anymore because there are already so many holidays. So this holiday would only have an impact on your OFS if they work on a Sunday. Stay on top of the upcoming holidays by subscribing to our holiday calendar. John
+On our bike trip, we could only bring a small bag for our clothes. It’s called a saddle bag and fits under the bike seat. Here’s my wife’s bike fully packed: The rest of the bags are for food or gear or other essentials. The saddle bag is about 18” long and 6-8” in diameter. All we were able to bring is - 3 “kits” (the biking clothes we wear) - 1 pants - 1 shorts - 2 shirts - underwear - 3 socks - 2 jackets (rain and puffy) Thats it. We weren’t sure how rough it would be. But…to be honest, it has been really nice. No choices to make. Everything is simple. the hardest part is doing laundry so often. The rest of the world is getting back to work. In the US, that means getting back in a suit and tie. While many offices in the Philippines have adopted suits as men’s office wear, many still use the “barong tagalog”. The barongis a lightweight embroidered shirt used by Filipinos the same way we use suits here in the US. There’s a formal barong, a long-sleeved, intricately embroidered, sheer shirt usually made from pineapple leaf and jusi(pronounced: who-c) fibers from abaca (a banana sub species). It’s what you wear to life events like weddings or funerals. Wearing a formal barongcan also be a status symbol, especially if you get a barong from high-end designers like Pierre Cardin, Rhett Eala or Rajo Laurel. Formal barongs are worn on red carpet and black tie events. Even heads of state or dignitaries who visit the Philippines would wear the barong. The best example of this was during the APEC summit in the Philippines in 2015. Image: By Presidencia de la República Mexicana - https://www.flickr.com/photos/presidenciamx/23104738792/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45272604 For the office, you wear a polo barong. It has short sleeves, simple to no embroidery, is made from cotton or linen, and can come in various colors. It’s too informal for weddings but good enough for work or meetings with clients. There are even feminized versions of the barong. They’re often worn by politicians or corporate executives. Image: By Littlebeatlebum - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36507092 It makes sense to use this over a suit and tie when you see the shirt. Nobody likes wearing a thick jacket in a tropical climate. The embroidery work and design also look professional enough that they wouldn’t look out of place in a corporate setting. But what makes the barongreally interesting is that this type of shirt existed way before Spain colonized the Philippines. The kind of barong you wore would indicate your rank in society, what part of the country you are from, and what you did for a living. It can come in a wide variety of colors, styles, and designs. It’s one of those things that’s distinct about Filipino culture that has survived the test of time. Get my book to learn more about Filipino work culture: The Outsourcing Lever. John
+Dan sent me this screenshot a few days ago. This guy, Marshall, shared his experience when he went to his dentist. Normally, you’d have a receptionist greet you and get your information for your appointment. Instead, Marshall was greeted by a virtual Filipino receptionist on video. I’m really impressed with this dentist. Just imagine what a virtual Filipino receptionist can do for your business! If you’re worried that your clients won’t like it that they’re talking to your OFS (Online Filipino Specialist), Marshall’s reaction here is proof that clients don’t really mind. Your clients know that your OFS is your employee. If they’re getting amazing customer service from your OFS, it makes you and your business look good. Of course, the only way you can ensure that your OFS will do excellent work is to give them the training they need. For that, just go to VAsMadeEasy.com John
+Breakfast in Europe is different than breakfast in the US. In the US I typically eat pancakes or cereal or potatoes and eggs. Since we’ve been in Europe, I haven’t eaten any of those things for breakfast. My breakfast almost every day has looked like this: Here’s what Julia wrote about breakfast in the Philippines: ------------------------- When people talk about a typical Filipino breakfast, two things usually come to mind: the pandesaland the silog. What is a pandesal? The pandesal (salt bread) is a small piece of bread, around the size of a dinner roll, heavily loaded with bread crumbs. It’s toasted, slightly salty and crispy on the outside, and soft and sweet on the inside. Every bakery in the Philippines makes and sells pandesal. This type of bread is such a big part of our culture, that people would wake up early and line up for a bag of warm, freshly baked pandesalfor breakfast. Even the Philippine government goes out of its way to protect the pandesal. Whenever the price of wheat or sugar would fluctuate, the government would be on it right away because nobody wants to lose their beloved morning pandesal. And if you’re the type of person who sleeps in, tough luck. Bakeries would always run out by mid-morning. But if you’re willing to wait, you can try early in the afternoon when bakeries make another batch for snacks. You can eat pandesalon its own or use it as sandwich bread and fill it up with whatever you like. My favorite is scrambled eggs. My husband likes liver spread or Spanish sardines. Dunking your pandesalin coffee is also common practice. The small size of the pandesalmakes it ideal for an afternoon snack (hence the afternoon batch). You know it’s afternoon pandesalwhen people dunk their bread in Coke instead of coffee. I promise, it’s a thing here in the Philippines, but I don’t get it either. If you want a heavy breakfast, another Filipino breakfast classic is the “silog”. It’s not just one dish. It’s more like a family of dishes. The “si” in silogstands for “sinangag” (fried rice in Filipino), and the “log” stands for “itlog” or egg in Filipino. When a dish has a protein (usually fried), garlic fried rice, and an egg (usually sunny side up), that dish becomes a “silog”. So when you have a fried hotdog, garlic fried rice and egg, you get “Hotsilog”. My favorite is the “Spamsilog”. If you want a classic silog, go for Tapsilog. Tap is short for “tapa” or cured beef “jerky”. Unlike American jerky though, tapa is not preserved. It needs to be kept in the freezer and thawed before cooking. If you want to sell breakfast in the Philippines, you’ve got to have the silogand pandesal. Even McDonald’s has them here. When we’re in McDonald's, my husband usually orders the longgasilog. Longganisa(Philippine sausage that comes in many variations) in McDonald's is a skinless sweet sausage. And yes, our McDonald's makes fried rice. My favorite is the one pictured below. It’s a pandesalwith a cheese omelet. We do have McMuffins but I prefer their pandesal meals because they’re lighter and less greasy. Like the rest of the world, the McDonald's here refuses to serve these breakfast items after 11 am. ————— Nothing to add…So good. John
+I didn’t grow up watching “The Sound of Music” like my wife did, but I’ve seen it a number of times since we’ve been married. As we climbed these mountains in Austria I just couldn’t help but sing “The hills are alive, with the sound of music…” over and over again. These mountains really are magical. One of the things I tell anyone who just hired an OFS is that they should pay their OFS weekly, at least for the first couple of months. I understand that paying weekly can be a bit of work. You have to remember. But paying weekly protects you and your OFS. It helps establish trust. How does it protect you? If you see that it’s not working out in the first couple of weeks, it’s easier to end the working relationship. Plus, there are no hard feelings from your OFS because they got paid for their work. They won’t feel cheated or scammed. It just didn’t work out. Now, how does it protect your OFS? Filipinos just want to work. Once they get a job, Filipinos want to jump on it. They’ll care about their salary, but their first priority is to show you that you made the right choice. Add that to the fact that they’re not comfortable talking about money. Weeks, even months, can go by, and they keep working without getting paid. You have no idea how many emails we’ve received over the years of Filipino workers asking us to talk to their employers because they haven’t been paid for months. They’re even apologetic about it, telling us that they would have waited a bit longer but needed the money for rent, groceries, utilities, etc. Paying weekly in the first couple of months shows that: You’re not a scam employer You have a thriving business that can afford employees You’re somebody they can trust Once you have your worker's trust, working with them is easier. You can ease up the schedule and pay twice a month or monthly. When you have their trust, they’ll be loyal and motivated to help you succeed. I talk more about this in my book, The Outsourcing Lever. John
+Last Sunday, a volcano in the Philippines erupted, resulting in the evacuation of around 1,500 families. The volcano, Mount Bulusan, is in Sorsogon (Bicol Region). It’s part of the southernmost region of Luzon. It’s about 320 miles (517 km) away from Manila and just 43 miles (55km) away from Albay, the capital of that province. What do we know about it so far? The eruption rained ash 5 kilometers around the volcano. Bulusan isn’t heavily populated. The ones affected are mainly farmers and those working in the agricultural sector. It looks like the worst of it is over. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) lowered the alert level, but people can’t go back home yet. They’re hoping for fair weather because heavy rains can cause a lahar flow. Lahar (volcanic ash, mud, and debris) flow is when all stuff flows down the volcano to the surrounding area. It causes more damage than a typical flood or landslide because lahar hardens like concrete, making recovery harder. Volcanic eruptions happen regularly in the Philippines. I explained why this is in a newsletter early this year. /why-natural-disasters-happen-regularly-in-the-philippines/ If you have an OFS in Sorsogon, ask them how they’re doing. Also, pay attention in the coming weeks for any aftermath. Last time this happened winds rained ash all over the place causing major problems. John
+After reaching the pass the other day we had a long fun decent. At the bottom was an amazing river which we followed uphill for a long ways. Maybe 20 miles. The end miles were steep…just like the beginning miles were steep. Hard. After sleeping we didn’t really know what the ride looked like moving forward but we quickly found out it was another steep, long 1500 foot climb. It was rough. But with most rough things we do there’s something amazing on the other side: While riding, I got this email from Kymn John, Is there something in the Filipino culture that has my 0FS have such low self-esteem? No matter how much I praise her, no matter how much I give her paid time off etc, her self-esteem does not seem to improve. She hears feedback as criticism even when I do my utmost to frame it as instructive not criticism. Might you write about this? Frankly it gets a bit exhausting constantly feeling a need to build her up. To be honest, I have never encountered this before. I knew Filipinos are shy but I think the Power Distance Index can give the impression that Filipinos have low self-esteem. But based on the email, that doesn't seem to be the case. So I showed this email to my OFS, Julia. I asked her thoughts about this and this is what she wrote. ---------- It can be due to a number of things (from most likely to least likely): 1. Personality When my husband was working as a BPO trainer and I worked in corporate, we encountered people like this. Best case scenario, they're uncomfortable with praise because they feel that they're just doing their jobs. The praise is still appreciated but not needed. Worst case, it's an ego thing. This is what I get from (She hears feedback as criticism even when I do my utmost to frame it as instructive not criticism). It could be due to: her age (younger workers tend to have bigger egos), background (upper middle class, went to a big school have bigger egos) previous work experience (freelancers who do one-off jobs usually don't get criticism because they leave as soon as they're done/ office workers who already had management/power positions ) , etc. 2. Mental health It could be cognitive distortion, which is associated with anxiety and depression: This is something that has worsened during the pandemic. I noticed that those of us who are used to working from home have adapted better. But the new crop of VAs and people working from home really had a hard time: https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/05/19/21/at-least-36-million-filipinos-battling-mental-health-issues-amid-pandemic-doh Mental health isn't a priority in the Philippines. It's stigmatized and seen as a weakness. It's barely covered by Philhealth and not all HMOs cover it. Paying it out of pocket is expensive (I checked). If this is the case, she might benefit from these resources: https://doh.gov.ph/NCMH-Crisis-Hotline https://blog.opencounseling.com/hotlines-ph/ 3. Sexism I've actually had conversations about this with expats or foreigners who visit Asia. I also saw this when I visited Thailand and Malaysia. Compared to other Asian countries, the Philippines is less sexist but it's still pretty strong. https://pcw.gov.ph/philippines-drops-8-places-in-gender-equality-remains-top-in-asia/ Even though we have women in positions of power, there's still a lot of pressure to be the ideal wife/mother/daughter. The achievements of women and girls are still considered inferior compared to men. It doesn't matter if you're the president of the Philippines, if your family life sucks you've failed as a woman. Sexism is so ingrained that daughters are still jokingly referred to as "pambayad utang" (payment of debt). It's the (eldest) daughter's responsibility to take care of the family. They're expected to sacrifice everything for the family. Hence the inability to accept praise and criticism. Hard to accept praise when you feel all your work is never enough. Hard to accept criticism when you've worked so hard all your life and it's still not enough. I think this might be a part of it but just a small part. The workplace has given Filipino women freedom and power. The literacy rate gap between men and women in the Philippines is now less than 1%. More women are finishing school to enter the workplace. We even have better graduation rates than men. https://www.econstor.eu/obitstream/10419/46638/1/539787426.pdf Personally, when I finished school and started working, I felt empowered. Sure, I had a sexism chip on my shoulder but I also knew I can do just as well (sometimes better) than my male peers. I also had a lot of bosses (men and women) who made sure that we were seen and treated equally. That helped me a lot with my self-esteem. Even though the gender pay gap in the Philippines still exists, we're seeing improvements in this because more women are getting better educated and gaining skills at a faster rate. I think this explains in part why we have more women than men in our database. Working from home gives women the best of both worlds. Online work allows them to practice their skills and education while taking care of their home. The bad thing about online work though is we don't really get the same respect or recognition as our office working peers. ---------- I don’t always have an answer. Sometimes we just have to work through hard things. John
+The Philippines has a long history and understanding some of it helps understand the people. Before the Spanish colonized the Philippines in the 1500s, it already had a rich history of writing using an indigenous alphabet called baybayin. If you want to learn more about it, you can read about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baybayin Filipinos no longer use this writing style, even when writing in Filipino. However, there’s a resurgence of its use in official documents and seals to revive their lost culture and foster Philippine pride. The baybayin script there reads "Ang katuwiran ay nagpapadakila sa isang bayan" or "Righteousness exalts a nation" in reference to Proverbs 14:34. Some Filipinos use baybayin when doing calligraphy. It’s growing in popularity in with desktop font makers. https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/design/baybayin-fonts-a1926-20190806-lfrm It’s also a popular script for tattoos and on products. You can use https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/baybayin.htm to see what certain words and phrases look like in baybayin. If you know Filipino, you’ll get the best results. I tried it out for fun, and here’s what John Jonas looks like: (Di-yo-h-n Di-yo-na-s) Learn more about the Philippine work culture with my book: The Outsourcing Lever.
+A lot of people know that boxing is big in the Philippines because of Manny Pacquiao. Boxing is a big sport in the Philippines. There are boxing gyms all over the country. Whenever Manny fights, the crime rate in the Philippines virtually drops to zero But you know what’s bigger than boxing in the Philippines? Basketball How big is basketball in the Philippines? Every school has a basketball court and team. When you go to school in the Philippines, you will learn to play basketball, whether you like it or not. Every barangay in the Philippines has at least one basketball court. They can make a basketball court out of whatever's available, no matter how small the place is. You may even sometimes see guys use coconuts as their ball. The Philippines has a professional basketball league (The Philippine Basketball Association) that has millions of fans and has been going on for almost 50 years. If you think we’re crazy when March Madness happens, it’s the same with the Philippines and the UAAP and NCAA, their college basketball leagues. The NBA finals draw the same excitement in Filipinos the way the SuperBowl does for us. Basketball changes lives in the Philippines. If you can play professional basketball, you can leverage that into a political or acting career. The connections players make while playing almost guarantees success if they go into business upon retirement. A big example is Robert Jaworski, a PBA Hall of Famer turned senator who wrote and co-wrote around 300 bills in his 6-year term. Want to score points with your constituents? Politicians sponsor basketball leagues and build basketball courts as a form of public service. The Filipinos’ love for basketball is so well known, that some even put it on their Onlinejobs.ph profile. Some NBA fan sites hire Filipinos because of their extensive knowledge and passion for the sport. Rafe Bartholemew wrote a great book if you want a deeper look into Philippine basketball culture. https://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Rims-Flip-Flops-Philippines-Basketball/dp/0451233220 Why are we talking about basketball in this newsletter? Because my OFS, Julia, knows a lot about it. She learned to play basketball in school, watched games growing up, and passes by a basketball court every time she leaves the house. And she hates basketball. John PS. In Europe, you know they love soccer. Did you know they love cycling almost as much? They have bike parking lots the same way we have car parking lots.
+While my family and I were biking across Europe, I’d check my emails and Basecamp on my phone. It’s work, but it’s only a few minutes every other day. The best part is I’m able to do it in places with the most amazing views. This is one of the good things about having a remote team. You can work anywhere. Now that pandemic restrictions have been lifted, some of my OFS are also traveling to visit family. Some take their vacation leaves for this. Some don’t because they know they can work there. My OFS, Jamie, opted not to take her vacation leave when visiting her husband’s family for a month. I was worried that she can’t work there. It turns out she can work anywhere too. She writes: ------------ I’ve been working as an OFS for around ten years now, and I have worked in many weird places. I have OFS friends who have worked in odd places as well. In my case, the weirdest place I worked in was in a ball pit at a McDonald’s. My daughter was attending a birthday party, and I needed to get work done. I don’t know why but the ball pit was the place that had the best mobile data signal. A grown woman typing on her laptop in the middle of a ball pit with kids running around draws attention. Good thing the other parents more or less understood that I was working. I managed to keep doing that until the party was over. My husband can sometimes be caught working at parties too. He’s just more subtle because he can do some work on his phone. I have friends who have worked on tricycles, buses, boats, and jeepneys. I’ve seen Filipino VAs work in cemeteries, coffee shops, airports, bus terminals, seaports, etc. As I am writing this, I’m working from the dirty kitchen (an outdoor kitchen some Filipino homes have where most of the cooking is done). There’s someone doing laundry just a few steps away. Don’t worry, we rarely work in ball pits, cemeteries, and public transport. It’s only when we have something urgent that comes up. Thank goodness smartphones are so functional now because carrying our laptops everywhere is unwieldy. Working in the kitchen, bedroom, garage, or laundry area is more common. Most of us live in tiny homes, so it’s hard to carve out a dedicated workspace. Where in the house we can work is often dictated by two things: Is the internet good in the area of the house? Can a computer and a person fit in it? So we often end up working in the common areas. When I first started working from home, I would work in the kitchen or living room. After I had been an OFS for more than five years, that’s when my husband and I started investing in room dividers, computer tables, and chairs to make it more comfortable to work. So we now have home offices! Well, home office space in the corners of our living room and kitchen. I got to stay where there’s good WiFi. ------- Your OFS now has better options when it comes to internet connectivity. It’s nothing like when I started outsourcing to the Philippines. John
+I get emails like this from a lot of people. But I’m featuring Mitchell’s email here because it also gave a great suggestion. Hey John! I've listened to every podcast episode you have, I love them, short and sweet and to the point which I appreciate it. I would love to hear some episodes on compensation for OFS's. I know that will vary based on what position they do, how skilled they are, where they are located, etc. Just like someone in New York City or LA is gonna make more than someone in a small town typically, but I'd love to hear from you and your team about the minimum wage there, how that works and what is considered "good", "great" and "amazing" in terms of salary and what things cost over there to help us Americans better picture it in our minds of what things cost over there. Thanks in advance! I'm looking forward to this episode! Jamie's going to be hosting the podcast version of this newsletter. You can find my podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcast. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about minimum wage in the Philippines. The minimum wage is different per region in the Philippines and it’s determined by a government committee called Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board. They base the minimum wage on the cost of living, socioeconomic factors, and salary trends. Metro Manila and other big cities like Cebu and Davao have the highest minimum wage. Are these rates good starting salaries? Not really. Why? Below is another table that shows the monthly expenses of an average 3-person family every month. Now, let’s compare that to the minimum wage. As you can see, the minimum wage really isn’t enough to cover most of the basic needs. This is why most Filipino homes have 2 breadwinners and why working abroad continues to be an attractive option. When Filipinos work from home, a lot of those expenses can go down. The commuting, clothing, and food expenses go down because they don’t have to go out as much. Some might be able to get rid of rent altogether because they don’t need to move close to the city. The computer, electricity, and internet costs may go up but considering how much you’re saving by not having to go out every day, that increase is negligible. In our salary guide, you’ll see that the minimum rate there for inexperienced workers is around twice the minimum wage. It’s enough to cover their expenses and gives you a lot of room to give your workers a raise. I’ll have more newsletters talking about this. I want to give you guys a better picture of the cost of living difference between Filipino workers in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. John
+Voting brings a lot of emotion. During the last election cycle my wife and I had some different views. We had a number of heated conversations. Nothing ever got out of control...but it wasn't our normal. We ended up coming really close together and having really similar views in the end. That's rarely the outcome. The Philippines is no different. The Philippine Congress finally declared Bongbong Marcos as the next President. The daughter of Rodrigo Duterte (Sara) is going to be his Vice President. The term of the Philippine President and Vice President runs for 6 years, so they're expected to serve until 2028. There's no turning back now. Preparations for the inauguration on June 30 are already underway. They have started discussing what they plan to implement for their administration and picking their cabinet members. Bongbong has met with foreign dignitaries from Spain, Morocco, and Germany. He met with the United States Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on June 9. So far, they haven't said or done anything that would affect how you work with your OFS, which is good. Also, as far as we know, June 30 is not going to be a holiday, regular or otherwise. But we are following the news since this concerns Filipinos, your OFS included. Like, for the inauguration, the police will be on high alert. Protests are expected because a lot of people are not happy about it. Hopefully, they won't escalate to violence because the whole world is watching. Despite winning by a landslide, people still remember what the Marcoses did (good and bad) and the idea that the Marcoses are back in power brings up a lot of emotions there. Your OFS may or may want to talk about it, depending on where they stand. Of course...there's always the 3 things "we don't discuss": Religion, Politics, and Futbol! John
+Brett sent me this email in response to the previous email about having regular meetings with your OFS. Hey John! I meet with my VA every 6 to 8 weeks. These meetings are not particularly productive, but that is not the point. Systems and quick communication will always be more productive than conversations which easily side tracked. Meeting via video regularly makes my VA feel appreciated and like she’s part of a team. We don’t even always talk about work and projects though usually at least ask how the workload has been and if there’s anything I can do to make it easier or more efficient. Meeting via video also builds influence with your employees. It seems like for the most part Filipino VAs do what they’re told because that is their job, but the quality of work always goes way up in my opinion when in addition to it being their job, you have spent the time to develop the influence and relationship with the people that makes them want to contribute at the highest level. We have the opportunity as business owners to you have employees, but we also have the opportunity as business owners to build the types of working relationships that cause both the employees and the leaders to grow. In my opinion it’s the best investment of your time and resource to focus on leading well and growing people because in the long game this will always benefit everybody involved. Video might not be the only way but it’s one of the ways that I’ve been intentional about growth and building rapport and influence This is a great way to build rapport and make your OFS feel like they’re part of the team. Regular meetings don’t mean you have to meet with them every day or every week. Once a month can be enough as long as you’re intentional about it. You don’t have to always talk about work. Small talk is how you get to know your OFS and make them part of your team. It doesn’t even have to be a video meeting at all. I always send my team videos through Basecamp. I like what he said about influencing your OFS so they’d always want to do their jobs at the highest level. This is good. I’m probably going to try this with my team. Do you guys have anything you want to add to Brett’s tips? Or is there another topic you want me to talk about? Just reply or send me a message through Facebook or Instagram. My OFS will forward them to me. Want to really improve the relationship with your OFS, try visiting them in the Philippines. It's amazing. John
+A few years ago my grandparents (my dad's side) died at 99 and 100 years old. They died a few months apart, both of them still at home. They never went to a care facility. I don't hope to live that long, but I certainly have some long living genetics. This is kind-of morbid, but I have a death plan. I don't want to live into my 90s. So...if I'm in my 80's and things start to go downhill, I plan on going backcountry skiing on a high avalanche day. Avalanches aren't random...they're predictable within a certain range. Imagine...I could go out and ski the perfect slope. If it avalanches and I die, I win. If it doesn't avalanche, I win with the perfect ski run! Ok...this is unlikely to actually happen, I admit. To the Philippines... This June, my OFS’s Jam and Julia traveled to Manila to visit Jam’s parents. When they told me about it, I said, “It’s great that you’re visiting family for vacation! It’s been so long since you've seen them.” Julia was like, “No, it’s not a vacation. We’re going there because the family asked us to help care for Jam’s elderly parents.” Retirement care and nursing homes exist in the Philippines. But culturally, it’s not something they’re comfortable with. Financially, it’s not something that most Filipinos can afford. The facilities that do exist in that country mainly cater to expats. In the Philippines, you’re expected to care for your parents as they age. This is why most Filipino continue to live with their parents, even after they get married. Those that do move out are expected to live close by so they can keep tabs on their family. The only exception to this is when you have to move away for work. There’s an advantage to this setup. Living with or close to your parents means you don’t have to worry about childcare. Your parents can help watch over your child while you work. You don’t have to worry about rent if your parents own their home. Or at the very least, it’s easier to pay rent with more people contributing. Retirement homes in the Philippines are super expensive. Prices start at $1665/month for assisted living. It gets more expensive for seniors that need more medical care. As you can imagine, it can get pretty crowded. Julia sent me this picture. She and Jam are working in a common area while the parents and cousins and aunts are there. If your OFS can work with all that chaos around them, they really are rockstars. One way you can turn your OFS into a rockstar is to make sure they have the training they need. Give them that training: VAsMadeEasy.com You can buy all our training or just pick and choose whatever is right for you. John
+I just got back from cycling across Europe for a month. No laptop. That's right. I didn't take my laptop with me. "But John...I've been getting your emails 4 times per week for the past month. I've seen your ads on Facebook and Youtube. How?" Guess. Yep...OFS. Running my own business was always about lifestyle for me. It was hard in the beginning. I was doing everything myself. Wearing all the hats. "CEO" (hah...yeah right), book keeper, social media manager, content writer, customer service, web development, marketing, appointment scheduler, sales... I did it all. I worked a lot. It was hard. Until I learned how to find and hire the right people. And, it didn't happen all at once. It was a slow process. I hired one person to do one thing. Then I taught them something else. Then something else. Then it was time to hire someone else. That first person was a leap of faith. It was hard on me. Can I afford them? Can they do good work? Can I trust someone? Can I keep them busy? The second person I hired was another leap of faith. Less hard than the first. I already had answers to my questions. The third person, much less of a leap. The fourth...easy. Hiring someone the first time isn't easy for anyone. It's not easy for you. It's not easy for your neighbor. It wasn't easy for that guy you know who is super successful. But to make progress you have to take a leap. Working about 17 hours/week is standard for me now. I have an entire team of OFS who run my business, even when I'm away. Take the leap. It's amazing. John We climbed up and over the mountain behind us. Even starting the climb was a leap of faith. It was hard.
