Chris Ducker – Why I’m Successful

How Chris Ducker Became an Internet Entrepreneur

Chris Ducker has been around for a while now and he has made quite the mark on the world of internet marketing, Now based in the Philippines, Chris really has managed to become successful and is now living the internet lifestyle. Always one to please, Chris jumped at the chance of being interviewed for everyone at IncomeDiary to read. Chris is now the author of Virtual Business Lifestyle and he is doing extremely well with it at present.

Chris is one of those people that you can get on with very easily and he had no qualms in answering any of my questions, he’s as honest in person as he is in business and I think this is a quality many of the top successful online entrepreneurs have in common amongst other things; but enough of my ramblings, here is how Chris Ducker became successful.

Quick Fire Questions

Best Business Purchase?
My iPad.

Favourite Business Resource?
PopupDomination, it’s boosted my opt-ins, by around 200% on average through all of my sites.

Biggest Inspiration?
My children. Everything I do every day is for them.

Favourite Business Website?
I absolutely love Sethsblog.com.

How I Got Started

The Live2Sell Group started in 2004, with 7 employees and I now have almost 250 people working for me full-time. Since we started I have launched two separate subsidiaries that are under the same corporate banner, Virtual Staff Finder, which helps entrepreneurs find high quality, proven home-based virtual assistants from the Philippines, and Live2Care, which handles the entire inbound customer service and support needs of our clients worldwide. We’ll be launching another company soon, too!

I’ve gone from working 14 hours a day, literally, in the beginning to now averaging around 8 hours a day. But, the great part is that I only spend about 6 hours a week in the office now, since becoming a full-time Virtual CEO at the end of 2010. The rest of the time I work from my home office, or other various locations such as beach resorts and airport lounges, or sometimes, just good old Starbucks!

What Motivates Me To Continue To Be Successful

I’ve been involved in the sales and marketing industry for 20 years, and in the outsourcing industry for half of that time. I’ve worked with literally hundreds of small business owners and entrepreneurs, and wanted to focus on this group to be able to not only just put together a great service, but to also be able to help businesses grow and expand, utilizing our suite of services.

The real motivation behind getting it going was a combination of perfect timing, genuine market thirst for the services I wanted to roll out, and the fact that I had been working as a consultant for a company in Florida for a guy that literally was the biggest micro-manager I have ever come across. It was time to make a difference!

How I Work

As I am based in the Philippines, and my client base is spread out worldwide, my work day is actually split up a little. But, my usual day is something like – Wake at around 12noon, breakfast whilst checking email. Play with my youngest kid until around 2pm, when he has his afternoon nap! Then work for around 3 hours with my team in the office, and then break again until around 10pm, where I will work with my operational management and speak with clients until around 3am. Most days I work with my marketing team for about 40% of the day and then my management team, clients and additional projects for the remainder. Generally speaking it’s a 9-10 hour day, most days. And it works brilliantly for me.

How I Have Expanded My Business So Rapidly

It was the focus that I applied to the business itself, especially in the first couple of years. I would work tirelessly on building it. Marketing it. Selling it. Sleeping it. You name it, I was always ‘on’, all the time. That, plus the fact that we were able to team up with a couple of really awesome clients, that were big enough to make a huge difference to our profit margins, as well as the overall plans for the growth in general.

What Makes Me The Most Money

The most profit aspect of our business is the ability to cross-sell clients from one service to another. The is no better (and easier) ‘additional’ business to get your hands on, than that of working with your existing clients. We’re lucky to have a great line-up of services to offer our clients, all of which perfectly compliment each other – its all be created and set-up that way, and it works very, very well.

The Day I Realized “I MADE IT”

This moment was awesome! It was when I was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine. It was only a one, full-page spread, with just one image and an awesome write-up, but it had always been one of my goals to be featured in that magazine. Now, I have a new goal – get on the cover of it! I celebrated by getting blown up, framed and mounting it on my office wall – and with a few beers!

I Would Have Been Successful Sooner If…

Actually, I don’t think there is anything that could have got me there any sooner. First up – it was only about a year after I had started the company, so that’s pretty fast, I reckon. Secondly, the career I have had getting to that point was full of learning blocks anyway. Mistakes I had made, the lessons learned, etc. Even if I could have gotten there faster by doing this, or by doing that, I don’t think I would have wanted to. Everything I have achieved in my life, both business and personal, feels as if it has happened and just the right time.

The only thing I might have added (which probably wouldn’t have gotten me featured in Entrepreneur faster), but I feel I was a little late catching on to, was starting my blog. Since I have been blogging I have met so many incredible entrepreneurs and business people that I feel that the success I have achieved thus far probably would have been ‘bigger’ (more in monetary terms, than anything else). That being said – I’m doing okay for myself, so you wont hear me complaining too much!

What You Should Be Focusing On

It’s got to be a combination of creating awesome content, which genuinely helps solve problems for people, not waiting (even a day!) to start building their marketing opt-in lists, and finally utilizing outsourced staff to help you leverage your time more effectively every day to achieve more and become not only more productive, but also more successful.

Why I’m Successful and Why You May Be Not

Passion and commitment. I’ve seen a ton of people try to get going in our business space over the last 5 years or so, hardly any of them have succeeded. I believe the reason behind that was because they got involved entirely just for the money. Wrong move – in any business.

If you don’t have the passion and the commitment to make it happen you wont succeed. Every TRUE entrepreneur knows that you’re going to have to sweat a little and bleed a little to be able to truly own your niche. Regardless of what that niche is. It can be the pro blogging industry or the pro dog walking  industry. If you want to be successful you have to work very hard, commit to being focused, long-term and above all, have that passion.

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