Starting a location-independent business

Photo credit: Luna Vandoorne/Shutterstock

The digital age has made it easier than ever to work on your own terms. To work when and where you want, start with these steps.

Have you ever wondered how to quit your job, start a location-independent business, and travel the world?

In today’s highly digital world, it’s easier than you think to start a location-independent business. That’s why thousands of people do so every year. They take the leap from their jobs and decide to take full control over their lives. In doing so, they seize control of their schedules, work on things they care about and enjoy life a lot more.

But how do you get started with this process? We’ll lay out some steps for you to follow.

Figure out the type of lifestyle you want

When choosing a career, most people never consider the kind of lifestyle they actually want. They think of things they’re good at and passionate about, and that’s about it.

But, as Dave Perrotta covered in his PostGradCasanova blog, those are the problems with doing what you love. For one thing, it doesn’t take your desired lifestyle into account, and for two, your passions may not stay the same. If you want to quit your job right now, it’s probably a result of one or both of these problems.

So, before you do anything else, take some time to write down your desired lifestyle. Do you want the freedom to travel the world and make your own schedule? Do you want the time to start new businesses? Heck, do you want to go surfing in Hawaii whenever you please?

If you don’t write this down, you just might fall into the same lifestyle trap again. And before long, you’ll be looking for another way out.

Learn a marketable skill

It takes some necessary skills to start and run a location-independent business successfully. What’s more, your business might not be profitable right away. So you can use these skills to get online client work while you make your business profitable.

Here are some skills that will both help you start a location-independent business and get client work along the way:

• Copywriting. This is the backbone of sales pages, email marketing, content marketing and just about any other written content you can think of.
• Facebook ads. There’s a big market for people who know how to create high-converting Facebook ads. And if you can do it for other people, you can definitely make it work for your business too.
• Design. A great website design can improve conversions. The skill itself can put you in high demand in the online marketplace.
• SEO. Search engine optimization is the art of getting pages to rank higher in the search engines. If you can do this well, you can grow your website traffic quickly.

Prepare yourself with the right knowledge

You should prepare yourself with the proper knowledge on how to start an online business as well as the marketable skills you choose to learn.

Here are a few resources to get you started:

• The TMBA podcast. This podcast talks about how to start an online business, the lifestyle behind it, and just about anything else you can think of involved with online entrepreneurship.
• Location Rebel. Great blog for those who want to quit their job and work online.
• “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss. It’s a bit of a cult classic at this point. It gives you insight into the lifestyle of online entrepreneurship and prepares you for what to expect (as well as how to succeed).

Then, you should also dive into resources around the marketable skill(s) you choose to learn. For example, if you decide to stick to copywriting, one of the best books to read is “Cashvertising.”

Make sure you have enough savings (and cut your expenses)

You don’t have to quit your job right from the beginning. First, you should make sure you have at least five months of savings to get up and running.

To do so, you can also experiment with cutting your expenses. For example, if you can reduce your monthly expenses from $4,000 a month to $3,000, you instantly extend your financial runway by 25 percent.

One easy way to reduce your expenses is to move to a city with a lower cost of living as well as a thriving community of online entrepreneurs, like one of these cities.

Get started!

Don’t hesitate any longer to get started with your location-independent business. The longer you wait, the less likely you’ll be to ever make it happen. There’s no better time than now.

So, start going through these steps and taking action. If you do so, you can make a drastic change to your life within six months to a year. Your future self will thank you for it.

Be prepared to fail (and learn)

Location-independent entrepreneurship isn’t the easiest path to start. It comes with the potential for failure, and a lot of your ideas may not work.

But that’s also the beauty of it. There is no “final failure.” With every failed idea and endeavor, you have a chance to learn, improve and succeed the next time. Along the way, you’ll build valuable skills that will increase the longevity of your eventual success.

The thought of leaving your job and starting a location-independent business can be a scary one. You leave behind the perceived path of security for one of uncertainty and adventure. But in doing so, you create a whole other set of opportunities for yourself. You also create the potential for a life that you love. With the help of the steps listed here, you can take the leap, quit your job and start a location-independent business.