Systemize Your Success

🎙 Want to increase efficiency, organise yourself, gain more insight into your staff and what they do with increased visibility, and easily create a plan for setting up systems in your business? This episode highlights the incredible advantages of using a Task Manager to keep all aspects of your business under close accountability without succumbing to micro-management and hours of precious time lost by you. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

💡 When creating task boards for our teams and business, we should also include ourselves. 

💡 All of your recurring work can be setup on a task board with a daily, weekly, monthly, and periodic column. Within a couple of months, you should have all your tasks recorded. 

💡 You can use Toggle to time all your repetitive tasks, which integrates directly into your task management app. Once you have all your tasks recorded, you can decide who else could do these tasks to free up time.   

💡 Keep all the conversation about the task as a comment on each task. This allows you to see the whole history of the task.

💡 Add all recurring tasks in your business to another project so you can go to one place to check progress rather than checking each of your staff member’s separate boards. 

BEST MOMENTS

0:39 - 💬 ‘Organizing your Business using a Task Manager is incredibly easy to do, and doing this will change how you think about task delegation and management.’

11:10 - 💬 ‘Keeping all the conversation about the task on the comment section of the task itself allows the team to collaborate and communicate far more efficiently.’

17:32 - 💬 ‘Organizing your Business using a Task Manager creates a blueprint for your entire business, creates a plan for offloading your work, and will help you indicate which tasks or processes in your business require streamlining.’

18:03 - 💬 ‘By knowing how long stuff is taking and being aware of your team's capacity, you can get them to sharpen their tasks by empowering them to have the authority to go away and be your 'Internal Process Optimizers'.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website: www.SystemizeYourSuccess.com

Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/

Instagram: Instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/

YouTube: YouTube.com/@drsteveday42

ABOUT THE HOST

Steve was a slave to his business, but when he moved to Sweden in 2015, he was forced to change how he worked. He switched to running his businesses remotely. After totally nailing this concept, he spent his time helping other small business owners do the same. Steve’s been investing in property since 2002, has a degree in Computing, and worked as a doctor in the NHS before quitting to focus full-time on sharing his systems and outsourcing Methodology with the world. He now lives in Sweden and runs his UK-based businesses remotely with the help of his team of Filipino and UK-based Virtual Assistants.

Most business owners are overwhelmed because they don’t know how to create systems or get the right help.

Our systems and outsourcing Courses and coaching programme will help you automate your business and work effectively with affordable virtual assistants. That way, you will stop feeling overwhelmed and start making more money.

🎙Avoid the nightmare of lost data by ensuring you backup your content, data and tasks effectively. Plan for all the disasters that can happen and put your mind at rest with unlimited zoom cloud storage for free! Steve gives you all you need to know to achieve this and provides some of his cautionary tales to incentivise you to start regular backups of your business. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

💡 Save yourself the stress, and back up all your data, including all your task management data.

💡 Zoom allows you to back up your video, but this is the most significant amount of data and can add up to thousands of cloud storage fees. 

💡 With Google Drive, you can sync all your desktop data to their cloud drive. Backing up your video data to the cloud will help save space and avoid clogging up your physical drives. 

💡 Pro Backup can easily back up most task management apps. Many inexpensive options are also available to back up your task management apps completely. You can take double backups by utilising your Google Drive secondarily.    

💡 When referring video files, images or files within Task Managers, rather than uploading the whole file, reference the link to your video cloud storage. This will save you money on data storage fees for your Task Manager app. 

💡 Double down on your backups as much as you can. You can use tools like afi.ai, which offer a backup separate from the original data. 

BEST MOMENTS

1:26 - 💬 ‘I’ve had a few disasters over the year regarding my files and folders, and these things you think will never happen until they do.’  

03:58 - 💬 ‘Back up the most critical apps in your business as cheaply as possible by trying to find cost-effective ways to get the best level of service or protection without breaking the bank in the process.’  

4:47 - 💬 ‘We record a massive amount of video daily and have terabytes of stuff. If I use the zoom option, the cloud storage would cost thousands of pounds monthly.’ 

