the goose

For the last 9 months or so, we have been hunkered down in Argentina, focusing on building up Piehole.  Overall, it has been a success.  Away from the distractions of networking events and County Enterprise Board grants, there has been nothing much to do other than grow our subscriber base and find more work for our artists.

I do have one big fear however.  It is all too each to get used to good wine, tasty empanadas and cheap meat.  You don’t need a lot of money to live a very nice lifestyle and there is a temptation to spin down a little bit and just coast.  I’m not against coasting and it has been wonderful to be able to focus on Piehole, giving it the love it deservers .  However, after a while the question becomes, ‘what next?’.

As we live in Mendoza, 18 hours away from the bright lights of Buenos Aires, there are limited networking opportunities.  There are local tech enthusiasts but it is hard to make the sort of network of contacts that can be useful in growing a business.  I’m somewhat wistfully looking on at all the great events being held back in Dublin these days.  I’m tempted to come back for a few.

However – why move back to Dublin – when we could go straight for gold and move to the Internet epi-centre – the Bay Area, California.  There are a couple of daunting reasons NOT to go.

• It will be at least 3 times as expensive.
• We won’t be able to afford the same quality of life.
• Hiring local talent will be out of our budget.
• GMT-8 is a long way from our Irish customers.  Starting work at 1am would be a toughie.

On the plus side – here are some of the benefits I imagine will flow

• Ready access to cutting edge talks and education on building web businesses
• An opportunity to set up a Piehole in the states, working with local artists.
• Potential to build relationships which made aid the eventual sale of Piehole.

So here is my question . Is it worth it and how would we get the most out of it?

So we’ve moved somewhere, where

• the average temperature is about 20 degrees C warmer than Dublin
• cut our living costs by 2/3rds
• allowed us to focus all our time on building our own wealth
• avoided having to go to work (unless we’d like to)

But it can’t all be good.  And here are a few gotcha’s. In a week when its been too hot to walk down here, I thought I’d put a few down for posterity.  Lets see if I can mitigate them.

1. Motivation: “Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon” writes  Susan Ertz.  Now imagine having a Sunday afternoon every day of the week.  We’re not the worst at this – and being honest – we can’t afford to put our feet up completely but there is a lot to be said for having to turn up for work on a Monday morning.  We’ve mitigated this by trying to stick to our 5 tasks a day (do five things then stop).   We’ve recently engaged a coach who will help crack the whip and keep us on track.  I guess there is a bit of a stigma (especially in Ireland) with having a ‘coach’ but I’m willing to bet pretty-much anyone could benefit from being called to book now and again.  It works in the gym and we’ve found it to work for building our cash-flow.
2. Weather: “hold on – its bloody georgeous down there”  - yes, yes  - it is in general, but when it tops 40 degrees, there isn’t much to be done about it.  Productivity goes down the toilet.  If we had our way we’d probably leave Argentina for a few months while the hottest of the summer passes.  This year we did that by going back to Ireland for a bit but we should have stayed until the end of Feb to really miss out on the heat.  Mendoza is actually not so bad as the humidity is low, but Buenos Aires is a killer.
3. Networking: I’m someone who did a lot of networking back in Dublin.  As well as joining local business networking groups and attending various nerd events such as Ruby Ireland and Bizcamp’s, I really enjoyed getting out and meeting people.  Watching the twitter feed I am a little envious of some of the great events which are being organised.  I’ve met some great entrepreneurs down here but there aren’t as many as I’d like.  We should probably move back to Buenos Aires where there is a much greater concentration.  Having said that, I probably we over-doing the meet-and greats a little and there is something to be said for just getting my head down.  Listening to Pegram Harrison’s Evaluating a Venture Idea lecture, I do get the sense that perhaps it might be a better idea to move to Silicon Valley rather than Dublin if networking is really the name of the game.  Perhaps a few months there might do it. Pegram posits in his talk that the greatest entrepreneur in the world can’t survive without the right environment in which to flourish.  Granted, he is talking about ‘big bang’ ideas rather than simply earning more than you spend without having to sell hours.
4. So what? Its all very nice not having a day job.  I guess the next step would be to avoid having customers (eg:  sell Piehole and live off the interest) but at the end of the day you do need a challenge.  We took August off to spend on the personal and ‘giving back’ type projects which were thoroughly enjoyable.  It was a month more than we could spend on these projects in Dublin, but at the same time, in order to hit the top run of Maslow’s over quoted hierarchy of needs, doing something ‘big’ starts to look more attractive.
5. Security: Stuff happens.  Accidents, long forgotten tax returns, emergency trips to visit sick relatives.  We can’t really afford to flit around the globe at will and while this provide motivation – at the same time – a life abroad does feel a little unsettled.  Going home for Christmas felt good and it might be a little time yet before Argentina or wherever we will be next year feels like home.  Part of what is contributing to this is the fact we don’t have a plan for where we will be past getting hitched in January 2011.  A 5 year plan always sounded ludicrous to me, but perhaps there is some sense in it.

