My Ideal Online Business (Plan)

check

It’s 1AM in the morning here in San Francisco and I want to share with you some “wisdom” about building an online business. Hopefully, this will enlighten your goals on building your online business whether that involves blogging or other online products/services.

My father, who is a respectable international business, has been doing international trade for as long as I can remember.

He hires thousands of people, produces millions of products, markets those products, and make millions of dollars.

During my early years as a teenager watching him run this multi-million dollar business, I have secretly formed my own thoughts on building my own business while I tinkered with my first 386-DX25 computer when I was 9 years old.

You see, physical goods are simply a lot of pain in the ass. You might make millions of dollars but that could mean hiring expensive salesmen at $200K/year salaries, accountants at $100K/year salaries, customer service to handle returns/complaints, graphic designers, factory workers, and etc…etc…

That all adds up to at least couple million dollars in overhead costs. Plus, you will definitely have to make millions of dollars just to profit.

As someone who’s so close to a person who’s so successful at it, I simply did not want that path in my life as I saw how hard my dad worked, even if he made a lot of money.

When I was about 9, I started tinkering with then the first online sales selling Cable Descrambler instructions over dial-up online services, Prodigy.

Incredibly, I spent few bucks on advertising and made $10 from one guy who decided to buy it. I did print out the Cable Descrambler instructions on my dot-matrix computer and sent it to him. My dad told me to stop since I didn’t write the Cable Descrambler instructions myself, I got if off a local BBS forum somewhere.

I also did involve myself in pyramid marketing over dial-up BBS where you send in $1 to the first 5 people in the list. I actually made about $500 after a year when my mailbox filled with $1 bills, that was a lot of fun.

That was the first start in my online marketing but I didn’t expect cable/DSL modems would eventually take over 2400 baud modems and become what we see here today.

I feel very lucky because everyone in our time who’s pursuing online businesses are at the “right place” at the “right time”. 20 years ago, we couldn’t even dream of this day where literally millions of people are making money sitting in front of a computer.

Anyways, back to my dad, he hires thousands of people, invests millions of dollars, and generates millions of dollars in revenue. Of course, he also make millions of dollar in profit too.

The worst part about the so-called “traditional” economy of selling physical products is that there’s a LOT involved including insurance for your employees, specific requirements for certain products, government testing of those products, and the list goes on endlessly.

What I am about to tell you might change the way look at I do my business.

I don’t make millions of dollars (yet). I don’t invest millions of dollars. I hire ZERO employees. Yet, I can say my business is million times more efficient, million times less risk, and million times better because it’s “highly efficient” and I have “freedom”.

WHY?

Well, products I sell are “virtual”, they are not “physical”.

My business model is based on selling “virtual” goods, stuff you can’t actually “touch” or “smell”.

I always wanted to create the most “efficient” business model that involves no employees, no physical goods, and practically no need for my time during business hours.

This all resulted from watching my dad work so hard and having so much responsibility for so many people.

Of course, in 2006, I did stumble upon my business model, it’s called “blogging”.

I didn’t know it then but it slowly started growing into a small plant. (from a seedling)

I am sure it has long ways to go before it becomes a big tree but I have at least accomplished the most important thing, “I have found a business model that involves no employees, no risky investment, and practically no customer service AND it continues to grow if I water it, nurture it, and etc…etc…”

I know this, that I can actually create a business plan like my dad for a physical product and make millions of dollars. I just don’t want to. I even have the perfect advisor, someone who has done it before but really, I don’t want to be tied “physically” down to my business.

If you gave me a choice between making $10 million per year running a “physical” company and $1 million per year for doing what I am doing right now, I will definitely take the latter. I might make 10 times less money but I will have 10 times more freedom/time.

With all those employees hanging onto your massive corporation, your risk goes up sky high, you never know when you will go broke or when the sky will fall upon you.

Instead, I rather start small but make my business super duper efficient. I will be happy so long as there’s stable growth over a long term.

Do I want to be rich?

Yes, I want to be rich but that’s only a point of reference. Being rich could mean having a million dollar for some people but it could be $300 million for others.

Of course, for me, I am rich already because I have everything I want in my life already, happiness. Happiness is something even billion dollars can’t buy, it’s priceless, it’s like true love.

Another thing about me, I actually don’t want to ever win the lottery. I am not crazy, I just want to “earn” my living, never “given” to me in any free way or form. I hope to God that I never do.

I am not telling you though, to be like those people who are “scared” of having a lot of money. That’s not happiness either, that’s stupidity. I am just telling you to “choose” what you want in life because you WILL GET IT.

My blogging business model consists of the following factors:

Virtual online products no matter what! – Why would I want to deal with physical products, so I can setup logistics, customer services, and all the stuff that I hate to do?
No Employees – I never want to have to “babysit” another human being than my own kids. That’s some serious time-consuming job to be the “boss”. No matter what, having employees will never make you “efficient”. Of course, I have my bloggers who I hire not as employees but as “independent contractors”. They do the job for me and I pay them. They can do it anytime they want, wherever they want, in a happy place. Also called outsourcing. Tim Ferris, who wrote “The 4-Hour Workweek“, does a great job of illustrating how to do this, definitely recommended if you haven’t read it yet.
Almost No Customer Service – I used to provide the most excellent customer service in the world as a Product Manager at various companies. This is the most fun job but it is definitely time consuming and not the most efficient way to do business, especially over the phone. Google does a great job of “porting” most of their customer service to online format such as e-mail. Follow their example, the more you can move your communication online, the more efficient your business will be. Also, physical products are more liable to “break” during shipments and you will have to waste a lot of time handling returns and whatnot.
Shipping – Did I hear UPS, FedEx? Forget shipping anything to your customers, that’s just more headache to deal with, even if you don’t do it yourself or outsource it.
Office – To me, office is really like a prison. Having office simply sucks because you gotta show up to work. If you don’t have employees, you don’t need an office nor pay for rent. Now any of my favorite places like the beach or parks are my remote offices with no rent to pay. Plus, I don’t have to commute to work and fight all that traffic. Again, that’s inefficiency in life. If you spend at least an hour to commute to work, I am sure you’d rather be hitting golf balls instead.
DIY Accounting – Accounting can now be automated using simple receipt scanners like NeatReceipts that will make your expenses a snap. If you do sell online products/services, make sure they can easily be exported to accounting software like QuickBooks and whatnot.

My former boss used to tell me, “Don’t try to eat more than you can digest.“ It’s true, if you want to make millions of dollar with physical products and you have a great business plan, go ahead. I am just telling you, it’s not as efficient and your freedom will suffer.

Again, this is simply a choice for the person whether they want to be “efficient” or “not as efficient”.

Some people “like” doing physical things and that’s fine, I am just sharing “my” ideal business plan.

Of course, we can also get into investing “millions” of dollars into online services/products too but I won’t get into that, that’s TOO MUCH RISK. But I will tell you, there are plenty of ways to make millions of dollars with a great idea and virtually ZERO investment.

My overall goal?

I want to have a multi-national blogging company with remote “home-offices” in different countries, with everything I cannot do outsourced to the right people all over the world, and have freedom. I would like to keep traveling from my favorite world destinations, all the while managing my online business and blogging it all. Coming soon…

Freedom means only one thing to me, to do whatever the hell I want, anytime I want.

I hope this blog post helps you in deciding what you want out of your life and business.

Make a list of what you want out of your life first then go on from there. Perhaps, you do like being in the office and managing over thousands of people. People are different.

I highly respect my father for what he has accomplished, it’s not an easy feat for anyone to do including myself, I have just built on “his business model to be more efficient” by learning from him.

Thanks Dad!