11:20 - 💬 ‘If you are uploading videos and images and files to something like Asana, it increases the amount of storage you’re using on their cloud storage, and when it comes to backing that up, you pay per gigabyte of storage.’ 

20:04 - 💬 ‘Just doing these simple steps of backing up your data will give you absolute peace of mind, which means you don't have to stress anymore.’  

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website: www.SystemizeYourSuccess.com

Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/

Instagram: Instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/

YouTube: YouTube.com/@drsteveday42

ABOUT THE HOST

Steve was a slave to his business, but when he moved to Sweden in 2015, he was forced to change how he worked. He switched to running his businesses remotely. After totally nailing this concept, he spent his time helping other small business owners do the same. Steve’s been investing in property since 2002, has a degree in Computing, and worked as a doctor in the NHS before quitting to focus full-time on sharing his systems and outsourcing Methodology with the world. He now lives in Sweden and runs his UK-based businesses remotely with the help of his team of Filipino and UK-based Virtual Assistants.

Most business owners are overwhelmed because they don’t know how to create systems or get the right help.

Our systems and outsourcing Courses and coaching programme will help you automate your business and work effectively with affordable virtual assistants. That way, you will stop feeling overwhelmed and start making more money.

🎙 In this episode of the Systemize Your Success Podcast, Steve will take us on the behind-the-scenes of how he recruits new staff for his business. When is the right time to hire new people, who should you employ, and what work should you give them? 

This hiring process works for all businesses and all types of roles, and getting this right the first time is a massive advantage for any company, big or small, new or established.  

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

💡 The signs that you may need a new staff in your company are that you, as a business owner, are starting to feel stressed, doing more tasks than you should be delegating, feeling uncomfortable or dissatisfied with the progress, or running out of work capacity in your current team.  

💡 If your staff are working longer hours, this eventually will begin to wear on their lives, and you could potentially lose valuable people and skills due to burnout. 

💡 Do you create an entirely new role for the position or delegate from someone existing and use the new staff member to create more capacity? Detail what the new project will entail and create a clear goal, but a new position will need a lot of onboarding and hand-holding. An existing person is already accustomed to your values and work methods. 

💡 If you can choose current tasks that are well systemized, then you can use the new person to take on these tasks and free up an experienced staff member for the new project. 

💡 Task boards are invaluable in identifying which tasks can be chosen to hand off to the new staff. If you haven’t got a task board system, now is a great time to start. Your existing team know how to train people for these tasks, freeing you up from any training requirements. 

💡 Pick tasks that fit one personality type. Craft the job posting around those tasks to attract that personality type. 

BEST MOMENTS 

13:19 - 💬 ‘Look at what your existing staff are already doing and ask, "of all the stuff you're already doing, what is well-documented, well-systemized that we could easily hand over to somebody else? Doing this will free up our existing team members to focus their time on this new project.’

17:24 - 💬 ‘Freeing up your existing team members and giving them new opportunities is allowing them to develop themselves into new areas.’

19:31 - 💬 ‘Be conscious of the time you will need to help your new staff deliver your vision. Even though they're bringing the skills, you need to communicate and manage them for them to be able to deliver what you want.’

27:13 - 💬 ‘When you are thinking about taking on a new project, or your team is just at capacity, then think about bringing somebody in to take off some of the pressure of your existing team.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website: www.SystemizeYourSuccess.com

Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/

Instagram: Instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/

YouTube: YouTube.com/@drsteveday42

ABOUT THE HOST

Steve used to be a slave to his business, but when he moved to Sweden in 2015, he was forced to change how he worked. He switched to running his businesses remotely. After totally nailing this concept, he spent his time helping other small business owners do the same. Steve’s been investing in property since 2002, has a degree in Computing, and worked as a doctor in the NHS before quitting to focus full-time on sharing his systems and outsourcing Methodology with the world. He now lives in Sweden and runs his UK-based businesses remotely with the help of his team of Filipino and UK-based Virtual Assistants.

Most business owners are overwhelmed because they don’t know how to create systems or get the right help.

Our systems and outsourcing Courses and coaching programme will help you automate your business and work effectively with affordable virtual assistants. That way, you will stop feeling overwhelmed and start making more money.

