Location: The Beach, Cebu – Reading / Viewing Time: 4mins

So, here we are with the second part in my short, but sweet three-part series of videos on why I want to be a Virtual CEO. In the last clip I discussed being location independent, which basically means I will be able to work from anywhere, any time I like. The goal here is to make it as seamless as possible, however, so nobody even knows I’m traveling, etc.

In this clip I talk about something that, as a true entrepreneur, I do definitely struggle with. And thats being able to act on some of the ideas and plans I put down on paper, be able to expand my business portfolio, and diversify my earning potential as a business owner. So many ideas, so little time…!

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Location: The Beach, Cebu – Reading / Viewing Time: 4mins

Last week I pulled my family out of the city and escaped to one of the many fantastic beach resorts we are blessed with, here in Cebu City, Philippines – getting a taste of the Virtual CEO life, shall we say! Whilst there, we stayed three nights and completely ‘let go’ of everything. I worked seamlessly (about 5 hours a day) throughout the trip – even to the point where one of my managers sent me an email to ask if ‘he could come to my office to discuss a few things when I had time’. He had no idea I wasn’t in the building! Now, THAT’S what I’m talking about!

As I’m at the half-way point on my quest to become a Full-Time Virtual CEO, a goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year, I thought it might be nice to shoot a little series of videos, whilst on this latest little getaway, to give you an insight as to the three main reasons that are spurring me on to accomplishing this year long mission!

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Team Building

Very Small Selection of my Awesome Staff at Our Team Building Event!

Location: Company HQ – Reading Time: 5-6mins Number of Days in the Office: 19, Total Number of Employees: 214 This week has been crazy! In fact, the entire month has been pretty mad! As my quest to become a Full Time Virtual CEO continues, I am making more and more moves to make sure I not only hit the target and achieve the goal, but more importantly, that my company will be in ‘good hands’ on a day-to-day basis when I do ‘disappear’, so to speak! One of the big aspects for me to achieve my goal is in alleviating the stress of daily business management, whilst still focusing on growth. So, this month saw a new hire. Our new Business Development Manager will be taking a lot off my personal plate, in regards to working with prospective clients and our internal marketing team, too. Up until recently this has been ALL ME. As she becomes more comfortable, she will also be strategizing with our existing clients, and helping them grow their accounts with us, too. I am really excited about this hire. …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hafasJg0VZ8

Location: Company HQ – Reading / Viewing Time: 10mins

One of the questions I get asked a lot is the title of this post – What’s it like to live and work in the Philippines? As someone who has lived in the Philippines for the last 10 years, I have many stories to tell, of course – anyone would! But, I believe that when people ask a question like that, they are more interested in the what, where and why – rather than stories.

So, I decided to shoot this quick video to give you a bit of an insight into the country, its people and how things get done here. Please, do not expect an all encompassing guide on the subject (its only a short clip!), and remember these are just my own personal opinions and ‘take’ on living and working here.

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business travel tips

Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 5mins

Being location independent is more than just being able to work from coffee shops and beaches via a laptop, whilst conversing with clients worldwide. The true location independent professional will spend a lot of time actually traveling. A little while ago, I posted an article here on the blog in regards to travel tips for entrepreneurs, which was quite popular. However this was aimed more towards people who are usually based in the same location, who travel from time to time and wanted to maximize their work on the hop, through utilizing certain business travel tips.

So, for the more nomadic modern day entrepreneurs that read the blog, here are a bunch of simple tips that you can use to maximize the time you spend on the road traveling, and generally enjoy the travel itself, a little more than usual.

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Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 6mins

This is a Guest Post by Matthew Needham from The Big Red Tomato Company.

When Chris asked me to write a post on the Entrepreneurial spirit, I agreed straight away. Although when I started to think about, it’s not actually a very easy thing to define. I mean everyone sort of knows what it is, but what exactly does it mean?

In this post, I’m going to attempt to answer that question and what it means for you.

