Hi,

My name’s John, this is my website, we’re online, and I’m writing my guide. (inside joke that my family will enjoy)

I started John’s Online Guide as a way to help friends and clients build small businesses that give them the freedom to work from home. If you’re looking to avoid the usual 9-5 work slog or create a side income and become location independent, you’re in the right place.

I’ve spent the last 30-plus years as an accountant, financial advisor, Financial Manager, General Manager, and Company Director. Having worked with some of the largest companies in the world and consulted across the globe, I find myself with a set of skills that are of use to a new generation of up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

Companies I’ve worked with or for, include those in the insurance industry, fishing industry, banking, auditing, accounting, wine, and agriculture. I worked for a wonderful company in the textile industry, founded a pet food business with my wife, and consulted in the recruitment industry. I was present at the birth of the internet and created websites and small businesses in online recruitment and the oil industry.

I flirted with aviation after my wife booked a lesson for me at FACT, facing the scorn and derision of being a student pilot doing touch and goes as well as my first solo, at a busy international airport in a howling southeaster. After joining an international engineering firm, I was lucky enough to secure a regular spot on a racing yacht and spent many pleasant hours on blustery Wednesday evenings and icy cold weekends in the Atlantic and Southern Ocean off Cape Point and Cape Aghulas.

The bug bit deep and I became a skipper and bought my own yacht. It was a beautiful Van DeStadt that I was unfortunate to never sail, as heart-bypass surgery interrupted my yachting. I yearn for the sea, and will one day sail around Cape Horn and brave the North West Passage as was planned only a few years ago.

But, what started as a labor of love and a bit of an inside joke with my wife and children, turned into a full-time income as I recovered from surgery.

With the changes in the global job market over the past few years, the skills I learned outside of my “day job” as a website builder, neophyte SEO, content writer, copywriter, photographer, logo designer, HTML fundi, and social media newbie, spilled over into my full-time work life.

I now run a small, but lucrative web-hosting business, helping various clients keep their businesses afloat through online advertising and helping youngsters who are struggling to find a job, learn the ropes as content writers. Two of whom have just now been hired as writers and one is the very proud incumbent of a management job controlling content and hiring writers herself. Mikhaila, you’ve got a lot to be proud of. 

So, if your job is getting you down and you’re looking for a way out, have a look around at the options that this website offers you.

At the time of writing this, I’ve redesigned the website. We removed a bunch of content and now focus on providing information across a wide range of topics related to personal finance, tax, location independence, and retirement planning. 

Maybe your dream is to travel the world and earn an income while you’re visiting exotic locations. I know it’s mine, and our plans are in place to make a long-time dream come true very shortly.

Perhaps you just need a change of pace and you’re intrigued by the idea of online business…

Whatever your reason, thanks for spending time looking through my scribblings. I appreciate everyone who visits and hope that you find something of value that will help you on your journey.

I’m just a normal guy who discovered a way to make money online over the past 20 years.

Making money with an online business can be very difficult or it can be incredibly easy. Most people who start never finish, but those that stick it out and regularly put in the work, do succeed.

See you on the other side…