🎙 When communicating a product, service, idea, or presenting oneself to a listener, it is best to keep the description simple, concise, comprehendible and relevant. An Elevator Pitch is the industry name for an introduction or opening gambit, your initial conversational selling point during a social or networking engagement.

Steve’s guest in this episode, Mike Verret, has spent over 25 years in the brand marketing business, and the hallmark of his career is his ability to understand an audience.

Now he shows businesses and people, through his company Verret & Associates, how to talk about themselves and to precisely denote how their company is an incredible opportunity for THEIR audience. 

Steve and Mike discuss what he teaches his clients, the perfect structure and content of an Elevator Pitch, the many ways an Elevator Pitch can be used and his ideas of success.  

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

💡 When selling your business, an audience’s attention is captured by you being first, best or different. Mike specialises in precisely identifying how your company is different so you can communicate this concisely to your customer.  

💡 Your audience needs to be intrigued by the first part of your story or pitch. This is where your difference comes in. Give your audience a reason to engage and a common ground. Then present your solution and how it works concisely, which they can simply comprehend. Then explain the benefits of your service and validate your service with testimonials and examples.

💡 Many bosses in business become detached from how people communicate outside of their company and don’t realise that they lose an audience with jargon and technical language. 

💡 The Elevator Pitch structure or narrative can be used for all sorts of presentations to help you connect with your target audience. All advertising or PR can use this process. 

💡 Mike offers ‘The Elevator Pitch Construction Guide’, which he uses to work through with his clients to create their definitive elevator pitch. 

BEST MOMENTS 

1:30 - 💬 ‘It all starts with the fundamental understanding that we want and need to talk about our business to get people to engage, and we think 100% everything about our business is important. The truth is only 5% matters to our audience, and finding that 5% when you know everything is extremely difficult.’ - Mike

3:32 - 💬 ‘You can't be a business owner and have not heard the words "You need an Elevator Pitch". All marketing books talk about this and try to make it sound easy to come up with your Elevator Pitch, but it's so hard.’ - Steve

16:59 - 💬 ‘75% of businesses fail in the first few years; a big reason is that business owners get stressed, overwhelmed, and fail to delegate. We help small business owners to offload their work through using systems and cost-effective remote teams so they can thrive and survive in a world where most businesses fail.’ - Steve

23:31 - 💬 ‘What I'm doing is translating what a business does into "audience language". And the baseline for that is this Elevator Pitch. I’ve created a product called ‘The Elevator Pitch Construction Guide.’ – Mike 

25:23 - 💬 ‘The three things that I focus on are answering that question ‘what do you do?’, expanding it across your business where it needs to go, and then when the time comes to talk to people about it, ‘are you going to get the reaction or the action that you need?’ – Mike 

34:47 - 💬 ‘My expectation for success is I can build a business that is consistent, I’m constantly doing what I’m best at, and my customers and clients get the result they want.’ – Mike 

GUEST RESOURCES

Website: www.verretandassociates.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-verret

Calendar Link: https://calendly.com/verretandassociates

Course Link: https://verretandassociates.thinkific.com

Email: [email protected]

The Elevator Pitch Construction Guide

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website: www.SystemizeYourSuccess.com

Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/

Instagram: Instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/

YouTube: YouTube.com/@drsteveday42

ABOUT THE HOST

Steve used to be a slave to his business, but when he moved to Sweden in 2015, he was forced to change how he worked. He switched to running his businesses remotely. After totally nailing this concept, he spent his time helping other small business owners do the same. Steve’s been investing in property since 2002, has a degree in Computing, and worked as a doctor in the NHS before quitting to focus full-time on sharing his systems and outsourcing Methodology with the world. He now lives in Sweden and runs his UK-based businesses remotely with the help of his team of Filipino and UK-based Virtual Assistants.

Most business owners are overwhelmed because they don’t know how to create systems or get the right help.

Our systems and outsourcing Courses and coaching programme will help you automate your business and work effectively with affordable virtual assistants. That way, you will stop feeling overwhelmed and start making more money.