+Today is Independence Day in the USA. I'm at Lake Powell. I've often found that holiday mornings are some of the most productive times for me. Nobody expects normal work. It's a good time to spend an hour working on your business rather than in. Spending 10 minutes posting that job post that you've been putting off would be really good time spent today! We’re always looking for ways to improve Onlinejobs.ph. - We beefed up our verification system to improve the quality of Filipino jobseekers on the site. - We’ve improved the design of the website to make it easier to use. - We're working on improving the search function to give you more relevant talent when you search. In the latest line of improvements, here are some of the things we rolled out to make hiring an Online Filipino Specialist easier and better for you. You can now upload your business logo in your job post. This will help your job post stand out and make it look even more professional. We’re now offering annual subscriptions. Rather than paying every month, you can pay once with the annual subscription which will save you up to 71%, and make future hiring a no brainer. We’ve made improvements on our job board so that all job posts can be seen, even if there are a lot of posts that day. This increases your chances of getting more applicants. We're constantly making changes. Are there other improvements you want to see? Let me know! John
+This email contains free training to give to your OFS. I'm sending this out because it has been requested so many times. Training an OFS sucks. I know you don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. It's not fun. It takes time. It requires you to think. It's 1000% effective and will return on your time investment over and over again... So here's a preview of some of the training we've created for you which you get when you buy VAsMadeEasy.com. The document below is intended for you, the employer. It's 1 page. It explains the training you're about to give to your OFS. The training is titled: The 3 Steps to Quick & Easy Social Media Content Creation At the end of the document is a link to a video you should watch. It explains the process to you (the employer). At the end of the document is a link to give to your OFS. This is the actual process training teaching them what to do to create social media content for you. This is one of the shorter trainings we have available inside VAsMadeEasy.com. I'm giving it to you free. https://media.onlinejobs.ph/SOP_training/3StepstoQuickandEasySocMedContentCreation/SOP-The3StepstoQuickandEasySocialMediaContentCreation.pdf If having your OFS create social media content for you makes your life easier, feel free to use this. If you want other processes like this, get them at www.VAsMadeEasy.com. John
+While on our bike trip I heard about inflation all over the place. Gas is $8-9/gallon! Inflation is affecting everybody, including your OFS. I got this email from Tiffany. Hi John, Sorry to bother you on your holiday, but I got a rather urgent note from my VAs today about their cost of living increases, and wonder if you are hearing about this from others? I'm wondering how extreme the effects could be for them? Are you planning a newsletter on this (asap) perhaps? The insane inflation and cost of fuel is really affecting our business here in North America too, but we will be ok. Here's part of what they sent me, I'm glad they felt they could approach me on this: "There has been a rampant price fluctuation happening here in the Philippines because of the Fuel price Hike that started on June 7, 2022.Everything is affected since most companies here in all aspects run their business using Fuel,and I think prices of Rice, electricity and other utilities are expected to rise by next week." I asked my OFS, Julia, and here's her report on the situation: ----- Since January 2022, the Philippines have been experiencing inflation which contributed to the rising cost of commodities. One of the first things to feel the impact of the rising fuel prices is food, specifically agricultural products (meat and vegetables). Food has been getting more expensive or shrinking in size. Fuel and food prices are directly related here in the Philippines because most agricultural products are transported to markets and food processing plants by land. Fuel cost is added to the wholesale price when these products are brought to market in different cities. The further they have to transport these products, the higher the cost. Electricity costs in the Philippines have always fluctuated based on market rates, but it's not solely influenced by fuel prices because we buy electricity from multiple sources (coal, natural gas, renewables). Historically, rising electricity costs are felt more during the summer months, when there's an increase in demand and low water supply is affecting hydroelectric and geothermal power sources. Commuting costs has stayed relatively stable because the transportation board (LTFRB) has strictly regulated fare even with rising fuel prices. It's only recently that they allowed a provisional fare increase of $0.02 on the base fare for jeepneys. Buses and taxis have not been given permission to increase their fare yet but operators continue to campaign for it. Ride share and motorcycle ride share services have not increased their fare but are able to change their booking fees. The cost of internet has not increased and continues to be fixed within the plan period. Even with prepaid plans, the price is fixed based on consumption/availed data promo. Water is also a fixed cost. The government has started gas subsidies to public utility vehicles to help manage fuel costs. The Philippines also has rice reserves that are released in times like this. But the cost of everything else will continue to rise. -------- At OnlineJobs.ph we're feeling inflation too. We've decided not to raise prices for now. We just want you to hire the help you need. We want to make it easy. We want it to be reasonably priced. John
+“John, can you just recruit for me? The fact that you made OneVAAway tells me you have it down to a science. I really don’t have the time to do it myself. Let me just pay you to recruit people for me.” I get a version of that message in my email and social media at least once a week. I always give the same answer. No. It’s not because I can’t hire people. I’ve been doing and teaching it for years. We even have a recruiting service at Onlinejobs.ph. Despite having it, I don’t actively promote our recruiting service. Why? I don't like it. I always say no when people ask me to recruit for them, no matter how much money they offer, because usually it's not good for them. Hiring isn't just about finding the person with the right set of skills and experience. If it were, we could easily automate the process. Hiring the right OFS for your business is also about hiring the right personality. The personality that fits in working with you. The personality that's suited to the role. That’s why we have a DISC personality test at Onlinejobs.ph. I talk about Filipino culture a lot in my podcast, so you know how it would influence your OFS’ behavior. So the biggest reason why me doing the recruiting for you isn’t going to be good for you is because I’m not you. YOU are the best person to do the recruitment for your business. OneVAAway.com is my hiring process that helps you hire people that would work well with your business, your personality, and your management style. My personality, my business, and my management style are the things that influence my hiring needs. So, when I do the recruiting for you, that’s what I’ll always fall back on. Now, you might ask, “Could it be that OneVAAway only works with your management style, business, personality, etc?” I’ve noticed that those who say that they’re having problems with the OFS either: Didn’t really take the OneVAAway challenge Took shortcuts with the OneVAAway challenge, or Insisted on doing things I would tell employers not to do (like pre-paying for work, interviewing too early, etc). You’ll find the right OFS for you because Filipinos are not a monolith. Within my team of 40, we have a bunch of different personalities. Some prefer to work on their own. Some work better in teams. Some are early birds, and some are night owls. Some need a lot of handholding; some work best with minimal supervision. Some are outspoken, while some are shy and introverted. Doing the hiring yourself is around twice as likely to end in success than if I did it for you. John PS. I don't do the hiring at www.OnlineJobs.ph/recruiting. My team in the Philippines does.
+Late last year, a typhoon hit Cebu, which affected several of my OFS, mostly our developers. One of the OFS who was affected is Mark, who works as a web designer and front-end developer for us. Cebu is 2nd largest IT hub in the Philippines. A lot of people move there to gain experience working for tech and start-up companies. Many of these companies set up shop there because of the availability of talent and low cost compared to Manila. If you're looking for technical workers, you’ll find a lot of people who have either lived, studied, or worked in Cebu. I wanted to check in on him to see how he’s doing. I figured this is also a great opportunity to introduce you to other people who work in a team and a different perspective on how I hire technical people. From Mark: Hi! I’m Mark! I am a Web Designer and Front-end Developer at OnlineJobs. Originally, I am from Negros Oriental (a neighbouring island). But I now live here permanently in Cordova, Cebu and I am mostly proud of the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway. It’s an engineering marvel and is 5-10 minutes away from where I live. When I graduated, I moved to Cebu City to gain experience and hone my skills but that would mean that I will be away from my family. My story here in OnlineJobs began when I decided to quit my office job and tried out working from home to be with my family. After resigning, I went on and registered at OnlineJobs hoping to find my very first full-time job online. And then one day, to my surprise, I received an email from John Jonas himself that the team needs a guy with my skill set. I went ahead and grabbed the opportunity. Since then, my life at work has never been this fun. Work day for me starts in the afternoon since I’m a night owl and I have the freedom to work any time of the day (advantage of working at home). After my afternoon snacks, I go straight to my office and cave there until my tasks are done. My time before and after work is always spent with my wife and 1 year old mini me. I asked Mark what it was like back when he used to work in an office. His answer to that question was really funny. To be honest, I can’t imagine myself going to work in an office again. Too much travel time because of traffic. I would rather spend that time with my family. When I asked him how he and his family are doing, here’s what he said: Last year, typhoon Odette affected my work badly. After Odette hit, electricity, water, gas, basic needs, etc., are scarce and hard to get by. Since electricity was forecasted to be fixed in 3 months, me and my family had to move back to our provinces (Siquijor and Negros Oriental) because they weren’t hit as bad as Cebu just so that I can resume work. Our house has minor damages as well. When the electricity and internet was fixed here in our place, we immediately went back. Our area, today, I can say that it has fully recovered from Odette’s wreck. It was such a relief to know that they were safe. I had faith that they'd be able to recover faster with a bit of help. So, I sent them a bit of money to help them relocate. Now that people are free to travel again, I asked him what places he would recommend if I knew people interested in going to Cebu. Here’s what he told me: Cebu is quite a big province and has a lot of tourist spots. But personally, I will probably show them Bantayan Island and Camotes Island. Those two islands would be at the top of my list as they have super nice beaches and lots of activities touring around the island. As you can see, it doesn’t take that much work to check in on your OFS. It’s one of those little things that keep them motivated and keeps you connected with your team. Are you putting off posting a job because you're not sure what to put in the job post? You should get my free Job Post Templates. John
+One of the hardest things to do when you get back from vacation is putting away everything that you brought with you. There’s also the cleaning and the organizing. It’s so much work that sometimes you feel like you need a vacation after coming home from vacation. We all clean our homes. It’s a universal thing. We all have brooms, rags, and mops. They also use brooms in the Philippines, sort of. Remember in my previous newsletter where we talked about how Filipinos use flip-flops and how they have one for indoors and another one for outdoor use? It’s the same thing with brooms. You have an indoor broom (walis tambo) and an outdoor broom (walis tingting). Why have 2 different brooms? According to my OFS Julia, the booms that most of us are used to are too flimsy for outdoor use but also too rough for indoor use. She explains: Most of us have plants and trees in our yards. A rake works but it can’t go into tight spaces or uneven terrain. A typical broom would break if you use it on mud or wet dirt. A “walis tingting”, which is made by binding the dried-up spines of coconut leaves, is the best tool for the job. The shape and flexibility of the “tingting” make it easy to use in tight spaces. It’s also strong enough to be used in mud and even push water (to clear out puddles) if needed. We like the floors inside the house to be really clean. That’s why we don’t allow shoes and outdoor slippers inside the house. If possible, the floors inside the house have to be so clean, you’d want to walk barefoot. A regular broom can’t sweep the fine dust that we can feel with our feet. A “walis tambo”, which is made from corn fiber or weed fibers, has really fine hairs that can sweep those up. The “tambo” is so good at sweeping fine particles, we use it every day and before mopping. The “tambo” removes as much loose dirt as possible, then use a mop to clean up the dirt that sticks to the floor. Most older houses have wooden floors. To clean and polish them we have our leg-powered floor polisher called the “bunot.” The “bunot” is half a dried coconut husk that you use to scrub and polish the floor. The modern version of this is a floor pad made from woven coconut or plastic fibers. If you want to make your floors shiny and have your leg-day workout, polish your floors with a bunot!
+Wow, I didn’t really expect a lot of people to respond to a newsletter about breakfast. I’m not super passionate about food. For me, food is fuel. I eat to keep myself healthy. My wife says I don't have a "relationship with food". It's just something necessary for me. But some have really strong feelings about it. Thank you for your responses. I showed my OFS, Julia some of them, and I liked her reply so I’m sharing it here. ---------- The typical breakfast I presented here was the typical breakfast for a working-class Filipino. Someone who needs a heavy meal because they need to get to work right away or commute 2 hours to work. The Philippines, for the longest time, was an agricultural country. People would work from dawn until noon. In order to work for 6-7 hours straight, you’d want something that’s really heavy and filling. Now that a lot of us commute at least an hour to work, picking up breakfast along the way isn’t really an option. You don’t want to stop anywhere because you might get caught in traffic. There might not be any good food places along the way. So you'd want to eat a heavy breakfast at home. The typical Filipino breakfast I presented isn’t something we eat all the time. It’s just the kind of breakfast that we find comforting. I don’t eat like that every day. Most mornings, I would have coffee and toast. --------- Someone pointed out that I didn’t talk about the cornucopia of fruits and vegetables that they have in the Philippines and encouraged eating them for breakfast. Julia writes: ----------- We do have vegetables for breakfast sometimes! The preparation varies from place to place. When I think of breakfast veggies, I think of tortang talong(eggplant omelet). My husband prefers poqui-poqui(sauted eggplant with egg). Another popular choice is ginisang ampalaya(sauted bitter gourd). The easiest way for me to have veggies for breakfast is to add malunggay(drumstick tree) leaves to my eggs. Fried fish is also a healthier breakfast option. I have these options because I’m lucky. I have access to fresh vegetables, fruits, and fish everyday because we have traveling vendors that go to our subdivision. We live close to a wet market. I also have the time to make breakfast. Not everybody has that access. What most Filipinos have access to is a bakery for pandesalor a tapsilogan(food place that serves silog meals all day). --------- There was also a comment that I should have encouraged fruits for breakfast. I agree that fruits for breakfast are healthy. Here's what Julia said: ----------- Fruits are great, but it’s not typical for us if we need something filling. We sometimes have fruits WITH our breakfast but fruits really aren't enough to fill you up. We do eat a lot of fruits throughout the day and with our meals. We even have a term for it, "panghimagas". It roughly translates to palate cleanser and digestive aid. One fruit that you’d see as part of breakfast is the banana, but more often, you’d find that Filipinos will just bring the fruit with them so they can eat it on their break between the start of their work and lunch. I know “silog” isn’t healthy but I love it because it’s really comforting. Also, silogas a breakfast meal started as a way to make use of leftovers. The fried rice is made from day-old rice. The fried protein sometimes consists of what was leftover from yesterday. The egg is just added to make it "breakfast-y". It helps reduce food waste, which is always a good thing in my book. A "healthy" breakfast option that many Filipinos do enjoy that I forgot to mention in the last newsletter is taho. It’s silken tofu with tapioca pearls and caramel syrup. It’s protein-rich and often served hot, which makes it really comforting. If you want to cut back on sugar, you can ask the taho vendor to hold the syrup. In other places, they add milk or jackfruit. Some personalize their taho at home by adding fruits. Or in the case of my daughter, choco-malt powder. If you want an extra shot of protein without the meat, most taho vendors also sell fresh soy milk which is way better than the ones you can get in stores. Why didn’t I include this last time? Because I usually have taho as a snack. Most taho vendors walk so you can only get taho if the vendor gets to you in time. It’s not something everybody can have for breakfast. --------- Different culture, different food. John
+I'm all about family time. And, if I can include family time with friend time, even better. That's one of the reasons I love Lake Powell. I just got back from a week at Lake Powell, where we taught a bunch of little girls how to braid hair, and how to surf: Including one who is still too little to surf by herself: We learned all kinds of life skills. But apparently, I forgot the one about how to put on sunscreen. Yes, those are my shoulders, burned around the life jacket outline. By the end of the week, all those girls could surf in the wave without the rope. It's amazing how fast little kids learn. I got this email from Mike that I wanted to share because there's a lot of relevant learning we can do from it. How does your company handle time off work? We have 13 OFS working for our company in the Philippines. (Or is it 14 now - I have to think hard to count as we keep growing and hiring.) Anyway, one area that I'd love to learn more about is how you handle holidays, vacation, and sick leave for your team. Specifics, especially about which holidays you give off, how many days of vacation or sick time, do they earn more as they work longer? What about maternity leave? (Typical to be 3+ months in the Philippines as I learned when our first OFS had her baby.) Paternity leave? (This will be a new one for us as a baby is on the way later this year.) Rather than try to understand Philippine holidays vs. US holidays, our policy is just to provide 25 days of paid time off. We'd love to hear specifics about how your company or others address time off, especially considering cultural differences. That's a lot. I'm going to try to answer all of them. Specifics, especially about which holidays you give off, how many days of vacation or sick time, do they earn more as they work longer?Our policy is "take whatever time off you want or need. If you can, we want to know about it ahead of time." I don't know if it's the best policy, but it works for us. My team just takes their leaves when they need it, like when they're sick or when there's a death in the family. If they ask for a vacation leave, it's never longer than two weeks. So the policy you mentioned about providing 25 days sounds good. I think you should try it to see if it works for you. I've always tried to make this as easy as possible on myself. I don't want to track days off. I also don't want someone to worry about taking time off. When someone asks for time off, we immediately tell them yes. What about maternity leave? (Typical to be 3+ months in the Philippines as I learned when our first OFS had her baby.) Paternity leave?Yes, maternity leave is three months in the Philippines. Paternity leave is seven days. If your OFS is paying into SSS, the Philippines government should pay for their time off. My experience is OFS are usually pretty anxious to get back to work. I'm not sure that's the best route as I notice that our team doesn't seem to use days when it's a holiday in the Phillipines.Regarding holidays, like you, not everybody in my team takes the day off. Not everybody in my team is Catholic, so religious holidays aren't as meaningful for them. Some choose to work on a holiday to save that time for a vacation. Some work on a holiday to take the day off to attend their kid's recital or doctor's appointments. The only thing that matters to us is they inform us ahead of time or as soon as possible. They email Joven, me, or my business partner, Dan, to let us know. Once we know how long they'll be out, we can make the necessary adjustments if needed. For example, if someone in customer service takes a vacation, the team lead will make scheduling changes to ensure there's always someone answering emails. If it's just one or two days off (like for sick leave) and they don't have anything urgent that needs to be done, we just wait for them to get back. In my business, we don't have anything urgent. We don't have deadlines. When people take time off doesn't really matter to us. Your business is probably different. I suggest you come up with a plan for time off and then ask your OFS if it's fair or if they have anything to add to it. If you have a relationship with them, they'll make suggestions or ask for changes. John
+A few of you will remember this photo: It's from when my 3rd baby was born. The baby who gave my wife pre-eclampsia and caused "strict bedrest" for my wife. The baby who set me on a path to work 17 hours/week for the past 12 years. The baby who forced me to really learn what OFS were capable of. She's now 15: Her name is Bailey. Names can get pretty interesting. My OFS at the time were named Joven (left) and Paul (right). Since then I've seen a lot of Filipino names. These aren't unusual...just names: Dianne Rose Malvar Singson Aurea Esquivel Orbina Don William Rosaupan Fabella Dorothea Mae Pacatang Zaldarriaga Lord Jason Campos Jose Again...nothing abnormal about those names. For most of us here in the US, the way we get our names is pretty straightforward. Our last name is our parents' last name. Then our parents choose a first name and a middle name if they want to. In the Philippines, most get their last names from their father too. But the parents don’t get to choose the middle name, just the first name. The mother’s maiden last name is automatically assigned as the middle name. The only name parents can choose is the first name, and the first name can be as long or as short or composed of several names, as long as it fits on the birth certificate. So, from above, the first names chosen were: Dianne Rose Aurea Don William Dorothea Mae Lord Jason For people who like tracing their lineage, this system makes things easier. Because the parents can only choose the first name, you’ll find a lot of interesting choices, like multiple first names or names spelled differently. Take this baby born in 2021. He has three first names, and there’s no vowel to be found: https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7eenx/baby-name-philippines-glhynnyl-hylhyr-yzzyghyl-why Like I said, names can get interesting. John
+I'm the type of person who asks for forgiveness rather than for permission. I tend to jump in, before I know exactly how to make it work. I rarely read instructions. These were all good things helping me figure out how to outsource to OFS. There was no manual when I started. Heck, there wasn't even OnlineJobs.ph, which makes it so much easier. If you're like me, you've likely already hired OFS. You've jumped in. You've made mistakes. You've figured it out. But a lot of people aren't like me, so I want to simplify things so that if you haven't yet hired someone, you can feel a bit more comfortable. Nearly every day I hear from someone who says "I just wish I would have done this sooner!" I almost never hear "Man...I should have waited another year before hiring." Here's the simple of what hiring an OFS looks like (these are normal concerns I hear): - Posting a job isn't right or wrong. If you're scared about doing it wrong, just post the job. Chances of you doing it wrong is super low. And, if you don't find the right person, we'll give your money back. - Narrowing down candidates is easier than you think. You don't have to have a bunch of tricks. It doesn't take a ton of time. Just ask people questions. - The prospect of hiring someone is daunting. The prospect of continuing to run your business without help is worse. - Taxes are a non issue. The OFS is not an "employee". There's no way to W2 them. You don't send them a 1099. They're not in the USA and you don't have a presence in the Philippines. There's no "withholding", no compliance, no regulations.* - You can't trust the person you're hiring any more (or any less) than if you were hiring someone in your office. The Philippines culture makes this trust way easier. But you won't see that until you try it. (my OFS have my credit card, bank account, home address, access to my email, ...) - Paying people is easy. Use EasyPay. Or Wise. Or Paypal. Just pay people on time. - The easiest way to start is to hire someone to do something you know how to do and can teach someone. It's the best case scenario for you. You get something off your plate and immediately stop feeling overwhelmed. You know what to write in your job description, what skills you're looking for, how to train, how to give feedback, what outcomes look like. Outsource this first. "Do what you're good at and outsource the rest" is the worst advice I've ever heard. As soon as you accomplish the first thing with your new OFS you'll see the light at the end of the tunnel. Worlds of opportunity open up. You start becoming the CEO. - You can hire full-time. You can hire part-time. You can hire hourly. You can hire per project. You can hire however you want. We don't dictate what you can or can't do. Just hire someone. Generally offering a full-time job with a salary is going to be better for them (and for you in the long run). - You hire someone after interviewing them by saying "Hey, you seem like a good fit for us, I want to offer you a job. When can you start?" That's it. To some of you, this email feels like, "duh!" this is so obvious. To others, I hope this offers you a path forward. If you've been thinking about hiring an OFS but aren't sure, the best way is to take two steps forward. 1. search resumes on OnlineJobs.ph. Look at what people can do. 2. Post a job on OnlineJobs.ph. The rest will follow. Everything I offer (OnlineJobs.ph, OneVAAway.com, VAsMadeEasy.com) comes with a full guarantee. If something doesn't work out, just let us know and we'll give your money back. We don't want it if we don't earn it. No hoops to jump through. John *Don't listen to anything I say. I'm not an accountant or a CPA or an attorney.
+Remember back when we used to think that in the future, we’d finally be rid of COVID and get back to normal? Those were the good old days. Now, we look at COVID like it’s the flu or the common cold. You don’t want to get it, but you’ll get it sooner or later. When you do get it, we’ll just have to manage it. Filipinos have learned to live with COVID like the rest of the world. Everything is open for business, but they’ve kept their mask mandate. Because of this, case spikes are smaller. People are still being hospitalized for COVID, but more beds are available now than at the start of the pandemic. Because of the global supply chain problems, some drugs are still difficult to come by. Vitamins are now more expensive than before. Pharmacies can run out of COVID testing kits and essential medicines like paracetamol and ibuprofen. COVID hospitalization costs are manageable if they’re up to date with Philhealth contributions, don’t have a severe infection, and have health insurance. Most Filipinos, on average, would need around $450 (P25,000) to $900 (P50,000) for treatment. But for: severe cases or those that don’t have Philhealth, or are confined in an expensive hospital, Covid treatment can cost up to $18,000 or more. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1482978/surviving-covid-19-a-costly-struggle This is why I pay for my workers’ Philhealth and health insurance. They get the support they need. They don’t have to worry about their medical expenses as much. I don’t have to worry about their medical expenses. It ends up cheaper overall. John PS - Unlike the Philippines, where I live, the mask mandate is long gone. Garth Brooks, 45,000 people, no masks on anyone!
+I've always found foreign currencies interesting. I'm so used to the green USD that when I first saw other money I thought it was strange. Now I often use foreign currency as a bookmark souvenir of where I've been. Most of the world uses paper and linen for their currency. That’s the texture you feel when you touch a dollar bill or a euro. It feels organic. It feels like paper. But if you’ve ever been to Australia, the UK, Canada, or Mexico, you’ll notice that their currency feels different. They use plastic polymer for their bills. It's supposed to last longer, be water-proof, and be harder to counterfeit. There was even news years ago about how Australians can go swimming with money in their pockets. Here's my Mexican Peso bookmark: Notice the see-through butterfly? The whole note feels slick, almost like wax. Now, the Philippines is joining Mexico, Australia, and 57 other countries in using plastic bills as their currency. Why are they changing from cotton-abaca to polymer? The Philippines has had the idea of using polymer notes for a while now. We know how easily paper bills can break down over time. In a tropical country, paper degrades even faster. This makes the currency more expensive because they have to replace them often. A more durable currency would help the Philippine government save money since they won’t be printing as much. Like everything else, COVID also had something to do with it. Paper also attracts a lot of moisture and dirt, making it harder to sanitize. You can damage paper currency if you wash it. With polymer, all you need to do is spray it with alcohol, wipe it with a towel, and you’re done. They started distributing P1000 bills ($18), and this is what it looks like: John PS. Europe seems to be ahead of the times in a lot of things...but not in money. They still use coins all the time! It drove me nuts while we were there. In Switzerland I gave someone cash and as change, they gave me 9CHF (about $9) in coins! My kids think it's awesome, so they brought it home.
