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Helping Entrepreneurs Go The Distance In Business… And Life!

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)

Virtual Freedom SmallThe 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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2 Ideas to Monetize Your Brand, and 1 Way to Make Money with it – TODAY!

Screen Shot 2014-02-19 at 6.18.38 PMI’ve talked a lot about building a personal brand here on the blog. It’s a subject I’m super passionate about and something that I know works all too well, when it comes to your overall business growth as an entrepreneur doing business in todays marketplace.

However, building that brand, launching it and marketing it to the world to gain the attention you want / need to take everything you’re doing to the next level is just the start. As an influencer, you have to be seen to sell (something I discussed in depth in Episode 42 of my podcast) – doing so drives authority.

You can’t and shouldn’t be seen as giving ‘everything’ away for ‘free’.

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

email inox zeroAfter 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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4 Ways to Work with Virtual Assistants to Build Your Online Personal Brand

chris-ducker-tbex-speakerA couple of days ago I presented at TBEX, the worlds largest Travel Blogging Conference, in Toronto, on the subject of working with virtual assistants to make the transition from ‘blogger to business owner’ as easy and productive as possible.

One of the talking points was the importance of building a personal brand.

Building a personal brand online with the help of a virtual assistant is a start way to add value to your online presence. In fact, it’s needed into today’s business landscape, more than ever in the history of business and entrepreneurship.

A ‘personal brand’ is synonymous with your reputation, and refers to the way other people see you. Ask yourself what you want people to say about you when you’re not around – the answer is directly related to your personal brand.

It takes time to build up a reputation and become a trusted authority, or expert in your field – which is necessary when building any type of successful brand. However, there are certainly a few simple first steps to building a personable image, creating rapport and gaining trust as an online entrepreneur that you can have virtual staff handle for you.

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By Demand: Private USA Mastermind Sessions Coming this July! (Limited Seats)

usa-flagAt the beginning of May, I ran the 1st and 2nd Chris Ducker Dot Com Mastermind Sessions in London, comprising of 20 people in total, which sold out in less than 48-hours.

For many of those that attended, it was their first mastermind ever.

Being in an exclusive setting with other likeminded entrepreneurs to discuss business for an entire day was memorable enough, but once you add-on the time spent enjoying drinks together afterwards, the experience turned into something completely different.

Friendships were formed. Alliances were created. Joint ventures entered into and even businesses have been started-up. Here are some of the actions that London attendees have taken in the last few weeks, post Mastermind:

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Why Co-Working Spaces are Invaluable for the ‘New-Age’ Entrepreneur

natalie-coworking-chatAt the beginning of the year I launched a new business – the first ever co-working space here in Cebu City, Philippines, called Location63.

It’s been a remarkable experience, as I’ve seen the resident head count grow steadily since opening our doors. However, one of the best things about the business so far is the people that have dropped in to work there. Everyone from permanent virtual assistants and freelancers, to traveling entrepreneurs and full-blown digital nomads.

It’s been great meeting them all. One of the people that I’ve connected with the most, however, is a true-blue Suitcase Entrepreneur, Natalie Sisson – who I’m introducing you to today.

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

3 Lists to Freedom

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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3 Fast and Easy Ways to Kick-Start the Growth of Your Business!

Business growth is one of those terms that is thrown around a lot nowadays. For me, this used to simply mean increasing revenue.

As a business owner myself, I’m focused. My eyes are ‘on the prize’.

However, in my pursuit to continue to grow my own businesses, and start-up new ones – I have come to a realization. Actually a few… And I’d like to share these three quick tips that I hope you seriously consider taking on board, so that you can start growing your business a little faster in today’s market.

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7 Ways to get Your Inbox Under Control and Regain Your Entrepreneurial Sanity!

Get Your Email Inbox Under ControlEmail is probably the biggest time-sucker for every and any entrepreneur working hard to create, build and run a business in today’s economy.

I’ve struggled with it myself in the past, but I’m happy to say I now have it very much under control – and it was all because of a handful of steps I incorporated into my daily work life.

A couple of days ago my buddy, Leslie Samuel published a post outlining changes that he was making in order to better manage his time and especially communication with followers and customers. This prompted me to shoot this video, which I hope will help bring some calm to the entrepreneurial storm, known simply as ‘Inbox Hell’.

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