Chris Ducker

Expert Business Growth, Virtual Staffing & Personal Branding

10 Simple Steps to Unleashing the Thought Leader Within You!

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Thought Leader, Public SpeakingEvery entrepreneur in their right mind should be working their tail off to be seen as a thought leader – someone who innovates and leads – in their industry.

In the ‘olden days’ of business, this would have meant putting in those 10,000 hours that everyone assumes you need to clock-up to get yourself to ‘expert status’ in a chosen niche. However, as I’ve been saying time and time again recently – things have changed.

We’re no longer in the 80’s, where the thought of small businesses having a client base all around the world was just as far fetched as the idea of being able to converse with those customers using something as ridiculous as ‘electronic mail’ – even though email is now the number one ‘tool’ used in business every minute of every day.

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Announcing the Launch of My FREE 7-Day ‘New Business’ Bootcamp!

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Thanks for dropping by on this important day for me. After weeks (in fact a couple of months, lets face it!) of hard work, lots of tweaks and even a few sleepless nights, we’re finally here with the launch of my new site, and my free ‘New Business’ Bootcamp course.

I would like to say, right here and now, a massive thank you to everyone for their support over the last couple of months, and for being so patient with me as I put together the final touches to the site, the bootcamp and everything else that went along with reinventing my online brand.

I think it came out pretty good – what do you think?!

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Mr. Business Owner – Suck it Up! You’re a Freakin’ Problem Solver!

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Being an entrepreneur, and in the early days of starting a business is much like being a duck on a pond.

Everything looks great above the water as the duck’s body (the business) glides effortlessly along the surface, with its beak standing out proud – whilst below the surface, the duck’s legs (the business owner) are peddling at 180mph to try and make sure that everything looks good above the water.

Over the weekend I was having lunch with a few friends at my house. It was the first time we’ve had guests around since I came out of spine surgery. There were 4 couples in attendance. Some good food, a little wine and some great conversations were on the horizon. I was really looking forward to it.

But, it was almost ruined for me, by one of the guys that was there – until I intervened.

Problems, Problems and More Problems!

My buddy (name witheld to protect the entrepreneurial innocent!) started his real estate business about a year ago, focusing on the higher-end market locally. We’ve met several times in the last 12-months and all he had to say was how well the business was going, that he wasn’t experiencing any major issues with marketing to the local cliental, or competition, etc. Everything sounded great!

However, on this occasion he took it upon himself to spoil as much of the first hour of the get-together as possible – by moaning, arguing (with himself mostly!) and generally admitting that all was not so calm on the pond, after all.

He was having problems with local competing real estate brokers and agencies.

He was having on-going problems with property owners that he rents places for, as well as property owners that want to get the best deal in utilizing his company to help sell their houses and condos.

And lastly, he was having major problems when dealing with potential tenants and buyers – having him run all over town, showing them this condo unit and that house, one after another – all in the blistering heat that currently is Cebu’s awesome summer season. This problem alone was the biggest for him as he felt that he didn’t have enough time to be able to strategize for growth, which was to be his major focus this year.

I simply had one thing to say to him…

Welcome to the World of Entrepreneurship.

With Problems, Come Solutions!

I learned a long time ago that the higher up the corporate ladder you climb, the bigger the problems that you have to deal with. God forbid, you decide to become a business owner yourself! At that point you’re the head honcho, the CEO, the President – whatever you want to call yourself.

Slice of ‘Reality Pie’, however – you’re the main problem solver!!! That’s it.

And as entrepreneurs, thats EXACTLY what we should be looking to embrace – solving problems for people (AKA. our customers). The more problems we solve, the more success our businesses become.

So, I sat down with my buddy for about 30mins, and these are the points that we worked on together as business solutions for small businesses, and ended up putting into place a bit of a ‘Mission List’, as he started calling it:

#1 – Stop Wasting Time

Firstly, he needed to sort through the ‘decent’ prospective tenants and buyers when they came in, only picking out the ones that he felt the most confident about becoming ‘A-List’ clients. He would then pass on the others to his assistant (who is good, and can work well when given instructions, I’ve met her on several occasions).