+Mistakes are a part of life. There are a lot of things in my life that I wish I could change. But the one thing I’ve never regretted is doing something and failing at it. Most of my regrets are things that I didn’t do or started too late. Like with my business, I made a bunch of mistakes when I started. If I had stopped outsourcing back then, nobody would blame me. I had struggled enough times to swear off outsourcing forever. But I kept at it until I got it right because I knew once I found the right system, any problem that came after would be easier to figure out. Did your first, second, or third hire not work out? I understand your frustration. The first few people I hired didn’t work out for me either. But once I found the right person and created a hiring process (OneVAAway.com), I learned how to avoid bad hires. Is your Filipino worker making mistakes? Does it seem like they don’t know what they’re doing? I went through that with several people on my team. Here's what I've found: 1. Ask them why they're struggling to do it right? Be upfront about the problem and your frustration. 2. Have you set it up so that you're the one always correcting mistakes? If so, they'll expect it. Why go through the extra work to make it perfect when you're going to correct their problems anyway? Let them know this isn't how it's supposed to work. 3. Give them a title and a responsibility. Make it their responsibility to get the work right. You're not the one to be fixing it. Don't fix their mistakes. Outside of that, training is the best way to fix problems like this. Training is a lot of work. That’s why I created a training library (VAsMadeEasy.com), to make it easier for you to train your OFS. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. It happens. Expect mistakes to happen with your OFS. Just don't let the mistakes continue and continue. Make changes to correct it. Go to OneVAAway.com to learn how to hire a great Filipino worker. Get that great Filipino worker the training they need through VAsMadeEasy.com. John
+Vacation!!! Such a happy topic. But not so much in the Philippines. It comes with stress there. We’re pretty generous when it comes to giving paid time off here at Onlinejobs.ph. We tell our people they can take as much time off as they want. But I have always felt like my people are hesitant to take vacations. We (me and my business partner Dan) want them to take vacations. We want them to have a break from work. I want to share what I can enjoy because of their hard work. I want them to be healthy. Giving them as much time off as they want is one way of doing that. I thought this was something unique to our company. Then I got this email from Andrea. When I hired my OFS in Oct 2020 I told her she got 10 US holidays and she was welcome to exchange them for Holidays she preferred. She was also granted 2 weeks of paid vacation upon completing 6 months. She has taken hardly any vacation time, so I addressed it - asking if it was cultural or something else. She let me know it was cultural and that previous employers discouraged vacation time. I assured her we wanted her to take a vacation to come back refreshed and renewed and ready to work again. She was happy to hear that! Regarding the cultural aspect of not taking a vacation, Filipinos are eager to please. This is part of what makes hiring them so amazing. When they find a job they love, they want to do everything they can to keep it. So to show their dedication, they avoid taking leaves as much as possible. It could also be that they want to save up their leaves for something important. Like if there’s a death or serious illness in the family. In our case, we let them take all that time off with no limits, and they still don't want to take it. I know that some employers discourage vacations. I understand why they do that, but I don’t think it’s healthy for your Filipino workers long-term. We all need a break every once in a while, even the most hard-working, dedicated OFS. If you discourage your OFS from taking a vacation, it could be one of the reasons why they disappear. Encourage your people to take a break. Encourage them to come back refreshed. Encourage time off. John My most recent vacation saw my daughter finish 5th at Mountain Bike National Championships. I'm a proud papa.
+Our lead generation isn't the same as your lead gen. My business is different than yours. But lead generation is still critical to almost all businesses, so here are some ideas for you from ways my team does it for me. - participating in forums - they regularly make posts and contribute to relevant forums. They don't always include links, but when they do, it's usually to my business. - Social media - My team completely runs my social media channels. I don't actually know what they do there...nor do I want to know. - Ads - We run google ads. We run Facebook ads. We run YouTube ads. We DON'T run tik-tok ads (we probably should...I'm just not hip enough yet). I never login to any of those platforms. - Free giveaways - we have multiple instructional documents we give away free to bring new leads in. I didn't write most of these documents. I didn't write the copy for the opt-in pages. I didn't create the opt-in pages. I didn't hook them up to my email provider (mail chimp). I did write some of the emails that go out. How is your OFS generating leads for you? John
+A magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit Luzon, with Abra, a province in Northern Luzon, as its epicenter, last Tuesday (July 26). This earthquake was so strong that the effects were felt all the way in Manila, which is 270 miles away. This has reminded a lot of people of the July 1990 earthquake. That was also in Luzon, and it was so destructive and deadly that it killed 2,000 people. As far as we know, there are 3 reported casualties, and dozens are injured. Many buildings are damaged, and some partially collapsed. Vigan, a UNESCO Heritage Site famous for its many historical landmarks, suffered much damage. Their electricity had to shut down temporarily, but it’s now back after they made sure that the power lines are safe to use. Most of the hospitals in the area have also re-opened after they were deemed safe. The local disaster council has been activated, so they’re now working to ensure the people affected are safe and provided for. People who live in the area were asked to brace for aftershocks. There’s no tsunami warning issued because Abra is a landlocked area, so they don’t have to worry about that. But the area is mountainous, so they’re watching out for landslides. Below is a list of other areas affected by this earthquake. If you have VAs in those places, you may want to check on them. Intensity VII – Vigan City Intensity V – Laoag City, Ilocos Norte; Peñablanca, Cagayan; Dagupan City, Pangasinan; Sinait, Ilocos Sur; Baguio City Intensity IV – Gonzaga, Cagayan; Baler, Aurora; Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya; Ramos, Tarlac; Ilagan, Isabela; Basista, Pangasinan; Claveria, Cagayan; San Jose, Palayan City and Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija; Madella, Quirino; Tabuk, Kalinga; Santiago City, Isabela Intensity III – Quezon City; Iba, Zambales; Navotas City, Malabon City, Metro Manila; Magalang & Guagua Pampanga; Bolinao, Sison & Infanta, Pangasinan; Bulakan, San Ildefonso, Guiguinto, Plaridel, and Malolos City, Bulacan; Tarlac City, Tarlac Intensity II – Dona Remedios Trinidad, Angat & Santa Maria, Bulacan; Tagaytay City, Cavite; Pasig City Metro Manila; Polillo, Gumaca & Infanta, Quezon Intensity I – Tanay, Taytay, Morong, Antipolo City, Rizal; Marilao,Bulacan; San Juan City, Las Pinas City, Metro Manila; Lucban, Quezon; Subic, Zambales; Mercedes,Camarines Norte; Olongapo City, Zambales; Carmona, Cavite If you want updates on this story, you can check it here: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1635407/quake-felt-in-metro-manila
+Security is one of the biggest concerns people have when working with an OFS. What if my OFS gets hacked? How secure is the internet in the Philippines? I understand these concerns. We often see it in the news and in movies about how hackers can steal your information. The thing is, most of the technology is the same. A bunch of my team use MacBook Airs. A bunch of my team have iPhones. Their Windows computer has the same security as your Windows computer. Routers are made by Cisco or Linksys or... the same companies who make your router. The biggest security vulnerability is actually you and your OFS. Humans are the weakest link in the data security chain. This vulnerability is so prevalent there’s a name for it: social engineering. Social Engineering is when an individual cons somebody into providing access to them even if they are not supposed to get that access. They can use tactics that either put people at ease or seem familiar or evoke fear and panic to their mark to achieve their goal of breaching security. Check this out. This week my team got an email from me: Except...I didn't send it. Someone was purposefully spoofing email as me. It's the second time it has happened. The first time it happened gmail didn't catch it. Fortunately there weren't serious consequences involved, but if there were this is a legitimate security concern. My team has been advised to make sure any email from me or my business partner are actually from us. Here are a couple things you can tell your team to increase security: 1. Think before you click. Don’t click unfamiliar links and attachments. When receiving links, check the URL by hovering on the link and seeing the actual URL at the bottom of your browser. If that does not work, do a right-click (or a 2-finger gesture tap), use the copy link option in the floating menu, and paste the copied URL to a note app. This will allow you to check the link's validity without opening it. 2. Check the sender of important emails by viewing the original or raw message. Do not ever provide personal information or passwords until you're 100% sure of the source. Companies will never ask for username/password. 3. Don’t download files you don’t know, especially if you are not expecting to receive any. 4. If you’re really worried about data security, you can also encrypt or password-protect your files. You can do this for Google Drive (https://support.google.com/docs/answer/10519333?hl=en) and One Drive (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/protect-a-document-with-a-password-05084cc3-300d-4c1a-8416-38d3e37d6826) I know a lot of people worry that the Philippines is less secure. It's not. They're not more likely to get hacked than you are. Their internet isn't less secure than yours is. Data security comes down to social engineering almost every time. John
+Everyone wants to hire experienced workers. I get it. An experienced OFS can get to work right away. They require less training and onboarding, giving you a faster investment return. ...in theory. But you know what? Some of the best people I've hired were newbies. They didn’t have any experience. They didn’t know how to do anything. But they were the most loyal, hard-working people who have done amazing things for my business. Take my project manager, Joven. I had to teach him everything when he first started. If I were just looking for experience back then, I wouldn’t have given him a chance. Now, he’s a rockstar and my number one worker. That’s why I like to keep an open mind when hiring. Yeah, newbies require a lot of training and handholding. But most businesses have a lot of tasks that require training in order to hand them off. You're going to have to train anyone. Until you've hired a team, consider hiring someone who is new and willing to be taught. Newbies are also cheaper than experienced workers. You’ll also get more applicants because there are more inexperienced workers out than experienced ones. Inexperienced Filipino workers are now more technically proficient than the ones I encountered ten years ago. I’ve also made training easier, so you don't have to worry even if you hire a newbie. Just go to VAsMadeEasy.com. You’ll love it because it’s less work for you. Your new hire will love it because they want the opportunity to learn on the job. If you're putting off hiring because you're worried about finding someone super experienced, maybe hiring someone less experienced will be easier for you. I've talked to a lot of employers who were glad their first hire was someone they could teach. John
+I have a friend who lives in Chile. The other day he sent me a photo of his kids: Everywhere else in the world it's HOT! (at least...it seems that way) Here are a few typical Filipino cold desserts according to Julia: Halo-halo.This beloved dessert is now known worldwide thanks to Jollibee and Filipino restaurants. But the mass-produced stuff still doesn’t compare to the cheap halo-halo you can get from neighborhood stalls. Stalls that are only open during summer afternoons and use authentic halo-halo ingredients. The neighborhood halo-halo stall is where you hang out with your friends to cool down. Image by: Elmer B. Domingo Sorbetes. You know the sorbetescart is coming when you hear the sorbetero(sorbetes vendor) call out his wares and ring his bell. Sorbetesis traditional Filipino ice cream made with coconut and/or carabao milk and sold in roaming carts. Each cart can hold 3-4 metal bins of ice cream, each a different flavor. Sorbetes usually comes in tropical flavors like mango, ube (sweet purple yam), avocado, pandan (Asian vanilla) or coconut. You can also find other flavors like strawberry (usually in Baguio), cheese (my favorite), and tablea(Philippine chocolate). You can have your ice cream on a sugar or wafer cone or as a sandwich . Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lainetrees/5693223587/ Iskrambol. Iskrambol or ice scramble is shaved banana-flavored frozen evaporated milk, topped with powdered milk, chocolate syrup, marshmallows, and candy sprinkles. This candy-colored Filipino version of a Slushy is a favorite among school kids. Image source: https://www.pinoyrecipe.net/ice-scramble-recipe-or-iskrambol/ Mais and Saging Con Hielo. Though not as fancy as halo-halo, mais con hielo (sweetcorn with shaved ice and evaporated milk) and saging con hielo (cooked, sweetened bananas with shaved ice and evaporated milk) are perennial favorites because of their simplicity. It’s not as sweet as halo-halo but just as comforting. Image source: https://www.foxyfolksy.com/plantain-bananas-in-syrup-minatamis-na-saging/ Ice Candy. If you’re craving something cold and sweet on a budget, you can go to your favorite sari-sari store to get ice candy. Ice candy is just frozen juice in a plastic bag. But sometimes, people add their twist to it by adding fruit bits or sweet beans. Samalamig. Before the world was introduced to boba drinks, we already had a version of it. Samalamigis a chilled drink commonly sold by street vendors. It comes in different fruit flavors and typically has chewables like nata de coco, tapioca pearls, gelatin, coconut meat, and sugar palm fruit at the bottom of the cup. It’s are refreshing drink and snack in one package! By Judgefloro - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61283444 -------------- My son is about to leave for the Philippines for 2 years to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. People have already told him about the Halo-halo and the Sorbetes. John
+What I'm about to say is totally optional for you. But it's also really good. I give my workers at Onlinejobs.ph additional pay for insurance premiums. I pay for their PhilHealth, health insurance, and SSS. Because I don’t have a business entity in the Philippines, I can’t pay for these benefits directly. I reimburse after they’ve made their payments. How do I know if they really paid for these benefits? Specifically for PhilHealth and SSS. Do they just tell me they’ve paid for it, and I just send them the money? Of course not. We reimburse them after they send in their receipts. As I mentioned, Filipinos are mostly honest and will be glad you're paying for these premiums. They'll be happy to get those receipts to you. If they send bogus receipts for those and ask you for the money, they are cheating themselves more. By not paying the premiums, they’ll miss out on the protection and benefits of government-mandated insurance. You can also ask for their transaction records if they didn’t keep the receipts. Filipinos can access their Philhealth (https://memberinquiry.philhealth.gov.ph/member/) and SSS (https://member.sss.gov.ph/) transaction history through their websites. It’ll show the record of their contributions, loans, etc. John PS. on my ride today I broke my bike saddle. We snobby people who ride bicycles seriously don't call it a "seat", we call it a "saddle". Mine is (was) all carbon. I got careless with where I leaned my bike and it fell. Carelessness...such a curse.
+You’re ready to hire another OFS for your team. Should you delegate that process to your OFS? That’s the question Corey asked in his email. John, Gotta confess - most of the time I can't stand people's weekly emails and usually unsubscribe. Your emails haven't met that fate yet! Honestly, I find them insightful and helpful. So I'm writing with a question I'd love you to address. What do you think about having your longtime, trusted Filipino VA hire someone else for you on Onlinejobs.ph? I originally hired my VA at your website YEARS ago. She's been fantastic and I like to think we have a great working relationship. Now, I need someone with a certain specialized skill set and thought of having her source this position. Good idea? Bad idea? Or somewhere in between? Thanks in advance for your guidance.Blessings,Corey I'd say YES...but it also depends. I understand wanting to delegate this process. It’s one less thing on your plate. If this new OFS is working with your current OFS, you’d want them to get along. The good thing about Corey’s situation is he already has a loyal VA. She knows Corey’s business and management style. She’s not going to take this task lightly. She’ll want to bring in someone she can work with and make the business better. What I've seen from my OFS over the years is that if they're hiring someone: 1. they want to make sure the person does a good job because the new person's work reflects on your current OFS 2. they're hesitant to recommend someone they aren't SURE is going to be good 3. they take responsibility with the new person. They work to solve problems. It’s good if: - The current OFS knows exactly what you need for that position and - They have a wide enough network to source this person from. This network can include OnlineJobs.ph. Ask your OFS if they're comfortable doing the hiring for you. For the final decision, if the person is working for me directly I make the final decision. I'll still interview. If the person is working directly for my current OFS, I let them make the final decision. If you don't have an OFS, the best solution would be to hire one yourself. I can teach you to find an OFS that will fit your business and your personality at OneVAAway.com John
+We have superstitions here in the US. - Don't walk past a black cat - The number 13 is bad luck (Friday the 13th, most high rise buildings don't have a 13th floor...) - Don't walk under a ladder There's more of this in the Philippines. Julia (my content OFS) writes: ------------ Even though a lot of us aren’t that superstitious anymore, it’s deeply rooted in our culture here in the Philippines. Take the greeting we use when we enter someone’s home, “Tao po”. When you enter a Filipino’s home, we use the traditional greeting “Tao po” as we’re knocking on the door. Tao po literally means, “I’m a person.” It’s a habit. We don’t really think much about it when we say it. But we use this greeting because of the pre-colonial pagan belief that elemental creatures walk among us. They play tricks like hiding your things or knocking on your door. Saying “Tao po” is reassuring the homeowner that we’re humans, not spirits. We also believe these elemental creatures live in large, old trees, rocks, and mounds of earth. So it’s considered good manners to say, “Tabi-tabi po” (excuse me) when you pass by places with them. Announcing your presence shows that you respect these creatures, so they stay out of your way. If you fail to do this, the creatures can curse you. Everybody has a story about how one of their family members got sick because they weren’t polite to the spirits, so being rude just to spite them isn’t worth it. I don’t believe this, but I still say “tabi tabi po” because I don’t want to risk it. Image from https://filmfreeway.com/TabiTabiPo Superstition is even a cottage industry in the Philippines. In front of a lot of churches, you’ll find fortune tellers and faith healers. You’ll see people selling folk medicine, talisman, and charms beside rosaries, candles, and religious statues. Some places even showcase these beliefs as part of their tourism campaigns. Obando, a municipality in Bulacan (21.7 km from Manila), is renowned for its Anitist fertility festival. Childless couples dance in a procession every May to honor Tagalog fertility gods and Catholic saints. It’s said that they will grant you a child if you offer chicken eggs to the church altar (for the saints) and dance with all your heart (for the deities). Image from https://mb.com.ph/2022/05/17/thousands-expected-to-join-fertility-dance-2022-in-obando-bulacan/ Mark, one of our developers, is from Siquijor. Siquijor is a magical island because of how prevalent witchcraft and traditional healing are. People flock there to get their fortunes told, for healing, or to hex people. The practice is so widespread you can even buy love potions and folk remedies as souvenirs! Lizards and tree barks are used to make potions. Image from: https://dumaguete.com/siquijor/witches-and-healers-in-siquijor/ ----------- When I lived in Brazil for 2 years as a missionary I remember some of their superstitions. - If you drink cold water when it's hot outside you'll get sick - A 2 liter bottle full of water on top of your homes power meter will lower your electricity bill
+When it comes to outsourcing your business (or yourself!) to the Philippines, there’s definitely a learning curve. Here are 6 ways you can guarantee failure for yourself : (Hint: Don’t do these things!) 1. Try To Hire Someone To Do Everything Here’s an example of an email I’ve gotten from business owners over the years. Hi John! I’m looking for someone to help me in by business. I need a VA who can build and design my website, create a database from my products, write a weekly newsletter and blogpost, make videos for social media and make product images for me. Is there someone like that on your website? So wait…you want a programmer, graphic designer, video editor, webmaster, fluent in English and likes to write, who can write sales copy, autoresponders, forum posts, ebooks, and reports. Haha! Yeah, right! Hire someone to do a specific task. Then train them to be able to do everything. 2. Hire A Project Manager Don’t try to hire a project manager first along with 6 others, and expect that “project manager” to manage those other 6 and get things done. They don’t know how. YES! They’re very capable of being project managers. But you're not going to turn everything over to someone right away. 3. Hire Someone And Ignore Them This is in line with #2. Someone isn't going to step in and run everything without significant help from you. You have to train people. You have to provide feedback. If you need help with training, we got you covered with VAsMadeEasy.com 4. Ask Someone To Do Work Before You Offer Them A Job This is my favorite. I get an email that says: Can you please tell me why I can’t successfully hire someone, they all keep disappearing. Here’s the email I send them: I want you to start by doing a trial task. Write 20 articles, submit them to article directories, do a bunch of directory submissions for me, build me a website and write all the content for it. Then, I’ll evaluate your work and see if it’s going to work out. Yeah, right! They’ll only do work AFTER they know they have a job working for you. If you are giving a test task, pay them for their time and effort. 5. Demand Immediate Results This is a long-term proposal here. I’ve been doing it for 17 years. You’re not going to see the same results in 17 days. Don’t expect it. 6. Search and Search and Search For The Right Person, Then Email Them Hey John, I searched for 3 days and I found the perfect candidate. They can do everything you said wasn’t possible back up in #1 on this blog post. Why won’t they respond to me? Why? Because they already have a job and they’re loyal to their current employer. Instead of trying to find the perfect person up front, try contacting 20 potential fits, see who responds, then sort through them. These aren’t hard things to avoid…you just have to know about them to avoid them. Now, hiring an Online Filipino Specialist will be much easier. See how easy it is to find the best person for your business at OneVAAway.com. John
+I’ve mentioned how Filipino homes are small, how they clean their homes, and how they use tsinelas. All these topics revolve around Filipino homes, and I just realized I haven’t talked about the actual houses yet. I will fix that today. The most iconic architectural style for homes in the Philippines is the bahay kubo. It’s a home made of natural materials like coconut lumber, plywood, bamboo, nipa (mangrove palm), and coconut leaves. It's often built on stilts for ventilation and prevent animals from going in the house. This style is usually found in rural and coastal areas. It’s easy and cheap to build and move. When I say move, I mean you can literally have people carry your house to move it to another location. If you need to move to be closer to other family members, avoid bad weather, or be closer to a water source and you're only moving a couple of blocks, it's sometimes easier to just move your entire house than build it from scratch. To move their homes, they'd ask their neighbors for help. It's a lot like asking your friends to help you move, but in this case, you're asking them to move your whole house. Another common style in the Philippines is the bahay na bato(stone house). This style became popular during the Spanish colonial era, so you'll see them in many heritage sites in the Philippines like Vigan, Intramuros, or Dapitan. It’s usually 2 stories high, the first floor built mainly from stone, and the 2nd floor could be built from hardwood. The second floor would often have wide windows that wrap around the whole house to allow as much light and ventilation as possible. To show off your wealth, the home can feature expensive and intricate details like ornate carvings on the banisters and capiz (a light, iridescent shell) on the windows. These homes were built mainly for the Spaniards and wealthier Filipinos. They often surround the town plaza where the church, schools, government offices, and businesses are often located. Both the "coconut house" and the "stone house"are suited to the tropical climate. They both have a lot of ventilation. The stone house can withstand typhoons, while the coconut houseis easy to rebuild when it does get damaged. That's why these styles still exist today. But the problem with both these house styles (which the Americans found out the hard way when they came to the Philippines) is the lack of indoor kitchens and plumbing. So when the Americans started building bases here, they introduced the tsalet(chalet) home. It's still built with ventilation in mind, but they also introduced concrete as a building material. Unlike the coconut and stone houses, the tsalethas indoor kitchens, plumbing, and parking. They started out as template houses for US soldiers and officers in US bases like Baguio and Pampanga. Below is a popular example, the Bell House in Baguio. It looks like a typical American house, right? But what differentiates the tsaletis it was specifically designed for mountainous tropical terrain. It's cooler in the mountains, but it can still get really hot and humid, especially during the summer. So the tsalet has a lot of windows for ventilation. Since they're in the mountains, they're also well insulated to keep the heat in. Some even have fireplaces! The Filipino builders and carpenters they hired to make these homes shared the knowledge, and tsalet became the standard after World War 2. Those are the older homes in the Philippines. The newer houses are more generic. Most city houses now are ramblers, townhouses, and condos made of concrete, steel, and glass. Cookie cutter homes or ultramodern styles that look like every other housing development. Similar to what you see in suburban USA...typically just smaller. Often they find ways to still integrate the old styles into modern homes. Like, if you have a yard, you can buy a miniature kubo where you can hang out or eat outdoors. John PS. Would you prefer this newsletter in a podcast? I record these as podcast episodes, often with more detail. /podcast/
+Jonathan emailed me an interesting question that I think is relevant to everyone hiring OFS. It will give us some good insight into what banking is like in the Philippines. Hey - do you have a post on banking? One my OFS doesn’t have a bank account and says there isn’t a bank on their island. They primarily use PayPal. However, we process all of our payments through Gusto which aligns our accounting nicely, I’m not going to deviate from that. Do you have any articles that might be helpful? Thanks,Jonathan I asked one of my OFS, Jam, to answer this. He used to work for PayPal and is familiar with banking protocols. ------------ If the VA is living in a rural/agricultural area or a small island, the only bank available would likely be a small rural bank or a cooperative. Most small banks are not connected to the network with international banking access, which means the bank would not have a SWIFT code, making international bank transfers impossible. The advantage of using PayPal is it would also allow him to transfer funds from his PayPal account to GCash. GCash is like our Venmo. We can use it anywhere, and it can easily be converted to cash. Another reason why the OFS is asking for payments through PayPal is because Filipino workers have learned to mistrust employers who "pay" using direct bank transfers. It’s widely circulated among the VA and freelancing communities that some scammers will say that they will send a bank transfer to pay for work, and there was none. The scammers will then send a fake screenshot showing the alleged "bank transfer successful" receipt. As a result, many have recommended avoiding employers that "pay" using direct bank and wire transfers. Using PayPal protects the worker because they get to see if the transfer did go through. But looking at Gusto, it’s understandable that paying through PayPal would be difficult. I recommend asking the VA to create an online savings account instead. A BPI (Bank of the Philippine Islands) or CIMB (Commerce International Merchant Bankers) savings account can be created through the GCash app. They can also open an online UnionBank account. They don’t go to an actual bank to do this, and these banks have active SWIFT codes. ----------- Thanks Jam! This means basically anyone in the Philippines can get an online bank account connected to their GCash. Any payment system should work with these online bank accounts. We have people all over the country. Urban (in Manila) and super rural (no bank close by). We pay them all with EasyPay. John
+The best (and fastest) way to succeed with outsourcing is to get stuff off your plate and outsource the things you know how to do. That way, you know what to look for. You know what looks good and what looks terrible. If your OFS needs help, you know how to help them. But what about a job that you don't know how to do? Can your OFS do this for you, or should you hire another OFS? It depends. If: - it's a small task - there's training available for it (you can check VAsMadeEasy.com) - it's something your OFS has time to do, and they've shown interest. It might be better to give this task to your OFS. This is how I got my team to do things like social media, things I have no idea how to do. I check if there's someone on my team who would be interested. If so, and they have some experience, I get training for them. I read through the training, so I know what to expect. My OFS goes through the training and implements what they learned. I ask them to provide me with a summary of what they learned and what they will do. This way I have a pretty good idea if they understood the training and if what they're about to do is right for my business. There's a learning curve but I prefer doing it this way because I'm giving this new task to someone I already know and trust. It's easy for us to talk through the process. They're learning how to do this task by doing it, and I'm learning based on the feedback they're giving me. This is why we created VAsMadeEasy.com; I wanted training that could be instantly handed off to an OFS and they could summarize it for me and start implementing. I didn't want to have to sift out the pieces that were intended for the CEO (almost all trainings assume the business owner is the one taking the training). This process doesn't work for all tasks! So what about something that you can't have someone on your team do? What about hiring someone technical? How do I do this? The first thing I do is research. I ask someone I know who understands that thing to point me in the right direction. If I can, I'll ask two people. "Hey, I'm looking to get X done. What kinds of skills should I be looking for?" Once I have enough information, I start looking for qualified people at Onlinejobs.ph. It's amazing what looking through profiles will tell you about the qualifications you need for your job. Then I post a job with as good of a description as I can. I've even found it helpful to say in the job post "I don't really know how to do this so I'm looking for you to direct this project for me." When choosing who to hire, if you don't know how to tell how good someone is going to be, go with experience and pay. - More experience is almost always going to yield a better result for you. Ask how much experience they have with X thing. - More experience almost always means higher pay. Last, ask them how they'll solve your problem. Like, ask them for a plan. If you don't understand their plan, or don't like it, it's probably not a good fit. John
+Many of you have been asking how much I pay in benefits per year per person to my team. I did some back-of-the-napkin math, and here’s what it looks like. Your OFS can pay more to their SSS (since they are paying as voluntary members, not under a company). The bigger the premiums they pay, the more their benefits increase. Things like loans, maternity leave, and eventually, their pension. Some of my OFS pay their Pag-IBIG fund contributions. At Php 200 a month (less than USD 4), they can take a home loan from this government fund and withdraw their contributions with dividends after 20 years. A good rule of thumb is, if you want to contribute more, you can contribute a maximum of 13% of the salary to the SSS and a maximum of 4% for Pag-IBIG. The amount we pay for our OFS' health insurance would depend on the provider. Most of my OFS got ValueCare, and they gave us a $400 yearly quote. This was the one we ended with initially because it gave our team the most coverage for their locations. But depending on your team’s needs or budget, you can get less or more. The cheapest plan we saw was around $150/year, but they don't have a lot of coverage. You can compare plans using this site: https://mariahealth.ph/individual/ We pay their health insurance twice a year. We pay quarterly or monthly for the other benefits, depending on how often they send in their receipts. Our new-hire OFS do not get these right off the bat. We usually wait around 2-3 months after they've started. When we’re sure the person is a good fit, we start paying for benefits. If you want more details on these benefits: https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/how-to-compute-for-filipino-va-benefits PS. My oldest son started his missionary training recently. He's on zoom classes all day long for 2 weeks at home. Then he'll move to the Missionary Training Center in Provo. Then on to the Philippines. We won't see him for nearly 2 years. Not looking forward to that move!
