How to Build a Business You Can Run From Anywhere

All right. We’re going to record a podcast episode. Here we go. So knowing what I know now from all of my personal experience, if I had to start all over again securing the income source for my family to be full time digital nomads, what would I do? I’d rob a bank. I’m just kidding. I wouldn’t do that at all. That’s actually the question I am going to answer in this episode of the Digital Nomad Entrepreneur podcast.

Welcome to the podcast. My name is Eric Dingler. My wife and our four children and I have been traveling full time now for over three years. And during that time our business has gone through some ups and downs as I’ve had to learn what works and what doesn’t, and scaling a business while living in new cultures, new Airbnbs, new time zones, and how all of this moving and changing impacts lead generation and leading a remote team and client relationship and retention and all of the things that go along with owning a business that already exists. Fluctuations in the marketplace, changes in the economy, business, changing landscapes, new technologies, emerging opportunities, and all of the normal business stuff on top of the digital nomad lifestyle. On all of that, I’ve learned quite a bit about running and scaling a successful business. And so I’ve got six thoughts I want to share with you about what I would do now if I had to go back and we were ramping up and getting ready to start this lifestyle and we weren’t business owners yet. What would I do?

And after I share these six things, make sure you stick around. I’ve got a listener question I’m going to answer at the end of the podcast, as well as this week’s Little Leadership Lesson. I love to talk leadership because your leadership capacity is the capacity of your business. Your business will never go beyond your personal leadership skills. And so I wrap every podcast episode up with a little leadership nugget, if you will, a little leadership lesson.

All right, so now the six things I’ve thought of when I was putting together this idea of what would I do if I had to start all over. And to be honest, I would still go down the route of building my own business versus getting a remote job. And a couple reasons. One. Remote companies don’t always stay remote. I have seen horror story upon horror story of people getting a remote job, leaving the country, and then suddenly, nope, everybody’s got to report back to the office. We’re going to start a hybrid schedule. Whatever it is. Or businesses can impose limits suddenly on where you can work from. There’s suddenly the company may put in regulations that data can’t cross international borders. And so what are you going to do in that case if you’re living abroad? And finally, I just like owning a business that is a growing asset that is becoming something that is going to provide for our retirement in an exciting and thrilling and great, powerful way. That is an asset that is going to be here after I’m gone. I just like this building.

And I’ll be honest, it’s not as hard as you might be thinking. If you’re thinking, “Oh, I can’t start a business, that’s not my thing,” it’s actually not as hard as you make it out to be. It’s not simple, there’s a lot to it, but I believe anybody, really pretty much anybody, can do it.

Number one: if I had to start all over, I would still go after building my business. Now I might start with a remote job, to learn the industry I’ve chosen to be in. I might get a job as a virtual assistant working for somebody that’s running the type of business I want to run one day, so I can start traveling, be learning, be getting mentored, and then eventually start my own thing. So that’s kind of where I see working a remote job into the mix. But for the most part, I’m going to want to build my own company.

Number two: I would define my work differently with the mindset that I have now, the expectations that I have now. First, I would understand that it’s going to take longer than I think. I would give myself at least 12 months to ramp up from nothing before I was ready to pull the ripcord. I thought it could be done a lot faster than that. Normally that’s not the case.

The second part of this, the other way I would define my work differently, besides it’s going to take longer, is I don’t have to be the one that builds it. I just have to sell it. So many people that want to start a business think that they have to do the work that their business is selling. And the way I look at this: real estate agents don’t build the houses they sell. And I get it, I’ve got people say, “Well, you know, I’ve got to learn SEO if I’m going to sell it, I got to learn it.” Really? You do? Why? How much do you really need to know? Not as much as you think. You’re thinking about how you’re going to trade your time for money, and that’s not ever the way you want to look at this. Time is a finite resource. You only have so much time. You know what all the mega wealthy people have that you don’t have? It’s not more time. It’s better management of their time. It’s wiser use of their time. It’s multiplying their time by delegating it. The crazy thing is, successful people don’t have people they can delegate to because they’re successful. Successful people have people they can delegate to. That’s what made them successful. So you have to think about it that way. It’s really important. It’s something I wish I would have learned a lot earlier on, but I would definitely be like, I don’t have to know how to build websites. That’s how I got started, web design. I thought I had to learn all of that kind of stuff, and I was wrong.

