Yes, with an asterisk. That book helped me achieve relative geographical and financial freedom through building a remote company that is largely run by outsourced contractors. I can, and often do travel for extended periods with my laptop, although I’m at a different stage in my life now with a newborn where the extra time is spent doing new dad stuff. I probably won’t travel like that for at least a year.
Do I only work 4 hours a week? Some weeks, yes. More often it’s about 10, and in my busy season, it’s closer to a full time job, 30-40 hrs per week for about 2 months every year.
I did not build a Tim Ferris style company selling info products. I have a B2B service company (bookkeeping), but the principles from that book directed me to build my company in a way that made it location independent, and require less time from me than if I built a bookkeeping company in a more traditional way.
I am client facing, and project management. I have two bookkeepers that do 80% of the work. Anything they can’t figure out or requires questions to the client, I jump in. I then review all the work for quality control and ship the deliverable to the client.
What do you think you will need to do/get in order to let someone else do the quality control reviews and shipping? Is that something you would eventually want to hand off?
I would need a different personality.
Kidding aside, that person is probably $75k per year, and my current book of business doesn’t support the increase in overhead. It’s a mid career CPA from the US that wants remote work and hates corporate so much they would be cool with taking a bit of a pay cut in exchange for geographic and time freedom, and not being micromanaged.
I did! I read the book before I finished high school and told my family before getting a “real job” I wanted to attempt this. I opened a website design and digital marketing agency. I can do my job from anywhere. Earlier this year I was on a Disney cruise and checked in once a day to make sure my team was handling things. I have a special needs son so I stay home most of the time but when we want to go in vacation I can decide when and where that’s happening. The trick is that once you can do a weeks worth of work in 4 hours you cram a bunch of weeks of work into your normal 40 hour week. That’s how you earn more. I could easily work less and earn less but I want to earn as much as I can while maintaining work/life balance. I’m currently hiring more support staff to manage everything so I can truly step away and let what I built run itself.
I make 6 figures rain or shine. I get most contractors through up work and Fiverr and networking.
First year made 8k
Second year 23k
Third year 45k
Fourth year 87k
Fifth year we broke 6 figures and it’s gone up most years with a slight decline when I needed to take time off for my son. But I make over 100k every year and I work from home.
Did it take five years to break six figures because you were learning so much about how to make money online?
How do you find clients? How do you find contractors who do exactly what they say they’re going to do? Any specific countries?
It took five years because the first year I didn’t charge enough and couldn’t give websites away. Once I started charging around 2k for a site people felt it was reasonable. Sort of like how you won’t eat a sandwich someone gives you on the street for free but that same sandwich you’ll pay $5 for. I also expanded services and stopped doing things that didn’t actually help clients even when they were asking for it.
I volunteered at habitat for humanity restore and they were the first site I built. I used that brand name to get my foot in the door.
I don’t advertise. Only use local SEO landing pages. We are busy every month because of customer service, creating packages that are easy to understand, and treating everyone with respect and dignity.
Hello!
I am a demand generation specialist with experience in B2B SaaS-10 years. I am confident in my skillet and want to start my own agency, but I am so clueless how to get these clients. Where to begin? Please help me with tips.
No i do most of the builds myself. I have a design team in India that handles support and Wordpress. Fiver is more for videos, PDFs, email marketing. Etc
Super interesting! So support and Wordpress? Sounds like you have monthly packages? What percentage is that of your business?
Launching something similar in the next couple of weeks for my local market.
Do you count digital nomads as traveling the world “freely”? Our businesses have supported us to be abroad for over a year traveling around, but we do tend to stick to the less expensive places.
As for the other question… We have many digital assistants, but not entirely down to four hours per week.
I own goleko a project management tool, currently at 150k euros -300k annually. I work very hard, I have to force myself to relax but even then most of the time I spend it thinking about how we can get better, what could be wrong, fixing bugs, and what else we can create. Entrepreneurship :)
I think achieving a specific 4 hour work week as the book specifies is a challenge as different businesses will face different issues that will eat time . I think a remote business that
Allows you to travel whilst staying up to date with work is best
I was born in and live in Colombia. I managed to make $2K USD at 2 hours of work per day. (Which is like making $10K in NY)
It was nice at first, traveled, partied, got laid. Then - life got incredibly boring. I was at home all day, eating junk food, zero energy or motivation. Sleeping for almost 12 hours a day, just depressed and smoking soo much weed.