+I hate FB...but you already know that. I've said it multiple times. I don't have it on my phone. I don't login to the website. I didn't see the news that blah blah blah... So how do we run so many FB ads? To be completely honest, I don’t know. I mean, I know in general how it’s done. I just don’t know how it’s posted. Or what website to go to. Or what buttons they push. I don’t need to know that because I have a fantastic OFS team to do that for me. Here’s our process. It starts with brainstorming. We look at what our marketing objectives are. I work with my team to come up with concepts. If I have an idea, I just record a bunch of videos and send them to the team. Sometimes they come up with ideas, and they send me a script. I tweak the script, shoot the videos and just send them to my team. Once my team gets the video: My video editor grabs them and edits them. Sometimes I give feedback when some parts don’t work. But for most cases, the videos come out great. Once he gets the green light for them, the videos are sent to the writer. My writer watches the videos and writes several titles and captions per video. After a grammar check, they’re sent to the FB ads manager. The FB ads manager tests the ad, schedules, and monitors them. The best-performing ads stay on. The worst of the bunch is deleted. My FB ads manager also monitors my social media for posts that do well. She boosts a post if she sees it getting a lot of views and engagement. That’s the simplified version. I want to point out that the ads are just part of an overall marketing strategy. The team tweaks the messaging depending on what part of the marketing funnel they’re working on. That’s how we create and run a lot of ads. I don’t need to know how to do it myself because I got a team of specialists to help me. Do you want your OFS to learn how to run FB ads for you too? We have training for that at VAsMadeEasy.com. John PS. How we train OFS isn't super different than how I'm teaching my little kids to ride mountain bikes. We ride a bunch of times. Then I pay other people to teach them. Here's my daughter learning to brake properly at a skills clinic last week.
+Just giving you guys a head’s up that Aug 29, 2022 (Monday) is a regular holiday in the Philippines. A "regular" holiday is like a bank holiday in the US. The holiday is National Heroes Day in the Philippines. It’s celebrated every last Monday of August and was enacted in 1931. The day was meant to commemorate the Cry of Pugad Lawin, the first revolt that kicked off the 1896 Philippine Revolution against the Spanish Empire. What is the Cry of Pugad Lawin? Here’s the story. Pugad Lawin (trans: Eagle’s Nest) is a place in Quezon City. It’s said that in August 1896, a group of Filipino revolutionaries (Katipuneros) gathered for a meeting to discuss starting a revolution against Spain. During the meeting, as a symbol of their defiance, the Katipunerostore up their cedulas(community tax certificates) and cried out "Viva la Independencia Filipina" (Long live the Philippines). This was a big thing because these cedulaswere essentially IDs, given by Spain as receipts when you pay your taxes. They refused to recognize Spain’s authority. Technically, this wasn’t the first time Filipinos revolted against Spain. But this was the first organized revolt with the clear goal of independence, not just reform. Born from the Cry of Pugad Lawin was the formation of an insurgent government, a constitution, and organized attacks against Spain from different parts of the Philippines. Why is it celebrated on the last Monday of August? Well, nobody remembers exactly when this happened. Those present gave conflicting accounts of when it happened. The only thing they agreed on was that it happened in August 1896. They just settled on the last Monday of August to make it easier. If you want updates on the latest Philippine holidays, subscribe to our holiday calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=lcvk4qcjgj299mlqs7b02b7pmk%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Asia%2FManila John
+I'm not a big movie guy. I'm also not a big superhero guy or superhero movie guy. I haven't seen the latest [insert any superhero movie name here] movie. But Julia (and most of the world it seems) is. So here are some Filipino superheros according to Julia my OFS: ---------------- I’m excited whenever a new superhero movie comes out. We’re big fans of superheroes here in the Philippines. Our love for superheroes started during the golden age of Philippine comics, which began in 1946. American GIs stationed here in the Philippines would share or leave behind comic books. We fell in love with superheroes so much that we started creating our own. Some were adapted from American superheroes. Some are uniquely Filipino. Below are just some of them. Darna. Darna is our biggest and most famous superhero. She’s so popular that she has several movies and TV shows that have been rebooted and played by several actresses. She looks like Wonder Woman and has similar powers like super strength and flight. But unlike Wonder Woman, she wasn’t born with superpowers. Darna is, in fact, Narda, an orphaned, disabled young woman. Because of her kindness and a strong sense of justice, the deities gifted her with a magic pebble. When she swallows this magic pebble and shouts out “Darna,” she transforms into a superhero. She shouts her name and spits out the rock to change into Narda. Image By "Darna Art Galleries." Mars Ravelo's Darna. Retrieved 2008-11-18., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20270854 Captain Barbell. Captain Barbell is inspired by Superman and Thor but has a similar backstory to Darna. A deity gives Tenteng (nickname for Vincent) a barbel or a medallion (depending on the movie/TV). He turns into a superhero when he shouts, “Captain Barbell.” Image By http://www.geocities.com/capsulezone/cap-barbell.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21204891 Panday. Panday (blacksmith) is one of the first superheroes we have that wasn’t inspired by an American superhero. Panday (alter ego, Flavio) is a blacksmith who gained power when he forged a sword from a magical meteorite. He doesn’t have superhuman abilities, but his sword can emit energy bolts and cut through anything, which is helpful because he usually fights demons and flesh-eating beasts. Image By Philippine Postal Corporation - From the phlpost.gov.ph website: Archived 2016-06-24 at the Wayback Machine, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80529551 Pedro Penduko. Pedro Penduko is a lot like Spiderman because he’s young, easygoing, and quippy. Pedro started as a cowardly teen. But when he gains an amulet that turns into a magical sword, he’s forced to fight monsters that terrorize his hometown. My daughter is such a big fan of this one. Batang X. Batang X is like the X-Men if they were all kids. Instead of a kind mentor like Professor X, they were kidnapped by an evil alien (Dr. Axis). I loved this show growing up. It was so popular, McDonald’s helped produce it and gave out Batang-X comics (see below) as part of the Happy Meal. Trese. This is our most famous superhero, thanks to Netflix turning the graphic novel into a show. (Check it out! It’s terrific!) Alexandra Trese is a healer/warrior responsible for maintaining the peace between humans and elemental creatures. In the world of Trese, elemental creatures live among humans; we’re just unaware of it. The creatures have an uneasy truce for their survival. Alexandra’s family is responsible for investigating and delivering justice for creatures breaking this truce or harming humans. Image By Netflix/BASE Entertainment - NetflixGeeked Twitter, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67799777 And that’s just off the top of my head! Special mentions include Kumander Bawang (Commander Garlic, he fights vampires), Kapt. Pinoy (our version of Captain America), Pandakekoks (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, except they’re frogs), ZsaZsa Zaturnnah (LGBT Wonder Woman), Super Inday and the Golden Bibe (a goose gives young woman superpowers). ------------- For me, my wife is superhero enough. John
+Tropical storm Florita is the 6th typhoon that entered the Philippines this year. I'm letting you know about this storm because it’s really strong. It’s causing a lot of rainfall in most of Luzon, increasing the risk for landslides and flooding. In case you don't know Philippines geography (I'm still learning) Luzon is the big island in the Philippines. Manila, Quezon City, Caloocan, Makati, and a lot of other big cities are on Luzon. Most of them are having flooding. Source: https://www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/tropical-cyclone/severe-weather-bulletin/1 It’s so strong that the Philippine government canceled work and classes along the storm's path. They also issued a storm warning, banning passenger boats and fishing vessels from going to sea. If you have OFS in Luzon, you may want to check on them. If you have OFS in Visayas or Mindanao, they should be okay. John
+I started using Basecamp to manage projects in like 2005. It was just me. I didn't have anyone working for me. It was my organization and task list. Things to get done soon and ideas for later. Since then I've gotten super comfortable with how project management software fits in our work flow. Are you new to project management and want an example of how someone else does it? If you’ve never done project management, it’s best to keep it simple. To start, all you need to do is ask yourself the following questions: What’s the project, and what’s the end goal for this project? Who are the people that I need to get this project done? What are the different steps that need to be done to complete the project? All project management software revolves around these three questions. The rest are just details. Most project management software will ask you for the project name and details. That’s what the first question is going to answer. The next step in creating a project usually involves adding the right people for the project. That’s why you need to answer question #2. Question # 3 is where you start thinking about the tasks. I don’t usually put in the tasks right away. Sometimes I brainstorm with my team first on what these tasks should be. Once we know what they are, they often automatically assign these tasks to themselves. Sometimes, I know exactly what I want them to do. So I just create the task, assign it to the right person (or persons), then talk about the details in the comments thread. That’s all you need to get started. You can start adding details as you get used to it, like deadlines, files, milestones, etc. This is how we implement with Basecamp: https://youtu.be/co6y4GF0SlY John
+One of the things I regularly outsource to my OFS is writing. It’s not that I can’t write. It's that I hate it. And it's super time consuming. When I started my online business, one of the things I did was regularly write articles and submit them to article directories. I wrote blog posts, landing pages, sales pages, and squeeze pages. It wore me out mentally and physically (so weird that typing can wear you out physically...) So naturally, it was one of the first things I outsourced. Immediately I was so relieved. I didn't have to force myself to write anymore. It gave me time to go into detail on topics I wanted to cover, but which I didn't have time or mental energy for (an example of this is the long blog post I wrote about mindless work). Removing the pressure to write made writing more enjoyable and less of a chore. Because I'm not bound to it anymore, I can step back to look at our marketing overall and not just the content creation side of things. Win Win. Even if you're the type of person who enjoys creating content for your business, you can still benefit from having an OFS for content creation. Having a creative person on your team gives you another person to bounce ideas with. Somebody to help you flesh out ideas if you're stuck. They can work on topics that you don't have the time for or you're not interested in. They can contribute their ideas to a certain topic. They can contribute new ideas. The next step for me was to make sure the content we create is really good, and I have to admit, it took a while for us to get there. One of the things I often had to work on with my OFS is getting them to write like me. Filipinos tend to be more formal, and I’m more conversational. I made them read a lot of the stuff I wrote. I also send a lot of feedback videos. This email that you're reading right now went through several feedback videos just to get it right. (hint: I didn't write this). Another issue we encounter at times is when Filipino mannerisms and idioms get into their writing. I've had them eliminate phrases from their writing like "to avail" or "if ever"...phrases which make sense, but which don't sound natural to me. If I don't understand it, I have them rewrite everything. It usually comes back better when I point out that I didn't understand it. When I saw myself doing a lot of proofreading and editing, I delegated that to someone else. I got them a Grammarly account to help with the proofreading. I implemented a system where two pairs of eyes have to go through the content before it gets to me. So when the content gets to me, all I need to do is approve it or give feedback. That’s exactly how things work with my newsletter right now. Sometimes I write the emails. Or I give Jamie (my OFS) a few ideas and she’ll write the emails. Sometimes the ideas come from her. All the email drafts go through editing and QA before she makes a draft on Mailchimp. Once they’re there, I go through them and schedule the ones I like. I email her if there are drafts that are lacking or don’t feel right. The fact that she’s doing most of the work for me is why we can send out emails four times a week. Want to know how I find great writers? Go to OneVAAway.com John
+I mentioned briefly about paying attention to the exchange rate when I talked about inflation a few weeks back. When I first started outsourcing to the Philippines in 2005, I had no idea what the exchange rate was. I just paid this agency $750/month and I had a full-time person working for me (Joven). When Joven left the agency and came to work for me, I paid him $500/month, which was double what the agency was paying him. Win-win. Then, a couple years in Joven emailed me and said: "Sir, I don't know if you know this or not but the Peso is at Php 38 to 1 USD. When you started paying us it was at 50. We've had a 20% pay cut because the dollar is struggling." I had no idea and I felt terrible! They were struggling financially because of the US economy crash of 2007. I started paying them more to make up for the difference. I also started paying attention to the exchange rate. Global inflation has made the exchange rate more volatile over the past 2 years. Before the pandemic, the Philippine peso to US dollar exchange rate was between Php 50 to Php 52 to 1.00 USD. Now, it fluctuates between 47 to 56 pesos per dollar. That difference of 2 or 9 pesos is nothing for us. Nine pesos is roughly worth 20 cents. You can’t buy anything for 20 cents. But in the Philippines, a dollar that costs 47 pesos and a dollar that costs 56 pesos is a big deal. Let’s say you have an OFS, and you’re paying that person $600. Let’s convert that using the lowest exchange rate between the Philippine peso and the USD in the past 5 years: Php 47 to 1.00 USD. At that rate, their take-home pay comes out at Php 28,200. Now let’s convert that $600 USD using the highest exchange rate so far (Php56 to 1.00 USD), which comes out to Php 33,600. Php 28,200 vs Php 33,600. That’s a difference of Php 5,400, worth around $100. That’s 1/6th of their income. That’s $100 that could have gone to pay for this month’s internet, water bill, or groceries. Some employers get around this by paying in pesos instead of dollars. The problem with this approach is that you really have to pay attention to the exchange rate. What I do is just monitor for big changes in the exchange rate. If there’s a really sharp dip, that’s when I send a little more. My team tells me they also monitor the exchange rate to get the most out of every dollar. Like, for the past few weeks, the dollar has been really strong, so my team is actually getting more even though I’m not paying them more. As I write this, USD is at 56 Php. But if or when the Philippine peso strengthens in value, that situation could change. Look, I'm not saying you need to look at this every day. It's just something to be aware of. You can always see the exchange rate by searching "USD in PHP". John
+Here’s a quick lesson on Philippine Geography to make it easier for you to identify what part of the country your OFS is located in. The Philippines is subdivided into 17 political regions, Regions 1 to 13, plus four regions that don’t have numbers in their name. Region 1 is in the northmost part of the country; then it goes down to 13, which is in the southmost part. These regions are distributed among the 3 island groups: Luzon (north), Visayas (center), and Mindanao (south). You can tell what part of the country a region is based on the number. Regions 1 to 5 are in Luzon, the biggest island group in the northern part of the Philippines. Also, in Luzon are 3 of the 4 regions that don’t have a number to their name: the MIMAROPA region, the National Capital Region (also called Metro Manila), and the Cordillera Administrative Region. Regions 6 (Western Visayas), 7 (Central Visayas), and 8 (Eastern Visayas) belong to the Visayas, the smallest island group in the middle of the country. Regions 9 to 13 belong to Mindanao in the south. Also included is the only other region that doesn’t have a number in its name: BARMM or the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Why do you need to know the different island groups? So you know whether your OFS is affected by a natural disaster. I talked about a major earthquake in Northern Luzon a few weeks ago. It made national and international news because of how strong it was. But because it happened in Luzon, my OFS living in Visayas and Mindanao were unaffected by it. I didn’t have to worry about my entire team, just those living in Luzon. Learning about the culture also helps when working with an OFS. I talk about Philippine work culture in detail in my book, The Outsourcing Lever. John
+"My Filipino worker just disappeared!" I've heard this quite a few times from other business owners, especially those just starting out. This usually happens in these 3 situations: 1. You just hired a new person, gave them their first task, and then they tell you they have to resign. 2. You’ve had someone working for you for a bit; they’ve done great work, then suddenly you don’t hear from them for a week. 3. You’ve had someone working for you for years, and they stop responding to your emails and don’t email you for a month. In over 90% of the cases I’ve seen, the cause is that the person is embarrassed that they don’t know how to do whatever you’ve asked them to do. They either don’t know how to solve something, don’t understand something, or can’t figure something out. The natural Filipino reaction is to shy away from it because they don’t want to disappoint you. Unless you want to lose an employee (or lose months of productivity like what happened to me a couple of times), you need to do a few things. You need to provide training. On-the-job training is ingrained in Filipino work culture. You can create the training or use the ones we have at VAsMadeEasy.com. Email them and tell them you know they have a problem. Tell them that you’d like to know what the problem is so you can help them solve it. The first step will literally save you thousands of dollars and countless headaches. Numbers 2 and 3 will help you gain their trust. When they’re confident about their skills and know they can trust you, they’ll run out of reasons to disappear. Usually this is when someone starts to go above and beyond what you've asked them to do. John PS. Meet Milo: He's 19 and running a web design agency. He just got back to the US after living in American Samoa for 8 months because he saw a business growth opportunity. It worked. On his way home, he flew through Salt Lake City, so we met up for a hike. The kid is a rock star.
+When I hired my first full-time Filipino worker, it scared me a little, not going to lie. Can I afford this? Can they actually do good work for me? Can I keep them busy full-time? How will I create tasks for them to do? How will I have the time to train them? I'm responsible for paying this person...what if I can't? Eventually, I took the leap because I realized I couldn't just keep working the way I was. To grow, I had to do something different. After a couple of years, I finally realized something: Hiring someone full-time forced me to think. I had to look at my process. Which ones have value? What tasks waste our time? What can I have him do to grow the business? It wasn’t an automatic process. It took me a while to figure out what tasks were worth our time. But the good thing about having a full-time Filipino worker on your team is that they can do so many things. Once you figure out the tasks and processes you need for your business, you can just outsource those to them immediately. Want to know what other employers are outsourcing to their OFS? I asked employers around the world what their OFS do for them. We came up with 221 tasks. OFSTasks.com It’s completely free. John PS. Despite the brutally hot summer, I'm still out riding bikes with my wife. It's something we love. I feel rejuvenated after riding so I can be effective at work.
