Episode 91: Growing Your Business by Building Your Virtual Team, with Cheryl Leong

 

In this inspiring episode 91 of the Business Habitat Podcast, Sam caught up with Cheryl Leong of The Growth Hub, to share her compelling story of building the quintessential purpose-driven business. This conversation shows how one business meets a multitude of needs, but ultimately at its heart is a people-centric endeavour to make the world a better place. 

Cheryl Leong built The Growth Hub out of a childhood desire to provide better opportunities for domestic workers in Singapore. Growing up, Cheryl was witness to the sacrifice that many of the “help” made by leaving their families behind in their home country to build a better life for their children. She was determined that they should have the ability to stay with their families, working from home, while still building and utilising their skills and achieving their goals. 

Launching just prior to COVID shutdowns, Cheryl saw the opportunity to match corporate need for assistance and growth, with skilled, yet under-utilised labour, in countries such as the Phillipines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Sam and Cheryl explore the possibility for businesses to grow by outsourcing and building virtual teams, and what is required of business leaders in order to succeed in creating truly flexible business models.  

Whether you’re seeking more purpose in your business, or wanting to build on your already successful enterprise, or simply looking for a heart-warming story, this uplifting conversation will have you thinking about “virtual assistants” in a new way. This is one you won’t want to miss. 

Listen to an excerpt

What we cover in this episode 

  • Cheryl’s purpose behind The Growth Hub 

  • Making a difference in developing countries 

  • Labour outsourcing and overcoming obstacles 

  • Creating time and space in business 

  • How to Identify the core roles required by each business and matching talent 

  • Organisational Chart Strategy  

  • Why there’s so much more to VA’s than “Virtual Assistants”

Quotes 

“I would see them upset, having left their children and their families, and over the years as I grew older, I realised how much of a sacrifice that was and it never felt right to me. I was never really comfortable with it because I didn’t understand why someone would have a family and have to leave their family to work overseas.“ Cheryl

“For leaders, for business owners, one of the things we cannot do is change and build great businesses, without time and space” Sam

“Not enough thought is being put around that planning process, and people jump in too quickly because they almost forget that not everyone has the same skill. They just think, ‘I’m getting a VA, they’re going to be able to do this. That’s it.’ And that’s when things start crumbling.“ Cheryl

“It’s exactly the same problem. It’s lack of organisational chart strategy, and then lack of ‘well, I’ve got a role, but what does that actually mean?’ “ Sam

“It’s got the flexibility…It’s all about results, rather than ticking off timesheets.“ Cheryl

“At the end of the day, that’s why you lead, that’s what leaders do, they’re not there to be looked up to. They’re there to make sure that everything happens and set examples…and to spend the time.“ Sam

Links

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Episode 92: How Knowing Your Numbers Leads to Exponential Growth with Margy Feldhuhn

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Episode 90: Breaking the Taboo of Money Conversations with Tracey Bissett - Love Your Numbers Series