#2 – Tell People Why They Need You

He’s going to put together a ‘Why You NEED Me’ package (focusing on his USP) to give the owners that he works with, in helping them sell or rent their property. No more wasting time answering the same silly questions, or having to run around getting this document, and that piece of information together.

Everything is to be pre-arranged in a package that not only looks super professional, but also answers all the questions he runs into, in regards to these specific relationships all the time. The rest he can update on the FAQ section of his website (which is good).

#3 – Screw the Competition!

Local competition. Screw them!!! Nobody has the experience he does, that I know of.

The fact of the matter is, however, that its a local market, where the local, Filipino real estate brokers are very much in bed together (some even ‘working’ clients and splitting commissions, etc.). But, there is one MAJOR feather in my friends cap – he’s a foreigner (American). And the very large majority of the prospects that contact him are foreigners, too. So, he will leverage that with a new ‘no holds barred’ approach to relationship building and conversions through social media and other online channels.

These tips for marketing a small business, coupled together with a well run ship and a professional mindset should make all the difference.

#4 – Daily ‘Strategizing’ Time

His goal was/is to focus on growing his business this year. With the other points above, after a while of taking care of teething issues and ironing out the inevitable bumps that come with ‘change’, he should have spare time, every day, to work on his goal for 2012.

As mentioned, he’ll start becoming more active in social media, he’ll start blogging, shooting regular videos on the local scene here in Cebu, along with property ‘walk-thru’ clips  to put on his website and Facebook page, etc.

This is What We DO!

If you look carefully above you’ll see that the ‘problems’ as well as the ‘solutions’ I helped define for my friend’s business, can basically be successfully merged into ANY business – online, or offline.

They revolve around the following BASIC business principles:

  • Don’t waste time.
  • Make sure your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is clearly defined and communicated.
  • Keep an eye on the competition – but, work SMART to beat ‘em.
  • Never stop planning for growth and expansion.

This is the entrepreneurial way of life.

Solving problems is right there at the top of the list. The thing is, from time to time we get frustrated dealing with the daily grind of running a business. And that IS what you’re doing for the first couple of years of any new venture – deal with the daily grind.

If you think being your own boss means checking your email whilst enjoying your morning coffee, publishing a blog post and then logging into Paypal in the evening to count your millions – think again!

After you’ve been in business for a while and you’ve achieved a certain level of success (and we all define success differently, remember that!), we can start developing plans to remove ourselves from our businesses a little. This might begin with just working in different locations. But, could develop into full blown trips away for a month at a time, or simply working from home four days a week and spending one full day in the office – its different for everyone.

So, the next time you get pissed off with dealing with a pain-in-the-butt client, or stressed out with competition copying an idea of yours, or with staff screwing up, or with suppliers raising prices on you, or with your better half moaning at you for not spending enough time with the kids – just breathe. Think about how to solve those problems, and then deal with them.

Become good at solving problems, and you WILL make it in the business world.

Have you come up with any solutions to business problems recently? Are you struggling with some right now, that perhaps the VBL Community could help you with? If so, we’d love to hear your insights and comments below.

Undergoing Invasive Spine Fusion Surgery, My Initial Recovery and the Future…

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Me – Before Surgery!

You might have noticed that I have not been blogging all that much over the last two months. The reasons behind this have been two fold.

First up, Virtual Staff Finder was (and continues to) moving at a very fast pace in February and March and needed more of my attention as we not only ramped up our marketing, but also our team, too. We now have 6 full-time staff members to handle clients and VA’s respectively. We have always been the leader in this space, and will continue to be the GO TO GUYS for entrepreneur’s looking for dependable, experienced and qualified offshore VA’s to help them run, support and grow their businesses.

Pass the Scalpel 

Secondly, I started experiencing re-occurring back problems from an injury I suffered several years ago. To cut a long story short, I opted to go under the knife and have a majorly invasive spine fusion operation to correct the problem. For those of you who sent well wishes through my social media channels during the period, I thank you. I’m still recovering and it will be a long, long time until I am back (pun intended!) to full health.

This post is actually being published from my hospital bed, as I continue to recover, 6-days post surgery.

The Future

With all this said and done, however, I am looking forward to the future NOW, more than ever.

Even though my recovery from the surgery will be long and hard with, no doubt, certain bouts of pain and misery, I know that when I reach the end of the recovery road, I will be stronger, smarter and more ready to rock ‘n roll than ever before!