+You found an Online Filipino Specialist who’s really good. You like their work. You’re getting along great. You’re just about to hire them when they tell you, “By the way, I have another job. Is that okay?” It's not ideal, but sometimes hiring someone already working may be your only choice. This usually happens when: Situation #1: You’re hiring a technical specialist, and your options are very limited. Situation #2: You just need someone part-time, but that OFS needs a full-time salary to support themselves. First and foremost, the fact that they’re honest about their situation is a good thing. This shows that they don’t want to lie to you. They don’t want to be hired under false pretenses. They know that you may not like the situation, giving you a chance to walk away. If you still decide to hire an OFS who’s already working for someone else, here’s how you can make this situation work. If you’re in situation #1, it’s going to be hard to expect them to go above and beyond for your business if they’re also working for someone else. The best you can get is that they meet your expectations. They'll likely still be very good; just be aware their first priority is their full-time employer. You and your OFS have to negotiate and agree on things like: - How many hours a week should they be working for you? - What’s the expected output? - How quickly can you expect them to respond to your messages or feedback? Situation #2 is a little trickier. Nobody can survive on a part-time salary. Expect them to need a full-time job. If you’re hiring part-time because you want someone who’s super experienced and can’t afford their rates, there is another option. You can try hiring someone inexperienced and give them the job full-time. If you’re worried about giving them training, we have you covered on that (VAsMadeEasy.com). Some of the best people on my team started out as newbies. If you give them a chance, they just might surprise you. If something isn't working, the first thing to do is ask them. Say something about their productivity and ask why. Often people think they have time to take on a second job only to find out it's more demanding than they thought. John
+We all have little things in our house to make it homey and comfortable. It can be pictures on the wall or a nice comfy rug. In the Philippines, one of those things is the banig. The banig is a traditional handwoven mat. It’s usually made from dried palm leaves or reeds dyed in a variety of colors. These reeds are then woven into plain or intricate geometric patterns. In past times, the banig was used mainly as a sitting and sleeping mat. Like in other Asian countries, pre-colonial Philippines homes didn’t have chairs or mattresses. When they were eating, doing chores or resting at home, they sat on a banig on the floor. Before they go to bed, they would roll out the banig they use for sleeping. But even after most Filipinos stopped using the banig for its intended purpose, they keep finding ways to bring it back. Nowadays, you’ll see the banig used mainly as carpets, wall decoration, room dividers or picnic blankets. You’ll see a lot of banig in handicrafts like bags or decorative boxes. Below, you’ll see it being used as a headboard and focal point for a bedroom. Even though most Filipinos use mattresses, you’ll still see some of them getting a banig and using it as a sleeping mat. They say it’s because a banig stays cool, even on hot, tropical nights. Julia, my OFS, tells me that when they go camping on the beach, they’d bring a banig and put it over the sleeping bag because it’s more comfortable. Some use the banig as a mattress liner. You can even buy a mattress lined with banig if you don’t want the inconvenience of adjusting the banig when putting on a bedsheet. John
+The Philippine government just released the official list of holidays for 2023, so we just updated the Philippine Holiday Calendar to include them. If you haven’t subscribed to that calendar yet, you’ll see them below: For PC: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/1?cid=bGN2azRxY2pnajI5OW1scXM3YjAyYjdwbWtAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ For Mac: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/lcvk4qcjgj299mlqs7b02b7pmk%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics Regular Holidays January 1 (Sunday) – New Year’s Day April 9 (Sunday) – Araw ng Kagitingan April 6 – Maundy Thursday April 7 – Good Friday * April 22 (Saturday) - Eid'l Fitr * * June 29 (Thursday) - Eid'l Adha * May 1 (Monday) – Labor Day June 12 (Monday) – Independence Day August 28 (last Monday of August) – National Heroes Day November 30 (Thursday) – Bonifacio Day December 25 (Monday) – Christmas Day December 30 (Saturday) – Rizal Day Special Non-Working Days February 25 (Saturday) – EDSA People Power Revolution Anniversary April 8 – Black Saturday August 21 (Monday) – Ninoy Aquino Day November 1 (Wednesday) – All Saints' Day November 2 (Thursday) - All Souls' Day December 8 (Friday) – Feast of the Immaculate Concepcion of Mary December 31 (Sunday) - Last Day of the Year Looking at the 2023 calendar, you’ll notice a couple of changes. Change #1: No more special working holidays. Now, it’s just two types of holidays: regular and special holidays. The difference between regular and special only matters if you have a legal entity in the Philippines because there’s a pay difference if they work during the holidays. If you want to offer paid time off during these days, you can choose to offer it only for regular holidays or both. Offering both would be nice, especially for families, because special holidays are also school holidays. This will let them spend more time with their kids. Change #2: Inclusion of Eid'l Fitr and Eid'l Adha Eid'l Fitr and Eid'l Adha are Islamic holidays (the dates with the asterisks) considered regular holidays under Philippine law. If you check the official list sent out by the Philippine government (https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/nationwide-holidays/2023/) those holidays are not included because they have to wait for declarations from Islamic officials. The dates are usually declared just 2-3 days ahead. It’s really short notice. There are approximate dates for when these holidays would be. So instead of waiting for the declaration, we included those dates in the calendar and just modify them once the official dates are announced. When I saw the list of holidays above I thought "that's a lot!" so I looked up the number of US holidays in 2022. There are more US holidays than "Regular Holidays" in the Philippines (13US vs 12 Philippine)! But when you add in the "Special Non Working Days" the Philippines has more. At OnlineJobs.ph we also give Dec 26-30 off...but that's mostly because I don't want to work those days. John PS. My daughters are now into their mountain bike racing season. Race 2 just happened. It was hot (95 degrees at 6500 feet) and hard. Taking second place (both of them) made up for the struggle. Here's Addie at the finish line:
+School’s back. For some, it's the first time in 2 years. For others, it's back after summer vacation again. It’s the same in the Philippines. Their kids are going back to school. They haven't been in person for 2 years and they're in the back-to-school shopping rush. Only this time it's worse. Julia shares what back-to-school shopping is like in the Philippines. ------ I’m one of those parents who enjoy back-to-school shopping because I love shopping for school supplies. But even I can acknowledge that it can be exhausting and frustrating. If you want to get the best supplies at a good price, you have to do your research, make price comparisons, and shop early to beat the rush. I think the excitement of going back to school is getting to everybody because everybody was shopping early this year. These past few weeks, all the malls and bookstores were full of people. School supplies were running out of stock. My husband and I went to 3 different stores just for index cards. Index cards!!! I barely used index cards when I was a student. But for some reason, it’s now the hottest stationery of the year! Because of the pandemic, some school supplies were harder to get now than before, not just index cards. I think it’s partly due to the global supply chain issue and partly because more people had to buy new school supplies than ever before. School supplies can be expensive. If there’s anything that can be reused, we’ll reuse it. Many of us would carefully unwind ring notebooks so we could gather the unused pages to make new ones. We would share extra or unused school supplies and books with friends and family. That way, we don’t need to buy new supplies every year. During the pandemic, we didn’t have to buy school supplies, but many of us did use up whatever we had in stock. So when they announced that face-to-face classes were back, we needed to buy more. A big example of this would be school uniforms. Here in the Philippines, all students wear uniforms regardless of whether they attend public or private school. Pre-pandemic, we find ways to make our school uniforms last. We usually buy or have a seamstress make the uniform a little bigger so the uniform can last for at least two years. And when our kids outgrow their uniforms, it can be passed on to younger siblings/relatives/friends. But now, the kids have all outgrown their uniforms. We’re all in a rush to buy uniforms or fabric. There’s a shortage of uniform material and a long waiting list (at least 4 weeks) if you want a tailor-made uniform. Despite all that, I am happy that the kids are going back to school. They need social interaction. ------------ Our kids were in person at school last year, so this was back to school after summer for us. Only, we pulled them out of school 10 days early so we could go ride our bikes across Europe. It felt like the longest summer ever. Still not as long as 2 years of at home school like the Philippines. John
+When hiring an Online Filipino Specialist, there’s a big chance you’ve had applicants from Manila. If you know any Filipinos, it’s also likely that they’re from Manila as well. Is Manila that big? Why do so many Filipinos live there? First, let me correct some misconceptions about Manila. Manila isn’t a mega city. The actual city of Manila is just about 17 square miles. When people say they’re from Manila, most refer to Metro Manila (also called National Capital Region). Metro Manila is made up of 16 cities, including the city of Manila, Quezon City, Pasig City, Mandaluyong City, Caloocan City, etc. All of those cities combined cover an area of 239.22 sq miles, just slightly smaller than Tucson, Arizona. The total population of Metro Manila is about 14.4 million people, that's 13% of the entire Philippine population. All these cities are highly urbanized. This is where you’ll find their government head offices, most popular universities, and multinational corporations. Despite that, Metro Manila isn’t a big place. Just to give you some context of how small Metro Manila is, here’s a map of the Philippines. That tiny red spot there is Metro Manila. Because most schools and jobs are in Metro Manila, many Filipinos live or commute there. It’s the 2nd most densely populated region in the country and the 5th most densely populated place in the world. Living there is expensive and crowded, but people go there because Manila offers so many opportunities. 36% of the country’s GDP comes from Metro Manila. If you’re looking for work, to many, Metro Manila is the place to go. Metro Manila is a great place but has its share of problems. Traffic, urban poverty, and lack of affordable housing are just some of the reasons why many Filipinos would rather go back to the provinces if there are opportunities available there. For decades, the Philippine government has been developing cities far and away from Metro Manila to entice people to move back home. They created economic zones to encourage companies to invest outside of Manila. They set up the infrastructure and enticed companies with lower labor costs and less competition for talent. This is one of the reasons why you’ll find call centers all over the Philippines now instead of being concentrated in Manila. I’m proud that online work has also played a role in this. When we did a series where we interviewed Filipino workers, most of them credited Onlinejobs.ph for helping them move back home. I have people on my team who moved away from Manila as soon as they found online work. The Philippine government has even contacted me a few times to talk about this. They told me how Onlinejobs.ph has helped small towns grow by encouraging people to stay in their communities and spend their income there. The people are clamoring for and getting better internet because they want to work from home. Ultimately, I’m saying that when you’re hiring, keep an open mind. You don’t have to limit yourself to Metro Manila. There’s talent all over the country. Their internet and electricity infrastructure has improved dramatically over the years. There is an OFS out there who’s right for you. John
+In my newsletter, I post regular updates on typhoons and earthquakes in the Philippines. Some of you might be worried if outsourcing to the Philippines is worth it, given that they go through 30-something typhoons, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes every year. Yes! It's definitely worth it. Once you find the right Online Filipino Specialist (OFS), it’s going to change your life and your business. How can you improve your situation in case of a disaster? 1. Insist on workers having laptops and/or portable hard drives. A laptop is easier to carry and save than a desktop in an emergency. But if your OFS uses a desktop (most developers and designers would probably use a desktop for work), then insist that they have portable hard drives where they can back up their work regularly. A portable hard drive is cheap (about $40 for a 1TB capacity); it's something you can provide for them. It's super easy to grab and carry in case of emergency. 2. Invest in cloud storage. Another way to ensure that none of your OFS’ work gets lost in natural disasters is to invest in cloud storage. This makes it easier for them to return to work or pass them on to someone else if needed. In our case, we save our work in Google Drive. Actually, we do most of our work on Google Drive. Writing happens there, spreadsheets happen there, and files get stored there. 3. Get their emergency contacts to ensure continued communication. Ask your OFS for emergency contacts that you can call if they’ve been affected by a natural disaster. Ideally, this should be a relative or friend that doesn’t live in the same place but has the resources to find or contact them. Get phone number and email. 4. Set up a small emergency fund. If your OFS pays their SSS (they should), they can take out a calamity loan to help recover. But that can take time, especially if everybody in their area is also getting a loan. You can help your OFS by setting up a small emergency fund they can borrow from to help them get back on their feet faster. The size of this fund depends on your means. A couple hundred dollars is usually sufficient. We've done this dozens of times for people and have never had a problem getting paid back. If you haven’t hired an OFS yet (check out my hiring process at OneVAAway.com). You can consider hiring from places in the Philippines that are less affected by natural disasters. Western Visayas and Mindanao are the places least affected by typhoons. The province of Palawan in MIMAROPA, Cavite in Region 4, Isabela in Region 2, Cebu in Region 6, and Bohol in Region 7 don’t have any active fault lines, making them less likely to experience earthquakes. To know where these places are, check out my newsletter on the basics of Philippine geography. A last word of advice. I say to hire from specific regions as an option. I've never done it. It's not that simple (we don't have a geography filter at OnlineJobs.ph). More important is to hire the right person, wherever they're from, and start working together. A natural disaster may only affect them once every 5 years. And...Filipinos are really good at recovering. John PS. Where I live, the only likely natural disaster is an earthquake. We expect a really big one at some point. We have a lot of food stored for this emergency.
+When I first started outsourcing to the Philippines, their internet wasn’t really good. Like, 256Kbps wasn't uncommon. That's "K" - Kilobits. Not "M" - Megabits. 5Mbps was really fast! For years, the Philippines had the dubious reputation of having the slowest internet service in Southeast Asia. Fast forward to now, and their internet has gotten so much better. It’s so good that I didn't notice that they used mobile data when working until they told me about it. Case in point, my OFS, Jam, sent me a picture of his work set-up. He’s currently working in a school parking lot. He drives his daughter and a couple of other kids to a school far from home. Rather than drive back home to work, he set up a workstation at the back of his car. He’s using mobile data for internet. I initially thought that this was an isolated case. Maybe Jam was just working in a place where the internet was really good. But then I started asking around. I found out that even my developers sometimes use mobile data because it’s gotten to the point where it’s good enough that they can use it for work. I know this doesn’t apply to the entire country, nor would this work for all jobs. The internet in rural areas with underdeveloped infrastructure still isn’t enough. Mobile data isn’t as fast or stable as a fiber connection. My video editor/graphic designer rarely uses mobile data because he usually handles big files. He’s always uploading or downloading something, so mobile data is never enough for him. But the trend is really good. The country’s mobile internet median download speed is now at 21.41 Mbps, and its broadband median download speed is now at 68.94 Mbps. We see improvements in internet speed every few months. Musk’s Starlink was also approved to operate in the Philippines this year, so even the most isolated places in the Philippines are expected to have an internet connection soon. The fact that several people in my team can work anywhere means that YOU can hire anywhere. You don’t need to worry whether or not their internet can handle the work. Their internet can handle it. Just focus on finding the best Online Filipino Specialist for your business. Finding the best OFS for your business doesn’t have to be painful or tedious. I’ll walk you through my easy and painless process at OneVAAway.com. Want to know what tasks an Online Filipino Specialist can do for your business? Go to OFSTasks.com. John
+Let me preface this by saying I am not an accountant or a tax attorney. I’m simply sharing how we’ve been dealing with taxes and our OFS for years. This is how 5 different accountants have dealt with it for us. Also, my OFS Jamie is not an accountant. What she shared about taxes is based on her experience paying taxes as an online Filipino worker. YOU SHOULD NOT LISTEN TO WHAT I'M ABOUT TO SAY. Don't take it as legal or financial advice! I got an email from someone recently saying they have two concerns about hiring an OFS (Online Filipino Specialist). One is the taxes. They think hiring an OFS means they’d have to pay taxes because I call my OFS team my employees and offer them benefits. Their second concern was whether the OFS is an employee or an independent contractor. Even though I call my team in the Philippines my employees, they are independent contractors. I don’t pay their taxes. These are the only things I need to do tax-wise with my OFS: 1. I have them fill out a W-8 BEN and 2. declare them in my 1120S. *2021, The IRS updated the W-8 BEN form. I've explored this. I've talked to accountants. I've talked to attorneys. I can't figure any way you could consider an OFS an employee by normal "employee" standards. You can't give them a w2. They don't have a US tax ID number. You can't even give them a 1099. Having said that, DON'T LISTEN TO WHAT I SAY! Consult your attorney and accountant! On the Philippine side of things, I asked Jamie about this because she’s been paying taxes as an online worker for years. When she registered as a taxpayer, I remember she asked for a day off because she spent hours in lines just to get her paperwork filed. They (your OFS) are registered as independent contractors when paying their taxes. They pay a local tax (~1% gross) yearly and national taxes quarterly (~8% over Php25,000). From what Jamie tells me, they can do most of the filing and payment online. John PS. don't over complicate this.
+JANUARY 2023 UPDATE: We have updated this to reflect the slight increase in the monthly contributions as issued by the SSS Every time I mention SSS I get tons of questions. Here we go. First, this is completely optional. You don’t have to pay for it. But if you can afford to, it’s a nice thing you can do for your OFS. - SSS stands for Social Security System. It's a state-run social insurance program where non-government Filipino workers are expected to contribute. - Businesses with legal entities in the Philippines must contribute to the SSS. If you don’t have a legal entity in the Philippines, paying your Filipino’s SSS premiums is optional. - If you want to give your OFS a benefit and can only afford to give one, I strongly recommend SSS. It’s one of those benefits that can help your OFS in so many ways for a long time. - When they sign up for SSS, they also get a government-issued ID called UMID (universal multi-purpose ID). My team tells me it's one of the few IDs recognized everywhere. Having a UMID would make it easier to open a bank account, verify their identity online, get a credit card, passport, or driver's license, etc. - When your OFS pays into it, it creates a pension fund they can use when they retire. This is also where they can get maternity, disability, and calamity benefits. (more on these in another email) - SSS is also a way for Filipinos to take out easy loans. Most Filipinos take out an SSS loan first to establish credit. This SSS credit record is something that they can show to banks if they want to open a credit card or take out a bigger loan. - Because you don't have a business in the Philippines, you can't pay directly to SSS. Your OFS must pay it themselves. When they do, they declare their contributions as “Voluntary” because it's not associated with a Philippines business entity. - So, how much do SSS premiums cost? The premiums should be about 14% of their salary, but they can't be more than Php4200 (~ USD $76) per month. To make this simple, multiply your OFS monthly salary times 0.14. That's their contribution amount. If your OFS makes more than $543/month, they should make the maximum contribution of $76/month. (14% of $543 is $76, and $76 is the max they're allowed to contribute each month) - You can pay for the entire contribution or just a portion. For Philippine companies, the standard practice is to pay for two-thirds of the contribution, and the worker pays a third. That means you would pay the worker an extra $51/month for SSS. They would pay $25 out of pocket for SSS. Total = $76. - They take the money you give them and pay it to their SSS account. Since this is voluntary, they can pay monthly, quarterly, or annually. At our company, we just add it to their monthly salary. We ask them for a receipt when they've paid it, so we know where the money is going. Another option is to ask for a screenshot of the member's data record, they'll find this in the SSS member's portal. - The amount they contribute determines the amount of benefits they're eligible for. The bigger the contributions, the more money they'll get for things like their maternity benefit, disability benefits, or pension. - They can keep track of their contributions, apply for benefits and get loans through the SSS member portal or through the SSS mobile app. - We have instructions for how your OFS pays their SSS. We provide this to them in their account on OnlineJobs.ph John PS. More info coming on other potential benefits in future emails
+I get asked this question a lot. Recently, I got an email from Karen and I wanted to share my response for people who have the same question. My business partner is concerned about hiring an OFS directly instead of using an agency out of concerns that this is going to be classification as employee vs independent contractor. Is there a service that we can use as the main employer instead of hiring someone as an employee? We don't offer this service, but here's what I can tell you. The Philippines doesn't have a treaty with the US to make this person an employee. I've talked with probably 5 different accountants about this over the years. Not one of them has found a case for making them an employee. I've had hundreds (thousands?) of customers come to me with this question. Not one of them has ever returned to me saying "here...look at this...it makes them an employee." There's just no way to consider this person an employee causing US employee requirements. What would you do with them? Submit a W2? You can't even submit a 1099 for them. They don't have any US tax ID numbers. THEY ARE INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS! I cover this at www.OnlineJobs.ph/taxes. Now, on the Philippine side, you can’t make a person an employee unless you have a legal entity in the Philippines. This means your business has to be registered in the Philippines for you to hire an employee. Your business isn't registered in the Philippines so they HAVE TO BE CONSIDERED INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS. They pay taxes as independent contractors, which means they don’t need to declare an employer when they file. Even if you offer them benefits like SSS or Philhealth, their contributions would be considered voluntary. They can’t be employee contributions because you must be a registered business in the Philippines to be considered an employer. If you've been putting off hiring someone because you were worried about them being an employee, now you know the real situation. Get started hiring at www.OneVAAway.com. John
+The 13th month payment is coming up in December. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions. Is the 13th month required? For you, it is optional. You don’t have to give this. BUT it’s best if you do because it’s a really effective motivator for Filipino workers. It encourages loyalty. Filipinos are more likely to stay with businesses that offer 13th month because it tells them that the business is stable and they care for their workers. Plus, Filipinos often depend on the 13th month. They'll use it for planned large expenses, home repairs, and to buy gifts for family for the holidays. For companies with a registered business in the Philippines, the 13th month is not optional. When is the best time to pay the 13th month? The 13th month is to be paid in December. The earlier in the month, the better. Are the 13th month and the Christmas bonus the same thing? No, the 13th month is NOT considered a Christmas bonus. It’s just part of their annual salary (they budget for it). If you want to give a Christmas bonus, that’s separate and always very much appreciated. How do you compute for the 13th month? It's 1 months salary as extra pay. If they didn't work for you the whole year, add up the total amount you paid them through the year and divide by 12. “I hired my VA in September and she just finished her training period. Do I start counting the months to compute her 13th month? When I hired her or when she finished her training?” It’s mostly up to you. You can start on her hire date or when the training period has ended. The important thing is that both of you know when you started counting. Typically though, it starts when training is finished. Also, someone is eligible for the 13th month if they have worked for you for 3 months or more. “I had to let go of my VA this year. Should I still give her a 13th month bonus?” Because the 13th month is optional, whether or not you give the 13th month when you let a VA go depends on your agreement with your workers. For Philippine companies, they are obligated by law to give the 13th month bonus if the employee has worked for at least a month during the year. “I pay my VA by the hour or on a per-project basis. Do I need to give them a 13th month?” You don’t have to, but it’s still a good idea. You can compute for 13th month by adding up the total you paid them through the year and dividing by 12. For us, we: 1. always pay the 13th month 2. also give a Christmas bonus. $25-$50. John
+I've talked about SSS quite a few times recently because people keep asking. I want to reiterate that this benefit is OPTIONAL. It would be nice if you can give this to your Online Filipino Specialist, but you don’t have to. In this email, I’m going to list what your OFS can get when they sign up for SSS and regularly contribute to the fund. When your OFS signs up to become an SSS member, they get a unique SSS number. When they get their SSS number, they must also get a UMID (Universal Multipurpose ID) from the SSS. UMID is the ID you want to keep in your wallet because you can use it anywhere. It makes it easier for your OFS to open a bank account, apply for a credit card or loan, get a driver’s license or passport, or get verification for payment sites like PayPal or Payoneer. When your OFS contributes regularly to the SSS, they’re entitled to the following benefits: - Sickness benefit - A daily cash allowance paid for every day that your OFS cannot work due to sickness or injury. - Maternity benefit - A cash allowance paid to your OFS when they give birth or have a miscarriage. This is equivalent to 2 and half months' salary - Disability benefit - It’s a cash benefit they can get as a monthly pension or lump sum if your OFS suffers a permanent (partial or total) disability. - Retirement benefit - This is their pension fund. Your OFS can get this as a monthly pension or lump sum. - Death benefit - The beneficiaries of your OFS (parents/spouse/children) can get this cash benefit as a monthly allowance or lump sum. - Funeral benefit - It’s a cash grant of around Php20,000 (~$350) to help with funeral costs. - Unemployment benefit - This won’t apply to your OFS (because they're considered independent contractors), but it’s one of the benefits that they can get if a Philippine company hires them. Being an SSS member also gives your OFS access to short-term loans called “salary loans.” They’re low-interest loans that need to be repaid within the year. They call it a salary loan because they base how much they can borrow on their monthly salary. The first time you can take out a short-term loan, you can only borrow the equivalent of one month’s salary. The next time you take out a loan, you can borrow twice your monthly salary, and so on and so forth. All the information your OFS needs to get these benefits is available on the SSS member portal and SSS mobile app. We’ll also release a guide for your OFS to show them how to sign up and pay for these benefits themselves. This will be in their account on OnlineJobs.ph. John On my ride the other day we saw the first signs of fall. Beautiful.
+What's preventing you from hiring your first OFS? Why haven't you taken the leap yet? I get an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from employers around the world working with OFS. Every day someone says to me: I love my OFS... My OFS has worked for me for 3 years and it's amazing... I couldn't run my company without them... And so I write my newsletter to help these people be more efficient. But sometimes, regularly, often even! I get a response to my newsletter: "I need to hire someone to do [insert any skill here...lead generation, cold calling, video editing, programming, social media...]. Can they do that? Where do I get started?" Have you ever hired someone in the Philippines? "No" (in my brain) HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!?! And yet, I know it's my fault! I haven't done a good enough job of convincing you that you can find amazing, hard working, talented, loyal, honest people. So I have 2 questions: 1. What's preventing you from hiring your first OFS? Why haven't you taken the leap yet? 2. If you have hired someone, and are struggling with something, what are you struggling with? Simply REPLY (yes, it comes to me). I want to know what's holding you back. Then I want to give you what you need to move forward. John
+First, let me start with what NOT to tell your friends. Don't tell them the name of your OFS...unless you want your OFS to get another job. People are lazy. Nobody wants to do the work of finding an OFS. If you go raving about your OFS to your friends and then you tell them the name of your OFS, they're going to go look them up on FB and offer them a job. I've had it happen to me. Fortunately for you, Filipinos are super loyal, so even if they take a job with your friend they're not going to quit working for you. But...offering a second job to your OFS is never great. So don't tell names. So what DO you say? Rant. Rave. Tell them what they do for you. Tell them about specific tasks they're doing and how good they are. Tell them about the time they're saving you. Tell them where to find an OFS: OnlineJobs.ph Tell them about help finding a great OFS: OneVAAway.com Join the affiliate program for OneVAAway.com and give them your affiliate link. We pay out a 90% commission. No, that's not a typo. 90% I didn't create OneVAAway.com to make money. I created it to get the word out. OFS are amazing. You know it. I know it. Your friends don't know it... Yet. John PS. You already have an affiliate link for OnlineJobs.ph. It's in your OnlineJobs.ph account. Just login and scroll down. It's in green. 40% recurring commission.
+After last week's email about banking in the Philippines, I got comments on social media about how others handle payments. The great thing about these comments is they came from guys who have been outsourcing for years, so they know what they’re talking about. Reading these comments, I know some of you might feel overwhelmed by choice. Which system is best for paying your OFS? PayPal, EasyPay, Wise, Remitly? Short answer: IT DOESN'T MATTER You can pay them through whatever system works best for you. It won’t matter much to your OFS because their online banking and e-wallet apps (Gcash, PayMaya, and bank apps) will allow them to receive whatever payment system you use. For e-wallets that allow direct-to-bank transfers (such as Gusto, Remitly, and Wise), they can easily create a bank account online to receive the payment. No need to overcomplicate things. For those of you looking for a slightly more complicated answer. For newly hired Filipino workers, use a payment system like EasyPay, Paypal, or Wise. As mentioned in my previous newsletter, Filipino workers have learned to avoid direct bank transfers because that’s how they’re usually scammed. Also, EasyPay, Paypal, Wise, and Remitly can send money directly to Gcash. This makes it easier for your worker to get their money quickly. Once trust is established for you and your OFS, you can pay them through whatever system works best for you. Again, not that complicated. I just want to clarify something about the previous email. Gusto is just another e-wallet system designed specifically as a payroll system. The only difference between Gusto and the other systems is that Gusto sends the money directly to their bank account. Gusto also requires that you have a “domestic contractor” added to your Gusto payroll before you can add an international contractor. So to those just starting out and looking for an OFS for their first “employee,” that may not be an option for you. John PS. I mentioned Paypal here a few times because it's easy. Especially if it's your first time paying someone. But it's also crappy for them for receiving salary month after month. Paypal's exchange rate is so much lower than EasyPay or Wise that the amount they receive is significantly different.
+I’m sorry that this email is really late. I was out for an entire week and didn’t have internet. So I just found out about Typhoon Karding and how devastating it was when I got back. With it happening around the same time as Hurricane Ian, last week was a pretty bad week for the Filipinos and business owners affected by these natural disasters. Karding was a really strong storm that affected a big part of Central Luzon (check out my post about the basics of Philippine geography to know where that is). It destroyed thousands of homes and caused millions of pesos in damage. It was so bad that five rescuers died while they were saving people. Here at home, Hurricane Ian caused power outages and flooding in Florida and Puerto Rico. People losing their homes and their livelihoods. I know it seems bleak, but this is one of those times when the best of humanity shines. Let’s just help each other. Help your neighbors. Help your friends. Help your Filipino team. When we help each other, that’s how we can get through anything. John
+I got this really interesting email from Jared after I sent out the disaster-proofing email. Can you provide more details on your emergency fund? How is it set up? how they 'apply' for it? I also heard of some employers providing generators or other means of backup. is this something you tell them you'll reimburse them and they provide receipts? My OFS has 2 ISPs, but can they get more? Things are going great, but sometimes it'll be silent for half a day and I'm not sure if there is some service interruption or personal emergency or just checked out without telling me. WOuld love to hear more on these topics or point me to any articles if you've covered it in the past. I'll try to answer all of his questions here. Can you provide more details on your emergency fund? How is it set up? How do they 'apply' for it? The emergency fund is just an account I’ve set aside if they need to borrow money quickly. If there’s an emergency, my OFS will email me to ask to borrow a certain amount and tell me why they need it. They would also tell me how they plan to pay it back in that email. Like last year when one of my OFS borrowed $600 (one month’s salary) to help pay for their parent’s funeral expenses. He asked to take $100 away from his monthly salary until the $600 was paid off. Sometimes, we don’t ask them to pay it back if it’s a serious emergency. Like when one of my developers lost their home in Cebu. I knew it was bad because I saw it in the news, my team in the Philippines was talking about it, and I knew they were directly affected by it. My business partner, Dan, and I saw that he really needed it, so we sent him some money as soon as possible. He didn’t ask for help, and we didn’t wait for him to ask. We also told him he didn’t need to pay us back because I knew it would be a long recovery process. I also heard of some employers providing generators or other means of backup. Is this something you tell them you'll reimburse them and they provide receipts? My OFS has 2 ISPs, but can they get more? A generator is something that we have considered before but my team has never asked for it. You can consider it, but blackouts in the Philippines are less of a problem now than they were a few years ago. Regarding having your OFS get another ISP, that is a good idea BUT it would depend on where they live. Some areas in the Philippines have access to only one ISP provider; some have access to all four. I wrote about the different ISP here: /what-internet-options-exist-in-the-philippines/ If they have access to good mobile internet (and they can work using that), giving them an internet data allowance can be an option. My OFS (Jam) told me that when they’re having issues with their primary ISP, he has a prepaid internet account that he just reloads when needed. Sometimes it'll be silent for half a day and I'm not sure if there is some service interruption or personal emergency or just checked out without telling me. - Service interruption or personal emergency. This is possible. One way to get around that is to give them many ways to reach you. My team has email, Basecamp, and Slack. They can also contact each other. In case they don’t have internet, they can text their teammates. My project manager has my number, so even if they can’t contact me directly, they can reach out to Joven and relay that information to me. Either way, a few hours or half a day just isn't uncommon. - They checked out. When I sense that this is the case, this is what I do: /my-filipino-worker-just-disappeared/ John PS. Backpacking in Glacier National Park last week and we had a small glacier right next to our camp site. We went inside!
