A good portion of the people who write and podcast about location independence tie that freedom with financial independence and/or generating a passive income which is a business idea that continues to pay long after the effort is made (like writing a book).
But the idea of entrepreneurship is foreign or downright scary for some people. Personally speaking, I’ve been around a lot of people who have it in their minds that it’s the only way to get rich quick, and when you start a business with that as your “business plan”… I haven’t seen a lot of success. They all seemingly burn out when the “rich quick” part doesn’t pan out, or they deviate too often to the next better opportunity.
With apprehension as my guide, I poured through books about passive income and location independent income. They referred back to remote work and becoming a virtual assistant or contracting or reselling wholesale items on ebay or building a blog and integrating affiliate marketing. There was also stock photography/videography, drop shipping, teaching languages and other courses, flipping domains, building apps… all doable, but not immediately accessible. These are things you could do and develop the skills to become a high-level professional, but you could never expect to become well compensated in less than a year unless you had the funds already in place to travel while you’re building the business. It still sounded possible.
So, I took a piece of advice from my brother (Noah @ When Can I Quit My Job? podcast, check it out!) and employed his Ready, Fire, Aim philosophy. I started Sunborn Digital LLC with the idea of limiting our liability for various digital projects we were considering. I wanted to start writing digital books and blogging, Evalynn (my partner) wanted to begin developing a stock photography portfolio and finishing her English as a Second Language certification. Although it was over-complicated (I plan to write a different blog with those details), it seemed like a good way to move us forward and encourage us to make it work.
As an aside: I was also thinking about non-conventional business ideas. None of the books I read or podcasts I listened to put out ideas like land investing, Anywhere TV, or for using the infinite banking concept life-insurance to fund your investments.
I started researching my first book before I considered the business model: Spend several weeks writing a book, hire a professional book cover designer, buy pictures and sell on Amazon Kindle @ $3/book before they take their cut. Considering the audience, it would take a long time to make a return on that investment and I’d probably never be able to rely on that income to support us, even when repeated 20 times.
But I did want to start writing as a habit and to begin developing some other skills that could be saleable. I began thinking about starting a blog. I came up with the name AnyRoadToEverywhere, purchased the domain, taught myself WordPress (is it obvious?), had somebody on fiverr professionally create a logo we designed and started looking into SEO – Search Engine Optimization.
And then, because I was hustling, making my plans known and working toward a singular goal even without a true direction, I recognized an opportunity that perfectly fit what we were searching to find. I found a job with my current employer that I could do entirely remotely.
This isn’t
my primary income, but maybe it’ll work for you.
Tips to work for yourself:
-Be persistent, work hard, focus on one thing and get good at it. Once you know
what you’re doing, it’ll get easier.
-Don’t expect immediate results. It can take years to build your skills and become
a trusted expert in a field.
-Find someone who does it well and analyze what makes them successful.
-Choose a business that you enjoy. If you succeed at something you don’t like,
you’ll tire of your work and seek something more. I recommend the book A
Career in your Suitcase.