And the third part of how I would define my work differently, and what I would look for differently in my work, is that project based work I would go after. What I would go after now is the monthly recurring revenue. What could I do that people would go on to a subscription model and pay me for regularly, consistently? That would give me the resource I need to bring people alongside me and deliver on what the services are selling. It could even be a product, it doesn’t have to be a digital thing. You could have a physical product that you ship once a month, a box kit idea, something like that, and you have other people that are assembling that and shipping it for you. You may be, for a while, the one creating ideas, breaking into new markets and stuff like that, but you don’t have to be the one packaging it and shipping it. That could be done from your home country by others while you are out traveling and exploring. So I would definitely define my work differently. I would define it with the understanding it’s going to take longer than I think it’s going to. I don’t have to be the one to build it, I just have to sell it. And I would look for recurring revenue, not project revenue.

Now, before I go on to number three, I have a huge favor to ask. It would mean the world to me if you would leave a review. Do the nice things, leave a review, subscribe, share, wherever you’re listening to this, whatever it lets you do, do that. That’s all I’m asking for. It’s the only thing I’m asking you to do in this episode, and almost any episode. Just leave a review. It’s so helpful to me. It’s motivating. It helps other people find the podcast. It helps the podcast grow, and it would really mean the world to me.

Number three: I would find people to learn from much earlier than I did before. I would get online courses earlier. I would get a virtual assistant earlier, or an intern. I would subscribe to this podcast, wink wink, nudge nudge, chuckle chuckle. And I would find other places. I wish I would have got started with Josh Hall’s courses earlier. I wish I would have started training with Mike and AJ at Agency Coach sooner. I wish I would have done those things sooner. It would have moved me along much further, faster. So I would definitely be very intentional about learning from people that were already a little further down the road than I am.

Number four: I would from day one document and build my systems. We are having to work right now in my agency documenting systems, building out systems that really should have been done a couple years ago. But I just didn’t do it. I didn’t leave well there. And so we’re making up for lost ground. The team is doing a great job, we’re having fun doing it, they’re coming together, they’re making things better. I wish I would have started from day one creating videos of me doing recurring tasks and just storing them for later, not necessarily worrying about typing them up or things like that. Now you could leverage AI, we do a lot of our process documentation using AI, and there’s lots of ways to do it that make it so much easier today. I would definitely start from day one documenting and building the systems.

Number five: I wish I would have, before I started, before I went and opened my first business bank account, before I did anything for the business, read the book Profit First by Mike Michalowicz and implemented Profit First from day one. That would have been amazing. Game changer. Really wish I would have done that. If you’re interested in that book, I’ll link to it in the show notes, and you can also find it on my list of the top nine books I recommend on my resource page, DNEPodcast.com. Just click on resources and you’ll see those right there. But I wish I would have read the book Profit First and had a really solid understanding of profit, using some very simple systems starting out, because it would have avoided a lot of mistakes. I would have avoided a lot of mistakes. And, as I’m recording this, the other book I would recommend, I had already read this one and I’m glad I did, is EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey. I’m glad I read that. And if I was starting over, I would add to it Profit First.

All right, those are the first five things so far.

Number six: So here’s the thing you might be wondering. Okay, this is great, you gave a book you would read, you document and build your systems, learn from people, blah, blah, blah, this isn’t rocket science, Eric. You don’t have to build it, you have to sell it. Maybe you’re still wrestling with that. Maybe you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I wish I would have learned this earlier.” You can see yourself falling into this trap. So when you’re really liking working for yourself versus just getting a job, those are the first things we’ve talked about leading up to this, you may be asking: what kind of business would I start to be a digital nomad?

Well, the first question I would have to answer is: what’s my superpower? I think we all have a superpower, something we’re gifted at, something that we love doing. When people see us doing that, they can tell that we’re enjoying it. It just comes naturally to us. It doesn’t seem to necessarily come naturally to others. And I would do everything around that, whether it’s doing that thing, or teaching and creating courses and teaching others to do that thing. That’s what it would be.

