The society that we currently live in has been built around the idea of working 8 hours per day, 5-6 days per week. Everything, from our habits to our life experiences and holidays revolves around this schedule. However, what few people realize, is the fact that there are other, more interesting ways in which they can make a living, all while having the time of their life.
A great example of how you can turn your life around and go on an adventure that you will never forget is quitting your job and moving to Thailand.
You may read the sentence above and think that this course of action would help you do anything BUT change your life in a positive way, but if you read the reasons below, you’ll see that there is a lot of value to this advice.
So let’s take a look at 7 reasons why quitting your job and moving to Thailand would be the perfect life decision for you.
- You can make your own schedule….and sleep in every time you feel like it
While most people do work from 9 to 5, they usually have to wake up two or three hours earlier, so that they can get ready and commute to work. However, leaving this old schedule behind, moving to Thailand and starting your own business (which, by the way, is a lot cheaper than what you may think), will enable you to actually set your alarm to 9 am and start work whenever you feel like it.
- You can leave the office whenever you want
Being your own boss has a lot of advantages, but one of the greatest is that you can decide when your work for the day is done. In other words, if you finish early one day, you can leave the office after only a couple of hours, without having any kind of problems. You can even take your work somewhere else. So if you don’t feel like spending the day at the office, then just do whatever you have to do from some other place, like the beach.
- You can do things your way, so everything will be more efficient
Bureaucracy is one of the biggest time wasters in a company. The fact that the left hand rarely coordinates with the right one can create serious problems and hamper the success of a business. Fortunately, this problem simply goes away when you start your own business.
You’re the boss, and this means that you make the rules and you take the decisions. So if you spot an opportunity or a problem, you won’t have to watch how the company loses money while you wait for a superior to take action. You will decide what needs to be done, when a meeting should take place, or what paperwork needs to be filled out and by whom.
- You can work from anywhere in the world
The main perk of starting your own business is that you can choose to do something that offers you the amount of flexibility that you need. So if you don’t like to work from an office, find something to do from home, or from anywhere else for that matter.
You only have to work in an office if you want to, when you want to. Some people tend to be more productive when they work from home, others are more efficient when surrounded by other people.
By starting your own business, you get to decide everything from how the office looks like, to where it is, what its rules are, or even if it’s a traditional office or not. There are a lot of people who have turned their own living room into their office, or who are constantly travel and work while on the road.
Also, this gives you a way to avoid the stress of traffic or of commuting to work.
- Moving to Thailand and starting your own business there is a lot cheaper than you may think
Most people tend to think that they need at least $150,000 in order to start a business in a foreign country, but in reality, if you have around $10,000 in savings, and sell everything that you have (in terms of house, car, etc.), you will have no problem turning this plan into reality. This amount of money should be enough to live in Thailand for at least a year and start a business there.
After the first year, if you focus on developing your company, you’ll earn more than you’ll ever need in order to continue your previous lifestyle. For example, you can find apartments in Thailand for prices starting at $150 per month. However, if you want a more luxurious suite, then you’ll need around $650 per month. Either way, you can find an apartment for only a couple hundred dollars, and when you’re ready to move to something larger, a home with a pool, maid service, and daily massages should only set you back around $1,500 per month.
- Spend your time building something for yourself, instead of working to help someone else make money
When working for someone else, people are usually motivated by their need to make money, however, when you are your own boss, things change. How much time you spend working and how efficiently you work influences how your business develops.
If you work hard, you can play hard afterward. Why? Because you’re the boss. As the owner of a company, you’re not only working to make money in order to pay your rent, food, and various creature comforts, but to expand your business and get it where it makes you enough profit to live the life that you’ve always wanted.
You can start a blog or an online store. Whatever you go for, you will feel that your work is actually about what you want and what you like. Gone will be the days when you will feel like you’re too small to matter.
Also, starting something like a website will be a great source of income that you won’t have to actively work for. Once you write a blog post or create a guide, people will constantly stumble upon it, regardless if you write a new article each day or not. This having been said, the more articles you write, the bigger the change that people will return to your website.
Either way, being your own boss doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have to work each and every day. If you’re smart and create multiple sources of passive income, you will only need to work four or five hours every couple of days.
In the end, you don’t have to work 8 hours per day to be successful, you just have to be smart and take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.
- You get to travel the World and live life to the fullest
When working for someone else, you will only get a week or two to actually travel around the world and enjoy what other cultures have to offer. On the other hand, starting your own business, especially one that can be taken care of from anywhere in the world, will enable you to visit whatever country you want, when you want. There won’t be anyone to fire you if you don’t get to work the next day or the next week.
Furthermore, if you’re based in Thailand, you will always be able to take mini-vacations to the nearby countries, and you will also have to return to the US every couple of months in order to extend your visa. So you will have the opportunity to swing by home every once in a while.
So if you have a list of places that you want to see before you die, you should seriously consider quitting your job and moving to Thailand. You won’t have to spend much on rent, the country has a lot to offer, from entertainment to its unique culture, and you will always be able to visit the countries that you want and work from your laptop while you’re there.
Ideally, you should get a MacBook Air because it’s one of the most reliable and resilient laptops around. If you’re an entrepreneur, then you definitely need one. Also, you should invest in an external battery and a good smartphone. These are the tools that will enable you to make money from anywhere in the world.
Now that we’ve talked about the 7 greatest reasons why you should quit your job and move to Thailand, let’s look at how you can start a business once you get there and manage it using your laptop.
The core concept
Anything from a website to an online store can easily be managed from anywhere in the world. You will basically have to find something that you like doing. For example, if you enjoy writing, then start a blog. It could be a travel blog or one about something that you know people are interested in. Find something that you’re passionate about and turn it into a source of income. If your business is online (or mainly online), then you can say that it is location independent.
The skills
You can use platforms like Upwork, Freelancer or Fiverr in order to start your own business or to work as a freelancer. Each of these websites allows you to work from anywhere in the world, and the jobs that they provide are from a variety of areas, from design to academic paper writing.
Other options
If working as a freelancer isn’t your thing, or if you just don’t have any marketable skills, you can always use the websites above in order to outsource the work required for the projects that you take on. This can be done with a variety of jobs, from service, consulting and blogging, to marketing and eCommerce.
In other words, you can delegate all the work that you would have to do and only decide what your employees will do. This having been said, eCommerce is a great choice due to the fact that it’s easy to understand and it is just as easy to develop.
Consider taking an online course or participating in webinars in order to learn how to start a business
There’s more to this lifestyle than just being able to work from anywhere in the world. You would also be able to learn anything that you’re interested in, regardless of where you are.
You can always take an online course and learn a new skill that you can then use in order to make more money. There are a lot of free guides, but also paid courses, and it’s up to you to decide which ones will work best for you.
Ideally, you should take an online course before starting your business, just so that you will be prepared for anything that might come up. Nobody wants to go through a crisis that they can’t resolve, while in a foreign country.
Once you feel that you are prepared, get to work on creating a plan, and send that two-week notice to your boss. From here on, you are truly the master of your own destiny. Everything that you do is for you, and only you will be able to decide what should be done next (in terms of both business, and life).
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