🎙 If you have sites, data and software that you need to protect, then it is crucial to have strong passwords to circumvent modern decryption and hacking software and prevent anyone from guessing your password. In this episode, Steve will explain why you need to perfect your passwords and how to do it and pass on some practical and simple advice on password creation. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

💡 Remembering multiple passwords for various apps and sites can be a nightmare; writing and listing all of them down is tempting. Do not do this!!

💡 Do not use the same password for all your sites because your entire system can be accessed if one is compromised. 

💡 Browser password vaults seem like a good idea but are not shareable to staff, browser-specific, and often only accessible on one device.  

💡 Use an app like LastPass or Bitwarden to consolidate your passwords and share access with staff securely.

💡 Most password-sharing apps have a password generation tool allowing you to select the length and what characters you use to fit the requirements of the gateway. The app will save that autogenerated password, so you don’t have to remember it. 

💡 The one password that you have to remember is the master password for the password-sharing app. Remember, you lose access to all your passwords if you lose this password. Think of a phrase for length and complexity with numbers or characters added. 

💡 Try using the first letter in a long sentence to create a memorable password. This way, the password is complex enough, especially if you add capitals, numbers and symbols.

💡 Change your passwords regularly because it is always possible for staff to view a password as it is entered.    

BEST MOMENTS 

02:04 - 💬 ‘Remembering a multitude of passwords for the hundreds of different apps you have is an absolute nightmare!’

4:09 - 💬 ‘You can leverage using LastPass and Bitwarden not only for the convenience and the security for sharing stuff across the internet and working with a team but also to have brilliant, unique passwords for every single one of your sites.’

11:07 - 💬 ‘I encourage you to use a password-sharing app and use the password generator to create unique, completely random passwords for every site in your business and change those regularly.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website: www.SystemizeYourSuccess.com

Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/

Instagram: Instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/

YouTube: YouTube.com/@drsteveday42

ABOUT THE HOST

Steve used to be a slave to his business, but when he moved to Sweden in 2015, he was forced to change how he worked. He switched to running his businesses remotely. After totally nailing this concept, he spent his time helping other small business owners do the same. Steve’s been investing in property since 2002, has a degree in Computing, and worked as a doctor in the NHS before quitting to focus full-time on sharing his systems and outsourcing Methodology with the world. He now lives in Sweden and runs his UK-based businesses remotely with the help of his team of Filipino and UK-based Virtual Assistants.

Most business owners are overwhelmed because they don’t know how to create systems or get the right help.

Our systems and outsourcing Courses and coaching programme will help you automate your business and work effectively with affordable virtual assistants. That way, you will stop feeling overwhelmed and start making more money.

🎙 Steve interviews William Buist, speaker, business mentor and author of “Intentional Mastery: Step Beyond Your Expertise and Build a Better Business”. He is a keen photographer, walker and skier. William enables business owners to become the masters of their markets, operate more effectively, and stand out from all their competitors. William has been running his business for 20 years. He has a lot of insight into finding the right clients for your business and effectively utilising your skill as a business owner and leader. 

Steve and William talk about his journey through the business world and into mentoring, becoming a true master of your field, what process he takes to guide people, and what he feels is the true meaning of success. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

💡 William helps practitioners in their businesses take that extra step and become real masters in their field. 

💡 Masters draw insight from all aspects of their life. These aspects reveal different perspectives, and William explores the history of his clients to get to know all their skills and motivations.

💡 Identify your skills and passion and concentrate on those. For tasks where your skills are not focused, try to identify those whose core skills speak to those areas and utilise them. 

💡 Be sure that your priorities are correct. Ensure you don’t have tunnel vision in areas that result in ignoring others. 

💡 When encountering a problem, search your experience for a similar problem to extrapolate from. Identify someone that you can consult effectively for a different perspective.   

💡 Practitioner to an expert is about doing the work and seeing how the work operates in different environments and contexts. Expert to Master is about appreciating everything you have and seeing how all your knowledge and experience fit together.

