How Damien Coughlan Went from $0 to $314,000 in 5 Months Using Virtual Assistants

We all love a good success story.

Nothing can be more inspiring than stories of triumph.  It’s motivating to read or hear stories of people who defied the odds to achieve their dreams.

Rags to riches stories always get my attention whether it’s a movie, a podcast interview, a book or a blog post.  It just feels good to see people achieve, especially if they went through several obstacles but still managed to realize their goals.  You just want to celebrate with them.

You must have celebrated with Rocky when he took Apollo Creed to the task.  You probably cried when Chris Gardner, Will Smith’s character in the Pursuit of Happyness, overcame homelessness.  He went on to become one of the most successful stockbrokers in American history.

These are movies that are based on true events.  When you have a first-hand account from the person who experienced success himself, it just takes inspiration and motivation a notch higher.

Such is the story of Damien Coughlan.  He went from $0 to $314,000 in just five short months by using virtual assistants.

Damien’s Story

Damien Coughlan was just like your average online entrepreneur who owned a Shopify Store but couldn’t get the break he was looking for.  Part of it was because he was doing tasks that were not value-added.  He was interviewing people, for instance, which just took too much of his time when he should have been focusing on more important stuff.

To make matters worse, a lot of the people he interviewed were either lying about their experience or tackling multiple projects.  These all started affecting his business.  He was getting frustrated and desperate.

No one can blame him for feeling that way.  He had wasted countless hours mentoring and coaching people only to find out a few months after that they were not the right fit.  Anyone would feel the same if they were in his shoes.

Using virtual assistants

Damien finally got the break he’d been looking for when he saw a friend’s testimonial video on his Facebook feed.  His friend was talking about FreeeUp so he wasted no time in getting the FreeUp CEO’s contact details.

After jumping on Skype and giving Nathan his list of requirements, he had his first hire in less than 24 hours.  Not only was he amazed at how fast the hiring process was, he was also amazed at how FreeeUp did all the work for him.

With pre-screened freelancers waiting in the wings, it was just a matter of selecting the best person for the project. With the simple requirements he handed over, that’s exactly what he got!

It was all upwards from there

That initial hire proved to be the starting point of a successful run.  This saw Damien building, growing and scaling his business using virtual assistants.  With amazing workers behind him, Damien was able to focus on the more important, value-added activities.

His business was pretty much running on autopilot and he would just hold regular Monday meetings to check on workers and basically keep up with what was going on.

FreeeUp does all the billing, so Damien would just wait for the weekly invoice to come through.  His Shopify store grew faster than he expected. With constant repeat purchases and returning customers, Damien was just having a blast using virtual assistants!

Making the right decision

Damien says that using virtual assistants is absolutely one of the best decisions he has ever made. The results are undeniable.  After starting from scratch a few months back, his Shopify store now earns about $3,700 per day after only 5 months of using virtual assistants.  He was able to generate a revenue of about $314,000 in that short time.

He credits his success to delegating tasks that are not value-adding, something that Nathan is always preaching.  It was obvious that all of Damien’s success wouldn’t have been possible had he continued with his old ways of hiring people.  He wouldn’t have been able to take on more orders, for example, had it continued. It was counter-productive and it would have put him at a greater risk of not being able to scale over the long run.

What makes this work?

Damien’s success is a testament to how efficient freelancers are in making a business a total success.  It’s really a mixture of a couple of things. Below are some of them:

Productivity and company culture

Using virtual assistants to run your business promotes an awesome company culture.  By hiring people to perform specific tasks that are considered their expertise, the virtual assistants you hire are not only productive but are also happy with what they do.

Moreover, by holding regular Monday meetings, people feel more appreciated.  The constant communication strengthens the relationship and bond between client and virtual assistant.  It builds trust and rapport, which are main ingredients in the perfect recipe for success.

Hiring remote workers means you’re probably not going to see each other ever. But with consistent and clear communication, physical location is not a barrier to productivity.

Happy workers

The workers Damien has hired run on autopilot, which means he is totally hands off with whatever the virtual assistants he hired are doing.  This autonomy helps each freelancer perform their tasks properly and efficiently because they are given full trust.

No one wants to be micro-managed.  No one wants to have their boss hover around to see if they are doing what they’re supposed to do.

Along with this autonomy is the freedom to choose work hours, giving workers greater work-life balance. If you’re given the freedom to work on your own terms and do it anytime you want to, wouldn’t that make you happy? I bet it’s one of the reasons why you decided to start your own business.

Happy customers

When workers are happy, it reflects the kind of work they render.  Happy workers are excited and enthusiastic in performing their duties.  They don’t feel obligated to do the tasks they are assigned.  For them, work is not work at all.

We’ve all heard the saying “do work you love, and you’ll never have to work a single day.”  That’s exactly what happens when the workers you’ve hired are happy.  It results in great products and services that your customers will enjoy.

With that said, happy workers result in happy customers.  And what happens when you have happy customers?  They crave for more and they’ll always come back for more because they are satisfied with the service they got.

Happy business owner

With everything falling into place from workers who are excited to contribute to the business, to customers who always come back to purchase more, it’s no doubt that the business has nowhere else to go but up.

That’s what happened to Damien’s business.  Everything fell into place the moment he decided to delegate his other tasks so he could focus on the more important stuff.

By getting the right people for the project, trusting them to do their work and managing them properly, his profits skyrocketed within five months.  With a business running on autopilot and still earning huge profits, no business owner could be happier.  It’s every entrepreneur’s dream to have something like this!

Conclusion

Damien Coughlan is not someone special.  He’s just like you and me.  He had a vision and a dream that he tried to achieve through his Shopify store.

Just like any other business owner, Damien didn’t know it all.  He committed a lot of mistakes and learned from them, which is what business and life are all about.

As business owners, you want everything to be perfect.  So much so that you want to do everything yourself instead of using virtual assistants and trusting them to do these tasks for you.

Good leaders hire people who are better than them.  At the end of the day, you have to admit to yourself that you don’t know it all.  Getting help from other people is the better option to burning yourself out doing everything, including the tasks that are not value-added.

If you really want to succeed in business, you need to learn to delegate.  You need to learn to trust other people just like Damien did.

Are you a business owner who’s struggling to make sales just like Damien was?

Are you getting overwhelmed with all the tasks you need to get done?

If the answers are “yes,” we encourage you to sign up as a client and let FreeeUp help you get the right people to help you grow your business. Just click here so you can register as one of FreeUp’s clients!