Entrepreneurship Archives - Page 9 of 23

How to Create Your ‘3 Lists to Freedom’ to Start Outsourcing More Effectively!

With the entrepreneurial lifestyle being as hectic as it is for most small business owners, anything we can do to leverage our time better, get more done and ultimately boost productivity is a good thing.

One of the questions I get asked most often is how I can be so darn productive? People see me running several different businesses that employee hundreds of people, producing content for this blog and my new podcast, attending to numerous speaking gigs, as well as other projects that I work on regularly and they want to know how I do it!

The fact is that I wasn’t always this productive and streamlined. There was a time when I was working 14-hour days, chasing my tail to earn a living and spending very little time with my family. Nowadays it’s a different ball game – thank God. And here’s the thing – I’m still not the best manager of people out there – what I have become very good at, however, is the ability to delegate.
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New Media Expo 2013 Review and My Biggest Takeaway’s from the Event

I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in San Francisco, where I have been decompressing over the last few days with my wife, following a whirlwind week in Las Vegas for New Media Expo, where I spoke on the subject of teaming up with virtual assistants to outsource the bulk of entrepreneurial content marketing tasks – it was a blast!

This was my third time to attend the conference (formerly known as BlogWorld) and my second time to speak.

I thought it would be a good idea to put together this quick post to point out a few highlights, report on my session, and to give a few mentions to those that I got to hang out with, as well as learn from myself.

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The Business of YOU… Why Now is the Time to Get Serious!

If you’ve not thought properly about investing in the business of you recently, now would be a great time to start doing so. It’s about having a renewed focus on what you’re doing business wise, and the way that you’re going about building a sustainable, future-proof business.

Along with year-long and even further afield goals and aspirations, I generally plan my business movements approximately 3-months in advance. Sometimes a little longer, but not much. Everything I do is built on top of my 90-Day Intent Planner mindset, where I focus my goals based around three key elements – sales and marketing, legacy and impact, and finally my own self development.

This is the exact 90-day framework for goal setting (and getting!) that I coach and oversee inside of my coaching groups and programs. Why? It works. That simple.

I believe that every year going forward can and will be the year of building a strong personal brand for yourself, your business and most importantly… those that you serve.

I’ve been saying it for almost a decade at the time of writing – people want to do business with people. Not big brands, or huge companies. Because of this human need, or requirement, we have to plan for the future of our businesses and understand that building our businesses around our personal brands (and vice versa) is a good way to move forward in today’s business climate.

Which leads me to the most important part of building the business of you… relationships.

Build Higher Quality Relationships

I can honestly say that since 2009, when I became properly active online, I’ve made more ‘worthwhile’ friends that I did in the decade before. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that I’ve even made a few friends that I know I will remain friends with for the rest of my life!

The business world runs on relationships. People you want to do business with – sell to, market to, those that you need to work for you, and help you on your mission, towards entrepreneurial success. These are the relationships that make the difference.

These are the people that’ll say nice things about you, and talk about your products, services, online content, etc. They’ll do favors for you, and make things happen for you – sometimes for monetary gain, but most of the time, just for the hell of it – because they believe in you.

These relationships help build the collection of people that you need to succeed in today’s business world, more than anything else.

Build Your Community

Marketing star, Seth Godin believes that a tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another… a leader, and an idea.

Boom! There you have it.

If you check out the 1,000 True Fans post over at The Technium blog, you’ll see that the author, Kevin Kelly reports that, and I quote from that article directly, “A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce…”.

Enough said.

Build your tribe.

Build Your Platform

In my book, Rise of the Youpreneur, I talk a lot about content creation and marketing and social media, in regards to building an online brand and then embracing the opportunities that come along thereafter. This is a long-game approach to successfully building the business of you.

Almost every business owner that I’ve coached and helped through this focus as an entrepreneur has seen massive gains, and in a plethora of ways, when it comes to building their personal brand, such as:

Increase in social media followers, and the engagement from those followers.

Email’s coming from people that I’ve NEVER heard from before, asking questions about their businesses and how they can help them.

An increase in coaching clients, strategy calls, product sales, service inquiries… you name it!

