[CleanSlate]

Using this thread as my journal towards location independency.

Mid-month update:

1) Forming a team to help manage my finances:

I'm putting together a team that consists of an accountant (CPA), attorney, and an insurance agent that will hold the fort for me at home when I'm overseas.

Already have my insurance, so I'll continue using him. Then I've interviewed CPAs and lawyers to find the ones that I like, and this process is almost complete. From now on, I'll call this team "my money team".

2) Forming an LLC for my business

Some people may argue that it's not necessary and that it's too much work. But I've thought long and hard about this, and I decided that if I'm going to make a living off my freelance business, I'm going to do this the right way. Plus, I'm using this as a marketing tactic: most freelancers don't have LLCs. I believe having an LLC will show clients that I am serious about my business despite my current lack of business experience.

What's nice about an LLC is that all profits and losses are passed through to my personal tax return, but I have liability protection against my personal assets in case one client tries to sue me if things go wrong. I seriously doubt someone is going to sue me, but you never know - all it takes is one asshole of a deep-pocketed client out of hundreds to take me down.

I submitted a filing to my secretary of state to form an LLC, and once approved, I'll open a new business checking account

3) Looking into VA services

I'm falling behind my own personal schedule for business admin tasks, because of my FT job. Things are hectic at work so I haven't had the time or energy to really get my business in gear.

To solve this problem, I'm seriously considering outsourcing some tasks such as list building, business admin, and marketing support to a virtual assistant. The end product I'm hoping for is a list of emails and phone numbers, as well as the attention of the clients who would have the power to hire me.

I hope the cost of a VA is reasonable for what I want to do, and consider it as an "investment" into my business.

Time vs Money

Through all of this, I am learning that TIME is even more valuable than MONEY.

With money, you can always get a dollar back if you lose it.

But with time, you cannot get a minute back if you lose it.

[lavidaloca]

Congrats on your achievements thus far! It seems like the trip to Philippines really motivated you!

[Robert Guiscard]

(07-15-2015 12:13 PM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

I'm putting together a team that consists of an accountant (CPA), attorney, and an insurance agent that will hold the fort for me at home when I'm overseas.

Already have my insurance, so I'll continue using him. Then I've interviewed CPAs and lawyers to find the ones that I like, and this process is almost complete. From now on, I'll call this team "my money team".

Interesting. Any chance you'd be willing to elaborate a bit? Specifically regarding what roles you're expecting each to play, how you're picking them, and how you're paying them (don't need numbers here, just interested in structure, e.g. do you pay by the hour, or a monthly fee, whatever.)

I've been thinking about doing something similar. Not because I'm traveling, but to make sure I'm not doing anything boneheaded when it comes to taxes and some complex financial transactions.

[CleanSlate]

(07-17-2015 05:33 PM)Robert Guiscard Wrote:  

Interesting. Any chance you'd be willing to elaborate a bit? Specifically regarding what roles you're expecting each to play, how you're picking them, and how you're paying them

Honestly, I'm kind of making things up as I go along.

I'm pretty sure I'll be working with the CPA the most for accounting and taxes - still working out how I'm going to pay them.

My attorney, referred to me by word of mouth, will work for me on my business on an hourly basis, and for now he'll just be reviewing my paperwork to make sure it's all in order. Then after that, I hope to never have to use him! But if I ever need a lawyer, he's an email away.

I have a banker, whom I just met today, willing to work with me via email for my business checking account, which I'm going to open soon. I'm deaf and can't make phone calls, so I need to do things exclusively by email. Although I can make phone calls to customer service using a video relay with an interpreter, I need to investigate whether it will work outside of the U.S (there are a whole bunch of FCC rules about this).

My insurance agent, I will either be selling or giving away my car just before I move. I will cancel auto insurance, but I may retain my personal articles policy if it covers my laptop in case it gets lost or stolen (my livelihood will depend on it). I will need to ask him about this. I've had my auto insurance agent for 7 years.

[Vacancier Permanent]

CS,
Great to see your progress towards LI lifestyle and that you're actively working towards it. I'm happy to see that man!

However, looks like just like prior to your Phils trip, you're way over thinking it. Just as I told you prior to that life changing trip to the Philippines, just go, I'll repeat the same thing here: make money first and build that biz then worry about all that admin stuff.

I can see that you're the analytical type of guy, which is great, but don't let the minute details of things make you over think things.

Other than that, keep doing what you're doing and push forward. You're on the right track amigo!