I also have several projects up my sleeve which I will let you know more of in the coming months. The first of which I will discuss with you, here on the blog, next week – be sure to subscribe if you don’t want to miss out on what it is. Trust me, its BIG, with a HUGE opportunity for the right person.

So, again, thanks for all the well wishes, and I’ll be back to you again next week.

Attention Brands! Here’s a REAL Customer Service Lesson from Krispy Kreme!

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Customer service is something that I’m well versed in. I own and operate a call center, after all. However, if there is one thing that I’ve noticed over the last few years, regardless of best-selling books such as ‘The Thank You Economy’, by Gary Vaynerchuk telling us how important it is to look after our customers – especially in the incredibly social, online world that we now all live in, is that it’s not a subject matter that gets any huge amount of ‘good’ press. It’s most ‘bad’.

Like the story of United Airlines breaking a guitar and not responding to millions of YouTube views on the subject until it was too late. Not to mention the fact that in a recent survey only 29% of consumers received a reply on Twitter, following a customer complaining publicly about an issue they had. Think about that – 71% of the companies / brands basically completely ignored a customer complaint. For the world to see!

It’s all quite pitiful really, isn’t it?

However, I’m here today to tell you that all is not lost. Seriously, it’s not.

Freedom Friday

As an entrepreneur, I’m lucky enough to have the freedom to set my own working schedule and for a while now, I’ve not been working on Friday’s (except the odd client call, or meeting). I’ve also been trying to come up with a regular activity that I can enjoy every Friday morning with my wife and our son, Charlie.

Last Friday I woke up with a hankering for coffee and donuts. That doesn’t happen often. So, when I get a hankering of such a kind, I usually act on it!

We jumped in the car and headed to the local Krispy Kreme donut shop. We’ve been there twice before, but never with the little one, who was simply told we were going to get donuts. He likes donuts (duh!?), but didn’t say much more than “I want a chocolate donut” on the way to our destination.

Good morning, Maam, Sir!

We parked, walked into the store to the usual Filipino greeting of “Good morning, Maam, Sir!” and approached the counter to order our treats!

As I sat my youngest at the table, I observed him getting comfortable – matchbox toy car in one hand, the other hand empty, ready for the battle that was about to commence!

His chocolate donut was placed in front of him (I’m an Original Glazed kinda guy, in case you’re interested!), he picked it up with his spare hand, and took his first, surprisingly large bite. As if it had been timed to perfection one of the young, female members of staff came over with a balloon, to his joy and amazement. Donuts AND a balloon? Surely this Friday morning can’t get any better…!?

For Charlie, oh yes, it can!

20mins, some fun and games – which included attacking a few unsuspecting patrons with his green balloon, and a few laughs later, Charlie had polished off his chocolate donut.

We’re on the verge of getting ready to leave and the young lady comes back to our table. This time, however, she brings a paper hat with her and squarely places it on Charlie’s head, asking him “Would you like to see how we make the donuts?”.

Being as inquisitive, but also as cautious as most other 3-year olds, he responds with “Can my Mummy come, too?”. Of course she can. At this point, I pull out my iPhone4s to capture the moment so that we can share it with Grandma and Grandad later on.

Here’s a 60-second clip from the video…

He was amazed by how the donuts were made. And when he came out from the preparation area, he ran up to me, to tell me all about it.

We thanked our ‘guide’, cleaned up the table and left the store with a smile on our faces, and full bellies. I honestly thought that our experience at Krispy Kreme that morning was finished there.

How wrong I was.

Winning a Fan for Life!

On the way home Charlie said “We sure had fun at Krispy Kreme, Daddy…”. Then he said it again a few minutes later. Then again. And… Then again. When we got home, we showed the video to his grandparents, which was accompanied with his running commentary of the event, which included the word ‘Awesome’ several times.

The sugar rush then came to an end, and he crashed. Literally. On the sofa, with his Krispy Kreme balloon next to him.

When he woke up, he asked to watch the video again. What ensued was another 10min conversation about his experience at the donut shop.

Charlie has not stopped taking about those bloody donuts all weekend! And I for one am very happy about it. Why? Because I’ve found that Friday morning activity I’ve been looking for.

