One thing that annoys the most in the corporate world is the fact that you need to go to an office and start working every weekday at 9 am and stay in an office until 5 pm (at least).

I think this model is extremely outdated, and there is no need to discuss that different people can produce better with different arrangements. Some companies have already incorporated flexible arrangements for their employees and understand that each individual has unique requirements to obtain optimal performance levels.

For example, I tend to work better early in the morning and straight after sports sessions, when I can better concentrate on my tasks and my endorphin levels are peaking. This leads to increased creativity and ability to solve problems.

On the other hand, working after lunch and for long consecutive hours is highly unproductive for me. My concentration levels decrease dramatically, and the probability of committing an error grows exponentially.

During COVID-19 days, it became clear that I could produce much more working alone with no interruptions and having to deal with BS from management.

I am a big fan of task-orientated work – you have a problem to fix and a clear deadline to meet. How am I going to solve it, which resources are required, and the time will be working it is my problem, as long as I meet the agreed deadlines.

What are the advantages of an online business?

Several things attract me to the online business model.

The first two that I would list here are flexible working hours and geographical freedom – you can work whatever time you want, from wherever you are and still be productive.

There is no need to sit in an fancy office chair and be in front of a 14-inch monitor from 9 am to 5 pm to produce something (like you were a bird in a cage).

Another thing that I am extremely keen is the fact that online businesses can also be automated in a way that you significantly decrease administrative work and save precious time. In this sense, the biggest challenge is setting it up correctly from day one and have strong procedures in place.

You will probably have massive initial effort waves (front-ended work) to implement and automate the processes, but then you just need to spend some time managing and ameliorating them.

Also, the costs to start a website or an online business are ridiculous when compared to conventional business (you don’t have to pay rent, utilities, cleaning, employees, furniture, etc.).

Last but no least, is the scalability and potential reach of a website – it is just incredible. People from anywhere in the world can easily access your site with their phones in a matter of seconds.

What are the existing online business models?

There are infinite ways of making money online, but the challenge is finding the model that suits you.

For example,

• There are people that love social media and are making crazy money with them (Do you love interacting with people daily?) 
• There are people making tons of money with YouTube, by posting videos about their life or even creating content based on what other people produce (Do you feel comfortable in front of a camera or have good video editing skills?).
• There are people setting up e-commerce and doing great (Do you like to operate a business, deal with customers, and  
• There are people creating softwares that are sold as a service – SaaS (Software as Service) (Are you able to create software that can help people and give them a good experience – i.e. Uber, Tinder, Netflix?)
• The list goes on… 

If you have no idea what fits you, I strongly advise taking a DISC Test. DiSC is an acronym that stands for the four main personality profiles described in the DiSC model: (D)ominance, (i)nfluence, (S)teadiness and (C)onscientiousness.

I’ve done one of this in the past and the results were so good – really portrayed my personality and helped me to guide my future decisions. There are heaps of paid and free alternatives – you can easily google it!

Knowing yourself is crucial to choose the your perfect business niche and area of work.

The model that I chose

I decided to take this blog as my side hustle. Writing has never been my strongest skill since I am a “numbers” guy (I am an engineer by trade).Hence, starting to write something that anyone in the world can see was a little bit scary at the beginning.

But, surprisingly, things are slowly flowing, and I am getting more comfortable with it. I am enjoying translating my thoughts into words – it is a process that requires a lot of thinking and planning (you need to structure your ideas in a logical and meaningful way).

This is my 8th post and I can clearly see some development from my first post (Note: there is still a long way to go in terms of improving my texts, but definitely some progress was made.)

This website gives me the flexibility to work on it whenever I am feeling like – some posts I wrote in the morning, others in the evening after work, and others I just woke up in the middle of the night with insomnia and wrote it.

I can also write from wherever I am – for the time being, I am writing from my home, but what impedes me from writing from the beach?

I don’t need to deal with corporate politics and be pleasing people on a daily basis.

I can connect to people that are like-minded and have more time to myself.

My challenge now is making it grow – and WHAT A CHALLENGE!

Creating a website and generating content is a long-term thing and I have no assurance that what I am doing is correct or whether I will be successful – I try to face it as a triathlon race rather than a 100m sprint (see my post about it)!

I’ve been inspired by many people that started in the same way and are successful now, such as:

Financial Samurai – Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries

Mr. Money Mustache — Early Retirement through Badassity (mrmoneymustache.com)

Mad Fientist – Financial Independence and Early Retirement

All of them did the same that I am doing and achieved Financial Independence.

How can a blog help you to reach financial independence?

A website can be monetized in multiple manners! Digital marketing tools have dramatically improved over the last few years, facilitating the “making money” online process. You can generate incomes from advertising to selling products (physical and digital), or even create your product.

Financial Samurai has a post in his blog, where he thoroughly details how he makes money from his blog.

If you stick to an online strategy and work on it with long-term view, results will come. This has worked for me in different projects, and I don’t believe that would be different in exit1095 (discipline and consistency pays off).

At this stage, I am much more focused on getting comfortable in writing and generating great content for my readers.

The experience of sharing my thoughts and reaching people across the globe is fantastic and rewarding – I hope that in a couple of years I can look back at this post and say: “It was worth it!”

I am literally building something up from zero, with no experience and no idea where I will arrive. But I am the kind of person that loves a challenge and is always trying to do something different.  The unknown is extremely exciting, and I can’t wait to see what is next (and obviously share it with you)…

Speak (write) soon!