I listed five errands you'd leave the house for and showed where each one lives online.
Almost anything you'd leave the house for, you can also do on the internet. In January 2018 I published a short video in my Teach My Mom series that takes five everyday errands and shows the online version of each: the bank, the mall, the post office, the phone bill and school.
The business case
The video is for someone new to the internet, but the teaching method works anywhere. I didn't open with buttons or menus. I opened with a list of things you already do in the physical world, then matched each one to a website. Once those ideas are clear in your head, it's easier to know what you're doing when you start clicking.
That's how I'd bring a nervous customer onto new software, or help a team member move a paper process online. Name the errand they already know, show where it lives now, and save the step-by-step for later. In the video I said the clicking would come in later videos, one errand at a time.
The video is from 2018, so a couple of details are dated. I called Amazon the biggest shopping website at the time, and I pointed to Facebook for family photos. I've kept both as I said them then.
Errands you'd leave home for
I made a very small list. You might go to the bank to cash a cheque. You might shop at the mall, or visit the post office to send off a package or pick up your mail. You might pay your phone bill at a local phone shop, or go to school. Every one of those has an internet version.
Your bank, online
Instead of walking into the bank, you go to your bank's website. You type its address into the bar at the top of your browser, and the site gives you a way to log in securely. Logging in is like showing photo ID at the counter. You put in your secure login information, and then you can do things like pay your credit card bill online.
The mall and the post office
For shopping, a website takes the place of the mall. In 2018 I called Amazon the biggest shopping website out there. You can go to Amazon, search for shoes, clothing or almost anything else, and you'll find it.
The post office maps to email. The e stands for electronic, so email is the digital version of mail. You go to the website that handles your email, type your user name and password, press the login button, and check your mail.
Jump to
- 0:00 Picking up from search
- 0:39 Errands you'd leave the house for
- 1:45 Banking online
- 2:52 Shopping online
- 3:36 Email and paying bills
- 4:17 Online school and YouTube
- 5:40 Documents, articles and family photos
- 6:59 Coming next
I go through the whole list in under eight minutes in the full video on my channel: What can I do on the internet? Teach My Mom, on YouTube.
Bills and school
Your phone bill works the same way as the credit card bill. You log in to the company's website and pay it there.
School has an online version too. You can learn by watching training videos, and my own video was one of them. I named YouTube as the most popular video website, and you can search it for whatever you want to learn.
A search box on every site
Each website has its own search box, separate from the search you used to find the site. You search on Google, click your bank in the list of results, log in, and then you might search again inside the bank's site.
This part confuses people. Every site looks different, so every search box looks different too. I'd noticed that confusion, so I said it needed its own explanation.
Documents, articles and photos
In 2018 I said you could do almost everything in the browser. You can create a document online. You can read an article about something you don't know. You can see photos of your grandchildren, and in 2018 the biggest place for that was probably Facebook. Your family might send you a link to a private photo site instead.
Some things still need you in person. For most of this list, though, you don't have to leave the comfort of your house. You open your computer, open a browser, search on Google or Bing, and pick the errand. Beyond my five examples there are hundreds, even thousands, of other things you can do.
One errand at a time
That's the whole lesson: almost anything you'd do in person, you can do online from home. I planned later videos that would go through each one step by step, like paying a credit card bill, checking email, shopping on Amazon, watching a video on YouTube and creating a document. If you're helping a parent get comfortable online, pick the errand they run most and start there. If you want to talk tech in plain language with other founders, join me live on Friday.
About Dwain
I'm Dwain Browne, Founder of LeadScore AI and SnapSuite. I'm a Toronto-based software architect with 25+ years across software, sales, operations and entrepreneurship. SnapSuite helps contractors and trades teams get paid faster, and LeadScore AI shows you which leads deserve your next call. I also run Vibe Code to Profit, a community helping people build software with AI.