What is REAL Customer Service?

Most people tend to think of ‘customer service’ as being a company taking care of a refund, or another sales related issue, or after sales ‘care’ of some kind.

However, we rarely see it as making an already good experience even better. Even more memorable. Even more enjoyable.

Would we have returned the the donut shop without this great experience? Yes, probably at SOME point in the future. But, not every week, that’s for sure.

Are we going to buy dozens of donuts every week, when we’re there? Probably not. But, I am telling all my blog subscribers, Facebook fans and Twitter followers about my great experience? Yes, I am. And will Krispy Kreme get some additional business out of it..? You betcha!

One of my fondest childhood memories is that of walking to the top of the hill in our town, with my Dad, every Sunday morning to get a newspaper. We did that together for years. I still remember some of our conversations from those 20min walks. Although, it’s the activity itself that I remember more than anything else.

Now, every Friday morning, when Charlie wakes up, he’ll know that we’re going to Krispy Kreme to enjoy some donuts. He might never walk around that prep area again (although knowing him the way I do, I reckon it’s more likely to happen, than not!), but he will enjoy the beginning of each and every weekend going forward and hopefully he’ll remember his Friday mornings with Mum and Dad for years and years to come…

Have you had a great customer service experience? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comment section below. Let’s make each other SMILE at the start of the week and if you enjoyed this story, please share it with your friends, to give them a smile, too!

Inside Look: Behind the Scenes of an International Speaking Gig!

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If you’d like to watch the video on YouTube, click here.

Late last year I received an invitation to speak at the Annual Business Blueprint Conference in Phuket, Thailand, which took place at the beginning of February.

I mentioned it on Facebook and was asked by several people to do a bit of an expose (if you can call it that!), on the subject of traveling for a speaking gig, the preparation I go through to speak in front of an audience, etc.

My first cut of today’s video was a little long, but to make it more digestible, I decided on a shorter version where I get to the guts and the glory, leaving out the flowery commenting!

I hope you enjoy the video.

Have you spoken at any international events? Would you like to? What did you think of this ‘inside look’? I’d love to know your thoughts, so please do feel free to comment below. Cheers!

Ask the Readers: Are you REALLY in the Right Niche, as an Online Publisher?

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I’m currently in the process of working with a blogging mentor – I’ll reveal who it is at a later date, but trust me, their credentials are solid!

The reason why I reached out to this person is because I’ve been battling with a few ‘blogging demons’ over the last few months. More specifically, I am actually questioning my purpose as a blogger, as well as my general niche and the way that I am perceived in that niche, too.

It’s Personal, I Get It!

The thing is that we blog for our audiences, obviously. But, as a blogger, when you spend the amount of time that you do, putting together all of your content, surely, you should be:

a) Enjoying it.

b) Doing it for the right reasons.

This is what I am questioning, I guess, at the moment. And, I must say, after just two sessions with my mentor, along with a little homework, I already feel that I’m getting close to REALLY understanding what I SHOULD be doing and the type of content that I should be creating as a blogger.

Now I’m Wondering…

So, here I am, now starting to wonder if all my blogging buddies and the other people that I enjoy reading online (and perhaps even offline – you know, real BOOKS!), are perhaps feeling the same way?

Are you blogging in, and about the niche, that you REALLY should be?

Or, have you started something that has done well, and you’re simply sticking with because it keeps you ‘up there’, or making you money?

I’m curious. If you’re a blogger, podcaster, author or online video producer, please let me know how you feel about this topic below in the comment section.

And please share this post with other bloggers you know…

Entrepreneurs, Listen UP! – The ONE Thing I Wish I Had Done Differently… in Business!

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Nowadays, I often get interviewed for podcasts, magazines and blogs. In fact I was just interviewed by Yaro Starak for his excellent entrepreneurial blog and podcast, which I’ve personally read for years myself.

I’ve been asked ‘If you could go back and start your journey as an entrepreneur all over again, what would you do differently…?’, on more than one occasion.

My answer is a simple one…

As an entrepreneur, I wish that I had gotten active online way, way sooner than I actually did – which is just two years ago.

