1 Year as a Digital Nomad.

How to build a business by the beach.!!

by @yongfook

This is how!I spent the last !

12 months.

Instagram @yongfook

60 second video montage at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8sZjki8LIk

Koh Samui, !Kuala Lumpur, Phuket,

Penang, Koh Tao, Melaka, Cameron Highlands, Singapore, Bangkok, !Hua Hin, Chiang Mai, !

Ho Chi Minh, Bali, Krabi(most places multiple trips)

52 hotels! (I’m an Agoda Elite member now)

In between the!fun & games!

I’ve been building!a software company.

beatrixapp.com

About 5 months in,!my business was earning!

enough monthly profit!for me to travel indefinitely.

No investors.!No boss.!

Real work / life balance.!100% Freedom.

My old office My new office

This is a !pretty fun lifestyle.!

More folks should try it.!Here’s how.

Part 1No, you don’t need to be rich

How much money!do you think you !

need to live like this:

Going on adventureswhenever you feel like it

Living in a hotelevery day of every month

Flying to a new countrywhenever you want

Answer:!About $2000 USD!

per monthAchieve this, and you don’t need to worry about

money any more.

*$2500 SGD

You can easily live herefor about $50 a day

Aosane / Naiharn, Phuket

or here

Ubud, Bali

or here(the list goes on)

Georgetown, Penang

I fly budgetIt’s basically ~$100 one-way anywhere

I have zero distractions$3 to get my laundry cleaned and folded in Thailand

I eat local 70% of the timeand 30% spent on booze / splashing out

I work from cafesor coworking spaces, or the beach, or the pool, or a

rooftop bar, or my hotel room

$2kFresh Grad Executive

how the hell am I supposed to earn $2k a

month by myself?

why the hell would I ever work for just $2k a

month??

Yongfook says: It’s about freedom and enabling a certain lifestyle, not about earning tons of money (but see next slide).

Yongfook says: Actually, there’s a lot you can do and we’ll talk about that in a little while.

$2kYear 1 Year 3

Treat it as a milestone. I’ve already passed $2k a month, now almost at $5k a month.

$5k $10kper month

per monthper month

Want to !get started?

You’ll need!some savings.!

4 months is plenty.…but don’t let this be a limiting factor.!

You just need enough money to cover yourself!until you start earning revenue. Less savings = more

motivation to earn revenue faster!

#practicalfook #itsbestnottostarve

It’s a big !lifestyle change.!

Create a deadline.e.g. cancel your lease, book a plane ticket, book the first

month of hotel somewhere, set a date for the goodbye party

Part 2Revenue model brainstorming

Aim for !High Margin

Profit enables you to buy nice things like food, !drink and a place to sleep.

(High revenue but low profit does not enable this lifestyle)

Aim for !Low Touch

Low maintenance businesses enable you to!enjoy your nomadic lifestyle properly.

Buy Now

Aim for !B2B

Aim to sell to entities who will in turn profit !from what you’re selling*. It’s an easier sell.

*e.g. tools / resources

Have a !Well-Defined Target

It makes marketing much easier.

Stupid Ideas!!

Consumer!Physical!Transactional!!

You want customers,!not “users”

Too much work!!Many moving parts

Needs high volume!and hustle, too much!work

Good Ideas!!

Digital Goods!Software!eBooks!

Wordpress themes, !plugins etc. Make once !and sell many times

SaaS or paid mobile apps.!Monthly subscription =!predictable revenues

Make once and sell !many times

$2k USD / month !looks like…

This guy made $15,944 in sales

FROM ONE TEMPLATE!

Sell a $10 website template…!!

…200 times a month

Sell two $10 website templates…!!

…100 times a month

Sell five $10 website templates…!!

…40 times a month(you get the idea)

Pricing page at beatrixapp.com

How many customers did I need before I hit $2k per month?

Get 200 subscribers!!

…at $10 per month

Get 50 subscribers!!

…at $40 per month

Get 20 subscribers!!

…at $100 per month(you get the idea)

Part 3From launch to $2000 USD profit per month

Start Lean!a month before!you hit the road

Validate your idea and make sure there is demand

July 2013

Originally, Beatrix was going to be a competitive analysis tool. It would tell you how good your social

media marketing was, compared to your competitors.

First ever mockup - no code written

July 2013

The response was all the same:!!

“gee that sounds interesting but we never even have time to create social media content in the first place”

July 2013

Of Course!

One big problem that businesses have is actually keeping their Facebook and Twitter accounts up to date

July 2013

New idea = social media content suggestions based on keywords

July 2013

550 subscribers into launch mailing list

August 2013

Built V1 of Beatrix in Koh Samui!in one month

Have a story!to launch with.

August 2013

“funny/controversial” blog post

August 2013

journalist sneak preview (app was still closed to public)

August 2013

2000+ subscribers into launch mailing list

From this point,!I started letting people!

into the app, about !200 new users at a time

August 2013

Fix bugs, gather feedback, add features,!make the experience better for each new batch

6 months to $2k monthlyM

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20

40

60

80

August September October November December January February

$2k

Koh Samui, Phuket, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Melaka, Bangkok

NOW: August 2014

200+ paying subscribers!and the app is way, way cooler too

100,000+ keywords, multimedia content suggestions

Always be marketing.

Blog posts, newsletter blasts, special offers, !campaigns, partnerships, funnel optimization

Part 4Always Be Creating

February 2014

hey yongfook,!why don’t you !write a book?

ok lol

Guy Vincent, founder of publishizer.com

I had been mentoring with two institutions,!SMU in Singapore and True Incube in Bangkok.!I basically put all of the advice I had been giving !

…into a book.

Stuff like this

Part 4Always Be Creating

yongfook book preorders

How I marketed the campaign,!google this:

Even now,!I sell 1+ book !a day at $30

That’s an extra $1k a month, all passive

Write about:!Things you know well!

Topics that are trending!Topics that help others profit

August 2014

Monthly: $4k via Beatrix + $1k via book sales(USD)

But most!importantly…

Complete!Freedom

Part 5Top 10 Things I ate

REAL krapow, Thailand10

Best wantan mee ever, Kuala Lumpur9

Best neapolitan style pizza in Asia, Singapore8

Best strawberries in Asia, Cameron Highlands7

Sambal Prawn Spaghetti, Kuala Lumpur6

Pork soup with bitter gourd, Penang5

the “Lunch Lady”, Ho Chi Minh4

Khao Soi, Chiang Mai3

Banh Mi, Ho Chi Minh2

Babi Guling Tacos, Bali1

The End!@yongfook