FINANCIAL FREEDOM: How We Created A Location Independent Business and Are Living Our Dream (Part I)

It’s been a very bumpy road to get there, but we made it. Since a year now, gosh time flies, our company is finally making more money than we spend. We are even able to save some and the company is growing exponentially. Exciting times. Woot woot!

Hopefully, this series of posts may inspire you too and prevent you from making the same mistakes and take a shorter (less expensive) road toward FREEDOM.

Since the word freedom has different meanings and can change over time, let me first explain to you what it means to my husband and me. At first, we were dreaming of tropical, non-Belgian destinations. Traveling and seeing the world would give us freedom, right? But it would cost, rather than make, us money.

So, we tried to gather some savings through working our corporate jobs and renovating a house. @menta worked as a network security specialist and I was studying the cell cycle of plants! All very interesting, but an entire science lab doesn’t exactly fit into a backpack or suitcase.

A smell of freedom

In 2012, we could smell our freedom as Jan was about to sign a contract to work for a major South-American data center operating from Curacao, the Dutch Antilles, just below the Carribean.

Overjoyed by the news we kicked into higher renovating gear. The profits that selling the house was going to bring would be our savings and safety net to fall back on!

We taught we got it all sorted. Jan was going to make loads of money, which would give me time to look for a job. In our minds we’re already sailing our asses off to semi-tropical regions…

But one last holiday to Cambodia changed it all

During that one-month trip we came to realize that, although we would live somewhere beautiful, tropical, and different, I would be able to go scuba diving every single day, we would still work for a boss.

Jan’s job would come with tremendous responsibilities and almost no free time. Since they were still a new company setting everything up.

Where’s the freedom in that?

That’s when the seed of creating our own location independent business was plated… and a new meaning to the word FREEDOM was added.

What if we could create financial freedom and take our business anywhere in the world. The only thing you need is electricity and internet. Simple as that! Yep, that sounded about right, so we changed our mission.

Check Out My Previous Post: Why I Fell in 💗 with the TROPICS 🌴 and moved to Cambodia, SE-Asia

But how to accomplish this financial freedom?

Though our mission was slightly changed, we still needed money!

While moving abroad doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to stay there. Some people get homesick and want to go back to their family and friends, fair enough! They tried and noticed that this digital nomad lifestyle is not part of their happiness and freedom. Like mentioned, we all give a different meaning to those words.

Though the question whether you will adapt or not in a foreign country remains unanswered till you actually make your move, another reason many people see their dream shattered is because of money. They weren’t able to find a job or set up a business because you get it, the left without money... and money tends to drain fast when you are having fun!

That wasn’t going to happen to us! So my first tip on how the create a location independent business is:

STEP 1: Get some money in your pocket

You don’t need much but you need something.

Whether it is just your dream to go live abroad (without having your own company) or start your own online location independent business to start seeing the world while earning enough money,

Yep! That’s right you can’t build anything if you don’t have some savings to fall back on during times you are actually building the business and spending more than what comes in. Just like any other business you have to invest some to get some in return.

So don’t expect to make 6-figures a month anywhere soon.

Again, you’re only gonna see some growth if you put some money in there. We made that mistake and blindly followed empty promises of a Ponzi scheme. But more about that and how we instead of making six-figures, lost more than $5,000.

Starting a Location Independent Business that Makes Money is HARD WORK

Yes you might have read “The 4-hour workweek” or the laptop lifestyle… to get there you are actually gonna have to clock some more hours than that.

Though family and friends often think you are rather getting a tan and enjoying ourselves all day, creating a successful business takes a while and a lot of work.

I always liked this quote:

Though we work a lot, it fun! It’s our passion, and if things keep going like they are we can retire anywhere between the next 5 to 10 years. Though we’ll probably stay involved in the business cause we love it that much, by then we will be able to run it completely hands-off.

Don't get me wrong I love what I'm doing, but the one thing I really dream of is to be a volunteer in wildlife conservation projects... and that's what I'm planning to do once I have more free time....

Step 2: At some point, you are going to have to quit your day job and kiss your monthly, guaranteed income goodbye

In the beginning of our adventure to set up a business, we were still renovating the house, working our full-time corporate jobs. All our free time went to starting the company….

This is a harsh lifestyle. After 6 months all our energy was drained, eating bananas no longer worked!

THERE IS ONLY SO MUCH YOU CAN DO IN 24 HOURS.. and I sleep at least 7 to 8 of them.

Selling the house and our little savings made us decide to quit our day job and fully focus on the company and that’s when things started to take off.

The first few months we invested and spent more than we earned, but we had it covered… we moved to a cheaper country, which enabled us to survive with less and build and invest in the company.

And so our little baby was growing up.

Though we made a few mistakes, which made us lose a lot of money… we came out a lot wiser! They were expensive lessons, but they might just have been worth it to push us into the right direction.

STEP 3: Mindset does a lot!

More than once I was ready to throw in the towel and go back to my corporate job. It's easy you know. You work and you know exactly what to expect at the end of the month… Luckily @menta kept me motivated and mopped up my tears and frustrations.

How come other people were getting six figures after 3-6 months and we got only $10? Blinded by the $$$$ and promises of other internet marketers (cleverly marketing their Ponzi scheme) I got frustrated.

And that’s why 95% of internet marketers are unsuccessful.

Most of them are blinded by the numbers instead of focussing on building a real, sustainable, honest business. And we were no different.

Though the clouds looked very black, every time @menta got me back on my feet….

After rain comes sunshine, right!

And then the most amazing thing happened. Once we started to focus on our business and what we wanted to achieve rather than hoping for a 6-figure month, things got rolling pretty fast…

Though many people believe an online company or internet marketing doesn’t have any running costs or expenses and will make you money overnight by smoking pot and drinking fancy cocktails, think again!

I think is a good introduction to what we have been through. Stay tuned for the next posts where I will explain what our business is and how we are making money and growing our business every day. I’ll also explain how crypto came to play, made us lose a lot of money and how we got back to trusting it.

Takeaway messages

• Get some money
• Quit your day job, working an hour here and there will not help you to create a profitable business anywhere soon. It's a full-time job!
• Be patient and work towards creating value rather than the amount of money in your bank account.

Starting our own location independent business is the best choice we ever made.

Being able to work from anywhere in the world is so liberating.. although we kinda set up camp in Cambodia, our laptops are our business and oh so portable... so we travel a lot while we work.

To give you an idea, the pictures below are all temporary officeS we've worked in while on the road! No bad, he?

Coming up next: How we lost $25,000 (through internet marketing and crypto) and turned everything around. Real-life tips to avoid failure.

In part III, I’ll explain what is making us money right now and how we see the future. I’ll also explain how we regained our trust in crypto, which has been very good to us lately!

Thank you all for reading! Stay tuned for the next episode.

ALL CONTENT IS MINE AND ORIGINAL!
PICTURE(s) TAKEN WITH FUJI X-M1 AND A BIT OF EVERYTHING WE OWNED IN BETWEEN

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