Chris Ducker

Expert Business Growth, Virtual Staffing & Personal Branding

August 2010 “Virtual CEO Goal” Monthly Report

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Virtual CEO - Chris Ducker's August Monthly Report

My desk at the Live2Sell Group HQ – Yes, the one I want to give away!

Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 6mins

Number of Days in the Office: 13, Total Number of Employees: 213

So, here we go with another monthly round-up as I get closer and closer to approaching my end of year goal, and becoming that (hopefully) full-time Virtual CEO. First up, I spent considerably less time in the office this past month, which is great. This wasn’t actually down to me making sure I did this, however, it simply ‘just happened’ as I have been focusing on different projects and have been working more from home to stay focused throughout the ‘creative’ stage on things.

The biggest part of August was the launch my of Virtual Staff Finder service. For a full run-down on the service and its features, you can visit the seperate website, or read my full launch post here on the blog.

We were, frankly, blown away with the response and I have been up to my eyeballs in consultation calls over the last couple of weeks. As we launched the service to the VBL subscriber list only we expected a certain number of people to sign-up, but saw a lot more sign-up’s than we anticipated. So far, so good… with over 20 virtual assistants already deployed to entrepreneurs around the world, through the service.

Although this is not 100% ‘passive’ income, it is to a certain degree. Meaning, nothing actually takes place until someone sign’s up and pays for the service. At that point, myself and my team work on things. I must say, I have enjoyed coming back from dinner and from being out on the weekend, to see emails from Paypal…!

Other going-on’s this month included:

  • Two new client sign-up’s.
  • Expansion on our sales and marketing team.
  • Promoted 3 members of staff to mid-management level.
  • I enjoyed spending time with a good friend that came into town from the UK.
  • Finally found my Eskrima teacher, and a Grand Master, no less (more on this in a future post!).
  • My Son is now a full-blown bodyguard for his Mommy, not even letting me get a little hug-time in!
  • I’ve started planning my first full-blown online product, too.

We also surpassed our target of 1,000 RSS subscribers here at the blog, too (at the time of writing this report we are around 1,020, I believe). Thanks to all the subscribers and if you haven’t added us to your reader yet, please do so, to make sure you never miss an update on the blog. Be sure to also join us on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, too.

Virtual Business Lifestyle Podcast

Another point to mention is that our iTunes Podcast has grown from strength to strength, and has been featured very predominantly throughout the last month in the ‘Noteworthy’ section of the Business listing consistently. You’ll see in the above image that we’re featured along with Pat Flynn’s great new podcast, too.

So, a pretty strong month. Thanks to everyone for their continued support on these reports. They won’t last forever, in terms of the current format anyway, and I do enjoy reading the feedback from you all, very much so. See you on the next post!

February 2010 “Virtual CEO Goal” Monthly Report

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All Work and No Play Makes Chris a Dull Boy - My Cop 'friends' on the Walk of Fame in LA!

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

Number of Days in the Office: 6, Total Number of Employees: 174

So here we are the second installment / update on what is happening in regards to my personal goal for 2010 – to become a Full-Time Virtual CEO by the end of the year. February has been a slightly less ‘hectic’ month, in terms of individual events – compared to the line-up of things that took place in January – as I was traveling for the majority of the month on my US Pleasure Trip (click link for the trip review!). However, that doesn’t mean that its been a slow month in terms of achievements!

The highlight for February was obviously the aforementioned trip to the US, where not only did I get the chance to relax and spend some QT with my beautiful wife, but where I also got the chance to meet with THREE of my clients with whom I had never had the pleasure of sitting face-to-face with before. One of them had been working with us for almost two years – so that was great.

I also got the chance to meet with a few prospective clients, too, as well as a couple of close friends, such as Sanjay Maholtra (the last video in our ‘San Fran’ series is coming later on this week!). Also, whilst snowed in, in New York, I met up and had a coffee with fellow entrepreneur and VBL blog follower, Doug – who lives there full time. Doug contacted me via Twitter whilst I was already on the trip, in San Francisco, and invited me for a coffee… Why not, I thought! It turned out to be a great conversation, and Doug graciously shot and sent the quick video below to me, too – I haven’t had the chance to post it until now – so, thanks Doug – much appreciated, and next time the coffee is on me!…

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January 2010 “Virtual CEO Goal” Monthly Report

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philippines call center live2sell

Location: Company Offices, Reading Time: 5mins

Number of Days in the Office: 22, Total Number of Employees: 171

So here we are with my first ever blog post (complete with candid shot from company party last month!), and my first ever monthly report, encapsulating my mission to become a Full-Time Virtual CEO by the end of the year. And, just to clarify, when I mean ‘virtual’, I mean REALLY virtual, like no desk, no chair, no ‘office’ on my company premises.

These ‘report’ posts are going to be as straight forward as possible, but with enough ‘meat’ on them so that you can see what I have been up to, without giving too much away (as I’m sure as I grow the site, knowing the industry I’m in the way I do… several of the principals of companies I would class as ‘competitors’ are bound to subscribe and start reading this blog – hope you’ll be learning lots!).

The two main points of business that really stick out this month are obviously the launch of VirtualBusinessLifestyle.com (with this very post!), and the hiring of a brand new Head of Operations for my company (we’ll be shooting a video post together sometime in the near future). This one move is a very important one in my overall plan for 2010, and one that will obviously continue to develop throughout the course of the year.

Couple this together with real in-depth planning for my upcoming ‘pleasure trip’ to the USA, that will last just over 2 weeks, and take me to San Francisco, Miami, New York and LA – I’ll be a really busy bee.

Important Things that Happened in January

  • Hired a new Head of Operations to start freeing-up more time and planning for the future.
  • Launched this blog.
  • Brought on board 3 new clients.
  • Had 2 client visits.
  • Worked closely with my PA on travel plans for upcoming US Trip (February).

So, all in all, a very productive month.

Wish us a safe trip for the US, please! We (myself and my wife, Ercille) leave tomorrow. If you’d like to stay up-to-date with my ‘happenings’ whilst on the trip, feel free to follow me on Twitter – I’ll be tweeting regularly.