Chris Ducker

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How to Identify a Professional Outsourcing Partner

May 7, 2010 by Chris 39 Comments

Location: Starbucks, Cebu – Reading Time: 6mins

I’ve been getting a lot of email lately from people wanting a little more information on outsourcing, and more specifically the different ways to be able to outsource work, systems, processes – you name it. So, here’s a brief run-down on how to identify a good quality outsourcing partner.

If you’re an individual seriously looking into outsourcing life, or even a company owner that wants to offload some of your business routines, or perhaps even all of them, you basically have two pretty major options straight off the bat. One option is to keep things a little closer to home and chose to outsource to a domestically based company, in your own country. At first this might seem like the easier option – same time zone, same language, etc., however, the costing of this type of set-up isn’t going to be all that different than doing things in-house yourself.

Some business owners find it hard to let go, it’s in our entrepreneurial blood, they say. So, if you simply don’t want to rent additional space, or hire the people yourself (but still want, or need the work to be done) then embracing the virtual business way of getting things done might be your best option….

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April 2010 “Virtual CEO Goal” Monthly Report

May 4, 2010 by Chris 14 Comments

Our Welcoming Lobby at the Live2Sell Group HQ

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

Number of Days in the Office: 14, Total Number of Employees: 179

This month went by faster than I realized… Hence the slightly late post! My Virtual CEO Goal is still moving along nicely, and again, I feel like I am getting closer and closer to it with every passing month. I have a plan in place, written down, and I am working that plan. It’s a 12 month plan of action including everything from automating certain aspects of my business as well as hiring of important, key employees, that fundamentally will ultimately allow me to remove myself from the business on a full-time basis. I have no doubt this year will end with my mission being accomplished.

We brought on board 3 new virtual assistant clients this month, and they have been going really nicely so far. One of our clients even sent greeting cards to his VA at the companies HQ, which put a massive smile on her face upon receiving them!…

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I’m a Businessman FIRST, a Blogger Second – But, Wait for it…!

April 26, 2010 by Chris 28 Comments

Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 3-4mins

It’s Sunday evening, my youngest is quietly in bed already, I’m done with dinner and my wife is watching TV. As I normally do on a Sunday evening, I turned on my computer to catch up on reading the handful of blogs that I subscribe to (there are not that many I read religiously, but the ones I do, I really do!). And one thing hit me… The quality of content is getting better and better.

Last week, I sat down and put together FIVE posts, for this blog, and planned around 10 guest posts which will all be out and about in the next few weeks. And from working on these posts, I realized something… I am getting more and more turned-on to blogging. So much so, that I even enrolled myself to Leo and Mary’s A-List Blogging Bootcamps Club to learn more. Cool, community of people, actually!

Now, I class my self as a businessman and entrepreneur first, before anything else. However, as this blog has started to become more popular, and more people have subscribed to the blog,  I have been fortunate to meet some great people. I have also been offered many Joint Ventures. I’ve declined almost all of them. Although in regards to two particular bloggers who I subscribe too, and thoroughly enjoy their work, I have decided to work with on two completely separate projects….

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How to Work with Virtual Staff to Build a Business Empire (Tips from the Trenches – via Manila!)

April 21, 2010 by Chris 17 Comments

Location: At the Beach (Literally!) – Reading / Viewing Time: 9-10mins

A real treat for you guys today. A couple of weeks ago I flew up from Cebu (where I live full time) to Manila (the capital of the Philippines) to do a little business, and whilst I was there I met up with Dan Andrews from the quickly growing TropicalMBA.com and OutsourcetothePhilippines.com blogs.We chewed the fat for quite a few hours, and eventually figured it would be cool to shoot a couple of video clips.

In fact, Dan actually interviewed me for his Podcast, too, which you can check out by clicking here. It’s safe to say we had a lot of fun doing all this stuff for our respective audiences.

For those of you who don’t know Dan, he is a twenty-something guy from the USA originally, who now lives in the Philippines full-time, where he works with several virtual staff throughout the country, that help run and build businesses based back in the USA, California to be exact….

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I’m Too Busy for Bullshit – The Things I’m Doing to Stay Productive!

April 16, 2010 by Chris 31 Comments

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

2010 is shaping up to be an incredible year for me, business wise so far. As you’ll know by reading my Monthly Reports, by the end of the year I sincerely believe I will be a Full Time Virtual CEO, working from wherever I like, whenever I like, doing whatever I like – but, still growing my businesses. For the time-being (and realistically for the very long foreseeable future, because I just love doing it so much!) my focus will remain on my parent company – the Live2Sell Group – however, there is a hell of a lot of other opportunities coming my way, too.

The whole thing here is that as I begin to warm-up the furnace that will be ‘2010’, it’s hitting me very hard – I am getting convincingly more and more busy. In itself, this isn’t an issue, as long as I maximize my time every day. Because, lets face it – wasting time is bullshit, plain and simple! …

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March 2010 “Virtual CEO Goal” Monthly Report

April 2, 2010 by Chris 14 Comments

Recording a Segment of my Top 10 VA Tip's in Boracay!