BEST MOMENTS 

2:44 - 💬’ The difference between an expert and a master is that the masters appreciate the extent of their knowledge across everything they do. They know how to pass that on as well to other people. They’ve made the unconscious competence conscious again so they can pass it on, and that’s part of what leaving a legacy is all about as well.’ – William 

03:51 - 💬 ‘All the hard work we put in as business owners is worth nothing the day we die or quit our business unless you've managed to find a way to pass on that knowledge for your legacy to continue without you and to continue to grow without you as well.’ – Steve

10:48 - 💬 ‘I think the mindset shift comes when people say this is not my core skill and I should have somebody for whom it is their core skill to do it and finding a way to make that happen.’ – William  

13:08 - 💬 ‘Our time as business owners are more valuable than I think we realise for many years, and the mindset of "It will only take me 10 minutes!" is the complete killer of productivity.’ – Steve

37:24 - 💬 ‘Success in life is about being content that you are doing your best to help others be the best they can. It’s not about seeking happiness and great moments with medals and all the rest of it. It’s about that sense of contentment when you get good feedback for doing the best that you can for the people you work with.’ – William 

GUEST RESOURCES

Website: https://williambuist.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wbuist/

Email: [email protected]

This is a quick audit of your current business situation, and those who complete it will receive a detailed report with suggestions for immediate improvement actions: https://Audit.williambuist.com

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website: www.SystemizeYourSuccess.com

Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/

Instagram: Instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/

YouTube: YouTube.com/@drsteveday42

ABOUT THE HOST

Steve used to be a slave to his business, but when he moved to Sweden in 2015, he was forced to change how he worked. He switched to running his businesses remotely. After totally nailing this concept, he spent his time helping other small business owners do the same. Steve’s been investing in property since 2002, has a degree in Computing, and worked as a doctor in the NHS before quitting to focus full-time on sharing his systems and outsourcing Methodology with the world. He now lives in Sweden and runs his UK-based businesses remotely with the help of his team of Filipino and UK-based Virtual Assistants.

Most business owners are overwhelmed because they don’t know how to create systems or get the right help.

Our systems and outsourcing Courses and coaching programme will help you automate your business and work effectively with affordable virtual assistants. That way, you will stop feeling overwhelmed and start making more money.

🎙 Steve reflects on the time off taken over the Christmas period and pinpoints the benefits and the cost of downtime. He consults his staff on what vacation means to them and shares his feelings on the eighteen days off work he took. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

💡 Even if you take time off, as business owners, some form of communication is typically left open to troubleshoot or provide decisions, especially during extended periods.  

💡 The lead-up to time off can often be busier because of tasks required to facilitate absence, which can cause stress that needs to be recovered from at the start of the vacation.  

💡 Steve’s decision to take time off was tremendously worthwhile and successful, and he had quality time with his friends and family. He credits this to the planning and preparation done beforehand. 

💡 During the holiday season, Steve's team took time off, and the business was closed for two weeks. The benefits have far outweighed any lost business or progress. 

💡 The staff’s time off was equally as beneficial as having time for family, especially at that time of the year can be invaluable.

BEST MOMENTS 

3:04 - 💬 ‘For me, taking some serious time off was important because, with Covid, I’ve not been able to go home and see my family very much. I live in Sweden, and my family and long-term friends all live in the UK.’  

10:45 - 💬 ‘What it did for us as a business when the whole team took time off for two weeks during the holiday season, the benefits far outweighed any negative impact on the progression of planning or strategy or closing deals. ’ 

14:15 - 💬 “Imagine working, but your mind is on your family. It’s hard to focus. Enduring and being unable to concentrate on your work and forcing yourself to go to work is definitely not a dream job.” – said one of Steve’s VAs. 

15:23 - 💬 “One of our company values is that we are a team, and we look out for each other and our family, health and happiness. Knowing that Steve really stands by these values and does not just print them out makes me think so highly of him and the company.” – said one of Steve’s VAs. 

15:46 - 💬 “I feel valued. Being able to take time off allowed me to recharge and regroup. In my previous company, employees were rarely allowed to take time off, so this is a benefit that I really appreciate.” – said one of Steve’s VAs. 

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website: www.SystemizeYourSuccess.com

Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/

Instagram: Instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/

YouTube: YouTube.com/@drsteveday42

ABOUT THE HOST

Steve used to be a slave to his business, but when he moved to Sweden in 2015, he was forced to change how he worked. He switched to running his businesses remotely. After totally nailing this concept, he spent his time helping other small business owners do the same. Steve’s been investing in property since 2002, has a degree in Computing, and worked as a doctor in the NHS before quitting to focus full-time on sharing his systems and outsourcing Methodology with the world. He now lives in Sweden and runs his UK-based businesses remotely with the help of his team of Filipino and UK-based Virtual Assistants.