+One of the benefits you COULD give to your OFS which I mention in my emails, videos, and blog posts is the Pag-IBIG fund. The Pag-IBIG fund, also known as the Home Development Mutual Fund, is a government-owned and controlled corporation mandated to help Filipinos get affordable home financing and set up a savings fund. Filipinos who want to buy their own homes contribute to this fund because it offers lower rates, longer payment periods, and access to their catalog of houses from people who defaulted on their loans. You don’t need to be a Pag-IBIG member to buy a home. Some residential property developers don’t even accept financing through Pag-IBIG. But, many Filipinos still contribute to the fund because the fund also offers home improvement loans, short-term loans, and a savings fund that offers a higher interest rate than banks. Being a Pag-IBIG member also entitles you to have a Pag-IBIG ID that you can present as a government-issued ID. They can also use that ID as a discount card for a lot of places like restaurants, salons, grocery stores, etc. That same ID is also an ATM card where the loaned amount is deposited and can be used as a personal bank account**. **While the banks that issue these ID/ATMs are connected to SWIFT, we CANNOT confirm as of this time if they accept SWIFT transfers to these accounts. How much does a Pag-IBIG contribution cost? The minimum required contribution is around Php 100 (USD ~$2) per month. Philippine companies are required by law to remit this contribution with an additional Php 100 employer’s share per employee to Pag-IBIG as a benefit. That's a total of USD ~$4/month. If the worker wants to contribute more, they would do it on their own. Like with all benefits I talk about, this is optional. You don't have to pay it. I didn't pay it for years after having VAs and OFS work for me. But, it's also a super simple and affordable benefit to give. How? Just tell them you want them to contribute to Pag-IBIG. Tell them how much. Then add that to their salary and ask them to provide you a receipt of their contribution. That's it. John PS. It's fall, and in my mountains the fall colors are out. It's beautiful! Yesterday I rode ~38 miles with 4000ft of elevation in my local mountains. I just can't help but keep riding because of the colors.
+I found this comment on my benefits newsletter from Jacqui Hi there, I went back and re-discovered this blog post because I want to offer my OFS healthcare. My OFS is expecting twins in March next year and I would like to provide her with the best (but most affordable/good value) that there is out there. I don’t have a big agency so it will be a very large commitment for me, but Lea has been exceptional in the time we’ve worked together. I sent the email to my OFS (online Filipino Specialist), Jamie, and this is her answer: ---------- Regarding finding the best healthcare for Jacqui's OFS, it would depend on: 1. where she lives 2. what hospital/doctors she has access to. Jacqui will need her OFS's help with this as she will be the one who'll be benefiting from it. I suggest that Jacqui instructs her OFS to ask her doctor and the hospital administration what health insurance providers they're currently accepting. The OFS can then go to this website: https://www.mariahealth.ph/, ( a directory for all the health insurance providers in the Philippines) search for the health insurance providers, find the plans available, and show you the ones that best suit her needs AND your budget. The OFS can also download this guide to help them figure out which plan(s) would best suit their needs: https://www.mariahealth.ph/contact_us/?reason=health-basics-guide Regarding the cost, the cheapest we found around that time would cost around $150 a year, but we're not sure if it would cover maternity expenses. But for more information about overall cost, John wrote about that here: /whats-the-ballpark-cost-for-ofs-benefits/ I think the best option for the OFS (and Jacqui, the employer) , given how close her due date is, would be to make sure that the OFS is up to date with her SSS and Philhealth benefits (if she has them). SSS covers maternity benefits (2 and 1/2 month's salary) if she's paid at least 3 contributions. /the-sss-benefit-for-your-ofs-explained/ /what-can-your-ofs-get-with-their-sss/ Philhealth covers hospitalization for the mother and the baby if she has paid at least 9 contributions https://ph.theasianparent.com/philhealth-maternity-benefits /philhealth-vs-health-insurance-whats-the-difference/ Health insurance could take weeks to process and might not offer maternity benefits immediately after signing up. The OFS can sign up for SSS and PhilHealth within the week and catch up on her contributions within the year. She'll be able to avail of them by the time she gives birth. ----------------- Jamie (my OFS) is so smart! John
+Here's a fun piece of Philippines culture. What comes to mind when most people talk about convenience stores are places like 7-11. They have 7-11s in the Philippines too, but the purest version of a convenience store looks nothing like a 7-11. In the Philippines, a convenience store is a sari-sari store. The store gets its name from the Tagalog word sari-sari, which means "variety" or "sundry". You can buy anything in a sari-sari store, from canned food to mobile data and everything in between, in small convenient packs. You also buy things per piece, like candy, gum, razor, and female hygiene products. Another reason a sari-sari store is more convenient than your typical 7-11 is that you’ll find a sari-sari store anywhere in the Philippines. Whether you’re staying in a crowded metropolis or a remote island, you can always count on the fact that there will always be sari-sari within a few blocks. You can find sari-sari stores everywhere in the Philippines because they’re so cheap and easy to set up. You don’t need a lot of capital to start, and most of what you need to sell can be bought in large groceries or big box stores. You don’t even need to build a store to have a sari-sari store. Just set a table in front of your house, display your items, and boom, you have a store. Sari-sari stores hold a lot of social and economic importance in Filipino culture. It’s where most people gather and get their basic needs like food, first aid, and even banking. It’s also something people can rely on when times are hard, thanks to its low prices and most store owners' willingness to let people buy on credit. The sari-sari store is also the most common type of business in the Philippines. Sari-sari stores account for 70% of sales of manufactured consumer food products. It also contributes Php 1.3 trillion to the Philippine GDP. Many successful business owners in the Philippines learned how to run a business by opening a sari-sari store. Technically, you’re supposed to register your sari-sari store as a business with the government. Still, they often tolerate unregistered sari-sari stores because they contribute greatly to the local economy. A successful sari-sari store can encourage competition from neighbors to build their own stores, or they can build other businesses that complement the store, like barbershops or food stalls. In some cases, it can even transform the neighborhood into a commercial area, forcing the existing businesses to register and pay taxes to the local government. This isn't unique to Philippines culture, but it's different than most places in the USA. John
+Next Monday (Oct 31) is my second most dreaded day of the year: Halloween. The worst day of the year of course is April 15. Tax day. But this isn't about Halloween, it's about All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, two Philippines holidays coming up next week. November 1 (All Saints’ Day) is a special non-working holiday. November 2 (All Souls’ Day) is a special working holiday in the Philippines. I know the special holiday thing in the Philippines is kind of confusing. They got rid of the special non-working holiday for the 2023 calendar, but it’s still in the 2022 calendar. Just think of special holidays as school holidays to make things easier to remember. All Saints and All Souls (collectively referred to as Undasin Filipino) are the days when Filipinos honor their dead loved ones by going to the cemetery. Most schools schedule a break around this time, so students and teachers can participate in the tradition. I talked about this in greater detail in this blog post: /upcoming-all-saints-and-all-souls-day-holidays/ This year, travel restrictions have been lifted. This means most Filipinos, including your OFS, might ask to take a leave of absence on these days. With November 1 being a Tuesday, they might ask to also take their leave on October 31, which falls on a Monday. That way, they have a four-day weekend to join the tradition. **Update: A few days after we wrote this newsletter, the Philippine government just declared October 31 as a special holiday. They decided to add this as a holiday because they knew people will ask to take a leave on that day anyway. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1186390 Whether you approve of this leave or not, it’s up to you. Only November 1 is recognized by the Philippine government as a special non-working holiday. But if you can afford to give them days off around this time, they’ll really appreciate it. Part of the All Saints and All Souls Day tradition is caring for the graves of their loved ones. They clean up the gravestones and do some light gardening. The pandemic has put this tradition on hold for two years, and I’m sure many of them are eager to do this for their loved ones again. I wish we celebrated Halloween like Filipinos celebrate All Saints' Day. Honoring the dead is so much better than begging for candy. John
+Last time I asked about how I don't like Halloween. What I do like is Thanksgiving -> New Years. Everyone is nicer. People are giving. The world is a more enjoyable place when people are looking to help each other. I know it's still October, but let's talk about the holiday period. My business partner, Dan, and I let our team take paid time off over the holidays and unlimited leave because our business doesn’t have a lot of time-sensitive tasks. This system works for us, but I know a LOT of businesses where this won’t work at all. I know the holidays are some of the busiest times for dropshipping, e-commerce, and freight businesses. Some of you might have hired seasonal workers to cover that extra work. In the Philippines, most holidays are at the end of the year. Starting at the end of November, there’s a holiday practically every week. Because of that, most of your Filipino workers might ask to take their days off during this time, which makes this problematic, especially if this is the time you need them the most. So, what can you do to ensure that your business is covered even during the holidays? Here are some things you can do: 1. You can create a “leave” calendar where you mark the days they CAN’T take their leave. Let your OFS know they can take their leave on any other day except those days. Make sure to label the calendar with the correct time zone to avoid missed work schedules. 2. One thing that call centers do in the Philippines is alternate holiday scheduling. Half the team can take Christmas eve and Christmas off. The other half can take their New Year’s Eve and New Year off. It’s not a perfect solution, but it ensures that you have people working and your team can still enjoy the holidays. 3. For our customer support team, we offer half shifts during the holidays. Instead of 8 hours, they only need to do 4 hours on those days. We usually have two people per 8-hour shift, so they talk amongst themselves about what hours they would cover. This way, there’s always someone online for email support. 4. Our dev team and site administrator don't work on any new projects during the holidays but are on call and monitoring to ensure that the websites are working properly. There are no rules or standard practices here. It's whatever you want to do with your business. Just because we give everyone Dec 24 - Jan 2 off doesn't mean you need to. Do you have other ways of covering holiday shifts with your OFS? Let me know by emailing me at john@onlinejobs.ph. John
+I got this really good question from Debbie about pay raises Hi John, I’m about to do a review with my assistant who has been working for me for 4 months, and would like to reward her work with a pay rise. She still has quite a bit to learn in her role so I want to do it in a way that’s sustainable I don’t want to create unrealistic pay levels that my business may not be able to sustain going forward as her knowledge (and pay) levels increase, as I’d like to keep her as a long term team member. She is part-time (20 hours/week) by her choice, which suits me perfectly at the moment. Is it more beneficial to her to offer to pay her SSS or PhilHealth instead of a weekly pay increase, then do a pay increase at a later review point? Or some other combination? We don’t really have a formula for pay raises. We don’t tell our team how much they can expect for their pay raise. We give raises yearly, but the amount depends on their performance. The amount is also determined by what we feel is sustainable. My OFS team doesn’t know how much of a raise they’ll be getting every year, but they know that they can expect a raise if they perform well. Here are my general thoughts and how I've done raises over the years. - As a standard we give a $25-$50 per month raise each year. - If someone is amazing, we give a $100-$200 per month raise that year. - Sometimes, we start someone lower than what they'd like to be paid. After 3-4 months, if they're good and helping the business grow, we'll put them closer to what they asked for in the beginning. - One time I doubled someone's salary because they were so amazing. - This year, we'll consider inflation. - This year, we'll also consider that USD is super strong so they've already gotten a 15% pay raise throughout the year just with the exchange rate (because we pay almost everyone a set USD amount and the Peso went from 50:1 to 58:1 this year). - We won't use the strong USD as the pay raise. At some point, USD will decline. Then they're taking a pay cut. Regarding benefits, that is something that you can put off until you can afford to give it regularly. Here at Onlinejobs.ph, it took us years before we started offering any sort of benefits. We waited until the business was profitable enough, and we didn’t offer all the benefits at once. We just kept adding them when we were able to afford them. We'll be releasing a complete guide to benefits soon. But I also talk about other things like management and work culture in my free book, The Outsourcing Lever. John
+I’m proud that when there’s a disaster, my team will come together and offer to help right away. When the pandemic started, my team donated and distributed groceries to people who couldn’t leave their homes, mainly seniors and families with babies. They started this 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. I think this happens because when you help people together, it creates a bond. It strengthens your work relationship. This is not unique to my OFS (Online Filipino Specialist) team. Steven also noticed this when 4 of his OFS were affected by Typhoon Karding. When Karding hit 4 of my 100+ people were affected. So after collecting information on how bad the damages were for each, I sent out a form to all employees. We ask them to donate whatever they would like to help these people out. I front their donations and let them pay it back as deductions from their weekly salary. Often I give them a few different options for that, so they don't have too much of an impact on their daily and weekly expenses. Typically I also match the total donation we as a company raised. This really solidifies our "family" culture and makes people feel good that they were able to help others in need. We have done this for multiple disasters, funerals, etc. Basically, whenever people are in serious need. Disasters are horrible. But the silver lining to this is it does bring people together. When you help your OFS in times of need, it shows them that you care. When the time comes that you’re the one who needs a lot of help, you can count on your team too. John
+I sometimes get comments from people about how much turnover there is in the Philippines. The TLDR of my response is, “turnover is a management issue.” I know that answer is hard for a lot of people to hear. Nobody likes to be told they’re horrible managers. I know that most of us don’t get into outsourcing to be bad bosses. But sometimes, it’s easy to forget to be nice when you don’t see the people you’re working with face-to-face. When we’re so focused on productivity and milestones and getting things done, we forget that the people doing the work aren’t perfect. Sometimes they make mistakes. My OFS (Online Filipino Specialist), Jamie, found this in the Facebook group we manage for jobseekers. This explains perfectly why I think turnover is a management problem AND what you can do to be a better manager. “Hello everyone. I would like to ask your insights and also to seek out more advice. I am thinking to drop my work(full time) that pays me 25-30k/month but my mental health is at risk. It triggers my anxiety. My client doesn't have empathy. She doesn't accept her mistakes and worst she will pass the blame on me. She actually maltreated me. This is pureely based on what I have experienced. I have a second work (part time) that pays me 16-17k per month. I am enjoying my work, my client is very clear with his instructions, the culture of my work is great. He knows how to appreciate my work. I am still confused on what should be my decision since I'm almost the breadwinner of my family, and also the inflation right now is crazy. I also think of the ways if I will drop my first work with high pay, I will continue to upskill, apply again and again.” It’s not that hard to be a good manager. The OFS who wrote this just listed down all you need to do: - Create a good working relationship (you do this by building trust with your OFS) - Give clear instructions (an easy way to do this is to use screen recordings) - Show appreciation (a thank you email or a small bonus goes a long way). Another way you can be a great boss is to give your Filipino worker on-the-job training. You don't need to make that training yourself. You can buy the training you need at VAsMadeEasy.com and give that training to your OFS. John
+At Onlinejobs.ph, we strongly advocate for Filipinos only to have one full-time job. But I know that there are a lot of jobseekers who have multiple jobs on the site. It’s usually one of these scenarios. 1. They’re not making enough money from their part-time job. That’s why they’re looking for more part-time work. 2. They’re not making enough money from their full-time job. Most of these workers would say they’re only available for part-time work. If you want to know what a good starting salary would be for your OFS, check out our salary guide: https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/filipino-virtual-assistants-salary-guide 3. Newbie Filipino workers underestimate how much work it takes to maintain a full-time job. They keep applying for jobs and eventually get overwhelmed by the amount of work. 4. They're maintaining and doing work for multiple clients. In my opinion, #1 and #2 are circumstances you can work with. It is hard to live on a part-time salary. If you’re hiring someone part-time, it’s almost impossible to expect them to work for you exclusively. I think an OFS having a couple of part-time jobs is okay as long as they manage their time, they deliver on their work, and they don’t overwhelm themselves. Issue #3 is usually a result of the cheap or free “VA Training” that’s proliferating in the Philippines right now. It preys on desperate Filipino job seekers and creates unrealistic expectations about online work. That’s why I created VAsMadeEasy.com. It shows your OFS what the work would really be like. It has the added benefit of building trust because the training comes from you. With #4, the best way to figure this out when hiring is to ask in a neutral way. "What other jobs do you currently have? Or, what other clients do you have? What do you do for them?" With that type of question, maybe you're hoping they're doing other work for people? Maybe you're not? It's better if they're honest. If you suspect your OFS has taken on another job after you hired them, talk to them about it. Ask. Ask why. You might find they just need more money to live. Or the work you're giving them isn't filling their time. Filipinos will want to work for you if you create a great working environment. Your OFS will want to stay. John
+I want to share this email from Danielle because I know many of you might be having this issue too. I’ve had my OFS for 10 months and it’s great :) However, I need a little advice. Sometimes grammar or wording can be an issue. Some of her tasks include writing social posts, newsletter drafts and email drafts.…We have tried using grammarly and even had an AI (Jasper subscription) but I’ve noticed it still misses many simple errors.… I want to keep my OFS for a long time and want to invest in her English abilities in writing in particular. What kind of solutions have worked for you and your team? Thank you,Danielle First, I asked my team how to improve English. They gave me nothing. Like, they didn't have anything to say about learning to speak better English. They only had tools and processes to talk about. Here's our experience: Grammarly is a good tool for checking grammar and spelling mistakes. We use it regularly. When I sent this email to my OFS, 2 of them said "Grammarly is really helpful to me in my writing." I also edit and explain to my OFS what’s wrong with their writing on occasion. I did this a lot when I first outsourced writing. But I eventually realized that when I do all the editing, it creates a bottleneck. It becomes my responsibility to spot the mistakes that just doesn’t work for me. It makes it so I have to oversee everything, which I don't want to do. I know my OFS can do better. They have the tools. When the blog post or the caption comes to me, it should be perfect or close to perfect. So we changed some things in our process. Before the output gets to me, it must go through at least two pairs of eyes, checking for spelling, grammar, and content. We adjusted deadlines, so the writer has time to go through what they wrote. This is something they told me has helped them improve. Giving them time to re-read and edit their work. They run it through Grammarly before it reaches the editor. The editor reads through it and makes (or tells the writer to make) changes or corrections. Last, it goes through our QA guys to ensure it’s on brand, the links work, etc. In Danielle’s case, if she only has one OFS this process will be hard to implement. But I think giving your OFS time to edit their work will greatly improve their work and your process. It’s your OFS's responsibility to deliver the best output possible. Provide feedback and point out the mistakes. But make it her responsibility to fix those mistakes. Now...what I think Danielle was actually after...I don't really have an answer to: "How do they improve their English" My thoughts are just your thoughts. Ask them to read English books. Ask them to watch TV in English, not dubbed in Tagalish. Pay them to do these things. I don't really have a better answer. John
+Check this out. It made me cry. EJ replied to my All Saints and All Soul’s newsletter because, like me, he appreciated how Filipinos celebrate these holidays. As we talked, it turns out he also gives his OFS team holidays off and benefits like SSS. In his words, “They all made sense to me and are not very expensive to do. It blew their minds. I'm happy to be able to do it for them.” We take these things for granted here in the US, but in the Philippines, it’s life-changing. Benefits mean you don’t have to worry about getting sick or pregnant. Having holidays off means, you can afford to relax and spend time with your family. When a Filipino worker finds a job that offers these things, they’re happy. They’re content. Even when they’re having problems, they won’t say anything because they’re just thankful they have a great job. This is exactly what happened to one of EJ’s OFS (Alvie). Her computer broke down, and she just kept working. He wouldn’t have noticed anything was wrong until one of his other OFS told him about it. “This was her old desk top. It looks like a power surge damaged it. But it was very old anyway and she was always having problems. She never told me she had an old computer. It was my lead VA that told me and said she was too shy to say anything. So I decided it would be beneficial to both of us to get her a much better computer. Her laptop is better than mine now. LOL. “ He sent her money to buy a new computer, and the look on her face is just priceless. For most of us, buying a new phone or computer isn’t a big deal. But for many Filipinos, it can be a rare and special occasion. That’s why, you can see in the photos Alvie even brought along her family, and she was in tears when she finally got her laptop. It’s the start of a brighter future for her entire family. Yes, you'll change your life when you hire someone. But you'll also change theirs. John
+At this time of Thanksgiving (in the US) I'm thankful for the flexibility my OFS provide me. In our house it's a time of puzzles and Legos and being together. I hope your OFS provide you this flexibility too. I got an email about being flexible recently from a long time subscriber: One of my valued OFS sent me a formal resignation letter a few months ago, out of left field! He had to suddenly take over his family business, even though he didn't like the business and he loved working for me. I wasn't ready to lose him, because he is fantastic at his job, and great at communicating! So here's what I wrote to him: “This is very sad news! Is there any chance we can hop on a Zoom call? I'd like to propose some flexible part-time options and I am also open to suggestions. If you don't just don't have any bandwidth, at the very least it would be nice to chat one more time in person (kind of, with Zoom, I guess).” I think he might not have considered that part-time would be an option. Also, he was pretty overwhelmed with his new situation and he was worried about letting me down. Anyhow -- it turned out great! He was very excited to work part-time and we were back on track within a few days. He has been his usual superstar self ever since. He gets so much work done, at such high quality, less hours are not an issue to me. (I probably have more room for flexibility than some employers, since my team has always worked their preferred hours, Monday to Friday.) I experienced something similar years back when one of my developers got this super lucrative job offer in Singapore. It was an opportunity of a lifetime, not just for him but for his entire family. He wanted to take it because it meant better schools for his kids and a chance for his wife to pursue higher education. But he was really reluctant to take it because he had been working for me for years and he loved his job. So he emailed me, explained the situation, and asked if he could keep working part-time. He didn’t ask for a pay raise. Didn’t use the job as leverage. All he asked was the same hourly rate and the opportunity to keep working. I was flexible and kept him. It was great for me. Flexibility can often prevent turnover. John
+My kids are pretty entrepreneurial (at least some of them are). They run a pretty successful local business. They make more than their teachers make. They've also invented all kinds of contracts. Contracts buyers sign. Contracts anyone working for the business sign. If only they weren't so messy and didn't leave their piles of contracts on my workbench! People ask me all the time for an NDA they can use with their OFS. Along with this they ask "Can you enforce an NDA?" The short answer is no. Any contract that involves people outside of US jurisdiction can be hard or impossible to enforce. That includes an NDA or a non-disclosure agreement. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still have an NDA if you want your OFS to sign one. Nor should it put you off from hiring an OFS. If your business has proprietary information, getting your OFS to sign an NDA would be a good idea, even if the NDA isn’t easily enforceable in the Philippines. For your OFS, signing an NDA means a lot to them because of their culture. The Philippines has a very high power-distance index (/why-your-ofs-sometimes-work-mindlessly-power-distance-index/). They respect authority and contracts with their authority figures. Signing a contract means they’re giving you their word that they will abide by that agreement and they will do whatever it takes to keep that contract. Enforcing is difficult, but just signing the NDA will likely have the effect you want. Also, enforcing a contract in the Philippines is difficult but not impossible. If you hired your OFS through Onlinejobs.ph and there’s proof that they broke the contract, you can contact us for mediation. If they stole information (which is rare), you could contact the Philippines’ Department of Justice. Theft of information counts as a cybercrime that falls under their jurisdiction. We can't give legal advice, but you can pretty easily hire a lawyer in the Philippines from OnlineJobs.ph. You could use them to draft a contract that’s enforceable in the Philippines while following how the law is interpreted in your country. Or use them in prosecuting if someone breaks the contract. Or we have contracts available here: www.OnlineJobs.ph/hiringdocs John
+I like to keep things simple. Simple = efficiency. I try to do this in all aspects of my life. If you've watched any of my videos you'll notice I only wear single color t-shirts. No logos. Nothing fancy (except for my one green/gray striped shirt...that's my "fun" shirt). They're all the same style, same brand, same length. It's my way of keeping my clothes simple. Efficiency. Simplicity is especially important when you're just starting with anything, including hiring an OFS. I know some of you have looked at my newsletters, my book, my videos, etc. At first glance, it seems complicated. Taxes, Employee vs contract worker, PTO, holidays, benefits, hourly vs salary... But the more you pay attention, it gets simpler. Here's the thing, if you focus on every little thing that can go wrong without even trying to hire a Filipino worker, you'll never do it. The safest thing to do, to avoid making mistakes, would be to do nothing. This also means that nothing changes. You're always going to be too busy. You're always going to be overwhelmed. You're always going to have so much to do. Now's the time to take the leap. Keep it simple. It doesn't have to be hard or complicated. That's what I aim to achieve with OneVAAway. It's my step by step way of cutting the complexity from hiring to make it simple for you. Are you going to make mistakes? Maybe. You can do better. At least attempting to hire someone brings progress. And it brings progress towards simplifying your life. John
+I recently stumbled upon this blog post by one of our customers, Ziv Raviv, the CEO, and founder of Kivi Media & Daily Cookie. https://dailycookie.co/get-faster-results-for-your-business-with-an-ofs/ I’m really happy about the endorsement but what I love about this blog post is he also shares his process for hiring and interviewing his own OFS (Online Filipino Specialist) team. I like learning new things and posts like this help make hiring better for everyone. This is the ideal result, what I want to see after people learn how to hire an OFS. I want them to take what they learned, adapt it to suit their business and management style, and share it with the world so people can learn about it. What I teach at OneVAAway.com is your foundation. It’s what will give you the confidence to hire an amazing OFS. But if you modify it to make it better and more efficient for you, go for it! For me, what matters most is that you hire your first OFS and start changing your business today. What do you guys think of Ziv’s process? Do you have something similar or something better? Let me know! Email me at john@onlinejobs.ph John PS. I came across this while hiking with my wife the other day. I almost never use the word "cute"...but that's what came to my mind. Cute.
