Issue #35
October 12, 2022
So you want to build a business that lets you live and work anywhere.
Congratulations!
Now, how and where do you start?
Whatever else you do — whatever problem you’re going to solve and get paid for — you’ll need a place where your audience and your prospects will come to get information about your product or service, and about you, personally. (After all, people do business with people they know, like, and trust.)
This is the first of a short series of newsletters about the fundamentals you’ll need to put in place for your Anywhereist business.
It must be an asset you control.
Some people will tell you to just start a Facebook group or page, or build on Instagram, or TikTok, or whatever’s the social media flavor of the week.
That’s a mistake.
The internet is littered with the stories of people who worked and hustled and built a large audience on platform X, Y, or Z, only to have their business destroyed when the algorithms changed.
No, you need a website.
You must build your business on a platform you control.
That’s a website.
Once that website’s in place, by all means use social media to spread your message and attract an audience, but use your website as your business hub.
To create your website, I’m a big fan of WordPress. It’s still the best option for those of us who aren’t programmers or coders, and it’s what I’ve been using to build websites since around 2008. In fact, WordPress Building Blocks was the first Anywhereist business I started, shortly after I moved to Panama in 2012. You’ll find a wealth of information over there about the mechanics of starting a WordPress website.
And while I’m not designing websites any more, if you already have a site (WordPress or other) that’s not performing as well as you’d like, I can help you make it more effective, starting with a Site Audit.
Tips & Tools
Location
All Aboard!
Have you read Agatha Christie’s famous book, Murder on the Orient Express? Or maybe seen the movie? Well, that iconic train, the Venice-Simplon Orient Express, is back in business, and is calling All Aboard for the holidays.
It’s a chance to see some of Europe’s best cities, like Paris, Venice, or Florence, all dressed up in their Christmas finery while you ride the rails in utmost luxury.
Malaysia Anyone?
Newest digital nomad visa is available now, for Malaysia.
It’s set up to be easy to apply for, as you can do it all online. The visa is good initially for 3-12 months, and can be extended another 12 months. It also lets you bring your spouse and children.
Here are the details.
Mindset
Have you ever been in a rut?
Of course you have, that was a trick question. It’s something we’ve all experienced. Here’s some helpful advice you can apply, whether your rut more closely resembles the pit of despair, or an overwhelming sense of, well, overwhelm.
Read: How to Get Out of a Rut
Tools
We all know Zoom. If we weren’t using it before pandemic lockdown, we got intimately acquainted with it during that time.
Zoom is great for video meetings, but a while back they started putting limits on free accounts. If you’re not paying for the service, your meetings are now limited to 40 minutes.
If you need to run longer meetings but aren’t able to handle the $150 annual price for Pro, there’s another player in town.
RingCentral lets you host video meetings of unlimited length for up to 100 people, free. You can do pretty much anything with RingCentral you can do with Zoom, including recording your meetings. And if you need some of the paid features, it’s $12/month if you pay annually. Users can join via browser, without installing anything, you can join on your phone, and you can switch seamlessly between devices if you’re say, in the car when the meeting starts, and then you get to your computer and want to toggle over.
Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. That means, if you click and purchase, you pay exactly the same amount and I’ll earn a small commission. These fees help me to keep the free information flowing.
In Case You Missed It. . .
Last year Lou Blaser, a writer and podcaster, wrote an article for Anywhereist about her relocation from the US to Asia.
Spurring her decision was the health of her elderly mother. Lou wanted to spend more time with her, and to help her sister who’d been bearing most of the burden of caring for their Mom.
Recently Lou wrote:
In Sept 2021, I traveled to the Philippines to spend time with my mom, who had dementia.
For nine months, I got to sit with her every day. With her dementia, she didn’t remember much of our past anymore. But it’s okay because we managed to create new memories together. I got to hear the words I wanted to hear from my mother. And bonus points, I have those on video. 😊
My mother passed away a few weeks ago. And I will be forever grateful for the gift of those nine months. Which I was only able to do because the work I do today is what’s called “location-independent.”
When I stepped away from my corporate life, I chose the type of work that would not tie me to a certain physical location or geography. I wanted the freedom to be wherever I wanted or needed to be and continue to do my work — which is an important part of my life.
When I made the decision to lead a ‘location-independent’ life, I wasn’t thinking about my mom or spending time with her. But today, that choice I made years ago paid off in a big way. All this to say, consciously designing the life we want to live — and making choices that align with that design — pays off in the long run. Maybe not immediately. It may feel more of a sacrifice initially when you have to choose between the definite A and the long-term B.
But if you know what you want more of in your life and consciously work toward that, the dots will eventually connect.
– Lou Blaser
Read Lou’s Original Article: How One Dissatisfied Gen-Xer Achieved Location Independence in Asia