Entrepreneurship is very important to the world economy. More people work for small businesses than they do large ones. So the more entrepreneurs we have can only be a good thing.

Over the years I’ve met with many entrepreneurs. Some working for themselves, others working in large organizations for someone else (a few years ago management guru’s used to refer to such people as intrapreneurs, but you don’t tend to hear of that very often now).

These entrepreneurs were all different. They came from different backgrounds, different cultures, they were of different ages and different sexes. They didn’t look alike and they didn’t dress alike.

BUT, they did have an awful lot of things in common….

Location: Home Office – Reading / Viewing Time: 7mins

In February this year I spent almost the entire month in the US, with my wife, traveling through San Francisco, Miami, LA and New York. On a trip like this we experienced quite a bit, as you can imagine. However, it was one particular experience that left me with a really, really nice taste in my mouth – in more ways than one!

Whilst in New York a good friend of mine and his wife took us down to Arthur Ave, formerly know as the ‘real’ little Italy, and introduced us to Mike’s Deli, a spectacular, ‘golden nugget’ in New York. If you haven’t visited, DO IT. The video above is not only my shining testimonial, but also an important lesson in the art of customer service, and how so many companies nowadays are starting to forget about this important ancient practice!

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Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 6mins

This is a Guest Post by Mars Dorian of Mars Dorian’s ‘The World Needs You‘. A digital entrepreneur, Mars is dedicated to changing the online world through personal branding and creative marketing, check out his excellent blog for more info!

What the heck is this? Some new marketing scam? No, my friends, it’s your ultimate potential!

Instead of just making money online (boo-ring!), aim a little higher. Much higher. Become a web warrior and illuminate the world around you.

Make a promise to yourself: As long as you are alive, you will have your own digital business and inspire others to do the same. You are a Digital Crusader!

Now you ask, what the hell defines a DC? I’m glad you ask.

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Helping to Promote a Local Brand of 'I Love Cebu' T-Shirts!

Location: Company HQ – Reading Time: 5-6mins

Number of Days in the Office: 19, Total Number of Employees: 186

So, another month passes, and I am now officially just 7 months away from my target of becoming a Full-Time Virtual CEO. Will I hit it? You bet your ass I will…! I don’t set targets to not hit them, guys…!

Amongst other things this past month, a local company wanted me to help promote their new ‘I Love Cebu’ t-shirt range, via billboards, mall banners and newspaper ad’s (as above!), which I was happy to do – as I whole-heartedly DO love this great little city! The rest of the month wasn’t as busy as past ones, mainly because it wasn’t meant to be. Let me explain…

May 2010 was very much my ‘sit back and see how things are going so far’ month. And that’s exactly what I did. I contemplated. I thought. I planned, and actually re-planned certain parts of the next 7 months ahead of me. And I came to one big conclusion – although I have excellent local management around me (some of the best in the business, I believe), I am going to have to hire a full-time expat to come and work for me here in the Philippines, at my company’s HQ.

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Location: Company HQ – Reading Time: 8mins

This is a Guest Post by Adrian Swinscoe of AdrianSwinscoe.com, where he writes excellent articles all focused on Growing Your Business and making it as an entrepreneur – I sincerely suggest you check him out at his blog, after you’re done reading this one and commented here!

“Give me a lever big enough and I’ll move the world” – Archimedes

Entrepreneurs tend to be visionary in that they are able to spot an opportunity to solve a particular problem and find a market for that solution.

Entrepreneurs are known to be the ones who do whatever it takes to get something done and they don’t give up.

However, there is more to business than having a good idea and being determined.

In building a business, very little of the hard work involves coming up with the idea. Most of the effort goes into developing the key systems and processes that go into delivering the entrepreneur’s vision and making a business successful. Marketing, finance, project management, new product development, customer service and customer relationship management, all of these things are key to the entrepreneur’s ability to scale and replicate the business.

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