Tag Archives: china

The Portability of Internet Business

Photo from flickr - anyakaWell, it’s been over a week now since I arrived back in the good ol’ USA, and I have to say that it was a great trip.   Every time I visit China I discover new and fascinating experiences that make the trip just that much more rewarding.

While we were enjoying ourselves in China, seeing the sights and experiencing the sides of Beijing that normally only the natives are privy to, my internet business was still perking along as if I had never left.

My product & affiliate sales continued right along just like clockwork.  This is one of the biggest perks of having of an internet business.  Portability!

Back in the day, I owned a ‘brick & mortar’ business.  It was an electronics repair shop.  The income was pretty decent, but the problem was that there was no freedom to go with it.  It wasn’t unusual to work 15 hour days.  When all the bills were paid & given the number of hours I worked, I was usually left over with less than what I would make on an equivalent day job.

I was one of those people that got caught in the classic self-employment trap of the day.    I took my skill and turned it into a ‘business’.  The only problem was the the ‘business’ was really a J.O.B., only I was the boss.  If I wanted to get paid, I had to work alot of hours & be at my store everyday.

Taking a vacation was unheard of.  My business would have been tanked in a week.  Looking back, I now know that a freedom system could have been built into my business, had I thought about my core desires in the beginning.

What I love about online business is that you can start a very profitable business for almost nothing compared to a traditional brick & mortar type.

Creating a freedom system is also very easy compared to the latter.  Online business procedures can be automated in many ways including software & outsourcing.

For example, for digital software products, you can set your autoresponder & thank you page to automatically send the download info to your customer after they pay for their product.  This is the basic concept of ‘autopilot income’ that you hear about so often.

Affiliate marketing is another such example.  As an affiliate marketer, you are providing a service to your visitors.  You are recommending products that may benefit the visitor and referring them to the vendor.  In return, you are automatically paid a commission when they purchase the product.

It doesn’t matter where you are in the world as long as you have a laptop & an internet connection, you are in business.  You can be living in Brooklyn, but sitting on a beach in Maui with a laptop and a wireless internet connection and monitor your business anytime.

Never before has starting a business been so inexpensive while giving you exposure to potentially millions of people. Never before has it been so easy to just pick up and go anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection, and still run your internet business.

Home no longer has to be a fixed location.  Home can be anywhere that you are.

Like any type of business, building an internet business takes effort, practice & time.  Many things will fail before seeing any impressive results.  Don’t buy into the ‘automatic riches with no work’ B.S. out there.

It takes focusing on one objective and seeing it through until you succeed.  You must take your online business just as seriouly as an offline business.

Once you accomplish success in your online business, you can take your ‘office’ anywhere.  You have achieved portability.

Making the decision to start your internet business is the first step.  Taking action on making your dream a reality is the second and most vital step.  As your business grows, start outsourcing & automating the repetitive procedures so that freedom is part of your formula.  If your business can run without you, then you have attained true freedom.

That’s what being an online entrepreneur is all about.  Without the freedom principle in your business, you are just working another J.O.B. minus the boss.

If you haven’t taken the plunge yet, then make today the day to declare your freedom!  Join the ranks of the portable lifestyle and discover what you have been missing.  It all starts with taking that first step, and then never looking back.

Beijing Day 1-4

The May Day holiday (international labor day) is over today (May 4th).  Tomorrow we are going to check out the Bird’s Nest, Watercube & other olympic sites.

On the first page of the gallery, you’ll see pics from the first day.  We had to register with the local police office, because we were staying with relatives (Tingting’s parents).  Failure to register when foreigners are staying with you will result in a 500 Yuan fine (about $75 USD). 😛

You can see Kevin (my son) with Tingting’s Mother.  I snapped these pics while waiting for the paperwork to complete with the local bureau.

We then had lunch at a traditional Beijing Hot Pot restaurant.  If you’re ever in Beijing, dining out for Hot Pot is a must do.  Mutton is sliced razor thin and you put it in the boiling water in the center of the table.  It will cook within a minute.  There is a special sauce that you then dip the mutton into for the full effect.  The special sauce is what differentiates the Hot Pot restaurants.  The recipies are a closely guarded secret by the restaurants.  They are recipies that are kept within the families of the restaurant owners.

These first few days we’ve been pretty much getting over jet lag & just hanging around Beijing, shopping & eating out alot.

Page 2 of the gallery shows the Birds Nest, watercube, & Olympic torch building.  We were just driving past, on our way shopping on that day.  Other Pics on page 2 are from around Tingting’s neighborhood.  Her parents live in the Haidian district of Beijing.  This building group houses many high level officials in China. Page 4 shows a few more of these, plus a family get together at another restaurant in Beijing’s Gu Lou Street.  The people in the pics are myself, Tingting, her aunts, and uncle.

Tingting & I had lunch yesterday after some shopping & our treatment was 5-star all the way by western standards.  This is the restaurant that is featured on page 3 of the gallery. Amazing food and service that I’ve yet to see matched in the states.

Even when using the restroom, there was an attendant who dispensed the soap & handed the towel for me.  What made the whole dining experience so fascinating was that when all was said & done, our bill was only 68 Yuan.  That comes out to around $18 USD!  Only in Beijing. 😛

The High Road To Beijing

 

Right now I’m flying along at around 35,000 feet with my wife Tingting & son Kevin to Beijing.  If you haven’t done much traveling, you should consider getting out there and creating some memories to cherish and look back on when you’re old & decrepit.

Every time I visit China, I experience something new and exciting.  I’ll be sharing pics and videos that I’ll be taking during my 3 weeks there.  I hope you’ll follow along and share in my experiences. 🙂