The Official Chris Ducker Dot Com Blog

Location: Beach Apartment, Boracay – Reading / Viewing Time: 3-4mins

I’m here in Boracay, home of some of the great beaches in the world, for a weeks escape. I like to take these trips once every two months or so to de-clutter and be able to evaluate how business is going, and what plans I can put into action in the future, amongst other things.

When planning for this trip, I was thinking about what video posts I could shoot over here for the blog… And, I came up with an idea literally no less than a week or so ago, that I thought might be really cool – and that was to take the time to shot a series of quick-tip clips on the world of the Virtual Assistant.

For those of you who have already signed-up and downloaded my free eBook ‘Saving the Day, the Virtual Way’ (if you haven’t, do so now to the right of the site!), you’ll know the types of topics that I go into, and so what I intend to do is elaborate on those topics a little more, individually, through this video series.

Plus, at the end of the series, when I get back to Cebu, I am going to be interviewing one of the virtual assistants that works for my company, to really give you a solid ‘insiders look’ on how we work with our virtual staff for our clients and so you can perhaps pick-up some tips for when you are spending time training and developing your own outsourced staff….

Location: Starbucks, Cebu – Reading Time 3mins

UPDATE: So, I went live with this post literally about 8 hours ago, and as I wake up and start to enjoy my breakfast looking at the ocean here in Boracay, I figure I’ll check out the old Fan Page to see if it’s still gone. And would you believe it – it’s BACK! They re-enabled the Profile and the Fan Page. Was it because of the rant ‘n’ rave post that you will now probably not even bother reading—probably not. Do I care? Nope. Guess it was just my lucky day…

All links on the site have been switched back to the original Fan Page now.

Okay, so I’d like to welcome you to the first ever Virtual Business Lifestyle Rant ‘n’ Rave blog post…! Enjoy…

Just over a week ago the popular social networking website, Facebook, brought it on themselves to disable my business networking profile, and along with it (as it was attached to the profile) the original VBL Fan Page, which at the time had been up and running for about 7 weeks and had 715 members. Which, I believe is pretty good going. We now have new fan page – please click here to join us, again, immediately.

We were all, including you loyal readers/viewers out there, doing a great job of spreading the word and increasing the VBL’s following on the biggest social networking website online today, and then it was literally ripped away from us all, without even a ‘real’ explanation. My question is – WHY?

Why was my account disabled…? I ask because I have no idea. Facebook doesn’t tell you why. They simply stop you from signing in, giving you an email address to send an ‘appeal’ to (which I did straightaway, obviously), and then after you have crafted the email and sent it to them, you get a bog-standard bunch of BS auto-reply back from them saying they will look into it. And then… Nothing.

Here’s the thing – if it wasn’t for people like me – and you – the Facebook users of the world, and the bloggers that want to create fan pages to promote their brands and websites, they wouldn’t be as big and as successful as they are today, would they!?!…

Location: Starbucks, Cebu – Reading Time 3mins

UPDATE: So, I went live with this post literally about 8 hours ago, and as I wake up and start to enjoy my breakfast looking at the ocean here in Boracay, I figure I’ll check out the old Fan Page to see if it’s still gone. And would you believe it – its BACK! They re-enabled the Profile and the Fan Page. Was it because of the rant n’ rave post that you will now probably not even bother reading – probably not. Do I care? Nope. Guess it was just my lucky day… All links on the site have been switched back to the original Fan Page now.

Okay, so I’d like to welcome you to the first ever Virtual Business Lifestyle Rant ‘n Rave blog post…! Enjoy…

Just over a week ago the popular social networking website, Facebook, brought it on themselves to disable my business networking profile, and along with it (as it was attached to the profile) the original VBL Fan Page, which at the time had been up and running for about 7 weeks and had 715 members. Which, I believe is pretty good going. We now have new fan page – please click here to join us, again, immediately.