Most business owners are overwhelmed because they don’t know how to create systems or get the right help.

Our systems and outsourcing Courses and coaching programme will help you automate your business and work effectively with affordable virtual assistants. That way, you will stop feeling overwhelmed and start making more money.

🎙 Steve interviews Daniel Viduya. As an adolescent, sleeping on park benches and eating out of trash bins was the norm for Daniel, who learned the importance of hard work and determination while growing up with hardships in the Philippines.

Now living in Mexico, Daniel has mastered the art of Customer Service and Sales for over a decade. For years he worked under sweatshop-like conditions in call centres and is passionate about educating brands on how to scale high-performing teams in both an ethical and efficient manner.

Daniel firmly believes that sales are not just simple sales. Instead, sales are about consulting and recommending what best suits a brand's needs. He applies these principles in his work with SupportZebra, the technical support and sales outsourcing company. 

Steve and Daniel talked about the work culture at SupportZebra and how that translates into better sales, the importance of accurate metrics and SMART action plans as part of scaling up, thorough documentation to support outsourcing, identifying a company's difficulties and needs and finding a solution, and the future of customer sales and support with the growth of Artificial Intelligence. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

💡 Daniel wants to help customers ethically scale their customer service teams through outsourcing and discuss why outsourcing can help companies and their leaders.

💡 Daniel works with SupportZebra, the customer support and sales outsourcing company based in the USA and The Philippines. 

💡 SupportZebra’s care for its employees is one of the reasons for the high retention rate and employee satisfaction in their company. This is refreshing for an industry well known for its toxic workplaces.  

💡 Customers reciprocate a caring attitude when they know it is a culture in the company they are dealing with. They know when the employees genuinely care for them.

💡 By accurately tracking metrics such as customer satisfaction and call timings, it is possible to put together a specific action plan to improve a company’s Sales and Customer Service performance. 

💡 An action plan has to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timebound (SMART).

💡 SupportZebra make sure they fully familiarise themselves with their customer's systems to integrate the support staff into their assigned company. They also help companies document their systems. 

💡 In his role, Daniel identifies the customer's needs and problems and, from the outset, can assess if SupportZebra is the right fit for the task. If not, Daniel has connections to refer a customer to a brand that will better suit the customer's needs.    

BEST MOMENTS 

4:42 - 💬 ‘What makes SupportZebra different is the SupportZebra promise to care for one another, to care for people.’ – Daniel  

9:40 - 💬 ‘One of our company's core values is being a team. We understand that success is only possible when you work as part of a team, share work and responsibilities, but also look out for each other and value family, health, and happiness.’ – Steve  

14: 07- 💬 ‘Values is not just for the sake of having it stuck on a wall in your office or on your website to attract customers. It's about how you live and act even when no one's watching. That's when it matters, when you don't have to do it, but you do it anyway.’ – Steve

22:41 - 💬 ‘When you make your action plans based on the documented metrics that you have, it has to be in a SMART format (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timebound). When it's not in a SMART format, sometimes you can see the results, and then it starts falling off the phase again.’ - Daniel  

33:09 - 💬 ‘When you want to scale your growth, a component of that growth is documenting your processes and also imparting this knowledge with a dedicated team so that you don’t have to worry about having the skills in the future.’ – Daniel  

44:51 - 💬 ‘I’m not afraid of Artificial Intelligence for these reasons. AI is an extension of our thinking. AI is an extension of our knowledge.’ – Daniel 

GUEST RESOURCES

Website: https://supportzebra.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/supportzebraph

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SupportZebraPH

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/supportzebra/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/support-zebra-an-fbc-company-/

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website: www.SystemizeYourSuccess.com

Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/

Instagram: Instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/

YouTube: YouTube.com/@drsteveday42

ABOUT THE HOST

Steve used to be a slave to his business, but when he moved to Sweden in 2015, he was forced to change how he worked. He switched to running his businesses remotely. After totally nailing this concept, he spent his time helping other small business owners do the same. Steve’s been investing in property since 2002, has a degree in Computing, and worked as a doctor in the NHS before quitting to focus full-time on sharing his systems and outsourcing Methodology with the world. He now lives in Sweden and runs his UK-based businesses remotely with the help of his team of Filipino and UK-based Virtual Assistants.