Why I Enjoy Blogging so Much

My blogging, and the fact that I utilize social media, podcasting and online video as much as I do, has enabled me to far surpass my business growth targets, and has opened more ‘business doors’ than I can count!

In the video above, I go into my feelings on this a little more, and actually tell a couple of stories that reflect things a little clearer.

However, here are a handful of reasons why I wished I’d started my blogging and general involvement in the online business world, sooner:

  • It’s enabled me to build a fantastic personal brand. A brand that has catapulted me to ‘Thought Leader’ status in my niche of ‘outsourcing’, even to the point of being asked to speak at several international conferences and expo’s.
  • I’ve signed up so many new clients for my largest business (which currently houses over 300 employees), who have found me through my podcast and blog, I’ve lost count!
  • The networking opportunities that blogging and having a voice in social media brings, has netted me some of my best, and smartest friends.
  • Blogging has enabled me to create and launch TWO new businesses in the last 12 months.
  • Doing business online has shown me that the world is so much smaller than it used to be, and that the global economy is thriving!

As you can tell, I’ve become a big fan of doing business online.

How My Blogging Journey Began

When I launched this blog, two years ago, I did so with a 1-year goal to become a Virtual CEO. I achieved that goal. And one of the reasons I believe I achieved it (and a full month ahead of schedule, I might add!) is because I documented the entire journey through the pages of my blog.

I blogged about everything I was doing to achieve that status, and more. And I produced monthly reports for people to see what I was doing on a month to month basis to hit my goal, too. It gave me a focus that I’ve never actually experienced before… Seriously. Some might say that starting a blog, and everything else that I’ve done online over the last 24 months has changed my life…

Has Blogging Changed My Life?

In a word, yes, I think it has. For all the reasons I listed above, and because of the stories I discuss in today’s video, too. Plus, much more.

Has it made me a ‘better person’..? No, I don’t think so (I like to think that I’ve always been a pretty nice guy!). But, it’s certainly made me more accessible to potential clients and business partners – which, as any REAL entrepreneur will tell you is AWESOME!!!

Its also put me into a thought process on business that is, literally, never ending. That doesn’t mean that I don’t switch off from ‘work’, because I certainly do. What it means is that I find myself having more ideas, creating more opportunities for myself and my businesses, as well as allowing myself to truly represent myself and my businesses the way I really want to. I love that control.

Have YOU Started a Blog Yet?

If you have, well done. If you haven’t, and you really, truly want to make a difference in this crazy entrepreneurial world that we live in and enjoy so much – do it. TODAY! Don’t wait… like I did. There really is no point and you’ll achieve nothing by sitting on the sideline.

The fact is that people want to do business with other PEOPLE. And creating, starting and building a blog will give you tons more opportunities to connect with people (AKA, your future customers, friends and partners!) than any other medium out there today, that I promise you.

I’m a curious type, as you know, so I have a couple of questions for you…

If you’ve not started a blog yet – whats holding you back? And if you do have a blog, and you’re perhaps thinking about re-launching it in some way, why is that? What are you not happy with?

 

My Speaking Experience at BlogWorld LA, and Why YOU Should Have Attended!

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I’ve just got back into the Philippines, and figured I’d get cracking this week with this round-up from my recent (and second this year!) trip to the USA. The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind, and I’m feeling a little tired, but also very excited about the next few months, at the same time.

The trip kicked-off with a trip to San Francisco, where I met with a couple of clients, had lots of fun hanging out with my man, Corbett Barr and enjoyed plenty of coffee at Starbucks, which was situated right in the lobby of our hotel – to my surprise and delight!

After a few days, myself and Mrs. VBL jetted off to LA and landed to another couple of client meetings, a dinner and then it was all about BlogWorld. This was something that I’d been looking forward to ever since I attended last year and then subsequently missed the first ever New York event earlier on in the year. This time around, however, it was going to be a little different, as I was going to be speaking!

My BlogWorld Speaking Experience

Unlike some of the speakers I met at BlogWorld, this wasn’t my first time speaking in front of an audience, of any size. I’ve spoken at many different conferences, seminars and training events in the past and before I left for my trip to BlogWorld, I was actually confirmed as the Keynote Speaker at the upcoming Visayas Blogging Summit in Cebu City, Philippines which is taking place at the end of November.

