Outsourcing Archives - ChrisDucker.com

The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Team Building Tools, Services and Resources

When you’re getting started building a virtual team of staff one of the biggest hurdles that a lot of people have is knowing what tools to use to help you do everything as efficiently and as effectively as possible.

With the internet (and all the goodness that it brings our way!) changing rapidly and consistently, it’s sometimes tough to know what the best option is for this, or that job / process. There isn’t a week that goes by where I don’t receive countless emails and tweets on this subject from business owners that are wanting to either start their team building journey as proactively as possible, or (if they’ve been on that journey for a while already) take it to the next level.

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3 Software Platforms to Help Manage Your Virtual Business

If you’ve been following this blog for any period of time, you know that I constantly talk about the leverage created by employing virtual staff. In fact, there’s a team of people behind almost every successful person I’ve met in my many years doing business.

A great example would be James Schramko. If you listen to the Podcast that I did with him you’ll hear how he takes the concept of “leverage” to the next level (30-60 minutes of work per day for a multi-million dollar business). He’s currently got a team of almost 50 virtual assistants and they’re responsible for running his entire business.

I think we can all agree that in order to get to 50 assistants, you’ve got to build serious processes and systems into your business. That’s what today’s post is all about… how to use software to create a lot of get rid of a lot of the dirty work you’re used to doing.

Even if you don’t have the goals of ever employing 50 assistants, systems in your business will still help your life become more enjoyable. Getting more done in less time is always the goal, and the software currently exists that really help you streamline your business – no matter where you happen to be running it from!

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27 Reasons Every Entrepreneur Should Utilize the Power of Virtual Staff!

In late 2009 I hit a brick wall. I burned out. I’d been working 15-16 hour days for close to 3-years, building my company. We were doing well, growing and serving our clients professionally in the process.

However, I was a total wreck. I was a waste of space as a business owner, and a very, very absent husband and father. Things had to change. And they did.

Watch the video below to find out how. Seriously. Do it now!

Watch this video on YouTube, if you prefer.

Now that you know what I did to get over my own entrepreneurial issues, or ‘Superhero Syndrome’ as I refer to it in my new book, lets focus on getting you sorted out, okay?!!

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The Definitive Guide to Training Virtual Staff (The VA Training Trifecta)

The following is an unedited excerpt from my upcoming book. Visit the Virtual Freedom Minisite, or Amazon page for more details.

Training is one of the areas that I spend a lot of time on in the book, as it seems to be a pain point for a lot of virtual bosses to get stuck into – it also happens to be the one area that they should not (but, often do!) forget to focus on, hence the fact that I wanted to include this particular content here on the blog, to refer people to on a regular basis (in case they didn’t have the book already!).

— BEGIN EXCERPT —

In 2007, Tim Ferriss released his book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. Overnight, the entrepreneurial world dove into a virtual assistant frenzy.

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Going Virtual: How to Outsource Your Online Video Marketing Effectively

I’m back with the fifth installment of my Going Virtual series of posts in which I zoom in on a specific aspect of marketing a business in today’s fast-moving business world and show you exactly, step by step, how you can get on top of this one topic, even taking it to the next level – all with the help of virtual staff.

In this post I’m going to show you how to outsource your online video marketing, to become super productive and way more successful than you thought possible, when it comes to this particular medium. Online video is huge, we all know this, yet so many small business owners that I sit down and chat with, still haven’t got started utilizing the power of web video and what it can do to catapult their brand, and ultimately increase their profits.

My goal in this post is to help YOU get started with online video marketing, by sharing with you the following strategies for producing and promoting videos. We are going to discuss brainstorming ideas for content, all important video SEO and how you can free up your time while growing your business with the help of a virtual assistant focusing on helping you with your online video focus. Let’s begin.

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6 Reasons to Hire Virtual Staff Closer to Home (Instead of Overseas!)

I often get asked if I only use Filipino VA’s, being that I am based here in the Philippines, and that I do employ a lot of local staff. The answer is a simple ‘no’.

There are certain things that I pretty much always look to outsource overseas (in reverse to the ‘norm’!), and in this post I thought it might be a good idea to discuss the main reasons why I ‘go overseas’, and the reasons why sometimes it’s a good idea to stay closer to home.

Before I get into things let me state very clearly that there is no right, or wrong way to outsource, as a ‘standard’. You’re going to do whatever you think is best for you, your business and your bank balance, at the end of the day. So keep an open mind, understanding (and respecting) that everyone has their own way of doing things.

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Going Virtual: How to Work with a Virtual Assistant to Manage Your Email

After a short hiatus, today I’m back with the third installment of my ‘Going Virtual’ series of posts in which I zoom in on a specific aspect of running a business in today’s marketplace and show you exactly, step by step, how you can get on top of this one topic, even taking it to the next level – all with the help of a virtual assistant.

In this post I’m going to tackle the one subject that I see entrepreneurs struggling with more than anything else – managing their email.

In a study released by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in January of this year, it was revealed that C-Level executives considered to be ‘online junkies’ spend an average of 38% of their time stuck in their email inboxes – in my eyes, small business owners are the same – if not worse!

I was just like this (although I’ve never been C-Level, baby!) – and in 2010 I did several things that took me from an average of 6-hours a day in my inbox, to approximately 1-2 hours a day. A level that I still maintain now – even though I get twice the amount of emails today, than I did back in 2010.

I’m gonna show you how I do it, so that YOU can do it yourself… If you’re up for the challenge, that is.

And it is a challenge. Not because it’s particularly tough (it really isn’t nowadays, because of reasons I’ll highlight below), but because email is the one thing, more than anything else, that most entrepreneurs are most reluctant to give up control of – even though it drives us crazy!

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101 Tasks to Outsource to Virtual Staff to Grow Your Business!

One of the biggest misconceptions of working with virtual staff is that one employee can do everything for you. I call this the ‘Super VA Myth’, and I’ve busted it over and over again! It’s just not possible. Not in the real world, and not in the virtual world.

In order to effectively use virtual assistants to grow your business, you need to hire for the role, not the task. Something that I say all the time.

That means building a team. A team that will work together to achieve what you’re aiming for as a business owner.

It’s with this in mind that I decided to put together this list of tasks that you can outsource to virtual staff to grow your business more effectively. You’ll see that I’ve broken it down into the following roles:

General Virtual Assistant (GVA)
Audio / Video Editor
Content Writer
SEO / Web Marketer
Graphic / Web Designer
Web Developer

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Going Virtual: How to Work with a Virtual Assistant to Market Your Blog

Last week launched the start of this 10-part series that I’m producing, that will show you exactly how to work with virtual assistants, when it comes to starting, marketing and growing a business in todays ‘new’ economy.

The first post explored how to work with a virtual assistant to manage your blog – it seems it struck a chord with a lot of people, and so today I’m excited to follow-up, by taking it a step further – by showing you how a VA can help you market your blog.

If you thought managing a blog on a regular basis was a lot of work, just wait til you get a load of this marketing stuff!

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