So there you have it – some catches with this whole geoarbitrage thingy.   That is not to say there not considerable upsides, but its not all milk and honey in the land of steak and red wine.

It turns out we might have to give up the house we are currently staying at in Mendoza, Argentina.  This prompted a spurt of epic googling on the part of my dear fiancé – which eventually resulted in her creating this presentation of our options.

Did I mention that I really love this chick?

For the last 3 months I’ve been living and breathing in Argentina and I can tell you, when it comes to education these guys are good.  Argentine’s spend at least 5 years in college and free education means that all the young up and comers are continually enrolling for courses and diplomas to further their skills.  I’m not writing this to beat ourselves up – I’m writing it to get across just how many talented, educated people there are in this country.  There is a particularly good design aesthetic.  There is also a whopping 40% unemployment rate which means that many of those educated young up and comers are eager for work.

With that in mind – here is my proposal on one way to spend the Outvesting €5,000 award. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been just over a month since we arrived in Buenos Aires.  While steak, wine and weather had a definite impact on our decision to move – the cost of living, in general, is what swung it.  Simply put our goal is to earn more than we spend without selling our time.

We have developed a modest cashflow mainly via our Piehole website but pumping it up to the level required to support the two of us in Dublin was daunting.  Instead we reduced the cost of our lifestyle by shipping out.  Our biggest worry was that life down here really wouldn’t be as cheap as expected and we’d end up crawling back to Dublin looking for jobs somewhere.  Now the numbers are in and I’m pretty happy with the story so far.

The figures are counted in Euro.  So what exactly has all this bought us?

Accomodation: Well it includes accommodation in a pretty upmarket part of the city (think Portabello with more restaurants). We have a 2 bed place, newly refurbished with high ceilings etc.  It is hard to equate it to Dublin but I’d estimate something similar would come in around the €1,600 a month mark.  The only other difference would be that the place is furnished to a much higher standard than I’ve seen in the Dublin rental market and includes all bills.

Eating out: We’ve had a total of 46 meals out over that time including brekkies, lunches and dinners.  Your typical brekky will cost about €4 for two people including coffee, fresh orange juice and croissants (or medialuna as they call them here).  Lunch normally comes in around €12 for two for a pretty standard Jamon + Queso (ham and cheese sandwich with drinks etc).  The dinners are where it gets pretty good value for money.  €20 will buy you all the cow you can eat along with some decent wine and a desert or two per couple.  There are of course places you can spend more but the most we have managed to spend (and we try, believe me) is €30 for a meal for two.  I had heard that the food was bland here but I really have no complaints.  Finding a decent salad is a little difficult but carnivores are in some kind of meat filled heaven.

Wine: There of course really decent wine deals to be had.  Something better than your standard Spar bought €12 bottle of Concaha y Torro will come in about €4.  The most expensive bottle I’ve seen in an upscale wine shop here goes for €40.

Clothes: We haven’t bought a hell of a lot of stuff here but the quality seems excellent.  Priscilla found some very funky dress jewelry and there are a tonne quality clothes shops.  The quality of design in BA is excellent and this shines through in the clothes selection available.

Groceries: We only really did one big shop which bought about 18 meals.  If you want to – you can eat very cheaply but fruit and veg is still a little pricey.

Spanish + Travel: Included in our budget is a private Spanish tutor three times a week as well as internal flights to the other side of the country.  The flights cost about what you might be happy to pay for in Europe, mile for mile, but there of course cheaper ways to get around.

All of that might not mean a lot.  In summary though – I’m more than happy with progress so far.  As a rule of thumb I’d say its about a third as expensive to live down here as in Dublin.  I do feel as though we have managed to free our time and the sensation is fantastic.  Of course, the question now becomes – what next …

Moving country is not something that happens easily.  It has taken us the guts of three months to get our act in order and I’m still yet to arrive.  There is a lot to think about – especially as we will be carrying out most of our business in Ireland while living in Buenos Aires.  Here are our thoughts on what is easy and what is not:

1. Bookkeeping: Tax in general will screw you up good time if you don’t sweat the small stuff.  This is especially true where there are large numbers of small transactions and triply true if you are trying to do it from abroad.  With all that in mind – getting a good bookkeeper is essential.  What I’ve learnt about bookkeeping is that accountants, by and large, don’t like doing it.  Accountants account and boookkeepers keep your books.   They  not only work at a better rate but generally do care about the small stuff and keep everything ticking along so you can focus on growing business.  It has taken me a long time to learn this lesson and a lot of unnecessary pain.  To that end I’ve been using C&W Bookkeeping.  While the website might not look that slick – Sue and Liz have been excellent in helping us make the move.  It is a BIG relief to have these guys on board.  In particular we have:
   1. Redirected bank statements
   2. Had a copies of revenue documents sent to them
   3. Given them access to our online invoicing system as well as our sales tracking sheets (which we maintain in Google Speadsheets).
2. Virtual Assistant:  I’m not sure about the term virtual assistant, but for now lets pretend that is what we have.  Back in Dublin a good friend is helping with things on the ground.  Everything from sending out brochures to receiving and lodging the odd cheque all needs to be done.  For a reasonable monthly fee we buy a block of time to cover off anything that requires a little manual effort.  In our case this also includes on the ground marketing effort for Piehole.  In our case we worked out a reasonable hourly rate and block booked 10 hours a month.
3. Power of Attorney:  There are of course some things which won’t be possible without your own personal signature.  Setting up bank accounts, accepting grants, signing death warrants etc.  For this we have set up a power of attorney with someone we trust in Dublin.
4. Redirect Post: This is a pretty straightforward one.  An Post will allow you to redirect your mail for €110 a year.   In our case we redirect it to our VA.

Of course there are probably points 5 and 6 we wish we had set up before leaving but I’ll find out about them in time.

I should really read the rest of the Four Hour Work Week. Since getting about mid way through I was so filled with enthusiasm that I pretty much threw everything else aside and started re-organising my life. Chief motivation for this was my darling belle. Me being a bit old and world-weary and her been a young slip of a thing – there had always been a certain tension in our relationship. She was keen to see the world and I was more interested in building a ‘business’.

It wasn’t until I read the 4HWW that I realised that I was wrong and she was right. I didn’t really want to hire anyone, do tax returns, network and sell my time for the rest of my life. What I wanted instead was to lead as interesting and rewarding an experience as possible. Something Tim Ferris seems to personify.

I digress.

Key to Tim’s world view is that it is crazy to work forty odd years of your life in the hope that you will be around to enjoy 5 – 10 years of useful retirement. ‘Useful’ in this case refers to a retirement where you don’t need 3 nurses to help you keep the colostomy bag fresh.

Instead he posits that you should practice your retirement. That is what we are about to do. Last year we spent 3 months in South Africa largely subsidised by the generosity of Priscilla’s parents in putting us up. As the recession looms, rather than take refuge in my usual bolt hole (whoaring myself as a java contractor) we have identified a year long ‘retirement’.

Most retirees have to make do with less money. We are no exception. We haven’t built up the online businesses to afford the same level of lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to in Dublin. Instead we started looking around for places where we could survive (while not giving up our red wine and steak habit) on less. That place turned out to be Argentina- or at least we hope it will.

There is a lot of uncertainty about this whole experiement.

1. Will our existing customers abandon us now that we’re living it up in Buenos Aires?
2. Has our modest success been as automated as we think it has?
3. Will it turn out to be more expensive than projected?

These are all concerns. We are however willing to give it a go. Our plan is to go for a year.

My favorite book, The Four Hour Work Week, extols the virtues of outsourcing – but it wasn’t until this weekend that I had met someone who had seemed to master it. On Wednesday we will have an introduction to outsourcing work to lower cost economies. This simply means using the internet to find people who can at a lower cost than is often possible here in Ireland. It is sometimes described as geoarbitrage. I personally have been outsourcing various tasks throughout the years and have made my fair share of mistakes. There will be a panel of people there ready to share their experience and we will cover

• What tasks can be oursourced?
• Which websites to use?
• A walk-through of outsourcing a job
• How to specify a job correctly
• What sort of savings can be made?
• What are the common mistakes?

Ever since reading Tim Ferris’ 4 hour work week, I have become a little obsessed with the idea of cutting my living costs and attempting to outsource as much of my work as possible.  Outsourcing hasn’t come all that naturally to me but this month we did manage to take some rather drastic steps towards reducing costs – namely  – moving to South Africa for a few months.  While inflation is high and its not absolutely clear what way the political future of the country is – there is no doubt that we can still live a lot more economically.  Luckily for us, my girlfriends parents live down here and that has made the move much easier.  My plan for December and Jan is to attack some of the projects which don’t immediately pay their own way in terms of RoI but that I still want to achieve.  Chief amongst these is upgrading the piehole website, tidying upon taskfive and planning out next years goose forum.
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My biggest worry was that the internet connection down here might not be up to the task, but having just completed my first day of work I’m happy to report that Satellite broadband, while a little sluggish is no worse that the 3 Data modem I was relying on for most of last year.  It remains to be seen if I can provide the same level of support to my smartnote customers down here but I’m hoping it might even be a bit easier.  I’ll just have to avoid letting on I’m taking calls from a poolside while the rain pours all over the Emerald Isle.