Why was my account disabled…? I ask because I have no idea. Facebook don’t tell you why. They simply stop you from signing in, giving you an email address to send an ‘appeal’ to (which I did straightaway, obviously), and then after you have crafted the email and sent it to them, you get a bog-standard bunch of BS auto-reply back from them saying they will look into it. And then… Nothing.

All Work and No Play Makes Chris a Dull Boy - My Cop 'friends' on the Walk of Fame in LA!

Location: Home Office, Reading / Viewing Time: 6mins

Number of Days in the Office: 6, Total Number of Employees: 174

So here we are the second installment / update on what is happening in regards to my personal goal for 2010 – to become a Full-Time Virtual CEO by the end of the year. February has been a slightly less ‘hectic’ month, in terms of individual events – compared to the line-up of things that took place in January – as I was traveling for the majority of the month on my US Pleasure Trip (click link for the trip review!). However, that doesn’t mean that its been a slow month in terms of achievements!

The highlight for February was obviously the aforementioned trip to the US, where not only did I get the chance to relax and spend some QT with my beautiful wife, but where I also got the chance to meet with THREE of my clients with whom I had never had the pleasure of sitting face-to-face with before. One of them had been working with us for almost two years – so that was great.

I also got the chance to meet with a few prospective clients, too, as well as a couple of close friends, such as Sanjay Maholtra (the last video in our ‘San Fran’ series is coming later on this week!). Also, whilst snowed in, in New York, I met up and had a coffee with fellow entrepreneur and VBL blog follower, Doug – who lives there full time. Doug contacted me via Twitter whilst I was already on the trip, in San Francisco, and invited me for a coffee… Why not, I thought! It turned out to be a great conversation, and Doug graciously shot and sent the quick video below to me, too – I haven’t had the chance to post it until now – so, thanks Doug – much appreciated, and next time the coffee is on me!…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bbP3FYYa8k

Location: Company HQ – Reading / Viewing Time: 4mins

Hi everyone! First up, I’d like to thank you all in advance, for continuing to tune into the Virtual Business Lifestyle blog here in it’s infancy (we’re about 6 weeks old!) and helping to spread the word slowly, but surely. The ReTweet’s, Comments, Emails and such are a continued inspiration and I promise to continue to do my best to create as solid content as possible going forward.

Today I got into the office and inspected the latest expansion wing at the Live2Sell offices, which was just finished. It adds an additional 50 seats for our outsourced staff to work from, with clients around the world, and I am particularly proud of this expansion as it comes just 3 months after our last one. We’ve all worked very hard, and it seems to be paying off.

The reason why I shot this very quick video was because I wanted to point out how important it is to look into other options to be able to automate and streamline, as well as grow and expand, your own businesses this year. 2009 was a tough year for a lot of people. However, the true entrepreneur is a fighter – someone who might get knocked down, but always jumps back up again. unveiled …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UeR_NQZic0

Location: Company Offices, Reading / Viewing Time: 10mins

Got a real treat for you guys today – this is one of three videos that I shot with good friend and fellow entrepreneur, Sanjay Maholtra, on my recent visit to San Francisco. For those of you who don’t know Sanjay, he is a angel investor and tech start-up MADMAN from the Bay Area, who amongst other things loves $5.00 pizzas (wait to the end of the video for an explanation on this!).

Although this video is a little longer than most here at Virtual Business Lifestyle, its a goodie. We go into how small companies, and even solopreneurs, can make themselves seem bigger, better, more professional and generally more capable when approaching new prospective clients (of all sizes), by using online apps and technology partners… plus much more!

The resources that Sanjay mentions in this post should definitely be checked out by every one and all of you who are wanting to ‘paint the picture’ of a slightly larger, older, more experienced company or entity to be able to bag clients either domestically or across the globe….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BfBvhh2KQQ

Location: Home Office – Reading / Viewing Time: 4-5mins

As entrepreneurs its sometimes hard for us to switch off and recharge our batteries. But, we must. I recently posted an article on My Top 10 Entrepreneurial Health Tips and after getting feedback on the relaxation side of things, I felt like I wanted to elaborate on it a little – especially as I was recently in Miami and did a LOT of relaxing (or chillaxing, as my daughter tells me!), as you can see in the quick video I shot, above!

