EDITED April 2022, ORIGINALLY August 2017:

I've worked with many Virtual Assistants (VAs) since the start of handshaking.com who have helped immensely behind the scenes.  After 7+ years of business, and mulitple trips visiting Philippines, and even 1.5 years living there during Covid-19, this guide has changed a lot.

Recently, we had two dozen Filipino full-time team members, but as of today we have downsized our sales team to keep the winners.  

​When starting, as a bootstrapping entrepreneur, I could only grow as fast as sales increase, without taking significant monetary risk investing in payroll.  It's possible to take a risk hiring 8 Filipinos, while that would not be possible to hire 8 Americans--I'd be risking our cash flow far too much if most Americans didn't perform immediately within the first montn.  Not to mention the additional payroll, tax, and liability expenses. 

When hiring contractors abroad, your accountant may or may not know, but there's only one tax form that we file which makes it more more simple.

In the early days of Handshaking, I'd hired US based team members before, and let me tell you, that can put a big dent in your checking (and savings) account should you hire too soon, or hire the wrong professional. And that dent will not always come back quickly. 

Want to hire a full-time outsourced employee for a few hundred per month?  Then this is for you.

Posted 1/30/2017, edited 4/10/2021

Have you ever tried the "sharing economy"? I've always been the first out of my group of friends to try stuff and take risks.  

​In my opinion, it presents entrepreneurs some of the best passive income and part-time/flexible incomes while launching their startup.

I've been an Airbnb host (I rented out extra rooms in my house to other entrepreneurs for cash), I have an unused garage space in an investment property on my friends app Stow It, and most recently, I made the decision to list my car on Turo, where you can rent your car to people for cash...  First trip went just fine.  Second one, my car was totalled...

Posted 7/16/2017, Updated 4/8/2021


It's been almost 6 months since I attended NamesCon, and I'm still on fire about domain names, small websites, and how to make money online.  But it all starts with 'owning the land.' 

If you think about the internet as real estate, it really becomes clear where the opportunities lie, and where you're able to make money.

Here's some important insights I've learned after being a domain name investor and online entrepreneur for 3+ years.

Oh, and the photo is of course a handshake with the Founder of NamesCon, Richard Lau. I'm already getting excited for January 2018 just uploading this picture.