[Robert Guiscard]

Thanks, CleanSlate!

[Engineer]

(07-17-2015 07:36 PM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

I will cancel auto insurance, but I may retain my personal articles policy if it covers my laptop in case it gets lost or stolen (my livelihood will depend on it)

Great sounding plan!

You're probably on it already, but don't forget to backup your data to a drive or the cloud regularly with some robust system, as insurance won't replace data.

Good luck.

[Phoenix]

CleanSlate, good you are keeping yourself accountable with this thread.
So you are setting up these support services, but are you actually making money with your business endeavours yet? It seems a bit cart before horse.

[CleanSlate]

(07-18-2015 01:06 PM)Phoenix Wrote:  

CleanSlate, good you are keeping yourself accountable with this thread.
So you are setting up these support services, but are you actually making money with your business endeavours yet? It seems a bit cart before horse.

Not yet, I've been doing some pro bono work for a few clients to expand my portfolio and get my name out there. I will start charging soon.

I know it seems that way, but I just wanted to get the admin out of the way first, so I can actually focus on the meat and potatoes of my business.

[CleanSlate]

End of July Update

Admin:

Got a lot of admin stuff done for July. Opened a new business checking account, hired a lawyer, CPA, and a VA to support my new business and I'm glad I did all this because it would have taken me much longer to DIY. It did cost some money upfront, but I expect it to pay for itself and save more money in the long run. Plus I did all this during work hours anyway.

Coding:

I've been spending lots of time practicing coding, and as I gain more confidence, I will start writing some of my own apps to implement an idea that's been brewing in my head. I will also pick up a few more languages as time permits, to broaden my skill set. I want to really get JavaScript down at some point.

Writing:

I've been writing a lot of content for my TRT blog and just need to market it some more. I've also picked up a couple of writing jobs on upwork / elance. For some reason, writing jobs are easier to obtain on elance than coding jobs.

But elance really isn't part of my long term plan. Plus, a lot of clients are asking for full time availability. I've had at least 3 in this past week asking if I could work for them full time, exclusively. I don't understand this because if they really wanted to hire full time, they could just post a F/T job on their own website or on one of those big job search engines. It doesn't make sense to go to a freelance site and ask for full time.

It's tempting to lie and say I can do it just to get the job, but they could put a bad review if I shirk out on them. I prefer to be honest, as I feel honesty and reliability is my most valuable asset in business right now.

The Theme for August - Marketing:

It's time to really start pounding the pavement to drum up actual business. Start EARNING money. To do this, I need to learn how to market and sell myself.

I'm not going to lie. I'm kind of dreading this part, but this is going to be just like making approaches in Game. Except for business, where I haven't yet learned how to market my way out of a paper bag.

It's time to learn by getting my hands dirty with trial and error. I will give out business cards, email all my contacts, family, friends, letting them know that I'm open for business.

It's tempting to set a goal to make a certain amount of dollars or land a certain number of clients by the end of the month, but this may only lead to frustration since I cannot control the actions of others.

Instead, I'm going to set a goal to send marketing emails to 300 recipients and give out 100 business cards to the area's shops/business owners by the end of August. We'll see how much business that gets me for the month.

I already have a VA working on a list of about 200 companies, and they should get me 200 email addresses belonging to those who would have the power to hire me. Even if I get ONE paid project out of this effort, this will more than compensate what I paid the VA.

Other non-business lifestyle things:

Game:

Gaming activity set on low and slow. I only approach if I get good eye contact, or when an opportunity presents itself. I also refuse to spend unnecessary time driving 1 hour to meet a girl or to buy 4 drinks on a date and have her refuse my advances. Anytime I get a girl to meet me, it's either straight to my place, or to a cafe across the street. Keeping it as time-efficient as possible.

Diet and Fitness:

Not really making too many changes to my diet, but keeping away from processed sugars, breads, and sticking with eggs, chicken, beef, rice, veggies, fruits, cheese, and an occasional snack. I want to start drinking more green tea (iced).

Haven't been riding as much as I want to be, as it's hot as hell out there now and there's no end in sight for this heat wave. Only 30 minutes in 100 degree heat gets me roasted, salted, and exhausted. Instead, I do some calisthenics and walking, with an occasional run in the evening.

[CleanSlate]

(07-30-2015 09:18 PM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

The Theme for August - Marketing:

It's time to really start pounding the pavement to drum up actual business. Start EARNING money. To do this, I need to learn how to market and sell myself.