Most business owners are overwhelmed because they don’t know how to create systems or get the right help.

Our systems and outsourcing Courses and coaching programme will help you automate your business and work effectively with affordable virtual assistants. That way, you will stop feeling overwhelmed and start making more money.

🎙 In this episode, Steve interviews one of his clients, London Estate Agent Georges Verdis, who has reduced his workweek of 50-plus hours to approximately 10 hours, leaving him more time to spend with his friends and family. As a true example of how to Systemize Your Success, Georges operates his remote team to facilitate his newfound freedom and is here to talk to Steve about creating bonding and celebratory experiences for your team that can make all the difference to their working dynamic.

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

💡 Once a month, Georges had the whole office team get together and celebrate outside of the office, but this could not include the remote team. And so he had to rectify this.

💡 Georges's office and remote team cook simultaneously through a video call as one of their team building. 

💡 Team building outside working hours allows teams to share their more frivolous side and become more familiar with each other's personalities, an aspect of working so often lost with remote operations.

💡 The zoom calls socials in Georges’ team expanded to game nights such as charades, pub quizzes, and cashflow, further revealing people's personalities and business strategies. 

💡 If you have groups in the exact location, you can set up several cameras in the group room to capture the atmosphere and interaction of the event more effectively. 

BEST MOMENTS 

2:00 - 💬 ‘I love what you try and do to make your office and remote team into one team. It’s not 'The Remote staff' and 'The Office team'. You put a huge amount of thought and effort into how you can make that team get together as one.’ – Steve 

6:54 - 💬 ‘It can be possible to share a moment as a team where we all cook the same dish, get on with it, and do it. When we finished cooking, we literally ate, all of us, at the same time over zoom and commenting about the highs and the lows of the cooking class.’ - Georges

9:23 - 💬 ‘Your virtual team, especially if they share the same language, the same culture, the same tradition, have those get together without your knowledge, not that there's anything wrong with it, but I think it's more important to be immersive and all enjoy and see each other's culture.’ - Georges

14:50 - 💬 ‘In the book called Business Made Simple by Donald Miller, he talks about how to become so valuable to your employer that they're forced to give you a pay rise. And again, some people might be scared about that, but I'm not now! If you can prove to me that you are adding value to my company, why wouldn't I pay you more?’ – Steve

15:08 - 💬 ‘If you can show your team that you care enough about them to invest in their financial security in the future, it's just showing caring and empathy for your staff and their well-being, they will love you for it.’ – Steve

GUEST RESOURCES

Website: https://www.london-executive.co.uk

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website: www.SystemizeYourSuccess.com

Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/

Instagram: Instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/

YouTube: YouTube.com/@drsteveday42

ABOUT THE HOST

Steve used to be a slave to his business, but when he moved to Sweden in 2015, he was forced to change how he worked. He switched to running his businesses remotely. After totally nailing this concept, he spent his time helping other small business owners do the same. Steve’s been investing in property since 2002, has a degree in Computing, and worked as a doctor in the NHS before quitting to focus full-time on sharing his systems and outsourcing Methodology with the world. He now lives in Sweden and runs his UK-based businesses remotely with the help of his team of Filipino and UK-based Virtual Assistants.

Most business owners are overwhelmed because they don’t know how to create systems or get the right help.

Our systems and outsourcing Courses and coaching programme will help you automate your business and work effectively with affordable virtual assistants. That way, you will stop feeling overwhelmed and start making more money.

🎙 This episode's guest is Richard Evans, founder of Awaken 2 Business, through which he provides a range of solutions and services to help entrepreneurs and SMEs take their businesses to the next level. And VaVaVoom, a Virtual Assistant company providing skilled personnel sourced from the Philippines to small businesses to help them systemize and free up their spare time. 

