Chris Ducker

Expert Business Growth, Virtual Staffing & Personal Branding

Want Success in Business? Get Some GREAT Support, NOW!

by 14 Comments

Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 8mins

Pictured with me above is my Personal Assistant, Stephanie (she’ll kill me for posting this photo, but – too late!). Steph helps me with my day-to-day business tasks, and definitely plays a big part in me achieving what I achieve every day – whether I’m working from the company’s HQ, or home (like today), or anywhere else for that matter!

Judging by the amount of visitors I get each day to the blog, which is growing every single day – and the 700+ people that have downloaded my free eBook on working with Virtual Assistants, I figure a lot of you, for whatever reason, haven’t gotten around to grabbing your copy yet. So, this post is actually a sneak peek at part of a chapter from the eBook, along with some new material (labeled clearly for the VBL devotee’s out there that have already read it).

This stuff is NEW: Most companies and individuals who have been working with virtual assistants with great success have one thing in common: they are pleased to have somebody else handle their time-consuming, repetitive, mundane, administrative tasks that get in the way of spending quality time with their family, or focusing on more important business issues, such as planning and growth.

…

READ POST

Bruce Lee’s 12 Business Lessons – Learn from the Little Dragon!

by 29 Comments

Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 7mins

Some of you might remember, I mentioned the fact that I am a huge Bruce Lee fan in a post I did back in February, which summarized my US trip, where I included a photo of me and the Little Dragon’s ‘Hollywood Walk of Fame’ star. This time around I wanted to show you guys (in case you didn’t know) how much of a great businessman Bruce was.

The name Bruce Lee is known in virtually every household in the world. He never employed a virtual assistant, however, as the man who single-handedly brought martial arts to mainstream culture in the 70’s and beyond, the San Francisco born martial artist was known more for his lightening-fast kicks and powerful punches, than for his business prowess! However, at the same time as he was studying Philosophy at the University of Washington, Bruce embarked on launching his own Chinese Gung Fu Institute, where he would teach students from all walks of life – even though the local Chinese community frowned upon him doing so (the Chinese in the neighborhood believed that their ’secret’s’ should not be taught to non-Chinese).

…

READ POST

How to Identify a Professional Outsourcing Partner

by 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….

READ POST

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

by 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:…

READ POST

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

by 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….

READ POST

Can Offshore Virtual Assistants Create Good Quality, Original Web Content? The Virtual Business Lifestyle Case Study – Day Three

by 14 Comments

Location: New York, USA – Reading Time: 7mins

So, if you’re a regular visitor to my blog, you’ll know that over the last two days I have been engaging in a case study to show you all that offshore virtual assistants are indeed very capable when it comes to creating good quality web content. If you’re not a regular visitor, you’ll know of this now, obviously (because I just told you!), and I suggest you check out Day One and Day Two before reading on.

Today we finish off a monster article that one of the virtual assistants that works for my company wrote on cool online app’s for entrepreneurs – specifically for this blog, and specifically for this case study. I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed the series, and you’ll be coming across my ’round-up’ on everything at the end of this post! Take it away, Miss VA…

Applications for Security:

Eliminate the risk of viruses, phishing and spyware for your online transactions.

Escrow (https://www.escrow.com/index.asp). For secure online transactions, use Escrow. This online service works by acting as a third party that collects, holds and disburses payments according to agreed instructions, thereby protecting both you and your client from fraud. Payment can be done in many forms such as check and money order….

READ POST

Can Offshore Virtual Assistants Create Good Quality, Original Web Content? The Virtual Business Lifestyle Case Study – Day Two

by 17 Comments

 

outsourcing life, wen content

Location: New York, USA – Reading Time: 7mins

So, following on from yesterday’s post where my company’s chosen virtual assistant v wrote on cool online app’s for sharing and storing files online, organization and calendar sharing, today we continue with my case study, looking into the world of the Philippine Virtual Assistant, but more specifically answering the question as to whether or not they can help you in creating original, quality web content for projects such as blogs, site content, eBook’s, etc.

Please note: This is REAL, completely UNEDITED text (sure, we’ve formatted for the blog, but that’s it!), written by one of the virtual assistants that works directly for my company, serving a client that is based in the USA. Let’s continue with the test!

 

Applications for Writing:

Unleash your creativity and earn money in the process.

Google Docs (https://docs.google.com/). Don’t worry if you don’t have MS Word or spreadsheet because Google Docs and Spreadsheet has these. You can create a new document, spreadsheet or presentation and upload your files from and save to your desktop. You can access your files anytime anywhere and choose who can access your documents. Those who have access to files can share changes in real time. And it’s all free!…

READ POST

Can Offshore Virtual Assistants Create Good Quality, Original Web Content? The Virtual Business Lifestyle Case Study – Day One

by 13 Comments

creating original content, virtual assistant writing

Location: New York, USA – Reading Time: 7mins

Outsourcing. It’s a funny old game! Over the last year I’ve gotten tons, and I mean TONS of emails from business owners and aspiring internet marketers asking if Philippine virtual assistants can handle tasks such as blogging and content creation for websites. Simple answer to the question: Yes, they can. You will always have to ‘clean it up’ a little, if you want it to be 100% perfect, but they do a darn fine job, I can tell you. So, not that I feel as if I have to back-up this statement, I thought I would try something out.

Starting today, and lasting exactly THREE DAYS, I will not be writing the content on my blog. I have instead asked one of my employees, that works at my company as a virtual assistant, to “write an in-depth article on cool online web applications that entrepreneurs can use to make their life easier and be a little more productive on the move”. That was literally what I asked for! The following is the article that she came up with (spread over the next three posts, including this one). I am really looking forward to the comments on this one!!! Here we go……

READ POST