11 Reasons For an Escape Artist to Own an Online Business.
In my experience as an expat for more than thirty years and as a ‘permanent traveller’ for more than twelve years, I’ve discovered that the people who are interested in websites like EscapeArtist are people who seriously value one thing — freedom of choice!
They also tend to be independent-minded and believers in self-sufficiency and self-reliance.
There’s a lifestyle that satisfies all of these elements: being an expat with reliable online income.
Here’s a podcast from The Expat Money Show where Mikkel and I talk about safely leaving the rat race by starting an online business!
Here are eleven reasons that come to mind:
1. Freedom of Location
Obviously, the one thing every Escape Artist desires is the ability to live wherever he or she wants.
An online business can be operated from anywhere in the world that has a decent internet connection. It makes zero difference to the reader where I was (Ireland) when I wrote this article or where the editor was (Panama) when he posted it on the site.
2. Level Playing Field
In the online world, the little guy with a tiny budget can compete in the same marketplace as companies with millions or billions to spend.
Online real estate is all the same price, about $15/year for a domain name.
Once a surfer types in your web address he sees your story on the same screen that he sees the story from Apple or Amazon.
It sounds like an obvious point, but the power of it is revolutionary – it’s a truly level field. So the unfortunate guy living under a corrupt regime in Lebanon has the same basic opportunity as a guy living in Texas.
3. No Ageism
In the New Economy – pandemic or no pandemic – it’s increasingly difficult to find a great job, with solid benefits. It’s even harder if you’re a baby boomer with some gray hair.
The reality is, there are so many people chasing so few good jobs that employers can often choose from over a hundred candidates for just one position. Young and cheap often beat older and more expensive.
By contrast, many online business models don’t even require the owner to be visible. In any case, the success of an online business is rarely based on the age of the person running it. Nobody really thinks about whether a website owner is 18 or 88.
4. Freedom of Non-conformity
Many 9-to-5 jobs come with expectations of conduct and lifestyle. “Being yourself” or expressing unpopular or politically incorrect opinions can cause a backlash, or even be grounds for dismissal.
When you operate your own online business you have no such restrictions. In fact, many online business models thrive on people being themselves and appealing to a particular niche of like-minded people. For some people, it’s their first opportunity to live authentically.
5. Diversified Income Risk
When you earn $100K /yr from a job you are exactly one pink slip away from losing 100% of your income.
And you can be completely blameless in losing your job. A merger, downsizing, general economic downturn, or a dozen other things can cause people to be let go suddenly and unexpectedly.
But when you operate an online business where one thousand individual customers pay you $100 each, you make the same $100K but without the risk of a sudden total loss.
6. Compensation With No Upper Limit
Related to the above point, because you have direct and immediate control of your business, you have the ability to expand it at will.
If you work twice as hard or twice as smart, you can earn twice the annual income. Accomplish both and you’ll make four times the income.
Most people never experience this in their entire working lives. When they do, they begin to understand what freedom and independence really are.
7. Lower Taxes
I’m not a qualified tax advisor, but I can tell you that in general, operating an online business means keeping more of what you earn.
First of all, an online business can be legally domiciled almost anywhere in the world. It can bank in one or more countries. It generates expenses that are deductible from taxes.
An online business has maximum tax planning flexibility, whereas an employee at a 9-to-5 job has the absolute minimum flexibility and is the proverbial low hanging fruit to confiscatory politicians and bureaucrats.
8. Time Off
Speaking as a person who has lived entirely from online income for over twenty years, vacation time is not even something I think about in conventional terms.
My wife and I have total flexibility with our work schedules and basically live on vacation. We have enjoyed a sailing and snorkeling trip in the morning, written an article in the afternoon, and still made the celebration at a Belize beach bar by 4 PM.
Same with doing the day’s work on a two-hour train ride from Cologne to Amsterdam and uploading it from the hotel after we arrive.
Again, until you’ve lived like this it’s hard to comprehend what freedom and independence really are.
9. Travel
Not everybody cares about world travel, but many Escape Artists do.
Some people would be happy just to move once and set up a new home in a favorite location. Fine. An online business will permit that.
Others love the idea of very frequent or even constant travel. Connie and I travelled for twelve years with one suitcase each. Even today we do a variation of that using a home base in Europe. In 2019 we visited twelve countries over five months.
This is a life-changing lifestyle. The benefits are well beyond what can be discussed in this article. For me, it would have been utterly impossible to live around the world without having an online business.
10. Work That Makes You Happy
You can start an online business with a clean sheet of paper.
While there are proven business models and proven niches, the reality is the amount of online commerce is so massive that lucrative sub-niches can be found doing almost anything.
Anyone can leverage his or her experience, aptitudes, and interests into a business that makes them want to vault out of bed in the morning. That’s another thing many people never experience in their lives.
11. No Barbed Wire, No Machine Guns
For centuries regular people have yearned to live in freedom.
In the old days, people had to cross oceans, endure deprivations, and even risk their lives to obtain a better life in a place of their own choosing.
Today, we can start an online business that delivers portable income and build it on the side while we retain our current lifestyle. When the online business has grown to the point of delivering predictable and ample income, we can simply step into a new life in a new location. No drama. No gatekeepers.
Being an Escape Artist means living your life on your own terms. Once you own and control your own source of portable income, escaping is easy.
The Takeaway
Readers of EscapeArtist care about their independence, their personal freedom, and their ability to live wherever they want. Having online income unlocks the ability to do all of the above. My business is helping people do what I do. If any of these 11 Reasons For an Escape Artist to Own an Online Business resonate with you and you want additional information about becoming a digital nomad, please visit me at SafelyLeaveTheRatRace.com. I look forward to working with you!
Here are a couple of articles that I wrote that I’m pretty sure you will enjoy reading!
Soon Being an Expat Will Be Common
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