I truly believe that the stepping stones I’ve put in place in the last few years alone (even though I’ve been at this for much longer!) are already paying off and will continue to do so.

But here’s the thing, I’ve been building businesses since 2004. It’s only since 2012, when I really started to focus on the personal branding element of my life and career, ultimately investing in the business of Chris, that everything became much easier. And more profitable!

The future is bright. Because, the business of you is the future!

#NewBusiness Chit-Chat: Your Proudest 2012 Moment, and your 2013 Goal!

It’s been a while since I did an ‘Ask the Readers’ post, so I thought I’d roll one out today – which we can all potentially use as a source of inspiration for each other, along with a healthy bit of motivation, going into next year, too!

2012 has been a very memorable year for me, both personally and from a business perspective, too. But, with that being said, it hasn’t been without it’s challenges, too.

Today I’m going to share my proudest moment of 2012, and let you all in on my number one goal for next year! And then I want all of you to do exactly the same, in the comment section below – we can then come back to all the comments sometime next year and see if we’ve achieved all the goals, or not.

Sound like fun? Good – let’s do it!

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How to Become a Professional Business Consultant and Promote Client Happiness!

I’ve lived here in the Philippines for 12-years. But, being in Asia hasn’t stopped me from doing business with people outside of the country as a professional business consultant and coach.

In fact, over the last few years alone, I’ve worked with close to 100 consultation clients from all around the world – with 95% of my business being done outside of the country that I live in. Amazing, isn’t it?!

I’m pretty up front with the fact that I’m based here. In fact, it’s actually seen as a bonus most of the time, because of the industry that I’m in. Both my call center company and my virtual staffing agency definitely benefit from the fact that I am based here, as I’m seen as a thought leader in the niche and someone with a good reputation to do business with when it comes to working with a startup business consultant directly – instead of just going through one of the many business consultant companies out there – some of which are just not worth their weight at all.

As some of you may know, the biggest inspiration for creating content on this site is YOU, the readers. I get some many great emails, tweets and Facebook messages that I rarely have to scratch around for ideas on content creation (thankfully!). Recently I’ve gotten a handful of questions around the subject of setting yourself up as an international business consultant, or even someone that is more of a marketing consultant for small business owners. Along with some tips on how I work with my own coaching clients, too.

So, I thought I’d focus in on this a little, and let you know how I feel on the subject and pass on a few tips and ideas that work well for me. All good? Cool.

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5 Podcasts Every Entrepreneur Should Be Listening To!

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been recording the first batch of episodes for my new podcast, which will be launched in time for Christmas, entitled ‘The New Business Podcast”.

More about this next week… However, in the meantime, I wanted to bring to you a little listening pleasure in the meantime.

Podcasts are a great way to digest information and gain plenty of business tips and tactics. I’ve been a big fan for a long time, and regularly listen to them myself, obviously!

So, today I bring to you five of my personal favorite podcasts, and hope that you add a few more to the list, too, in the comment section below.

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10 Quotes that Instantly Inspire EVERY Entrepreneur!

Short, to the point and actionable post today, guys…

Not because I’m lazy.

Not because I have nothing to say – trust me, that will NEVER happen!!!

But, because all these quotes will turn your day into a profit generating, result orientated MONSTER of a day. And one that will lead to growth, happiness, inspiration, more money, more family time and ultimately… your business and life goals being achieved – today, and tomorrow.

Make today count, my friends.

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Why Small Businesses Have it WRONG and How to Avoid Making the Same Mistake!

Since the day I started my call center company I have always put my employees first and I continue to – all 260-odd of them.

Always.

It’s simply been my number one priority, with the understanding that if I treat them well, pay them right, give them opportunities for growth and be a nice guy to work for, that they will stay with me for the long-term.

The call center industry here in the Philippines is pretty tough, with an annual staff turnover rate of around 60% (yes, you read that right!). At my company it’s been under 8% since day one – we’re celebrating our fifth anniversary in March next year.

It’s something that we pride ourselves on at the Live2Sell Group, and something that personally, as the owner of the business is a driving force for me both as an entrepreneur, and an employer.

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