The fact of the matter is that business owners are a pretty strange breed. We want to be the boss, to work for ourselves and to be able to have people work for us. We want to call the shots and obviously have the ‘power’ to be able to work as and when we feel like it. However, as the world becomes a tougher place to do business in and the market place (regardless of what industry you are in) becomes more competitive, chances are you are working way too many hours – much more than you should be, and more than is actually required to be productive.

Relaxation is as important to entrepreneurs as it is anyone else.

If you’re a regular to the blog, you’ll know that I do a fair amount of video posts. …

Checking my Email over Breakfast at Lori’s Diner in San Francisco!

Location: Company Offices, Reading Time: 4-5mins

For regular readers of the Virtual Business Lifestyle blog, you’ll already know that I have been in the US for the last almost-three-weeks on my most recent ‘Pleasure Trip’. I even posted a video of my ‘mobile office’ before I left. It was probably one of the most successful of my professional life, and I only actually ‘worked’ 6 days of the entire trip! Now I’m back home and back to ‘work’, but wanted to give you a little breakdown of the trip, in case you might be remotely interested!

When I landed in San Francisco after the 13 hour flight from Manila (not fun, even in Business Class – but, its the destination, not the journey, right!?) I was smacked around the face by the cold weather. Yes, I’m originally from London and yes, have experienced cold weather over the last 10 years since I’ve been living in Asia, however, it was cold to the point where I had to go buy gloves, a hat and a new winter jacket! Whilst in San Fran we met with a major client of ours and enjoyed spending time with them for the first time, face-to-face. I also got the chance to meet with an old colleague and fellow entrepreneur, Sanjay Maholtra – he is now SF-based and an angel investor in tech start-up’s. We shot a few videos that will be coming up in the next few weeks here on the blog.

Next stop was Miami, …

Location: New York, USA – Reading Time: 7mins

So, if you’re a regular visitor to my blog, you’ll know that over the last two days I have been engaging in a case study to show you all that offshore virtual assistants are indeed very capable when it comes to creating good quality web content. If you’re not a regular visitor, you’ll know of this now, obviously (because I just told you!), and I suggest you check out Day One and Day Two before reading on.

Today we finish off a monster article that one of the virtual assistants that works for my company wrote on cool online app’s for entrepreneurs – specifically for this blog, and specifically for this case study. I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed the series, and you’ll be coming across my ’round-up’ on everything at the end of this post! Take it away, Miss VA…

Applications for Security:

Eliminate the risk of viruses, phishing and spyware for your online transactions.

Escrow (https://www.escrow.com/index.asp). For secure online transactions, use Escrow. This online service works by acting as a third party that collects, holds and disburses payments according to agreed instructions, thereby protecting both you and your client from fraud. Payment can be done in many forms such as check and money order….

Location: New York, USA – Reading Time: 7mins

So, following on from yesterday’s post where my company’s chosen virtual assistant v wrote on cool online app’s for sharing and storing files online, organization and calendar sharing, today we continue with my case study, looking into the world of the Philippine Virtual Assistant, but more specifically answering the question as to whether or not they can help you in creating original, quality web content for projects such as blogs, site content, eBook’s, etc.

Please note: This is REAL, completely UNEDITED text (sure, we’ve formatted for the blog, but that’s it!), written by one of the virtual assistants that works directly for my company, serving a client that is based in the USA. Let’s continue with the test!

Applications for Writing:

Unleash your creativity and earn money in the process.

Google Docs (https://docs.google.com/). Don’t worry if you don’t have MS Word or spreadsheet because Google Docs and Spreadsheet has these. You can create a new document, spreadsheet or presentation and upload your files from and save to your desktop. You can access your files anytime anywhere and choose who can access your documents. Those who have access to files can share changes in real time. And it’s all free!…