All that being said, I always get a little nervous before speaking in front of a crowd (there’s something wrong with you if you don’t!), and BlogWorld was no exception. Especially as the crowd there is very savvy!

I had already got into the mood by shooting my video promo for the event, and had a load of people coming up to me, doing mafia impressions at the show, which was awesome!

All in all I was very happy with the way that my session, which was well attended and on the subject of working with VA’s to help build, grow and monetize your blog, played out. Not only did all the preparation for my session pay off, but I was very happy to see several friendly faces in the audience, as well as some of the biggest names in the blogging world, too!

I did have a little video shot at the session, and as I have had several requests to put something together, I’ll do my best to go ahead and do that in the next week or so, after I recover fully! 🙂

Why YOU Should Have Attended BlogWorld!

If you didn’t get the chance to attend BlogWorld in LA then you certainly DID miss out. The event just gets better and better, seriously. Just to make you feel worse than you probably already do, here are my top 5 reasons why YOU should have attended:

  • Networking opportunities up the yin-yang!
  • The chance to learn from the best in the industry.
  • The opportunity to meet and greet your online buddies.
  • Swag, baby – lots of swag on the exhibition floor.
  • You would have been able to attend my fantastic presentation, obviously!!!

For me, the big take-away is being able to hang out with people that I get on well with, admire, respect and general enjoy talking to. Here you’ll see myself, Pat Flynn and Darren Rowse posing for a snapshot at some point in an hour or so of just ‘chit-chatting’ together. Good times.

If you still want to check out the fantastic sessions that made up the entire 3-day conference, then you can! Simply hop over to the BlogWorld website and purchase a Virtual Ticket. You’ll get access to every session, as well as a bit of extra stuff, too!

Thank You to Everyone!

There are way too many people that I met at the conference, came up to thank me after my session, shook my hand on the exhibition floor and in the corridors of the LA Convention Center, as well as in the Speakers Room throughout the course of the event, to thank here.

However, a few people I’d like to point out and say thanks to are Corbett Barr from Think Traffic, ‘Handsome’ pro-blogger David Risley and Srinivas Rao from BlogCastFM for their unwavering support. I’d also like to thank Darren Rowse from ProBlogger for not only showing his support by attending my presentation, but also for sitting down to record a quick, but memorable video Q&A for the blog (coming soon!) and my buddy, Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, with whom I spent plenty of time with, both during the event and after, in his home town of San Diego, where we relaxed together for a few days, along with our families. SeaWorld, baby!

And last, but by no means least, I’d like to thank Rick Calvert, Dave Cynkin, Deb Ng and the rest of the BlogWorld Team for all the fantastic support they showed myself and the other 300-odd speakers, as well as for their hard work in putting together an awesome industry event.

The next BlogWorld event will be in June 2012 sometime and probably in New York. Its a little soon for me to tell if I’ll be able to make it – but, I can assure you, if I can… I’ll be there with bells on!

Did you attend BlogWorld in LA? If so, tell us about your experiences at the show! And if you didn’t, what do you think you would have gotten out of it the most, if you had…?

How to Beat the **** Out of Your Inbox!

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Email in Inbox

It’s probably the number one time-drain for entrepreneurs all around the world. Yet, email is about as required today as having a fax machine was in the late 80’s and early 90’s. When it comes to communication, your Inbox is where the party’s at, lets face it…

However, email – and particularly your Inbox, doesn’t have to be the pain in the ass that it is for a lot of busy business owners and 9-5 escapee-wannabe’s! It’s simply about putting systems and processes in place to make sure you don’t get sucked into email doom on a daily basis.

When I was in the process of becoming a Virtual CEO last year, I had a lot of mini-goals that I incorporated into my one-year long goal of escaping my desk on a daily basis. These mini-goals were basically monthly goals and sometimes I’d have to hit several within a one-month period to stay on track.

Rewind to January 2010

In that first month, I set out to remove myself from as many email commitments as possible. The main reason behind this decision was that if I truly wanted to become that Virtual CEO, I had a lot of work and planning ahead of me. I simply wasn’t going to be able to achieve everything I needed to, if I was stuck in front of Outlook all day!

