Chris Ducker is my go-to guy that I trust when it comes to outsourcing and virtual assistants. We met through Twitter and the blogosphere and over the last several months I’ve gotten to know him quite well.
Chris is an experienced sales and marketing professional originally from London, who’s now the CEO of the Live2Sell Group of Companies, a thriving offshore outsourcing provider and call center operation in Cebu City, Philippines, where they’ve grown exponentially from about 7 employees to a massive firm with 217 staff and growing!
Chris is on a mission to be a full-time Virtual CEO by the end of 2010, to get his business to the point where he can work from home with his family, and he documents his journey at Virtual Business Lifestyle.
Chris recently interviewed me for VBL, but this time I sat down to chat with him about his businesses, how he turned his life around 180 degrees from near bankruptcy to thriving success, the key differences between hiring freelance virtual assistants and hiring an outsourcing service provider, and his mission to remove himself from the office and become a Virtual CEO before the end of the year:
0:45 – All about Chris’ Virtual Business Lifestyle
1:40 – How Chris ended up living and working in Cebu, Philippines
4:20 – Rags to riches, going from lots of debt to great financial success
6:56 – Why Chris wants to free himself from the office and become a Virtual CEO
11:25 – Work-life balance and what Chris’ mobile lifestyle with his family looks like
14:45 – All about Chris’ business process outsourcing firm and call center and his personal web PA company
17:47 – The quality of the workforce in the Philippines and the scalability power of outsourcing
22:45 – Home-based freelance outsourcers and keys to finding great virtual assistants
25:14 – The benefits of going with outsourcing companies
26:33 Chris’ new match-making service to help you find reliable home-based virtual assistants
28:19 – Expat life in the Philippines and the low cost of living in Asia (see Chris’ blog post What’s it Like to Live and Work in the Philippines?)
Late last week, Chris and his team launched their new Virtual Assistant match-making service, Virtual Staff Finder. In a nutshell, it bridges the gap between entrepreneurs that want a hard-working, experienced home-based VA, but one that is filtered and vetted in a more professional way. They do the background checks, test applicants online and give you the top three candidates to interview. For people who want to hire outsourcers, it eliminates all the guesswork, and you basically don’t have to do anything but make the final ‘hire’ decision.
I’ll be using Chris’ new service myself in the weeks ahead, as I’ve had my share of headaches searching job listing sites and trying to find the best virtual assistants through other means. You can check it out by visiting VirtualStaffFinder.com—where you can also get your hands on his new free eBook “The Top 10 Virtual Assistant Tips”! And if you do decide to hire your own VA with Virtual Staff Finder’s help, make sure you use this link to let them know I sent you their way and they should treat you with extra love!
Make sure to scope out all the invaluable content Chris has on his site Virtual Business Lifestyle. A couple of my favorites:
- How to Utilize Virtual Assistants to Help Create, Market and Sell Your ‘4HWW’ Style Muse!
- What’s it Like to Live and Work in the Philippines?
- Personal Branding and The Art of Self Promotion
- The Virtual Business Lifestyle Top 12 “Lifestyle Design” Blogs
You can also connect with Chris below:
Always good to watch interviews with people who’ve made it
Hi Rob
And it is equally nice to ‘be watched’.
Still working on ‘making it’, though, buddy.
Glad you enjoyed the chat – was a blast.
Chris
Glad you dig it Rob! Thanks for the comment man. Chris is still passionately evolving his business & his lifestyle for even MORE freedom though too, so stay tuned to Virtual Business Lifestyle!
Hi..I regularly visit your site and was excited to read your blog posts on virtual assistants. I myself am a virtual assistant from India. I liked the concept of virtual match maker..something new! Chris’ virtual CEO mission is something I will follow now onwards..Thanks for the wonderful blog post!
Glad you enjoy the content, Sharon.
Lots more planned for the future.
All the best,
Chris
I just sat down with Chris for my official consultation yesterday! I’ve had 3 job listings open for over 6 weeks, and really struggled to find quality applicants through the main channels. Lots of crappy CVs, unqualified applicants, the most promising ones disappear without a trace… So far, the Virtual Staff Finder service is cool and I’m really looking forward to the results! I know Chris is one of the most connected and knowledgeable folks about outsourcing in the Philippines.
Top Chat again guys,
Interesting what Chris says there, about the cheap freelance home workers often working for more than one foreign employer. I have employed some of these people before and had a sixth sense that weren’t just working for me.
Looking forward to your future video with beers n BBQ on a boat.
Yeah well as Chris tells me, a lot of these guys are just hustling to survive and provide for their families, so if you can find someone stellar and pay them a bit of a premium (contrary to the popular idea that a full-timer will only cost you $250/month) you might be able to hold onto some decent workers. That’s the process I’m going through right now with Chris’ Virtual Staff Finder service…
Let me tell you, that ‘boat’ video is coming…!!!
Yes, not really what a lot of virtual employers want to hear, but still… true.
Thanks for the comment, glad you enjoyed the chat.
It was fun to record, too.
Chris
Can’t wait to drop into Cebu and pull Chris out of the office for a few days’ vacation on the beach!
It’s grande to see you two chatting it up as I read up on both of you separately, Chris I love the new service, Cody keep being awesome.
Heh, thanks Rob, I try to maintain a certain level of awesomeness around here! Thanks for listening buddy!
To Chris Ducker- you are an inspiration.
I clicked on the link about “Living and Working in the Philippines” and I learned a lot about Philippines.