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

Number of Days in the Office: 16, Total Number of Employees: 176

This last month was another real eye-opener for me. Amongst other things, I spent a whole week working from a beach resort in Boracay, with absolutely none of my clients actually knowing of the fact – I spoke to people daily, and even made calls to prospective clients without anyone batting an eyelid, so to speak. Another testament to the fact that a fully virtual lifestyle is very much do-able.

I made a couple of new key-hire’s in March, too. First up, we expanded our training and development team with a new Training Supervisor. She will be working with our staff more on a one-on-one basis, coaching on individual needs, so we are all very excited to see how that side of things develops. Secondly, our new Quality Assurance Supervisor will be working directly with our individual Team Leaders, Management and more importantly, our clients, to insure that the quality of work we produce for them i sof the highest standards, as always.

I guess the ‘big news’ this month is the signing of an agreement between our company and one of our long-term clients, who has just become our official US Partner. …

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A Week in the Life of a Virtual Business Lifestyle Executive!

March 27, 2010 by Chris 17 Comments

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

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

I shot this video as a “I’m here, so I might as well shoot another…” type of clip when I was filming my Top Ten Virtual Assistant Video Tips a couple of weeks ago, from the island of Boracay here in the Philippines. I have to be honest, after looking at it the first time, I wasn’t going to publish it.

But, I looked over it on Friday, with the weekend approaching, and thought that I would post it for the beginning of the week as a little ‘inspiration’ if nothing else.

I am extremely fortunate to be able to live the lifestyle that I currently (and hope to continue!) living. However, it’s not one that has come about overnight. I have worked extremely hard to be able to:

  • Work a 4-day week only
  • Travel regularly
  • Spend more time with family
  • Empty my mind more
  • Continue to grow my business
  • Work on new opportunities

And of course, I continue to work hard, but just in different ways and with different processes in place to enable the ‘virtual’ part of my business life….

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My Top 10 Virtual Assistant Video Tip Series is LIVE on YouTube!

March 17, 2010 by Chris 26 Comments

Location: Company Offices – Reading / Viewing Time: 6mins

When I announced my Virtual Assistant Video Tip Series last week, with a quick, first clip from the fantastic island of Boracay here in the Philippines, I had no idea (seriously!) it would be as well received as it was. I have received a ton of email on this one (thanks to all of you who contacted me!) and so as soon as I got back today, I clean up the clips and had my PA upload everything to my YouTube channel for you to check them out.

Above is Tip #4, where I discuss the pro’s and con’s of working with a Freelance VA. At the end of the clip I mention Manny Pacquiao’s fight, which I literally got to the big-screen showing in time to see the clang of the first round bell. He won – very boring fight, however! But, it didn’t stop the HUNDREDS of Filipino’s watching the fight with me, my wife and a few friends, cheering and screaming when it was announced that he had won!

As I was shooting these clips, sporadically throughout the course of the week, in various locations on the island, I got to thinking that this subject matter is way bigger than just ten short video tips and a free eBook. I am curious to see if you guys would be interested in more content on this subject, in the form of a ‘real’ eBook with lots of stuff, such as:…

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Process Design for Automation, Outsourcing and a Better Life!

March 16, 2010 by Chris 19 Comments

Location: Company Offices – Reading Time: 7-8mins

This is a Guest Post by Robert Granholm of The Lifestyle Design Project.

Process design is about understanding what you do, and I don’t mean that in some philosophical way, but in a very literal, “what steps do you actually take” way. We rarely stop to think how we get things done, most of the time we just…do them. Truth is though, the practice of breaking down how we get from point A to point B unearths ways to multiply our productivity in such a fierce way, it’s almost an entrepreneurial necessity. Streamline practices, outsource minutia, and be ruthlessly efficient by learning how to take on the process design mindset with a few key practices.I don’t mean to introduce another tool or getting things done methodology but instead, habits that will naturally wake you up to where you aren’t just efficient, but effectively efficient! (there’s a difference). Stop wasting time, effort and money doing things simply because you think that’s how things are. Someone once said hindsight is 20/20, well gaining perspective doesn’t always have to be after the fact!

Laundry or Launching

The design mindset is applicable anywhere in life, from doing your laundry to launching a product. Deconstructing the steps it takes to accomplish a task uncovers wasted energy, better tools, and simpler methods. Applied in your day to day endeavors you’ll find yourself less frustrated, more organized and with more time; applied to your business life and you’ll be amazed at the benefits. Entire time stealing endeavors like finding customers, or hunting down gigs can be shortened, easily outsourced or erased all together after you’ve taken the time understand what’s really happening as the hours tick away. Although I can elaborate for days on the importance of documentation and workflow vs just throwing yourself at something for productivity, I’ll leave that for the comments, here’s how to get your mind processing for all around results.

Your New Mental Habits

Understand the World – Sam Carpenter says it best in his book, Work the System, “Everything works fine 99.9 percent of the time.” And if that rubs you wrong way, take a look at this video that subtly reminds us that everything around us works 99.9 perfectly well, so putting things into a systems mindset works with the world, not against it….

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Announcing My ‘Top 10 Virtual Assistant Tips’ Video Series (From Boracay, Philippines)

March 12, 2010 by Chris 18 Comments

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….

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