For me, I have the superpower to turn failing, struggling organizations around. I’ve done it multiple times in my career, from a summer camp, a church, a business, working with clients, like a restaurant. There have been several times that I have helped failing, struggling organizations turn themselves around. So I like doing digital marketing because of that. I like helping businesses improve themselves and turn themselves around, and marketing is a great way to do that. So I might do marketing if I was starting all over. I might also do consulting. I don’t regret web design, digital marketing, having the agency is great, my team is great. But if I was going to start all over, I would probably try to figure out how I could work and do consulting with struggling organizations, nonprofits, churches, ministries, businesses, help them turn around, because there’s a framework I’ve used every single time that has turned the business or organization around and prospered. But when I was starting out, it was pre-COVID, and this kind of stuff didn’t get done via video that much, and it would have been a little harder to have that type of consulting business moving around the world. So maybe I would stick with digital marketing because of that. I honestly don’t know, I would do one of those things.

How I approach it would be the exact same. I’d build my five business systems: leadership, lead generation, lead conversion, managing money, and project management. No matter what I was going to do, those are the things I would do, whether it was a freelance copywriting business or a subscription box service, where people sign up and get a box in the mail every month, some type of date night thing, coffee, food, exotic food. As I’ve traveled around the world, tasting things and trying things, I’ve thought, we should make a food kit for this, and teach people how to make pupusas from El Salvador, and quesadillas from Costa Rica, and ceviche from Peru, these dishes that these places are made for. The butter pizza from Istanbul smacked me upside the head, that’s good. The sushi burritos we had in Poland, of all places, did not expect that. To be honest, Poland, you were great, I didn’t expect to find my favorite sushi in Poland. So I could totally turn that into a business.

Okay, this is what I’m doing, what’s the leadership look like? I’m going to have to have a team, some writers, somebody who’s going to be able to source ingredients, build that team and some of those systems. Lead generation, start promoting this, being a guest on podcasts, starting blogs about food and international foods and things like that. Lead conversion: what’s the first thing I needed to do? Maybe we send them a free sample, or we have a free cooking course they go through to begin that conversion process. And then we’ve got a sample, a three month trial period, and then it’s a one year subscription. I have a ladder that I walk them up, that would be my lead conversion. Collecting and managing money, the same exact thing: doing all the budgeting, cost analysis, setting up the systems, getting people on recurring payment, making that nice and simple for them, having a budget and regularly working that budget and sticking to it, stewarding that resource of money. Like it or not, that’s the lifeblood of your business. You don’t have money, you don’t have a business, so it’s got to be a super priority. And finally, project management: if we’re going to ship a box in January, when do we have to have it planned? When do we have to start shopping for resources and supplies, printing the materials, getting it packaged, and getting it into the mailboxes? All of that is project management.

So it doesn’t matter what type of business I would do. I might decide to do that, or I could stick with web design, digital marketing. I could be a freelance writer, I could have a copywriting business, I could have an agency. It really doesn’t matter. I know a digital nomad that is a furniture maker. He gets into an area, he builds some pieces of furniture from there, and he’s got a following that will pay the cost to have it shipped globally from where he is, hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars just in shipping. But he’s skilled and he’s got a following. I know people that are digital nomads that are doctors and nurses. You can do this with whatever kind of job you have or whatever kind of business you want to do. You just have to approach it from a “what’s your superpower” mindset, and then build the five business processes around it: leadership, lead gen, lead conversion, managing money, and project management. Give yourself a year, find some mentors to learn from, maybe start working remote for somebody that’s doing the thing and learn from them. As I heard Stu McLaren say, when I was taking one of his membership classes, you don’t go into it, you grow into it. Give yourself plenty of runway, give yourself time, and you can do this.

So what’s your superpower? Are you a master organizer? Are you a fantastic communicator? Are you a designer, is design easy to you? What about a storyteller, are you a phenomenal storyteller? Is food your thing, is that the thing you relate to? Do people get excited when you talk about it? What’s your superpower, what do you get excited about? You can build a business around that and go out and explore the world.

All right, now those are the things I would do different, how I would approach this differently, if I had to start all over from scratch to prep my family with financial resources to live this amazing lifestyle that we love, and we’re blessed. It’s not without its challenges, and in fact, that was the listener question I had. I want to say thanks, Derek, for asking this. He emailed me and said, you know, here’s some other podcasts, here’s people like me talking and doing this, but he was curious what the impact is like on the kids from the family, because we’re a family. There are a lot of podcasts out there that aren’t family focused. In fact, very few digital nomad podcasts are families. A lot of them give advice that, well, there are some podcasts I listen to that are all about the digital nomad lifestyle, whether it’s a couple of friends doing the podcast episode or a person. Almost every single one I have found and listened to, I Googled and searched and tried to find, almost all of them are single, and that’s great, except their advice sucks for families. They don’t understand the dynamics of a family and having to take into consideration your kids and your kids becoming third culture kids.