My early marketing efforts gave me a few soft leads (out of about 30 emails), but I've been asked to show them my portfolio. When I did, I haven't heard back again (I know they visited my site as I am monitoring traffic). It's still early and maybe they're thinking about it, but it's pretty clear that I need to really expand my portfolio.

Which means get more jobs at Upwork/Elance. But the jobs I get there are mostly for summarizing book chapters, or proofreading, which are pretty shit jobs and doesn't provide me any portfolio value. I still apply to those, however, just to get something going.

So I'm switching gears and decided to do two things:

1. Apply to a freelance site that is specifically geared towards hiring writers, as opposed to the more generalist freelance sites like Upwork or Elance.

2. Creating speculative copy and adding them to my portfolio. I look for the niche markets that I'm interested in or know a lot about, and see weak copies online. So I take them, and recreate their copy from scratch based on what I know about them and their target audience.

I'm still going to send 10 emails a day as I do the above two things. This is going to be harder than I thought it would be... earning my first dollar seems light years away, but I'll keep trying.

[CleanSlate]

End of August Update

With all the admin stuff out of the way...

Marketing:

I haven't done as much marketing as I would've liked because I got sidetracked by a few things... one is the Battle of Canada, where I lost a week's worth of productivity by getting together with a great group of guys to stick it to the feminazis - and I do not regret it one bit.

I did send about 150 marketing emails, with a few replies saying they're interested in working with me. However, I did not give out a single business card. Time to find some local networking events to meet people in person to help things get off the ground.

Business:

I expected work at my F/T job to slow down over the summer, but no. Things got very busy, keeping me from working on my business on the clock. It is getting pretty annoying that every time I try to set aside some time to focus on my business projects, work interferes. Again. Then I come home exhausted and too drained to do any more work. People who managed to build their businesses while on their F/T jobs really do deserve a fucking medal.

The good news is that I'm really putting my nose to the grindstone with coding. I've learned more in the last month than in the last 5 years, with both javascript and C#, on top of doing some challenging projects. I still have a long way to go before I'm a full stack developer, but once I get there, I should be able to do pretty much anything. At this rate, I expect I'll get "there" by mid-late 2016.

Location Independence:

As far as becoming location-independent, things are moving pretty slowly. I'm going to double down on my efforts to achieve my May 2016 goal. If it takes getting up one hour earlier and eating lunch at my desk, so be it. I'm also trying to keep myself motivated by de-cluttering... selling furniture, my coin collection, and a whole bunch of stuff that I don't need anymore

I vented my frustration about not seeming to make much progress to a good friend of mine (he's on the forum also), and he said "that's because we're used to paychecks where work = immediate pay. In entrepreneurship, it's different because you do all the work, bootstrapping, and all the necessary marketing, until you get your business off the ground, and ONLY then you get paid."

He's right. I've lived under the "work = immediate pay" paradigm for so long, it's hard for me to really see otherwise... so it will take a huge paradigm shift to achieve what I want.

So I'm going to keep what I'm doing... more marketing, writing good content, grinding it out with coding practice, developing an array of accomplished projects that I can take pride in, and asking prospective clients if and when they need help.

[Sojourn]

Looking over this thread CleanSlate I definitely think you are over thinking all the technical things, such as lawyers, accountants, assistants and everything.

It was good to meet you in Toronto again and I know we discussed some of this.

I plan to make a thread about my journey of building an online business and how I became location independent, but all I can say is that I purely focused on the simple ingredients that made money and made my business successful while I was still working full time 9-5:

1. Making an in demand product/application, which I outsourced fully

I didn't want to spend the time learning coding. It's great you are learning as it is an in demand skill but it's going to take a long time to get really good at it, that's why I look to the experts that are already on all of these freelancing sites. I sketched what I wanted it to do, what button does what, sent that to the freelancer, reviewed their work a few times a week and that's how I got the product done with money that I had to invest before the product even started selling.

2. Finding the buyers, and networking with those that have lists/buyers already

This applies more for online products, then for Phone Apps. Going after the people that have big email lists, lot's of contacts, established bloggers/websites etc, showing them the product first hand and giving a generous affiliate commission for them to promote it. If I did not do this, no one would know about the product.

Rest of the stuff like setting up the website and everything was easy, and was also done with minimal outsourcing costs.

I would not trust or use a VA to build up your list or network. This is your product/business, you understand it the most, this is what you have to do as I mentioned in point #2.

