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Helping Entrepreneurs Go The Distance In Business… And Life!

The Indisputable Power of the Entrepreneurial Spirit


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….

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Customer Service – The ‘Forgotten’ Yin to the Yang in Business!

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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How to Become a Digital Crusader

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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May 2010 “Virtual CEO Goal” Monthly Report

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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Archimedes Would Have Liked Outsourcing – Seriously!

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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Virtual Staff Teams Are On The Increase – Ready to Join In…?

virtual staff

Location: Company HQ – Reading Time: 4mins

Its seems as if there are more and more companies ‘going global’ and merging / reorganizing than ever before right now. A lot of this hustle includes getting virtual staff involved, sometimes for the first time ever in the history of the company. A lot of the staff that will work for companies that are now taking a more virtual approach to doing business may never actually meet face-to-face, or at least not on a regular schedule – unless its via the web.

One question that I’m starting to get asked more and more regularly at the moment is can these virtual staff / teams perform to the same standard of their more ‘local’ counterparts. You know, the more bog-standard office set-up – conference rooms, water cooler, etc..!

One thing that I’ve found in talking with several businesses and entrepreneurs that are already engaging a virtual business set-up in some way, is that they all have one common, and quite surprising point to throw into the mix. They believe that their virtual staff actually have a better collection of skills, both individually and collectively, as a ‘group’, so to speak.

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Want Success in Business? Get Some GREAT Support, NOW!

Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 8mins

Pictured with me above is my Personal Assistant, Stephanie (she’ll kill me for posting this photo, but – too late!). Steph helps me with my day-to-day business tasks, and definitely plays a big part in me achieving what I achieve every day – whether I’m working from the company’s HQ, or home (like today), or anywhere else for that matter!

Judging by the amount of visitors I get each day to the blog, which is growing every single day – and the 700+ people that have downloaded my free eBook on working with Virtual Assistants, I figure a lot of you, for whatever reason, haven’t gotten around to grabbing your copy yet. So, this post is actually a sneak peek at part of a chapter from the eBook, along with some new material (labeled clearly for the VBL devotee’s out there that have already read it).

This stuff is NEW: Most companies and individuals who have been working with virtual assistants with great success have one thing in common: they are pleased to have somebody else handle their time-consuming, repetitive, mundane, administrative tasks that get in the way of spending quality time with their family, or focusing on more important business issues, such as planning and growth.

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Bruce Lee’s 12 Business Lessons – Learn from the Little Dragon!

Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 7mins

Some of you might remember, I mentioned the fact that I am a huge Bruce Lee fan in a post I did back in February, which summarized my US trip, where I included a photo of me and the Little Dragon’s ‘Hollywood Walk of Fame’ star. This time around I wanted to show you guys (in case you didn’t know) how much of a great businessman Bruce was.

The name Bruce Lee is known in virtually every household in the world. He never employed a virtual assistant, however, as the man who single-handedly brought martial arts to mainstream culture in the 70’s and beyond, the San Francisco born martial artist was known more for his lightening-fast kicks and powerful punches, than for his business prowess! However, at the same time as he was studying Philosophy at the University of Washington, Bruce embarked on launching his own Chinese Gung Fu Institute, where he would teach students from all walks of life – even though the local Chinese community frowned upon him doing so (the Chinese in the neighborhood believed that their ’secret’s’ should not be taught to non-Chinese).

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4 Ways to Manage Your Healthy Lifestyle Like a Virtual CEO

Location: Company HQ – Reading Time: 5mins

I’m very happy to post this excellent Guest Post by Matt Gartland of HealthyLifestyleDesign.com. Matt comes to the VBL table with some great concepts and ideas on embracing lifestyle design, with the focus on health, more then anything else.

Many people believe that business is boring. These are the same folks that work gloomy 9-5 jobs, believe that meetings are sacred, and are addicted to bureaucratic procedures. Haunting images of Dilbert, Office Space, and The Office come to mind.

These same people believe that health is boring. They are apathetic about their food choices, believe that exercise is stressful, and are surprisingly “too busy” to get healthy. Of course, they think that “healthy” is a straight-jacket restraining personal freedom, indulgence, and fun.

But that’s not you. That’s not me. We don’t settle for conventional wisdom’s. We think and act differently. We design our lives the way we want them. And in so doing, we’ve come to learn that one aspect of our life profoundly influences the next.

And so it is with business and health. The same mindset applies to optimizing both. This may not be obvious on the surface. But half-truths live at the surface. True meaning lies deeper. So let’s dive in and discover the ways you can manage your healthy life just like your virtual business.

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What is Outsourcing and How Does it Actually Work, Anyway..?

what-is-outsourcing

Following on from the last post that I did on outsourcing, I received quite a few emails on the subject, as well as having a TON of visitors signup for my free bootcamp course (make sure you also do this if you haven’t already, at the bottom of this post, or on the top-right side of the site!)…

I thought a quick breakdown on the subject might be welcomed. So, here it is…

Outsourcing is also known as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). This is the process of hiring another individual or company, either domestically or internationally, to handle business activities for you. It has become a common business practice that allows small and medium-sized businesses to gain services and skills they would usually find hard to develop, because of either financial or manpower restrictions, or possibly a combination of both. Meaning, you can grow your business as and when you need to, without any major investment.

It also allows your business to focus on core competencies and, more importantly, cut costs and improve efficiency, all very much hassle-free. As time has gone by over the last decade or so, business owners now realize that there are many reasons that companies, both big and small, outsource various jobs, but the most prominent advantage seems to be the fact that it saves money.

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