Page 69 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

America and Southeast Asia are two of the easiest and most hospitable
regions to begin your nomadic adventures.
Some places are more tech-friendly than others. To be aware of what to
expect before visiting a new country, study up by reading the forums at
BootsnAll.com or MeetPlanGo.com.
As you roam, maintain a balance between adventure and work. Remember
that most people work regular jobs and travel only once in a while, so be
sure to take advantage of sightseeing and experiencing the local culture.
But similarly, don’t feel bad about needing to devote more hours to work
whenever needed. It’s OK; the work allows you to travel.

Digital nomads and roaming entrepreneurs come in all packages, and it’s hard
to get away from their infectious stories. As I interviewed business owners and
put the word out for more submissions, I kept hearing story after story that
sounded like those of Brandon, Kyle, and Bernard. I’d continue to cast the net
for more traditional businesses, but I kept thinking: This is a great business
model. Why would you want to do anything else?

In these examples, Brandon is a music teacher, Kyle is a photographer, and
Bernard is a developer. The list could go on: Cherie Ve Ard, whom we’ll meet in
Chapter 13, is a health-care consultant, and Brandy Agerbeck, whose story is in
Chapter 7, is a graphic facilitator. Because of the nature of their work, many of
the businesses in the other case studies are technically location independent even
if they currently have a fixed address. There is more than one road to the road, in
other words, but one business model is especially useful for location
independence: the business of information publishing. Since this model is both
common and highly profitable, let’s look at it in some detail.

Become Your Own Publisher
As the founder of 800-CEO-READ, a leading retailer of business books, Jack
Covert is a veteran of both traditional publishing and self-publishing. I asked
Jack what has changed about the publishing world in recent years. “Everything’s
changed,” he said. “We’ve always seen authors self-publish their works, but
never to such a wide extent. What’s different is the quality of the work. These
days, a number of self-published works have at least as good a quality as do
books from big publishers. The playing field has been greatly leveled, and
continues to be.”

The other thing that’s different, Jack told me, is that most authors chose self-
publishing in the past because they couldn’t get a traditional publisher to
purchase their work. Today, some authors are deliberately choosing to distribute