Save Time In South East Asia

Many new location independent entrepreneurs flock to South East Asia to launch their businesses because you can save a lot of money. You can live for $500 per month and invest the rest in your business.

 

But the benefits are even better than that. Having returned to the United States for a few months I realize that going to Southeast Asia to start a business not only gave me my money back. It gave me my time.

 

And when you’re starting a business time is just as important as money. Here are a few examples of how bootstrapping entrepreneurs get their time back when they move to South East Asia.

 

1. General Life Costs

 

Most people work 8+ hours per day 5 days per week to support their ‘normal’ life. That’s a lot of time! Otherwise you need to live with your mom and dad or live in the street!

 

If your life costs $500 per month instead of $2,500 you can spend a lot more time doing things that don’t give you a quick cash payout. That’s things like networking, listening to industry thought leaders & actually building your business.

 

I lived super cheap when I was in Thailand and my apartment was just $150 per month. It took me 3-5 hours per month to cover my living expenses. Just half a day out of the month.

 

2. Cooking

 

When I was in my college dorm in Boston I cooked dinner every night. I generally made lunches too and also some kind of breakfast. I remember tracking how long dinner took to prepare, eat, and clean up and it was over 2 hours! I eat dinner every day.

 

What can you do with 2 extra hours per day? You can do a lot!

 

I went out to eat every day in Thailand. I always got to try something new and it cost $1. I could write a cold-calling script or make changes to my website instead of cooking or scrubbing dirty pots.

 

3. No Cleaning Or Laundry

 

I’ve seen some disgusting apartments in the United States. Week old food sitting on smelly plates and dirt from shoes scattered all around the entrance.

 

In Asia my apartment was spotless and I never cleaned. It was a serviced apartment where they mopped, vacuumed, and changed the bed sheets every week. That was the $150/mo apartment.

 

Rather than sweeping or dusting I could focus on growing the business.

 

I washed my own clothes in Asia but it wasn’t necessary. In Mexico I just paid someone $2 per load to wash, dry, and perfectly press all my clothes. It was awesome! Now I had all the time in the world to focus on my business.

 

Does Richard Branson Do His Own Laundry?

 

How about Elon Musk? Did Steve Jobs vacuum his own rugs? Or how about any entrepreneur who makes over $1 million per year?

 

They don’t. It would be a waste of their time. They focus on their businesses. And because they can focus on their business full-time they get better and better faster and faster. (Branson still finds time to windsurf!)

 

Now you have the opportunity to free up your time like the billionaires. You’re not living in the penthouse or eating 5* meals but you’ve got just as much time as them. You can even go windsurfing!

 

And when you’ve got the same amount of time as Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey and Peter Thiel you’ve got a massive advantage over the moonlight entrepreneur spending 8 hours working and 2+ hours cooking, cleaning and doing laundry every day.