+If you have a team in the Philippines and they live close to each other, I’m willing to bet this is something they would do as a form of team building. My OFS Julia writes ------- The holidays are here! Now that the Philippines has reinstated face-to-face classes and work, Christmas party planning is back in full swing. In addition to family gifts, we exchange Christmas gifts with friends from work and school. We pick a name from a hat and get that person a gift. We always keep that name a secret until the Christmas party. But buying and getting presents isn’t fun enough. To make the practice even more fun for parties, we needed to add our spin. We call our gift-giving practice “Monito-Monita”. The word monito (or the feminine monita) refers to the person you have to buy a gift for. Monito-Monita is that moment during the Christmas party when you finally exchange gifts. But you can’t just approach your monito/monita and give them their present. You can’t exchange gifts at the same time. The gift exchange is done, one person at a time, while everybody sings a silly song. The song I’m most familiar with has these lyrics: I love my Monito (or Monita)Yes, I do!I love my Monito (or Monita)Yes, I do!I love my Monito (or Monita)Yes, I do!I love my Monito (or Monita)But I won’t tell you! The Monito-Monita is the highlight of a Christmas party and is usually done just before the party ends. I always found it odd that we have to sing this song when giving gifts because people will find out who my monito/monita anyway, even if I tell them. Anyway, to make Monito-Monita more playful (and have an excuse to get/buy more presents), sometimes we would get several mini gifts every week before the Christmas party and secretly give them to our monito/monita. The mini gifts would have to be cheap and follow a silly theme like “White Christmas” or “Something Green.” It’s like an Advent calendar that counts toward the Christmas party instead of Christmas. ------- I'm not a very good gift giver, but how about a gift for my subscribers. I'm looking for video testimonials about OFS and OnlineJobs.ph If you've used OnlineJobs.ph to hire someone you love, send me a video testimonial. It can be a simple phone selfie style video. Just tell me how hiring an OFS has changed things for you. I probably won't give a free month's access to OnlineJobs.ph to every single video that comes in because some won't be usable for me, but most of them will get a free month of OnlineJobs.ph Premium to use whenever you're ready to hire. Reply with your video or with questions. John
+A few weeks ago, I talked about how EJ helped his OFS get a new PC. If your OFS is thinking of buying a computer (or you’re thinking of buying a computer for your OFS), we just updated our computer buying guide: https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/pc-buying-guide-for-virtual-assistants We started this guide around 2019. My OFS team pitched me the idea of writing this because November and December are usually the best months to buy a computer in the Philippines. They can get good rates on old inventory that stores want to get rid of, and stores offer big discounts and promotions because they know this is when the 13th-month pay starts coming in. To make sure that they get the right computer for the job and they get the best deal, send your Filipino team this guide. You might be tempted to buy your OFS a computer in the US, thinking it’s cheaper to buy one and just send it through courier. But we’d advise you against doing that for the following reasons: - Private couriers are expensive and might cost more than the computer itself. - Philippine postal is very slow (think several months of waiting with a barely functional parcel tracking system). - Risk of damage or loss during shipment. - Expensive customs fees for incoming parcels (even those marked as gifts). - Warranty may not be honored. - Theft...My team has told me "NO! Don't send it through the postal service, it will get stolen!" You can also use this guide as a reference if you'd like to know what kind of equipment your OFS should have to do their job. John
+Winter is in full swing for me in Utah. Here's what it looks like: In the Philippines, it's the holiday season, which means it's time for you to pay your OFS the 13th month. If you don't know, here's a full explanation of the 13th month. If you already know about it and just want to know how to compute for it, the simplest method is to add all the money you've paid them through the year and divide by 12. Super simple. If you're going to include a Christmas bonus, now's a good time to send it. We sent both the 13th month and a Christmas bonus a week ago, but I forgot to remind you. John
+I get asked "How do OFS make phone calls to the US?" all the time! Recently, I got this email: Can you put out something on how to allow Filipino VA to make calls to the US and to answer calls from the US (without incurring calling fees ideally)? Jason To answer that question, the first thing you need to do is figure out why you need phone service to begin with. Do you need a phone service so your OFS can make and receive calls for you or just make calls? Do you want these calls to come from your number? Or do you need a phone service for your customer support or outbound cold-calling team? These questions are important because they will determine the phone service you’ll need. If you are looking to have your OFS make calls, there are simple services like Skype and Viber. Skype provides a very simple solution as it provides two services: Skype to Phone and Skype Number. Skype to Phone allows a Skype account to call cellphone and landline numbers. For US-only subscriptions (calling US and US Territory numbers), it’s priced at $2.99 per month. There's also a North American subscription that can call US and Canadian numbers, as well as subscriptions for making calls to other countries (rates vary). Skype allows you to also get a local phone number, which can be set as the Caller ID number. Skype Number can also receive calls from regular phones. Skype Number has a separate fee from Skype to Phone. Viber has a cheap Viber Out feature that allows a Viber account to make calls. The downside is, unlike Skype, you cannot get a different number than the one registered. When making Viber Out calls, the call recipient will see the phone number associated with the Viber account or “Private Caller.” This means a phone call from a Philippine-registered Viber account may get blocked for being an international call or because it’s a private caller. For customer support, you'd want a more robust phone service with some of these features: Voicemail Multiple users IVR (interactive voice response) Custom Greetings Call Forwarding Call Transfers Simultaneous call handling Business Texting (SMS) Virtual Fax We searched for phone services with some of these features and polled our Facebook jobseeker group to know what phone services would work in the Philippines. These are the ones they recommended, but you still need to do your own research to figure out which one best suits your needs. RingCentral - https://www.ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html#office Vonage - https://www.vonage.com.ph/unified-communications/ OpenPhone - https://www.openphone.com/product/calling GoTo - https://www.goto.com/pricing/connect Linkedphone - https://linkedphone.com/pricing/ Zoom Phone - https://explore.zoom.us/en/products/zoom-phone/ Cloud Talk - https://www.cloudtalk.io/call-center-software Google Voice - voice.google.com Grasshopper - https://signup.grasshopper.com/plans Because these are all business phones; they will have fees. People often ask me for a free phone service. I don't have one and you don't want one. Free (in this case) probably means unreliable. What phone service are you using with your OFS? Is there something you recommend or don't recommend? Let me know. John
+I'm not a morning person. I'm not a night person either. I'm a solid 11-7:30 sleeper. If I don't get 8+ hours of sleep my skills (mental, physical, relationship...) go downhill. Last week we went to an in the dark Christmas lights experience with like 10 million lights: It was cold. I made sure we were home by 9pm so I could get my kids in bed on time and I could get to bed on time. Not everyone is like me, but everyone needs to sleep. I’ve mentioned in my previous emails and podcast how it’s not healthy for your OFS to work nights if they’re not used to it. But sometimes, you need your OFS to work nights, and some Filipinos prefer working that schedule. The health risks of shift work are known. They’re at risk for insomnia, hypertension, diabetes, etc. But there are ways to help keep your night shift OFS healthy. I asked my OFS, Jam, who has been working the night shift for years, for advice. He left the call center industry years ago because he was starting to have health problems. But when he started working for me (and working from home), he was able to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Here are Jam’s suggestions on what you, as an employer, can do to help keep your OFS healthy during the night shift. - Avoid changing your OFS shift schedule too often. Staying awake at night isn’t the thing that causes serious damage to the body; it’s the rapid changes in sleep schedule. If your OFS has a different sleep schedule every day or week or two weeks, it’s harder for them to fall asleep, get a full 8 hours of rest, and wake up. - Give them time to adjust to the night shift by giving them at least three days to adjust to a new work schedule. If you need to change their work schedule, keep the changes to a minimum (like once a month). - Encourage your OFS to take exercise breaks. This helps me stay awake during my shift and gives me the exercise I need since I can’t exercise during the day. I have an elliptical bike at home that I use for at least 10 minutes daily when I’m working. - If you can afford it, give your OFS health insurance or Philhealth. Medical emergencies are unavoidable. Sometimes it can happen while working, which is scary because we know it will be harder to get to a hospital at night. Having Philhealth or health insurance gives us one less thing to worry about. If you don't NEED your OFS to work at night, consider letting them work normal Philippines hours. If you need them available on your time zone, and that means them working at night, be respectful of the difficulties this can cause. John
+You can now send your OFS gifts from Amazon! The Philippines has been able to order from Amazon for decades, but my OFS has never recommended it before because shipping is expensive, and the options are limited. But Amazon recently commissioned several local courier companies for their last mile, lowering shipping costs. Amazon now offers free shipping to the Philippines for orders of more than $49 on selected items. Another reason why sending something from Amazon is better now is that the Philippines’ Bureau of Customs (BoC) is more transparent about its rules regarding Amazon packages. They’ve been sending this information out on the news and on social media to encourage Filipinos to order from Amazon. This move from the BoC also helps to “clean up” their image. The Bureau of Customs guidelines regarding Amazon deliveries is that you won’t run into any taxes or fees as long as the total cost of your package is less than 10,000 Philippine pesos. If the item costs more than 10,000 pesos, you must pay taxes and duties. This video interview explains the process in greater detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiUyw0fqgYA If you want to know how much the customs duties, taxes and fees will be, Amazon will give you an estimate and add it to your cost but this doesn't apply to all items. You still shouldn't send anything considered regulated or restricted, like CDs, electronics or medication, or anything perishable. We’re still unsure how fast these delivery times will be or if certain shipments will still pass through the Philippine Postal system. One of my OFS bought something on Black Friday. His purchase was shipped under AmazonGlobal Standard Shipping, and it arrived on December 8, which is fast. However, when his package arrived, there was a suspiciously large tear on the box. He bought a bunch of books, which might be why whoever was looking into his package lost interest. So if you're going to do this, don't send your OFS anything that looks expensive or easy to sell. It's probably too late for something to arrive before Christmas, but even if it arrives in January, your OFS will still appreciate it. John
+Just before Thanksgiving, I got this email from Austin. It was in response to the newsletter I sent about EJ buying his OFS (Online Filipino Specialist) a laptop. John, I've read most of the emails you've sent since I first used OnlineJobs.ph in January 2021. One of the VAs I hired is still with me. I've come to rely on her, and I continue to be surprised by how little she asks for. I've had to encourage her to ask for raises, and I brought up the idea of benefits multiple times before she finally agreed. We've got all that squared away now, and we figured out how to make various back payments so she'd even be eligible. All that to say, I didn't realize how acclimated I'd become to the entitlement of local or U.S.-based contractors until I started working with people who are so modest, humble, grateful, and reticent. There are exceptions to the rule in the U.S. (i.e., not entitled), and there must be in the Philippines too. Yet, I keep telling entrepreneur friends: "You're not compromising by hiring in the Philippines. It's not just about the arbitrage of paying less for team members in a country with a lower cost of living. It's about hiring great people who happen to live in the Philippines." Anyway, keep the good stuff coming. Hope you have a beautiful Thanksgiving with your family. Austin That’s how I see my OFS team, great people who just happen to live in the Philippines. When you think of your team this way, it’s easier to communicate with them, train them, manage them, and give them good feedback. It's easier to see them as humans who want to contribute and help your business grow. If you haven't hire someone yet, but you've considered it, go hire a great person! They just happen to live in the Philippines! When you know you have a good hiring system, like OneVAAway.com, you can trust that you hired great people. Once you start working with them, you’ll see that you don’t need complicated systems or go-betweens. Treat your team well and they’ll always do their best for you. Merry Christmas. John PS. My kids "Christmas Sing". Listening to 3rd graders (and 1st and 2nd and 4th and 5th and 6th...) sing and try to follow the moves. My kids are always a half a step behind. We're not very musically talented.
+I hope you have something fun/great/spirit filled for Christmas and New Years. I just want to remind you that the last week of December will be crammed with Philippine holidays. Even though December 24 (New Year’s Eve) and December 25 (Christmas Day) fall on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, expect people to start asking for leaves even before that for travel. Today isn't a holiday...but they're likely to either have asked for it off, or to do little work today. December 30 and 31, 2022, and January 1, 2023, are all regular holidays. December 30, Rizal Day, falls on a Friday, so it will be a long weekend for most of them. If you can afford to do it and you don’t have anything essential tasks that need to be done over the holidays, consider giving them the week between Christmas and New Year off. They’ll appreciate it. If you need them to work over the holidays, talk to them about it ASAP. Even better, iron out holiday scheduling as soon as you hire. Also, FYI, Now isn't a great time to hire someone. They're scared to start during the holidays. I know telling you this isn't very good for my business...but wait until after Jan 2. You'll get a better response to your job post. John
+Merry Christmas. I'm going to keep this short. Right now I find very little expectation in my business. There's little demand from customers and workers. I find I have a bunch of "couch time", which I don't get a lot of during the year. I find this down time to be the perfect time to write up a job post for hiring a new OFS. To me, posting a job is one of the most effective uses of time. It's growing your business, doing important but not urgent work. It gives me a head start for the new year. I find once a job is posted, the ball is rolling and I can't stop it until I hire someone to push my business forward. And it's easy, not thinking about the internal workings of my business, time. https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/postjob I'll post a job this week because it's an amazing feeling in an otherwise unproductive week. If I don't get a great response, I'll post it again in early January. John PS. I said this last week. Don't try to hire someone before the new year. You can post the job and start interviewing, but expect very little response between Dec 30 and Jan 2. Again, I know this hurts my business to tell you not to hire, but it's better for you.
+I was interviewed by Starter Story, and I shared a lot of stuff there that most people don't know about me or Onlinejobs.ph. https://www.starterstory.com/stories/onlinejobs Most people don’t know I started Onlinejobs.ph with just $5,000. It was just me, Dan, and two Filipino workers when we started. I know I talked about this before, but I think most people don’t really understand how much of a fluke Onlinejobs.ph is. I didn’t build it thinking it would get this big (we’ll be breaking 8 figures in revenue this year, we passed 2,000,000 worker profiles this year, we'll pass 500,000 employers next year). I built it for myself. I just wanted a place where I could recruit someone from the Philippines on my own. I remember a while back, one of my O.F.S. suggested that instead of sharing all this content for free, we should monetize it. Put it behind a paywall. At first glance, it makes sense. Why share all this valuable information we gained from years of outsourcing and our research for free? Because I don’t want to add to the problems that most business owners have to deal with. We have enough problems. We can do the most good by providing solutions. I want to show people how amazing it feels to have an extra pair of hands and a capable mind working in your business. Want to know what an extra pair of hands and a capable mind can do for your business? Check out https://www.ofstasks.com/ John PS. It has been an amazing ski year for me. Best start to the season I've ever experienced. This: leads to this:
+Christmas in the Philippines starts on September 1. Yeah, it's early. But...for a lot of Filipinos, the New Year celebration is the more awaited day. New Year in the Philippines is a loud, bright celebration that everybody looks forward to, regardless of religion or location. While most Filipinos still choose to celebrate New Year’s at home, more people are going to malls, parks, hotels, and beaches all over the country to party and celebrate. With pandemic restrictions lifted, more people are even determined to go out after being stranded at home for two years. If you look at Filipino New Years traditions, you’ll see that it’s heavily influenced by Chinese traditions. They follow a lot of practices that are supposed to attract wealth and ward off evil spirits. To attract wealth in the coming year, you’ll see Filipinos wear polka dots because dots symbolize money. Round fruits are in high demand as part of their Media Noche (New Year’s Feast) table centerpieces because they represent money. To ward off evil spirits, they make a lot of noise. Hence the parties, paper trumpets, videoke sessions, and fireworks. They party hard on New Year and they use a lot of fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks. The hard-partying also means most hospitals would be on high alert around this time. December to January is when they have the highest incidence of heart diseases like stroke and heart attacks because of all the fatty holiday food like lechon. There’s also a spike in alcohol-related and firecracker injuries during this time. Here’s an anecdote from one of my OFS, Jam: When I was a Red Cross volunteer in my early 20s, we’d ride around the neighborhood every New Year’s Eve and New Year. There’s always someone getting hurt. It’s more convenient for us to just go around to treat minor injuries and transport serious injuries to the hospital. And for this reason, most of your OFS won't work on Jan 2. They'll start back on Jan 3.
+It’s January 2 and I’m sure gyms across the world were packed this morning with people who’ve decided to get in shape as their “New Years Resolution”. I spent the day in the mountains backcountry skiing with my wife. It’s not part of any “resolution”, it’s part of my lifestyle. Here’s why most new years resolutions don’t work. If it’s not strong enough for you to decide to do it December 15th, or October 3, or July 22, why is Jan 2 any different? It’s not. If the desire to change isn’t strong enough TODAY, then a new year isn’t going to give you that desire. BUT THAT’S NOT US! We're entrepreneurs. We push through hard things. We figure out solutions that work. We don’t make “resolutions”, we make lifestyle changes and those things stick for us. My wife got back off sugar this year on December 21. Before the holidays. That’s a winner. That’s a lifestyle change. Here’s a lifestyle change from Ryan Smith: “You don’t have to be an expert in every area of your business. If you aren’t an expert in a specific area or it isn’t the best use of your time, find someone who is. Hire someone who already is an expert and pay them to build it for you. You concentrate on the high dollar activities that will move the needle in your business.” So many entrepreneurs think “I’m the only one who can do this”. They’re wrong. Make a lifestyle change this year and hire an OFS to help you focus on the high dollar activities that move the needle in your business. My One VA Away Challenge is designed to help you – hire the right person – in a short amount of time – with the least amount of effort – so you can move the needle Get it. Make a lifestyle change rather than another “resolution”.
+"Hey John, you should create a job board like OnlineJobs.ph in...." I get a lot of requests from people asking me to replicate Onlinejobs.ph in their country. No. Why? Because employers have a better experience in the Philippines than anywhere else in the world. Not always. But usually. There's a specific set of cultural differences in the Philippines that I haven't seen anywhere else. They're - honest - loyal - hard working - pleasing - not entrepreneurial - looking for long-term work Obviously not everyone is like this...but generally this is what you find in the Philippines. Yes, there are exceptions. Yes, you might find someone great in India or Mexico or Brazil or Indonesia or Ghana... ...but your chances are just higher in the Philippines. Usually a lot higher. I created OneVAAway.com so you can consistently hire hard-working, talented, and loyal people. They just happen to live in the Philippines. I think it’s better if people who are passionate about other countries should be the ones to build their job platforms. But you haven't seen that yet. Why? Because it's all about employers having a good experience. And that good experience happens consistently in the Philippines. John PS. It helps that I consistently create content around this. To me, content is king on the internet. But...even that comes back to people having a good experience. I always have something to talk about because there are so many stories of people loving their OFS.
+My OFS, Julia, is in the process of getting her driver’s license. She’s in her forties, so I was surprised to learn that she’s only started learning how to drive. She tried learning to drive when she was younger. But she crashed the car, which scared her from driving ever since. But since she and her husband bought a car, she was finally motivated to learn how to drive again. She wanted to enjoy the car for herself and not be a passenger all the time. I realized that her story is a great analogy for those who tried to hire Filipino workers in the past. If it doesn't work out for you, it makes you scared of hiring again. But just as Julia has to drive her car, you have to drive your business. And part of driving a business is getting the right help. Being a business owner can be fun and rewarding if you have smart and capable people helping you. If you’ve had a poor hiring experience in the past, it can be different this time. You can hire a great Filipino worker and avoid the mistakes. I can show you how to do it right this time with OneVAAway.com Drive your business. Stop being a passenger.
+In 2022, many Philippine holidays fell on the weekend. But in 2023, you may have noticed that many of those holidays now land on a Monday or Friday. If your OFS doesn’t work on the weekends, they can expect around 9 “long weekends” if we count regular and special holidays. If your business is affected by this, make sure you talk to your OFS to work on their schedules as soon as possible. These are Philippine holidays that will result in long weekends. Regular Holidays - April 6 - 10, 2023 (Th,F,M) - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Day of Valor. - May 1, 2023(Monday) - Labor Day - June 12, 2023(Monday) - Philippine Independence Day - August 28, 2023 (Monday) - National Heroes Day - November 27, 2023(Monday) - Bonifacio Day - December 25, 2023(Monday) - Christmas Day Special Holidays - August 21, 2023 (Monday) - Ninoy Aquino Jr. Day - November 1 - 2, 2023 (Wednesday and Thursday) - All Saints and All Souls’ day. Expect your OFS to ask for a leave on October 31st (Tuesday) for travel to the province and Nov 3rd (Friday) to complete their long weekend. - December 8, 2023(Friday) - Feast of the Immaculate Conception. To make sure you’re updated on Philippine holidays, make sure you subscribe to our Google Calendar. It will put the Philippines holidays on your calendar so you're aware of them. PS. My family recently went on holiday to Southern California. It's amazing to me how fast the kids grow. One of my 5 is already out of the house, and another is about to leave. So sad.
+Chat GPT is everywhere. People keep asking me if it is replacing VAs. Yes and No. Yes, in a sense that it can help get rid of a lot of busy work that your VA is doing. If you need your VA to write ten articles daily for your content marketing, an AI can do that faster. But once your AI has generated those articles, somebody’s got to read through them and check if they’re good and on topic. They need to be checked for plagiarism. They need to be uploaded. Those articles would need links and images. You need to create social media posts to promote those articles. An AI can’t do all that for you automatically. Not yet. Here’s the thing, these are also jobs that not all VAs can do. If you want to make sure that the content generated by that AI is on brand and up to par with your standards, you need someone who really knows your business. A VA can't do that. If you want to make sure that your AI-generated content is promoted in a way that maximizes exposure to the right audience, you need someone who really understands your market. A VA can't do that. If you want to ensure that after you’ve promoted your content, your audience can interact with someone who can anticipate their needs, you’ll need someone who knows your customers. A VA can't do that. An Online Filipino Specialist CAN! Even better, you can find an Online Filipino Specialist who can help you build and understand AI! Will AI replace your virtual assistant? Probably. But for every other job that an AI and a virtual assistant can’t do, you’ll need an OFS. We've been playing with it for content creation. It's amazing, but not up to our standards (or voice, or tone). We're also in early stages of seeing if we can provide better customer support with it. Not replacing our customer support, but providing better customer support. We'll see. John
+After I released that newsletter on phone services, I got a lot of responses on phone services that are not on the list. So here's an update based on what subscribers told me: Unitel Dialpad Ooma Office Twilio WhatsApp ZegoCloud DialDesk Not a phone service but a subscriber also recommended HeyMarket, which is an SMS/text messaging service. This service is good if you use SMS a lot for marketing and customer support. Here’s another option that I got that I just had to share in verbatim: Any phone provider that provides IP phone services should be able to set up an overseas OFS with a soft phone app either a cell phone or computer. I pay $25 a month for her line and my ofs can make unlimited calls to and from the United States. And since her phone is tied into my phone system, she has an extension. I can dial her extension and talk to her. In addition, when people call my business phone number, she has an extension which people could just punch in and get through straight to her. She can also call other countries for the same rates that I pay. Note: setting up a soft phone is what most of the companies we've mentioned will do. Here’s another solution that’s not applicable to everybody but can work if you’re in Australia. You don’t need to know how to set up a PBX (although I do), just need to know to ask your local ISP for a virtual PBX and VoIP phones. Then describe to the ISP how you want it set up and they will do the rest. I use Spintel for my services but that is of no use to anyone outside Australia. They also have to think of using the ISP for business not just getting an Internet connection like at home. I find the smaller boutique ISPs are easier to work with, than the bigger Telcos. Armed with this information, you should be ready to hire an experienced online Filipino customer service representative. Thank you to everybody who replied with their suggestions. If you guys have anything more to add or if you have any other questions or topics you want me to cover, email me at john@onlinejobs.ph My point in sending this is to make it very clear that it's super reasonable to hire an OFS to make phone calls. Here are searches on OnlineJobs.ph for: call center phone support cold calling telemarketing Thousands of experienced people looking for work. John
+"John - How do I know if I can trust them?" It's one of the first questions people ask me. Humans are hardwired to be suspicious of things we don’t know or understand. That’s how we protect ourselves. So I understand why you’d be reluctant to trust a stranger halfway across the world to help with your business. What most people don’t know is that fear runs both ways. Filipinos also have this fear when they apply for online work. They are afraid because most people know someone scammed with online work at least once. Many have personally experienced it. https://mb.com.ph/2022/05/30/cybercriminals-continue-preying-on-filipino-job-seekers-report/ In fact, for most Filipinos, their feelings of fear towards you are stronger than your fear towards them! Taking on a job is a leap of faith for them. They’re choosing to commit all that time to a job where they might not get paid. That’s time they could have spent pursuing other options. They can work for established companies in the Philippines that guarantee a paid job. A paid job means they can pay their rent, utilities, and groceries this month. The worst that could happen when you don't hire an OFS because you don’t trust them is that you’re not growing your business. You can afford to take that risk. But Filipino workers take that risk if they want to feed their families. That’s why I often say that you need to earn their trust just as much as they need to earn yours. The stakes are higher for your OFS. You can find someone trustworthy when you follow the steps I lay out at OneVAAway.com. But when an OFS puts their trust in the wrong employer and they’re scammed, there’s not much they can do. They can’t get that time back. It’s a painful learning experience that will make them more cautious. It's a lesson that leaves them worse off because it doesn't help pay the bills. If you're worried about finding someone you can trust here's something interesting; we deal with more problematic employers than we do problematic workers. Filipinos (generally) are trustworthy. But you won't know until you try it yourself. John PS. Here are Jody and Brian from https://atozbuildingblocks.com/. They recognized me at a restaurant last Friday night and came and introduced themselves. I'm so glad they did. They have 2 OFS who they trust their business to. Those 2 OFS also trust them. They're good employers.