[CleanSlate]

(08-31-2015 01:01 PM)Sojourn Wrote:  

1. Making an in demand product/application, which I outsourced fully

2. Finding the buyers, and networking with those that have lists/buyers already

I've been meaning to do #1 for some of my coding projects just to speed the technical things up. I plan to hire a few freelancers to do some things for me.

But #2, finding and networking with buyers with big marketing lists - That is the part I'm struggling with the most. How do you find these buyers or people with big lists, and what do you say to them when you do find them?

By the way, all the admin stuff (accountants, lawyers, etc) is all finished and done with. It wasn't that difficult and only needed to be done once... plus I have their contact info whenever I need them.

[Sojourn]

(08-31-2015 01:20 PM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

(08-31-2015 01:01 PM)Sojourn Wrote:  

1. Making an in demand product/application, which I outsourced fully

2. Finding the buyers, and networking with those that have lists/buyers already

I've been meaning to do #1 for some of my coding projects just to speed the technical things up. I plan to hire a few freelancers to do some things for me.

But #2, finding and networking with buyers with big marketing lists - That is the part I'm struggling with the most. How do you find these buyers or people with big lists, and what do you say to them when you do find them?

By the way, all the admin stuff (accountants, lawyers, etc) is all finished and done with. It wasn't that difficult and only needed to be done once... plus I have their contact info whenever I need them.

In every niche and market there is someone already established in that market. These are the people that appear first on search results, have a large following already, have successful products and can be essentially your competition.

The point is to reach out to them. It helps even if you buy their products or are already a customer. Don't just email and or contact and say "Hey promote me I got this and that and I can make you this much $$$ etc" Use your game to establish a relationship. Some will deny, ignore you, reject you, just like a girl will. Asking if they can share an opinion/suggestions on your product helps to get them to check it out, as well as offering value so they can get something out of it as well.

CleanSlate, PM me the details of your product/service and let me try to make a better analysis.

[Teutatis]

CleanSlate, this a very interesting thread that I'll be following and I'd also be very interested in reading what Sojourn has to say about his own experience.

[CleanSlate]

Mid-Sept Update

Business:

I feel I am making positive steps forward in drumming up business. While I haven't seen actual dollars coming through my account, I have been generating interest in my business. I've grown increasingly confident of my coding skills, so I am starting to spend more time on marketing than coding practice.

I've had people respond to my emails saying "Yes, I will need your services in the near future, I'll keep your info and get back to you when I start to revamp my website/marketing" and some variation of that. Maybe they're just being nice... and I expect most of them will ghost. But perhaps a few of them will actually come back and give me some paid work to do.

Either way, it's all about following up with all of my contacts every now and then... once a quarter seems reasonable. Most won't bite after first contact, or the second, or even the third... but eventually, after enough follow ups.

This week, I attended a networking event and got about a dozen new contacts. I really should go to more networking events to drum up more business, it's a pretty effective way to meet potential clients all in one place in roughly 1-2 hours of my time.

On top of that, I have a friend who wants me to make an app for him and he sent me the drawings. Outside of the typical freelance websites like Upwork/Odesk, he may be my first client that I actually get on my own. He may be a friend, but I will approach this job professionally and as if it's my only livelihood, and hope to get a positive testimonial to build upon.

Health & Game:

I've really slacked off on both. Starting this weekend, I am going to drink two veggie smoothies per day. There was another thread where LINUX posted a link to an ebook with all the veggie smoothie recipes, and I bought that. Going to pick 3 favorite recipes, and get all the veggies and ingredients off those.

As far as game, Lothario's recent post on his trip to Dallas inspired me to step up my game and approach more. I'm burned out on online game, so day game will have to do.

[CleanSlate]

October update:

- Sold off a few pieces of furniture, and will continue to downsize my possessions over the next several months.
- Got my first client, and the first money has arrived into my business account
- Made a list of travel to places over the next several months, have not booked yet apart from the November Philippines trip:

* Philippines in November, 10 days (booked)
* Dubai 4-5 days (Jan-Mar)
* Bangkok ~2 weeks (Jan-Mar)
* Dominican Republic ~10 days (Mar-April?)
* Colombia ?

I might piggyback Dubai and Bangkok together in one trip depending on airfares.

[Kaii]

(10-02-2015 09:53 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

October update:

- Sold off a few pieces of furniture, and will continue to downsize my possessions over the next several months.
- Got my first client, and the first money has arrived into my business account
- Made a list of travel to places over the next several months, have not booked yet apart from the November Philippines trip:

* Philippines in November, 10 days (booked)
* Dubai 4-5 days (Jan-Mar)
* Bangkok ~2 weeks (Jan-Mar)
* Dominican Republic ~10 days (Mar-April?)
* Colombia ?