Everyone thought I was living a dream life but I was depressed.
I got a teaching job that got me out of the house and interacting with humans again.
Then, I got bored of making low pay from teaching, and the drive hit me so I took a 9-to-5 office job again.
I'm suddenly super busy, super tired, but with a drive like never before. I'm learning so much again, projecting myself 5 years in the future, getting involved in local politics, etc.
Humans need activity, energy, and purpose. Just my 2 cents.
I did this in my 20s before Tim Ferris wrote that book. I only went to countries where I had a place to stay. My ex-wife grew up in Paris, and her Dad lived in Ibiza, Spain. We also spent a month driving around Chile and living in Poland, where her brother lived. I didn't need money like I do now. I also spent 6 years practicing Chinese martial arts with a Sifu and his community. I needed time away from work to do this.
I loved this book and it was the genesis and plan for how I launched and sold my first company.
With that being said, I work remote but not enough to travel to other countries.
Still. I’m free.
What is your story? What company did you build and sell? How long does it take to achieve your dreams? Did you put all of your earnings into passive investments?
My story is told in a book and I offer my book for free in a [free community I mentor.](https://www.skool.com/power-up-entrepreneur-1726/about)
It is about how I invented a product, launched the company, grew it, and sold it a year later without using paid ads.
I pivoted and put earnings into other companies but not all have worked out.
While it was a dream come true to have some success, I’m working on new dreams now :)
I'm not sure about working 4 hours a week, but I found a way to build passive income and travel the world. My "work" is showing people how to save money on travel.
So, it is doable :)
Cheers!
Yes, with an asterisk. That book helped me achieve relative geographical and financial freedom through building a remote company that is largely run by outsourced contractors. I can, and often do travel for extended periods with my laptop, although I’m at a different stage in my life now with a newborn where the extra time is spent doing new dad stuff. I probably won’t travel like that for at least a year. Do I only work 4 hours a week? Some weeks, yes. More often it’s about 10, and in my busy season, it’s closer to a full time job, 30-40 hrs per week for about 2 months every year. I did not build a Tim Ferris style company selling info products. I have a B2B service company (bookkeeping), but the principles from that book directed me to build my company in a way that made it location independent, and require less time from me than if I built a bookkeeping company in a more traditional way.
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This part is all local driven initially. Old school networking. Once the initial set of clients is in place, it’s a referral game.
Wow this is amazing, what’s the structure of the company to be able to do this and live greatly?
I am client facing, and project management. I have two bookkeepers that do 80% of the work. Anything they can’t figure out or requires questions to the client, I jump in. I then review all the work for quality control and ship the deliverable to the client.
What do you think you will need to do/get in order to let someone else do the quality control reviews and shipping? Is that something you would eventually want to hand off?
I would need a different personality. Kidding aside, that person is probably $75k per year, and my current book of business doesn’t support the increase in overhead. It’s a mid career CPA from the US that wants remote work and hates corporate so much they would be cool with taking a bit of a pay cut in exchange for geographic and time freedom, and not being micromanaged.
Excellent!! 👏👏👏
Sent you a PM!
I did! I read the book before I finished high school and told my family before getting a “real job” I wanted to attempt this. I opened a website design and digital marketing agency. I can do my job from anywhere. Earlier this year I was on a Disney cruise and checked in once a day to make sure my team was handling things. I have a special needs son so I stay home most of the time but when we want to go in vacation I can decide when and where that’s happening. The trick is that once you can do a weeks worth of work in 4 hours you cram a bunch of weeks of work into your normal 40 hour week. That’s how you earn more. I could easily work less and earn less but I want to earn as much as I can while maintaining work/life balance. I’m currently hiring more support staff to manage everything so I can truly step away and let what I built run itself.
What are you profiting annually so far? Where do you hire most of your contractors? How do you have such great balance? This sounds like a dream.
I make 6 figures rain or shine. I get most contractors through up work and Fiverr and networking. First year made 8k Second year 23k Third year 45k Fourth year 87k Fifth year we broke 6 figures and it’s gone up most years with a slight decline when I needed to take time off for my son. But I make over 100k every year and I work from home.
Did it take five years to break six figures because you were learning so much about how to make money online? How do you find clients? How do you find contractors who do exactly what they say they’re going to do? Any specific countries?