+Here's a VA I know who is available to hire. Notice I didn't call him an OFS. He's not. And...I don't actually KNOW him. Here's the story... My oldest son is serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The "Mormons". Yes, I'm an active member of this church and an active disciple of Jesus Christ. We try to follow. My son got assigned to the Philippines. This is crazy because when you go on a mission, you don't choose where you go. You apply to go, send your application in, and the church assigns you somewhere. It's not "random", but there was nothing on his application about any connection to the Philippines. When we found out I had no words. So, he gets there and then gets assigned to this little island: Marinduque. You've never heard of it. And, actually, it's not a little island, but the population is small and it's super remote. Like, it takes him 2 days to get to meetings on the main land, which is only like 30 miles away. He has been there for a few months now and has gotten to know a lot of people quite well. He tells me he meets people all the time who are either looking for work or have found work on OnlineJobs.ph. He doesn't often tell people that his dad owns OnlineJobs.ph. But last Sunday he brought someone to me for the first time. He said this guy (VA) needs a job or he's going to have to leave his wife and 2 kids, move to Manila, find a job so he can send home a little money to his family. I was like... "Well...I'm not likely to find him a job. I don't know anything about him." The my son started telling me about him. He's honest, super hard working, and super smart. He's not super talented because he has grown up on this island and hasn't had many opportunities, but he graduated from university and is looking for work. He speaks English, has done some customer support, and likes to do design work and is somewhat talented at it. My son, who before leaving the country as a 19yr old missionary was running a $300k/year business that he started at 11 and grew while going to high school, said he would hire this guy in an instant. He's so confident in this guy that he's the first person in 4 months he has brought to me...and he meets people every day who are out of work. I've emailed with the VA. His English is great. Not perfect. His internet speed is good (145mbps down, 21mbps up). His laptop is good. He's super affordable. He needs full-time work. You'd hire him because you want a general VA. Not an OFS. Someone who doesn't know much but who will grow with you and learn and work really hard to do good work. Someone you can trust. Someone like my first hire, Joven, who I hired in 2005 and who now runs OnlineJobs.ph. I'm sending this email to 100,000 people. 25,000 will read it. One will hire him. If you're interested, reply. John PS. Doing this isn't my favorite. I don't make any money from it. It's not scaleable. It's not automated. And it requires my time. Yuck. But depending on the response I could do more of it.
+Last week I told you about my son in the Philippines and how he had a friend there who needed a job. My son had vetted Marc for me. Marc was trustworthy and hard working, just not super skilled. His option was to travel to Manila for work and leave his wife and 2 kids home, or try to find online work. His plight is common. The Philippines doesn't export many things but they import a lot. That leads to a difficult economic situation (more to come about this in the future). So, they turn to exporting people. They send their people overseas to work and send money home. Families get ripped apart. Children are raised by their grandparents. Communities suffer. That's "just how it is". But not for Marc. One of you hired Marc. He now makes $4/hour. More than enough to support his family on his remote island. His kids will grow up with him at home. They'll know their dad. I get tears just thinking about it as I write this. I had over 100 responses from people asking to hire Marc. Not because he's a super talented OFS. He's not. But because you knew he was trustworthy. Because I had vetted him and said "You can trust this person." So I spent this past week working on more of this. On finding more people you can trust. With Marc I just trusted my son. With these people we put them through the wringer. We've talked to past employers, we've gathered government clearances (it's like the background check of the Philippines), we've verified skills. Some are "VAs". They're not super skilled. Others are OFS: Bookkeepers Accountants Social media managers SEO experts Sales people Customer support Property Management Graphic design Because we have to do a lot of work to vet these people, we're charging to hire them. But we're charging half of what we normally would because of the response last week. If you're looking for a vetted VA/OFS: www.OnlineJobs.ph/vetted-workers First come, first served. John
+You want to hire an OFS (or maybe even a VA!) but you've been putting it off because you're afraid you don’t know how to do it right? There’s one thing you can do to help you get over your fear of hiring AND help you learn how to hire someone faster. Write and post a job today! Just do it. It's just not that hard. You can write your job post from scratch or use a template. It doesn’t have to be perfect. As soon as you’re done, just post it. It's free! What’s the worst that could happen? If you realize that there’s something wrong with the job post, you can easily edit it. Do you need more responses? - Maybe the salary’s too low. - Maybe you listed down too many skills. - Maybe it’s too specific. Edit and post the job again! Not getting the quality of jobseekers that you want? - Maybe the job post isn’t specific enough. - Maybe you didn’t put any instructions that can help weed out unqualified people. - Maybe the timing was off (this happened to me a week ago) Edit and post the job again! Want more help? - Use my step-by-step guide at OneVAAway.com. - email our support: support@onlinejobs.ph Posting the job is the hardest part because it seems daunting. Take the leap. John
+It may be winter where you live (it certainly is where I live), but most Filipinos are preparing for the summer heat. If you sent your OFS 13th-month pay, some of them probably spent that money to buy new fans and air conditioners or upgrade the ones they already have. Some employers are aware of this and have even given their OFS air conditioners as part of their 13th month. we paid the 13th month pay on the 15th. and my personal assistant got a new aircon (only cost us $435 total, but her loyalty and hard work are priceless) Ziv There’s also Bob H., who bought his OFS air coolers a few years back. It can get scorching hot in the Philippines. In 2022, the highest heat index reached as high as 127 degrees (54 degrees Celcius). Most days, it’s around 86 degrees, but it feels much hotter because it’s humid. It’s the kind of heat that can make you dizzy if you’re not used to it. This is why most homes in the Philippines have at least one electric fan. Many would have at least one per room. If you go into the slum areas, you’ll see few houses with air conditioning. This is one of the reasons why the siesta(Spanish word for an afternoon rest or nap) is a common practice for Filipinos. They sleep when it’s too hot and return to work when the temperature becomes more tolerable. They’ve done it long before they adopted the Spanish term for it. If you’re like Ziv and want to give your OFS something they can use to help them be more productive, you can help them buy something to improve their work conditions. Fans, air coolers, and air conditioners aren’t that expensive in the Philippines. A desk fan in the Philippines starts at around $7. $30 can buy you an air cooler for a small room. Small air conditioners, on the other hand, start at $140. Still not that much. John PS. It's cold where I live and I love it! Watching the snow is one of my favorite things to do.
+I got this email from one of my newsletter subscribers asking about how I organize my video training library. I love your emails and am extremely grateful for what you've created with OnlineJobs. I hired a wonderful person a little over a year ago through your site and has helped me tremendously; I don't know how I would have continued to do all the things I needed to do without her. I read your newsletter everyday (which, is also very helpful) and was hoping you might be able to talk a little bit about how you organize your "library" of Snagit training videos for your VAs? Snagit works great, but I'm wondering if there is an easier way to organize the videos as you make them besides just naming and dating them and dropping them in a Google Drive or Dropbox folder. Maybe you could write one of your daily posts about this? This is going to be ... questionable. My OFS wrote a whole response about how I organize my videos. All about spreadsheets and columns and dates... I deleted the whole thing because that's not actually what I do. It's what someone else does. I'm going to give you exactly what I do. It's stupid simple, less "organized" than you think, yet it's permanent. 1. I use Snagit to create screen capture images and videos. This is key. Snagit! You can use Loom or TinyTake or Screencast-o-matic...but I don't know if any of them do what Snagit does that makes this work so well for me. 2. I set Snagit up to upload to MY OWN HOSTING ACCOUNT. I do NOT use their auto upload service. Since it's my own web hosting account (you could use google drive or dropbox or...) I control when things get deleted...which is NEVER! This is really important. You need to upload to somewhere where you know it will not be deleted. 3. I add the URL of that video to an email or a task or a training document. 4. If that email/task/training document is a long term thing, we'll refer back to it regularly and no matter how far in the future it is, my video is still there. If that email/task/training document is a short term thing, we'll stop looking at it and we'll stop looking at that video I created. Either way, the training I created never goes away. It's a big deal when things you create don't go away. Here's a video of me explaining this, created with Snagit: http://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/2023-01-26_14-09-38.mp4 Some of you may have gotten a video like this from me in the past. Search your email for "quickvideolearning.com" and I bet whatever I sent you is still there, no matter how long ago I sent it. You don't have to buy your own domain (like "quickvideolearning.com" which is what I bought) but for $10/year to make sure your trainings are always accessible in the same place...it's worth it. John PS. I record videos and take images every day. If you really wanted to spend the time, you could probably find all the trainings I've given my team by guessing every second of every minute of every day on my server until you find them individually. You'd have to sift through a lot of crap to find something relevant (probably not worth it).
+I’ve mentioned a few times that “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” is one of those books that shaped the course of my life. It kept me out of debt. It taught me to take appropriate risks. It taught me to buy assets before liabilities. There’s a line in that book that, I think, perfectly illustrates the potential of hiring an OFS: Online Filipino Specialist. "‘I can’t afford it’ shuts down your brain. ‘How can I afford it?’ open up possibilities, excitement and dreams." If you think you can't afford to hire any help, you're limiting yourself. - You can't take on new clients because you don't have help. - You can't grow your business because you don't have help. - You can't go on a vacation or take a break because you don't have help. But when you think about how you can afford to hire an OFS, your brain starts to look for opportunities. "I want to give my OFS this task to get this thing off my plate. With that free time, I can look for more clients." "I've always wanted to improve our customer service. I'll give this task to my OFS so I'll have more time to do something else." "If I delegate one more task to my OFS, I'll be working 1 hour less per week. I can use that time to sleep more." When you don't have an OFS, you can only see what you can't do. When you have an OFS, you start seeing everything you can do. Open yourself up to possibilities, excitement, and dreams. You can start by posting a job at Onlinejobs.ph John
+People always tell me "How can I trust this person?" Their minds immediately go to “What if my OFS steals from me?” With a local hire, you know you can go to the police. But what if your OFS steals your financial information or client list or destroys your website, database, or cloud? What can you do? The good thing about hiring an OFS is that this rarely happens. Digital theft is rare in the Philippines! Three reasons: 1. because your OFS doesn’t want to steal from you. 2. there’s no incentive to steal. 3. if and when they’re caught, the punishment is really steep. Even though it’s really rare, I understand wanting to know what you can do if this unlikely event happens to you. We've seen hundreds of thousands of people get hired through OnlineJobs.ph. We've seen theft happen...but it's so unbelievably rare I only talk about it because you want to hear about it. So my team took it upon themselves to research. They emailed the Philippine Department of Justice - Office of the Cybercrime to ask what’s the protocol regarding reporting cybercrime committed by Philippine citizens against someone who is not in the Philippines. This is the email my OFS sent. Because many employers are concerned about the safety of their data, they are concerned that some Filipinos they hire as off-shore contractors may breach their trust, data, and information security, we'd like to know: Since the employers do not have any entity in the Philippines, can they report Philippine based Filipino workers to the Philippines' DOJ for cybercrime if they steal, sell, or destroy data? The DOJ responded with: The normal course of action, therefore, is for them to file a report to their local law enforcement so that they can coordinate with their Philippine counterparts. They may also file a complaint to the nearest Philippine Consular Office by executing a consularized affidavit and sending it to the Chief of National Bureau of Investigation - Cybercrime Division, 5th Floor, VTEC Tower, 1257 Gregorio Araneta Avenue cor. Maria Clara St., Quezon City, Philippines or to the Director of the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group, Camp Crame, Quezon City. For their contact details, they may visit the following links: http://nbi.gov.ph/transparency-seal/nbi-divisions and https://acg.pnp.gov.ph/main/contacts. That’s pretty straightforward. If ever a Filipino worker commits a cybercrime against you, you can first contact your local law enforcement to file a formal complaint. Your local law enforcement will coordinate with their Philippine counterparts, and the ball will start rolling. You can also file a complaint with the Philippine consulate if you live close to one. The Philippines government takes theft seriously. They don't tolerate it. There is no "$950 California theft law" in the Philippines. If you steal and are caught, you're going to jail. Everyone in the Philippines knows this and it's almost always enough to deter people. It’s not worth losing your reputation and future opportunities just for a bit of extra money. I want to remind you that I am not a lawyer. Nobody on my team is a lawyer. Listen to your lawyer. Consult your lawyer. But you won’t be needing this information if you have a solid hiring process that consistently gets you good, trustworthy, reliable Filipino workers. That’s what I teach at OneVAAway.com. John
+You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world…but it requires people to make the dream a reality. - Walt Disney I don't think I can say it better than him. Your business requires people. Ready to take the leap? Start with www.OFSGuide.com. <-- Answers the top 9 questions I get asked Then use www.OneVAAway.com <-- Guides you through hiring an amazing OFS Or, just post a job at www.OnlineJobs.ph <-- It's just a job board kind-of like Indeed.com. You post a job, people apply. You interview and hire however you want. There are no commitments or requirements of full-time or how you pay or benefits or ... John
+I get a lot of emails from employers and Filipino workers telling me how Onlinejobs.ph changed their lives. But this...is different. Here's a conversation I had last week with my oldest child, Austin. He was sent to the Philippines for his mission with the Church of the Latter-Day Saints and assigned to a remote island in the Philippines. https://youtu.be/_2czGqddhVM Here's what I learned. 1. The Philippines does very little exporting. Individual islands do even less exporting. When you don't export anything, you have no money coming in, just money going out to buy goods. 2. They solve this problem by exporting people. 3. Exporting people destroys families. The Philippines government has actively encouraged workers to go find work overseas and send money home. The problem is it doesn’t account for the emotional and mental toll it takes on a culture that deeply values family ties. It doesn’t consider the strained and broken relationships brought about by distance and neglect. But with every OFS, we know: That’s one family where the mom or dad doesn’t have to leave the island so that they can make enough money to support themselves. That’s one family where the kids can grow up with both parents. They don’t have to go through the pain of homesickness and separation. That’s one family where the grandparents can just enjoy their grandkids. They don’t have the added burden of being full-time parents when they’re old and retired. When you hire an OFS, you’re doing a lot of good. You’re helping families and communities. Be proud of that. And, look. About 98% of the people on OnlineJobs.ph are honest, hard working, loyal people. They just want to find work to support their family. Finding trustworthy people IS NOT HARD! Either post your job today at OnlineJobs.ph or use my www.OneVAAway.com challenge to post your job today. Either way it's a win-win-win-win-win-win. You win. Your family wins. Your business wins. They win. Their family wins. Their community wins. Stop kicking the can. Hire someone. If you have questions about "can I hire THIS kind of person", just respond to this email. It comes to me. John
+I talk a lot about earning your OFS (Online Filipino Specialist) trust and giving them training and benefits. Why? Why be so nice to Filipino workers? They work for you! You’re paying them to do their jobs! You’re paying them to work, right!? Right??? Yes, you’re right. When you hire an OFS and pay them right, they’ll do their jobs. But something amazing happens when you inspire them and boost their self-esteem. Being a good boss is actually good for business. I know that compared to other businesses, I have a low turnover rate. I have Filipino workers messaging me every day, wanting to work for me because they know that Onlinejobs.ph is a great company to work for. When you give your OFS benefits, it boosts their trust in you. They're less likely to leave. More likely to do better. When your OFS gets training, it boosts their confidence. They're confident that they're doing the job correctly. This gives them the confidence to take on more challenging tasks. This isn’t unique to Filipino workers, but it's especially effective with them. When you have all the best people wanting to work for you, all you need to do is have a hiring process that helps you find the people who best fit your business. That’s what I teach with my One VA Away hiring challenge. What kind of OFS do you want to hire? SEO expert? Forex trader? GoHighLevel expert? Anything else? John
+I have a neighbor who sells shoes on eBay. He has like 3,000-5,000 Pairs of shoes...in his basement! He's always wearing some cool new pair of unique shoes. I've mentioned to him a number of times about hiring OFS and he's always like "Oh, there's nothing they could do for me. I have to do it all myself." Ok...I mean...I believe there are some things that he has to do by himself. He’s amazing at finding great deals on shoes that will sell really well. That’s what’s making his business successful. Then I turn around and have an email in my inbox from someone else saying "I run an eBay business selling "___" and I just hired my 6th OFS and they do this and this and this on eBay for me." Guess which eBay business is bigger? Actually, no. Guess which eBay business owner works less? I know every business has a unique selling point, but for the most part, that’s probably the only thing unique about your business. Everything that supports that unique selling point, everything that makes it possible, isn’t unique. To give that unique selling point to your customers, you need: - marketing people to spread the word. - admin people to keep things running smoothly. - customer support to make sure your clients are happy. - technical support so you can automate Getting someone to help you in your business doesn’t make it less special. It actually gives you more time to focus on that special thing, that magic, because you have people taking care of everything else. Check out OFSTasks.com to see what OFS are doing for other businesses in your industry. John
+Riding a bike is so easy...once you know how. Once you know, you can't imagine not knowing how. To a lot of people, a bike adds freedom, opportunity, exercise, competition, transportation... Here's my daughter competing in her last high school race: Hiring an OFS is similar. It seems so daunting. So hard. So..."I can't do this" So...let me outline how easy this actually is. Once you know how, you'll never NOT know how. 1. Search and view some profiles at OnlineJobs.ph - this is always the first step because it requires no commitment by you. Search something like: Amazon FBA expert Google adwords Real estate VA Shopify Developer Look at some profiles. You'll get a really good idea of what's out there. 2. Post a job. Super simple. Don't over complicate this. Post a few sentences. It's free. 3. Interview applicants via email. Ask them some questions. You don't need to do any prep work. No scheduling. No time zones. No video conference links. Just keep asking them questions. ^^^^^ This is my secret to hiring fast, easy, efficiently, and almost always finding someone great! 4. Hire the best fit. If you're still not sure, use the steps at OneVAAway.com Hiring an OFS is easier than learning to ride a bike. And to a lot of employers, it gives MORE freedom than a bike. And to the person you hire, it's life changing. John
+Job titles aren’t that important to me. But in the Philippines, it’s a big deal. An impressive job title is a source of pride. A nice-sounding job title announces to their family and friends how good they are at their job or how much money they’re making without openly bragging about it. This cultural thing is what Lukas used to find himself a great OFS. When he used Executive Assistant in his job post, he wasn’t getting good applicants. But with one small tweak, he started receiving applications from the candidates he wanted. Here’s what he said in his email. I was looking for somewhat of a general VA but with more experience and strong communication skills. I got plenty of applications but very few qualified candidates. A couple of awesome candidates, but none that felt like a home run. I tried changing the job title to CoS (Chief of Staff), reached out to a handful of profiles, and had completed applications, test projects, AND interviews within 12hrs with 2 STELLAR candidates. Interviewing 1 more later today and hiring someone tomorrow. Amazing talent! Just had to look for and advertise the right job title/role! The job title matters. Another thing you can do is browse through the OnlineJobs.ph database and invite promising candidates to apply for your job post. This way, you’ll also reach workers who may not have seen your job post. Last, if you're not getting the quantity or quality of applicants you want, try posting your job again. It's weird and I can't figure it out. One day I'll post a job and get 4 applicants. 2 days later I'll post the same job and get 15 job applicants, with a bunch of really qualified people. It's not something we're doing with our software. It has something to do with timing...but I don't know yet. John
+Every day I get emails from people saying "Do you have X type of worker?" Yes, yes we do. I usually reply with a search result from OnlineJobs.ph. With over 2,000,000 Filipino profiles, we have people who can do almost anything. And, it’s easy to find great applicants at OnlineJobs.ph. BUT...I'm also aware that there are also a lot of poor-quality applicants. People who don't read the job post. People who send a crappy form application. People who are unqualified and don't care. I hate that this is happening because it’s making it harder for you (and me) to find amazing people. It has been eating at me for years...but I didn't know how to fix it. Until a few months ago. Introducing Apply Points. Apply Points is a limited resource all applicants must use when applying to jobs. Because it's limited, those who are careful with it will stand out to you. I could write a bunch about it, but my team did a really good job of explaining how AP helps you find better candidates more easily. I want to clarify that Apply Points isn’t a measure of how qualified they actually are. You still need to interview, ask questions, and do test tasks. Apply Points is just our way of weeding out the ones who put in no effort applying, and pushing forward jobseekers who want to work for you and feel that they can be a great addition to your business. When it went live a few weeks ago I was hiring and it was awesome. I got like 20 applicants. A bunch used 1 Apply Point. I didn't even open their applications. A number use 3 Apply Points. Fine. Then a couple use 8, 12, or even 30 Apply Points. Those were the applications I paid attention to first. Not all the high point ones were great applications, but most were. We’re constantly improving this so let me know what you think. Has it improved your experience? Are you getting better applicants now? Email me at john@onlinejobs.ph John
+Most people aren't going to like hearing this. Working 40 hours/week is overrated. Most people working 40 hours/week fritter away time. They watch funny cat videos on YouTube, they scroll Facebook. They read "news". I don't do any of it. No FB. No news. No Youtube. No, I haven't seen "that video". No meetings. No phone calls. No 40 hours. With my type of business, I can work anywhere. As long as I have a laptop and an internet connection, I can answer emails, give feedback, create content, etc. But I don't. I don’t like bringing my laptop on vacation. I don't want to be thinking about work when I'm home. I don’t like bringing my work with me. When I work, I’m in my home office and I'm super productive. I (most of the time) make sure I finish what I’ve set out to do that day. I’m focused when I’m in that room, and I’m away from any distractions. That’s how I get a lot of work done despite working only 17 hours a week. Well...that and my team of OFS. All the emails get answered. I’m on top of most ongoing projects. My team gets feedback from me regularly. I troubleshoot problems, and I come up with new ideas for the business. I don’t need to work 40 hours a week to get 40 hours of work done. When I’m being super productive, I don’t want to drop what I’m doing simply because I have to attend a meeting. I don’t want to stop working because my OFS needs me to answer their questions ASAP. An OFS working on a different timezone helps you be more productive while you work. There's a time for giving feedback, then there's a time for getting your own work done. Quickly. Without distraction. John PS. The other day while coming back from skiing with my new "Moonbike", this moose was standing on the road. We stood there for 45 minutes waiting for him to go away. 45 minutes from 5:15 - 6pm! Cold! But what a beautiful animal.
+I’ve talked before that setting up shop in the Philippines is really hard, and that’s still the case today. People sometimes want advice on how to set up a legal entity in the Philippines and my advice is DON'T. It's really difficult, and the Philippines government is not trying to make it easier. But if you want to set up shop in the Philippines just because you want your OFS to work in the same place without going through the paperwork and government red tape, you might want to consider renting from a co-working space. Now that most COVID restrictions have been lifted in the Philippines, co-working spaces are opening up again. The great thing about co-working spaces: - It lets your business have an “office space” where your OFS team can work without having to set up shop in the Philippines. - Most co-working spaces in the Philippines have Fiber internet, back-ups, and a generator. Blackouts and internet outages would be less of a problem. - Your OFS will be comfortable because most of these places have air-conditioning and unlimited coffee. We know that some OFS use co-working spaces as back-up offices where they pay by the day. They go there if there’s an internet/power outage at home, or a change of scenery. If your OFS team all live in the same place, having them together in a co-working space makes sense. You don’t have to worry if your OFS can’t get back-up internet or upgrade their internet because their area doesn’t have that service. Despite these advantages, most of our OFS still prefer to work from home for the following reasons: - Most co-working spaces are in big cities, which means commuting through traffic. - Not all co-working spaces are open 24 hours a day. OFS that work at night can’t use it. In most places, it’s also safer for them to just work at home. - It can be expensive. The average cost per desk is around $100 per month, but some offer cheaper rates when you get more desks. It’s more expensive for your OFS too, because they’ll have to spend for fare, outside food, etc. So if you only have a small OFS team or your team is distributed nationwide, it’s cheaper just to give them an internet allowance. - Some co-working spaces will require you to be a registered business in the Philippines if you rent out a bigger office or a lot of seats. Take note that a co-working space will NOT manage or monitor your OFS for you. They just rent out the space. They can’t force your OFS to show up for their shift. They’re not going to watch over your OFS to make sure they’re working. But, if you're looking for office space in the Philippines without the hassle of setting up a legal entity there, this could be a really good option. John