Work at Home Philippines

Laura Spencer has re-focused the spotlight to co-working with her Is Co-Working the Next Stage of Telecommuting.

Co-working is one working trend that allows telecommuters or home based workers to temporarily work with others ala old office setting. Co-working is known to solve one of the most popular setbacks of working from home – isolation.

Due to the popularity of this work setting, a Co-working Wiki was put up. I’ve noticed that Philippines is not in the list of those with co-working stations.

I’m sure that with the boom of home-based virtual assistance business in the Philippines and other online businesses, these co-working stations will definitely have a place here.

Know of any co-working station here in our country?

It’s the year when more and more attention will be hurled at us virtual assistants doing our best to provide various services for fellow entrepreneurs who are trying to outsource what they can.

An instance of this pleasant attention is this feature article segment from Reader’s Digest January 2008 issue that Mars Mosqueda written about running a virtual assistant business as a new way to make a living. The piece mentioned the earning potential and the skills required to make it as a virtual assistant quoted from one of my best clients and mentor – Jonathan Gabriel, the serial entrepreneur and proud founder of virtual assistant services firm DistantSupport.

Click the image to read the text.

Tags: virtual assistant, Philippines, Readers Digest, virtual assistant rates, skills

It’s Technology Talk Thursday and what a timely act from one of my favorite productivity (although sometimes it can be time-wasting, too, you know..) online tools – the lovely Bloglines RSS reader.

Bloglines is now sporting a very spankin’ shiny new design that so complements my blog’s color scheme (as if I can use it as a widget). The fonts are so much more eye-pleasing now compared to the old font face. It reminds me of…

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Oops.. if you find that last word too offensive, I won’t apologize. LOL!

Aside from backpains what can confirm that I’ve sitten too long on my home office chair are those pains on my arse. I’m sure you feel those, too. Don’t deny it!

If you’d like to know how you can avoid getting that part from being stressed or to simply cool it down, one Japanese product might interest you – the USB butt cooler.

This gadget goes over the cushion of your computer chair and plugs in to your PCs USB port. The cord has a built in on/off switch so you don’t have to unplug it once your hot arse cools down. Measuring in at 490 x 405 mm with a cable length of 148mm, you’ll want to be sure your chair is compatible.

Do you fancy using one?

Source

Tags: USB, office equipment, chair, accessory, home office, cooler

According to my VA sis-in-law, Skype, the VOIP service she uses for her telemarketing projects, has been causing her headaches for the past two days.

Thinking that it was SmartBro’s causing this, SmartBro’s customer service almost got a mouthful from me. But it’s a good thing that I used my Googling power first before resorting to drastic measures because I’ve learned that it’s actually Skype’s fault.

What’s better than that news?

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Found this great read from Inquirer.net about people who chose to work for themselves in stead of remaining as corporate slaves.

Get a glimpse of how these three successful Filipinos are balancing the pros and cons of working from home:

Rowena Cuyco, a home based financial planner, emphasized that resilience and discipline are the key to her success. Cuyco also shared that you always have to on your toe on expanding your client base since any moment clients may lose interest in your product.

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Giddy over this pagerank update? My excitement was dampened when I saw that this blog remained at pagerank 3. But I’m sure the update is not over yet. So, I’m still crossing my fingers. But at least many of my new blogs start showing some green love. So not so bad, right?

How are your pageranks?

If you have been working on a business plan that you think deserves an award, you can try this Best Business Plan of the World Competition.

The 4th Philippine Young Entrepreneur Best Business Plan Competition 2007 is looking for best business plan submissions. Deadline in submitting business plans is on April 30, 2007. Prizes at stake include a $5,000 seed money for your business and a trip to Antalya, Turkey.

This business plan making competition is held yearly by Manila Jaycees to enhance further the Filipino talent in business planning in preparation for the yearly international competition in Seoul, Korea.

via Awesome Planet

You’re right! To be the next Saddam Hussein. Ok, enough of that he’s now executed.

Seriously, it’s to strike a good work/life balance.

Global research group ACNielsen surveyed consumers in 46 countries and found from the United States to Vietnam that more than half of those interviewed wanted work to play a lesser role in their lives in 2007. Source

Indeed, it’s been one hell of a stressing year, don’t you think? But it’s one of the most fun, too, at least for me. I hope it was a good and productive year for you, too.

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Did the Philippine government ever turned on the spotlight for home businesses? I wish our government can also learn from the thoughts of Kazakhstan Prime Minister Daniyal Akmetov.

PM Akmetov has highlighted the need to create conditions for home biz investments into the Kazakhstan economy since he has been noticing that their entrepreneurs are investing more into the economy of Russia and other countries.

More power to Kazakhstan’s PM.

via Kazinform