So, I took myself out of as many ‘copy me in’ threads as possible. Everything from my HR team (except management issues), my IT team (except emergencies) and my Operations team (except for a couple of key clients). It worked. I went from spending 4 hours a day on email to around 1-2 hours, depending on the day (Monday is usually a little heavier than most for me).

Moving Email to the Cloud

Nowadays I’m cloud based, and handle all my email via the Gmail platform. This was another move I made last year, around April, which enabled me to become more mobile as a business owner. The ability to check, reply and ‘file’ email from any device I own, or any other computer for that matter, just became golden, and I never see myself going back to a one-device email set-up, such as Outlook, or Mail for the Mac.

But, this doesn’t necessarily mean that I am going to remain super-productive when it comes to battling my Inbox, does it? Of course not. So, I’ve had to put several guidelines and processes in place to make sure that happens.

My 6 Golden Email Rules

Now we get down to the focus of this post. The following guidelines; rules; processes, whatever you want to call them, are not, by any means final, nor irreplaceable, neither are they going to work for everyone out there. However, if you’re a new-age entrepreneur, traveling business owner or small online business boss, believe me – trying them out might just make your life a little easier – and productive.

One Click Rule

This is about as simple as it sounds. When an email lands in my Inbox, I open it and with one click do one of the following:

  • Reply
  • Delete
  • Archive

If you open the email and then go onto another email you’re only going to have to come back to the first one at some point. Why bother yourself? It takes time, it’s irritating and it simply doesn’t make sense to me.

Three Sentence Rule

For any of you who might have corresponded with me via email, you would have seen the following email signature when I’ve replied to you (if not, feel free to email me):

The link takes you to a page where you can find out why I answer all of my emails using no more than three sentences. The simple reason behind this is that it enables me to answer my emails properly, yet in a polite and productive manner.

I’m more of a talker than a typer anyway, and so my rule is that if I can’t give a reasonable answer to a question, or a piece of info someone needs within three sentences, then I pick up the phone. The only exception to this rule is business proposals, if need be.

Eliminate Yourself from Email Threads

This will affect some people more than others. But, if you have a lot of people working for/with you within your company set-up, then the chances are that you can probably get your number of daily emails down quite considerably, just like I did, by removing yourself from certain email threads.

Start Using a Project Management System

Using something like Basecamp to work with people on a daily basis, whether they are within your company structure, or not, enables you to cut your Inbox load down even further.

It does mean, obviously, that you’ll be handling messages, updates, etc., from another platform, so you’ll have to balance out things and see whether it will work for you. Bottom line – try it. If it works, great. If not, nothing ventured, nothing gained…

Unsubscribe from Mailing Lists

We are all guilty of this. We see a shiny eBook that we want, or a video course we want to check out. They are free – but, you need to opt-in. This sticks you on someone’s mailing list, however, which means you will get email from him or her regularly (some more than others, obviously).

My rule on this was to remove myself from all of the mailing lists I was on, except for my five favorite bloggers. It was a simple process to undertake. I simply waited for an email to arrive, figured out whether I still wanted to receive messages from the owner of the list, or not, and hit the ‘unsubscribe’ link more often, than not.

Don’t Use Your Inbox as a To-Do List

A lot of people I know make this mistake. And I mean a LOT! This is mad. Think about it – if your Inbox is also your To-Do List, then, as a busy ‘idea a minute’ entrepreneur, you will never clear your Inbox. EVER.

Just the action of leaving the message in there, regardless of what color you flag it, or what nice label you give it, goes against you and your productivity levels. Get your ‘To-Do’ items out of your Inbox and put them somewhere else.

Some ideas of ways to manage your To-Do List could be as follows:

  • A notepad
  • An iPad (as I use now. App – ‘Things‘)
  • An iPhone (or other smart phone)
  • Post-It Notes (I used to use this)
  • Index cards
  • Excel Sheets

Starting Kicking the *** Out of your Inbox, Now!

As you can see, I attack my Inbox in a number of different ways. What matters the most here, more than anything else, is that it works for me. I mean, when you go from 4 hours a day stuck in an email-jam, to an average of an hour or so, that’s killer. That’s game-changing, for ANY entrepreneur.

What are you doing to cut down email and become more productive? Let me know in the comments, below. And… ReTweet’s of this particular post are really appreciated! Thanks.