Steve and Richard discuss the advantages of hiring VAs from The Philippines, the common mistakes made when using a Virtual Assistant, effective communication with your Virtual Assistant, the importance of values in business, and security when using a Virtual Assistant. Richard also shared the service VaVaVoom offers and his favourite software or app in his company.

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

💡 Most Virtual Assistants from the Philippines have a good work ethic and are honest, loyal, ambitious, and willing to learn. 

💡 VaVaVoom have around 350 applications from Virtual Assistants per month, of which only 10 to 15 get through to the comprehensive training and join the team of nearly 100, so the quality of staff available is very high standard. 

💡 Common mistakes made when using a Virtual Assistant are not having the correct processes and software, being unfamiliar with the culture, being reluctant to delegate, not correctly identifying which tasks to delegate, and failing to monitor staff progress and tasks.  

💡 Keep communication at the highest level possible via zoom or through a video rather than email or text, as these are not interactive enough to keep communication efficient. 

💡 VaVaVoom have General Virtual Assistants who operate with generic work and Premium Virtual Assistants with unique skills or specialisation to offer to a business. 

💡 It is vital that both your staff and clients share the same values that you have in your business.

💡 The right process of hiring and training a Virtual Assistant, using secure password software like LastPass, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), and having a clear privacy policy will make it more secure for a business to use a Virtual Assistant. 

💡 Richard’s business gives to the charity, 'The Purple Community Fund', which works with child workers in The Philippines to provide food and education, so they don’t have to work to support their families. 

BEST MOMENTS 

02:30 - 💬 ‘ I love the Philippines and the Filipinos. They have a really good work ethic. They're honest. They're loyal. They're hard-working, want to do well, and want to be part of your business. There are so many good reasons for taking people on from the Philippines.’ – Richard   

03:07 - 💬 ‘I’ve got a big team in the Philippines doing various tasks for me. And there’s no need for me to go anywhere else because they're just such wonderful people.’ – Richard   

04:37 - 💬 ‘We recently recruited someone for ourselves internally, and we went from about 200 applicants, and we got down to 2.’ - Steve  

10:26 - 💬 ‘When the client isn’t doing all the stuff that we tell them to do, they wonder why it doesn’t work out for them, and that’s not fair to the VA as well because then the VA loses a client because the clients not doing their bit.’ - Richard 

13:07 - 💬 ‘When you’re communicating with somebody, 7% of the communication is in the words and the language you use. 35% is in the tone of voice and 53% is in the body language.’ – Richard

28:56 - 💬 ‘ Saying NO to the wrong clients has a huge positive impact on your business as opposed to saying YES to the wrong clients, which could drag the team down.’ - Steve

30:33 - 💬 ‘The impact of working with the wrong client is that you focus so much of your attention and energy on someone who's not right that you miss far more opportunities. And it is that short-term gain for long-term pain.’ - Steve

37:51 - 💬 ‘One of our core values is giving back. It’s really important that we’ve got a business with a purpose, and it’s not just about making money.’ - Richard

41:28 - 💬 ‘We use Xero, train the VAs in Xero, and have a Xero partner. Wonderful piece of software, just love it to pieces.’ – Richard

GUEST RESOURCES

Website: www.VaVaVoom.solutions

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-evans-98441246/

Contact: https://www.richardaevans.co.uk/

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website: www.SystemizeYourSuccess.com

Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/

Instagram: Instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/

YouTube: YouTube.com/@drsteveday42

ABOUT THE HOST

Steve used to be a slave to his business, but when he moved to Sweden in 2015, he was forced to change how he worked. He switched to running his businesses remotely. After totally nailing this concept, he spent his time helping other small business owners do the same. Steve’s been investing in property since 2002, has a degree in Computing, and worked as a doctor in the NHS before quitting to focus full-time on sharing his systems and outsourcing Methodology with the world. He now lives in Sweden and runs his UK-based businesses remotely with the help of his team of Filipino and UK-based Virtual Assistants.

Most business owners are overwhelmed because they don’t know how to create systems or get the right help.

Our systems and outsourcing Courses and coaching programme will help you automate your business and work effectively with affordable virtual assistants. That way, you will stop feeling overwhelmed and start making more money.