Our kids are now third culture kids. When our kids are around other traveling kids, they can have conversations and be like, “Oh yeah, that reminds me one time when we were in Paris,” and then their friend shares a story about something from when they were in the Philippines, and one of our kids says, “Oh my gosh, yeah, in Istanbul,” and they share these stories. But our daughter, she’s the one that brought this up to us. She’s like, when we go back to the States, she feels like she can’t tell those stories, because based upon things that people have said, like “must be nice to be able to go all these places,” she feels like people react as if she’s coming across bragging, and she’s not, it’s just her lifestyle. It’s what they’re used to, it’s what they know. To them, it’s just their lifestyle. So they are definitely third culture kids. They’re not in the culture that my wife and I are from, the United States, and we are now living outside of that culture. So our kids don’t have that culture to connect to, because they’re not in it, even though our home life inside our four walls is very American, meaning the United States of America. But as soon as you step outside of our four walls, it’s very different. It’s now been like this for ten months for them, but in September it’s changing, and it’s going to change a lot. We’re going to do some fast traveling this fall through South America, and we’re going to be moving a lot, and things are going to be changing up, and it’s going to be absolutely crazy, insane, and a lot of fun, and we’re going to have amazing experiences.

That’s what Derek was asking. Derek was like, I’d love to hear more about the kids and how this impacts kids and stuff like that. So Derek, I emailed him back and said I’m going to share this in the podcast. My wife actually has a podcast called the Digital Nomad Family Podcast. So this is the Digital Nomad Entrepreneur podcast, and my wife has the Digital Nomad Family Podcast. One of her episodes, I’ll link to it in the show notes, I can’t remember which number it is, but it’s a POV, a point of view, of a nomad kid, four ways to tackle homesickness. I think my wife has done an episode with all of our kids, where they’ve talked about a specific part of the digital nomad experience for them. So you can check that out, I’ll link to it in the show notes. We have a website for that, familyofdishes.com, is where my wife has her podcast, and our kids have some blog posts and stuff, that’s over there.

All right, we’re wrapping it up here with the leadership tip of the week. I love leadership because it’s what makes a business run. It doesn’t matter whether you own a business or not, leadership happens everywhere, and you need to fulfill your part. Even if you see yourself as a follower, you have the ability to lead up, you have the ability to lead laterally. Leadership is not always a top down expression. Leadership is so many things, and it is the capacity of your business.

So for this week, this week’s leadership axiom: leadership is fire prevention, not fire fighting. Oh, that’s good. When I came up with that a couple of weeks ago, I should have taken myself out for lunch. Leadership is fire prevention, not firefighting. If all you are doing every single day is putting out fires, you’re not leading, you’re not leading, you’re working, you’re managing. But that’s not leadership. There are times and seasons and places where you have to have management in place, and you have to have people managing, but you also have to have leadership. Leadership looks and goes, how do we prevent this from happening again, how do we reduce this from happening so frequently, how do we create a system so that when this does happen, it’s just easy to respond, it’s no big deal. We can’t stop every single fire from popping up, but we can be prepared, we can work for it. This is a perfect picture of what leadership looks like. Leadership is fire prevention, not fire fighting.

Now, my friend, you’ve done it, you’ve made it through episode 25. Thank you very much, I’m proud of you. I would send you a cookie, but I can’t, so I’m going to have one myself. My wife made some yummy cookies yesterday for a 4th of July event. We went over to some friends’ house for 4th of July here in Costa Rica. We were some of the only ones celebrating 4th of July in Costa Rica, because well, it’s not Costa Rica’s Independence Day, but it was for the United States of America. And my wife made some cookies, and I’m going to wrap this up, I’m going to go have one of those cookies to celebrate you making it to the end of episode 25. So thank you very much for listening, I look forward to reading your review or email real soon. Until next time, chase the big dream, lead with courage, and safe travels.

________________