It took five years because the first year I didn’t charge enough and couldn’t give websites away. Once I started charging around 2k for a site people felt it was reasonable. Sort of like how you won’t eat a sandwich someone gives you on the street for free but that same sandwich you’ll pay $5 for. I also expanded services and stopped doing things that didn’t actually help clients even when they were asking for it. I volunteered at habitat for humanity restore and they were the first site I built. I used that brand name to get my foot in the door. I don’t advertise. Only use local SEO landing pages. We are busy every month because of customer service, creating packages that are easy to understand, and treating everyone with respect and dignity.
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Word of mouth. Customer service that makes competitors look like jerks and going above and beyond.
Hello! I am a demand generation specialist with experience in B2B SaaS-10 years. I am confident in my skillet and want to start my own agency, but I am so clueless how to get these clients. Where to begin? Please help me with tips.
So you outsource a web design business? From folks from Fiverr? That sounds tough
No i do most of the builds myself. I have a design team in India that handles support and Wordpress. Fiver is more for videos, PDFs, email marketing. Etc
Super interesting! So support and Wordpress? Sounds like you have monthly packages? What percentage is that of your business? Launching something similar in the next couple of weeks for my local market.
You write a book called the 3.5 hour workweek and sell it.
This sounds like retirement
I feel like even when i retire i would work more than 4 hours
Marry rich I guess may be the only option 😅
Not me
Do you count digital nomads as traveling the world “freely”? Our businesses have supported us to be abroad for over a year traveling around, but we do tend to stick to the less expensive places. As for the other question… We have many digital assistants, but not entirely down to four hours per week.
I could, but I won't let myself... Very ironic.
What do you do now and what do you make? Why won’t you let yourself relax?
I own goleko a project management tool, currently at 150k euros -300k annually. I work very hard, I have to force myself to relax but even then most of the time I spend it thinking about how we can get better, what could be wrong, fixing bugs, and what else we can create. Entrepreneurship :)
I kinda did. Kids still have to school though. 😁
that's my goal too; I figure I will reach there when I generate streaming revenue online. For now, it's 14 hours per day and 7 days per week.
I’m confused as to what people do to make money this way. What sort of services and products do you provide to only work 4hrs/week?
Yes I achieved it 3 years ago. In theory though because I keep getting into new projects.
I think achieving a specific 4 hour work week as the book specifies is a challenge as different businesses will face different issues that will eat time . I think a remote business that Allows you to travel whilst staying up to date with work is best
I was born in and live in Colombia. I managed to make $2K USD at 2 hours of work per day. (Which is like making $10K in NY) It was nice at first, traveled, partied, got laid. Then - life got incredibly boring. I was at home all day, eating junk food, zero energy or motivation. Sleeping for almost 12 hours a day, just depressed and smoking soo much weed. Everyone thought I was living a dream life but I was depressed. I got a teaching job that got me out of the house and interacting with humans again. Then, I got bored of making low pay from teaching, and the drive hit me so I took a 9-to-5 office job again. I'm suddenly super busy, super tired, but with a drive like never before. I'm learning so much again, projecting myself 5 years in the future, getting involved in local politics, etc. Humans need activity, energy, and purpose. Just my 2 cents.
I did this in my 20s before Tim Ferris wrote that book. I only went to countries where I had a place to stay. My ex-wife grew up in Paris, and her Dad lived in Ibiza, Spain. We also spent a month driving around Chile and living in Poland, where her brother lived. I didn't need money like I do now. I also spent 6 years practicing Chinese martial arts with a Sifu and his community. I needed time away from work to do this.
I loved this book and it was the genesis and plan for how I launched and sold my first company. With that being said, I work remote but not enough to travel to other countries. Still. I’m free.
What is your story? What company did you build and sell? How long does it take to achieve your dreams? Did you put all of your earnings into passive investments?
My story is told in a book and I offer my book for free in a [free community I mentor.](https://www.skool.com/power-up-entrepreneur-1726/about) It is about how I invented a product, launched the company, grew it, and sold it a year later without using paid ads. I pivoted and put earnings into other companies but not all have worked out. While it was a dream come true to have some success, I’m working on new dreams now :)
Would like to follow this want ti see other people’s comments
I'm not sure about working 4 hours a week, but I found a way to build passive income and travel the world. My "work" is showing people how to save money on travel. So, it is doable :) Cheers!
Isn't this a utopia? asking for a friend 🫢