There is always a lot of hype around the ability to ‘Go Global’ and creating a business where you can work from anywhere. Of course there is! Many people consider this the pinnacle of success and personal freedom. It could be seen as the best opportunity in the world, the chance to finally have the lifestyle of your dreams! I had always just dreamed of running a global business, but seven months ago, I took a huge leap of faith and bought a one way ticket to Bangkok, Thailand.
I didn’t know if it would work. I had no idea what was in store for me, but the honest truth is: it wasn’t as hard as I thought. However, there are things that I wish I would have known before I got started-which I am going to share with you through a series of posts.
My intention is that this will help you get excited about taking the leap, and will prepare you with the information you need in order to get started successfully. So don’t just sit there, read on!
The Freedom to Work from Anywhere
Ok, so let’s be real. There are so many cool places in the world to be, why just pick one? If you are a travel-oholic like me, you get destination stir crazy the moment you feel settled. I spent years building up in a location, getting sick of it, then downsizing and moving on to the next cool place. I think I have Location ADD.
This lifestyle has allowed me the ability to live cool places like Colorado, Hawaii, Australia, all over California, and Thailand. While I have traveled to many other places for vacations, I consider living somewhere an entirely different experience. Going to Italy for ten days or London for a week is a whirlwind of tour books and tourist traps. But living somewhere lets you take in the full experience.
My guess is, if you are reading this, you are a lot like me. Your resume looks like a roadmap. You hunger for distant lands, exciting adventures, and a meaningful life. From experience, I have found that the most difficult part of relocating is finding a place to work. I always had the idea of running my own business, and after getting my MBA, I started my Lifestyle Design and Business Consulting practice. This took care of the business part, but after five years of being in school and building a start-up, I was ready for change. Only one question remained: How could I take my business with me?
Diversification: Building a Global Business
If you have the dream to go global, be a digital nomad, or be location independent-you need to focus on building a business you can take with you. With the technology that is now available, you can work virtually from anywhere. When I first began to look into businesses that didn’t require brick and mortar, I mostly saw online businesses that were selling products. They set up models to drop ship from locations and never had to touch the product themselves. This allowed them low overhead, predictable profit, and a global audience-Brilliant!
But, the problem was this: I did not want to sell vitamins or widgets. I am not enthusiastic about consumer products. I wanted to help people. I wanted to change the world; in my own little way by showing others they can live their dream. So, I needed to look into other service based businesses that were national or international. What I found was very interesting. There were several types of service based companies that worked remotely. Everything from web designers, coaches, consultants, authors, and a variety of tech based individuals. Mission Possible: the dream could be had. But, how would I spend my time, and was there enough money?
Saving Time & Money
Since hitting the road, I have had far more time than ever before. I used to spend time attending networking events, do public speaking, and generally attempting to be everywhere all the time. This is no longer the case! Networking has been replaced with social networking. Public speaking happens on my weekly blog posts, and I’m no longer expected to be anywhere. Ahhh. Time. After spending six weeks in Bangkok, I went off to my favorite location in Thailand: Krabi. I spent the next five months beachside. I was able to go snorkeling, ride elephants, scuba dive, and rock climb.
Some people still believe that this lifestyle is expensive. Not so! When you work from other countries it can be much lest costly than staying at home. Think about it: you no longer have anyone to impress but backpackers, and they haven’t done their laundry for two weeks. Just the fact that you have a clean shirt and an income is more than most travelers come equipped with so you no longer have the ‘Keeping up with the Jonses’ mentality.
Because you are on the road, the majority of your purchases will be consumables. You don’t want to cart around everything you buy, so you simply buy less. Part of being in other places in the world is that you gain perspective of what is really necessary and realize how little you actually need to be happy.
Leveraging the Economy
Tim Ferriss introduces the idea of leveraging economies in his book The Four Hour Workweek. I couldn’t fully understand the ideas of geo-arbitrage until experiencing it for myself. Here is the truth: I can easily live in Thailand for one-third of what I could back home. What this means is that you can do one of three things: work less, save more, or increase your standard of living. My hope for you is that you get to do a combination of all of these!
Initially, when I arrived in Thailand, I had a chance to spend my rediscovered time on important projects that had taken the back-burner in my business. I found much more time to find and focus on my niche, build strategic online partners, write on my blog, connect with others through social media and networking and create information products. In the upcoming posts of this series, I am going to walk you through the steps of Taking Your Business Online, Building a Global Audience, and finish with some of the Global Tips, Tricks & Downloads I’ve learned since this wild journey has begun. My hope is that this post has gotten you to realize that it is possible to take your business online, and go global. And in my next post, I’ll share with you just how to do that!
Don’t stop there, leave a comment or question and I’ll get right back to you!
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Nomad Contributors
by MiGrant / August 6, 2009
Much harder (though not necessarily impossible) to do with a family, alas.
@MiGrant-
Hello! Yes, there are more steps to moving a family to a nomadic lifestyle, but from what I’ve heard, the rewards are amazing. Taking your children out of the consumer based life and showing them how other people live is an incredible experience that will change them forever. Check out a recent article from Freepursuits, some of which have families! http://www.freepursuits.com/10-digital-nomads-to-learn-from