I might piggyback Dubai and Bangkok together in one trip depending on airfares.

Dude, I love this thread! Keep up the good work my friend. I am in the tech field (SCCM, cloud services, Mobile Device management, Endpoint security etc), if you need some tech advice, PM me and I'll try to help.

Keep up the good work!

[CleanSlate]

My business seems to be gaining some traction, and I now am doing copywriting work for my third client. I'm still doing app development work for my first client, so that's ongoing.

Getting paid work on top of self-study, personal projects, and my full time job, things are starting to get a bit overwhelming. So much work to do! I can handle it for now, as long as I stay organized and correctly prioritize my projects. Hopefully the traction I'm gaining sticks. Better yet, snowball into a full time job with real money that would be enough for my own sustenance.

Over this past week, I've been gathering my old clothes and non-essential possessions that I don't need anymore to be donated to either Goodwill or the Salvation Army this weekend. I've even put my road bike up for sale! I'll be sad to see it go, but it's getting old and I haven't been riding. Plus I could use the money to lease a scooter to practice on, I'll really need the experience before motorbiking all over SEA.

I had a mini anxiety attack when I was getting all my old stuff together. I looked myself in the mirror, thinking to myself:

"You're about to give up a six figure job to move to the other side of the globe... 9,000 miles away from everything you've ever known or cared about - family, friends, career, and a future that you've always assumed would take place here. Are you fucking nuts?"

I am just now feeling the weight and gravity of such a decision. Don't get me wrong, I'm not wussing out... but I am fully realizing that it is not something to be taken lightly.

[Player_1337]

(07-30-2015 09:18 PM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

Gaming activity set on low and slow. I only approach if I get good eye contact, or when an opportunity presents itself. I also refuse to spend unnecessary time driving 1 hour to meet a girl or to buy 4 drinks on a date and have her refuse my advances. Anytime I get a girl to meet me, it's either straight to my place, or to a cafe across the street. Keeping it as time-efficient as possible.

Couldn't agree more with the snippets I bolded. After my last 5-6 meets with new girls (who didn't bang and ghosted), I have no patience left for their bs. I'm now working on streamlining the process for 2015 and beyond.

- Screening out time-wasters by using video software like Skype or FaceTime before arranging the first meet.
- Strong logistics. I want to control the logistics and bring her to my pad (either fresh direct or meet at a venue in my neck of the woods). No exceptions. No more relying on the assumption we'll bounce to her place if things are going well (worked for me in the past but has been failing lately).

[262]

(10-23-2015 10:46 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

I had a mini anxiety attack when I was getting all my old stuff together. I looked myself in the mirror, thinking to myself:

"You're about to give up a six figure job to move to the other side of the globe... 9,000 miles away from everything you've ever known or cared about - family, friends, career, and a future that you've always assumed would take place here. Are you fucking nuts?"

I am just now feeling the weight and gravity of such a decision. Don't get me wrong, I'm not wussing out... but I am fully realizing that it is not something to be taken lightly.

Having been in this situation, I completely understand. But whenever I had thoughts like this, one more thought always crept into my mind:

"I have nothing to lose. Dating here has been well short of it being worth the years of effort I put in. It's time to see if that investment pays off elsewhere."

And it has.

[CleanSlate]

(10-23-2015 05:01 PM)262 Wrote:  

Having been in this situation, I completely understand. But whenever I had thoughts like this, one more thought always crept into my mind:

"I have nothing to lose. Dating here has been well short of it being worth the years of effort I put in. It's time to see if that investment pays off elsewhere."

And it has.

Thanks, and yeah I have those similar thoughts. Honestly, there's really nothing for me here anymore.

In fact, if it weren't for my job's annual bonus payout coming in April-May, I would be preparing to leave much sooner than currently planned. Hanging on a bit longer to get that bonus would buy me another 2 years in SEA with the lower COL, which is plenty of time to get my business running to the point where I get consistently positive cash flow from month to month, year to year.

262, did you wait on telling your family and friends until the last minute? I'm asking because I haven't told anyone yet, and I know if I did, they'd try to talk me out of it.

[Phoenix]

^ Yeah don't tell them until the last minute, and mention it as a "long holiday".

[TheSearcher]

About how much does it cost per month to live in southeast asia?