Got quite a bit going on this week away from the computer, likely on the road again tomorrow, but I didn’t want to go without sharing something that maybe helps explain to some of the almost insistent pitch I seem to make here regarding earning a living, rather than just waiting around hoping someone “gives” you a job.
In particular I’d like to address the on-line earning a living aspect.
I know there are readers out there who are already tensing up, ready to hit the “Back” key, or else starting to shake their head, saying to themselves, “Oh here Dave goes again, I can’t get my head around all that on-line stuff. It’s not for me.”
But there are some of those same “not for me” folks who are also the ones who continually search, ask about, and then search more for the almost universal question of “how do I start a ???? business in the Philippines”? (just substitute sari-sari store, Internet cafe, taxi service, or nay number of other business ideas for the “????” in the last sentence.
On-line business, or supplementing a “dirt based” business with online marketing, administration and control is an idea whose time has really come, and w all are living at the place in time where we can get aboard the wave as it develops and moves all of us forward.
You see when I talk about earning online, I am not talking about “putting up a website and starting a blog” (unless that idea happens to appeal to you), or selling shampoo over the Internet, or doing language instruction over the Internet,etc. (although I know people personally who are really doing these things.)
I’m talking about the power and the leverage that the Internet can give _any_ business. A power very few business in any country are using effectively these days … which means that this is really the time to start.
A fellow I read regularly (thanks for the recommendation, Bob) is a fellow who goes by the name of MikeCJ … real name Mike Cliff-Jones. he lives on a paradise-like island in the Azores, with his family. He earns a substantial income from blogs … so perhaps he’s a poor example of what I just said, but he sends out a gang buster weekly news letter and this caught my eye in today’s edition:
I was talking to a pal of mine the other day, who started a business here in 1986. In other words before the internet.
It was fascinating to hear how he had to spend so much money of advertising to get some traction for his business, that he posted a loss for two years.
And how he created an index card system as a mailing list, which he grew to 1000 names in five years. He described writing and printing letters, then stuffing envelopes and adding sticky labels to them. Each mailshot would take him and his daughter two full days to implement, and would cost the equivalent of $300 for postage and materials.
Think about that for a moment. Five years to get 1000 names and addresses, then two days work plus $300 to send them a letter, every time.
Contrast that with what we can do today. In less than two years my mailing lists stand at around 5000. I can send them all an email in the time it takes me to write it, for almost no cost!
It’s astonishing how you can market pretty much any business, directly to interested prospects with very little investment in time or materials.
This knowledge, this skill, gives you and I unprecedented opportunities on two levels. On the one hand, we can build businesses from scratch, quickly and efficiently, and on the other we can help and advise people like my pal on how to create and maximize their web presence.
It’s a time of great opportunity. Let’s embrace it.
Now how could you apply this to someone who wanted to live in the Philippines, but didn’t want to try to eke out a living here selling tiny packs of shampoo or cigarettes to the people on your block (how many of you back there in the USA know that the ciggies are typically sold one “stick”, one cigarette at a time? 50 centavos (about a penny US per stick r so for the cheaper brands and if it’s a high-class sari-sari there will be a 15 cent lighter chained to the sales window to light that smoke, surely no one is giving out free matches at those prices.
Well suppose you took a look at the other things Mike does on his island paradise in the tropics on the other side of the globe from the Philippines.
A Free Information Source on Making Money "In Place" Overseas
He advertises and books rental cars (for a commission, of course). He advertises and books hotels rooms, likewise. He books and coordinates SCUBA reef diving tours. He puts out a newsletter that goes all over the world with a few advertising banners inside that each bring in substantial money every month.
He has other income models as well … look at a couple of his websites and, if you really want to know more, download his totally free guide to how he started making a profit in a year … it’s full of a lot of tips.
My main point is, “shift gears”.
My friend John Miele just wrote a great article on jobs for expats in the Philippines. I noticed couple people in the comments to that article who got half the message … they realized that they couldn’t realistically expect to find a job that would suit then in the Philippines, but the didn’t seem to grasp the other truth … there is absolutely no reason that you can’t make yourself self-supporting in the Philippines, earning money while you live here, but not earning money from here.
This seems to be the hardest part of the equations for people to get their head around. Once you make the connection in your mind that where you live and where your living comes from do not have to be the same places, life gets a whole lot simpler.
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