Chapter 4. How to roam while working Flashcards
Business should be
structured around your life not the other way around
How to effectively travel for cheap
It’s usually easier to operate a business while roaming the world than
it is to start one. Be sure to spend plenty of time getting set up before
you hit the road.
With a U.S. or Canadian passport, you can stay for up to ninety days
in many different countries around the world. In some of them, you
can do a “visa run” across the border after the time is up and then
return for another extended stay.
• You can learn about the visas required for different countries by visit-
ing VisaHQ.com or VisaHQ.ca, a commercial service I use for my own
visa applications. Other companies offer the same assistance, and
you don’t need to use a service to apply for visas if you’re not travel-
ing that frequently.
•As much as possible, keep your work “in the cloud” by using online
services such as Google Docs and Dropbox. This way, you can access
it from anywhere and don’t have to worry as much about keeping your
data with you.
• Change your password frequently, and don’t use the name of your
cat as the password (not that I learned this through experience or
anything … ).
• Stay for free with helpful hosts through CouchSurfing.org, or at low
cost from individual landlords at AirBnB.com.
•You can start from anywhere, but as a general recommendation, Latin
America and Southeast Asia are two of the easiest and most hospi-
table regions to begin your nomadic adventures.
•Some places are more tech-friendly than others. To be aware of
what to expect before visiting a new country, study up by reading the
forums at BootsnAll.com or MeetPlanGo.com.
•As you roam, maintain a balance between adventure and work.
in a while, so be sure to take advantage of sightseeing and experiencing the local culture. But similarly, don’t feel bad about needing to
devote more hours to work whenever needed. It’s OK; the work allows
you to travel.
how to become your own publisher
iFollow these steps to enter the information publishing business. Each
step can be made more complicated, but they all relate to this basic
outline.
1. Find a topic that people will pay to learn about. It helps if you are
an expert in the topic, but if not, that’s what research is for.
2. Capture the information in one of three ways:
a. Write it down.
b. Record audio or video.
c. Produce some combination of a and b.
3. Combine your materials into a product: an e-book or digital
package that can be downloaded by buyers.
4. Create an offer. What exactly are you selling, and why should
people take action on it? Learn more about offers in Chapter 7.
5. Decide on a fair, value-based price for your offer. For pricing
guidelines, see Chapters 10 and 11.
6. Find a way to get paid. PayPal.com is the most ubiquitous method,
with the ability to accept payment from users in more than 180
countries. Other options are available if you want more flexibility.*
7. Publish the offer and get the word out. For an overview of hus-
ting, see Chapter 9.
8. Cash in and head to the beach! (This step may require further
effort.)
Key points chapter 4
• Roaming entrepreneurs are everywhere these days. Many of them are
quietly building significant (six figures or higher) businesses while
living in paradise.
• Just as not every passion leads to a good business model, a lot of
people pursue the nomadic lifestyle for the wrong reasons. The best
question to answer is: What do you want to do?
• There are many roads to location independence, but the business
of information publishing is especially profitable. (And there’s more
than one path to information publishing; it isn’t just about e-books.)• Everything relates to the lessons that began in Chapter 1: Find the
convergence between what you love and what other people are willing
to buy, remember that you’re probably good at more than one thing,
and combine passion and usefulness to build a real business-no
matter where you end up living.
