The cool thing about working in Cebu City, other than the low cost of living and business advantages of an emerging city, is the proximity of tropical Islands. We were suppose to move into the house on Friday. Problem is, we had some contract amendments because we were slightly misinformed by our agent AND we absolutely need an internet connection before we move in. To get internet service from one of the major suppliers here, we needed to get a bunch of paper work done and wait a week maybe two…so instead of waiting in the city and working from coffee shops (which was driving us nuts), we packed our bags and left for Bohol to wait it out on the beach.

True to our style – we booked nothing. We tend to go places without planning too much – no maps, no reservations and no real itinerary. Funny – it works out most of the time. So we jumped on the next ferry from Cebu Port (500Php) and in 2 hours we got off in Tagbilaran, Bohol. When getting off ferries here, you always have to deal a chaotic mix of porters, cabbies, tour guides, tricycle drivers, all pushing to get your business. As we had nothing booked and had no idea where to go, we hired a nice, older cabby to be our ride to wherever. We had 3 requirements – access to wifi, white sand beaches and fair prices. After a 20 min drive and some true cabby wisdom, he dropped us off at the Bohol Divers Club Resort on Panglao Island – an Islet off the Bohol main Island. Perfect set up. Free wifi, rooms priced at 500-1300 PhP ($10-$15 CAD), white sand beach and blue water. Below is a pic of the office set up for the next week (or two). I may even take the PADI diving certification between work and beach sessions.

JK

In an effort to keep people back home updated on my progress and whereabouts (and maybe also keep me accountable) – I decided to actually start blogging (or micro-blogging) about my travels and business progress. I hope my posts will help some of you (family and friends) understand what I’m doing and maybe inspire you to take small steps towards actioning your dreams. To keep myself motivated and the posts fresh – I will try to keep them short.

I left Montreal on September 19, 2010 – with sooo much blind confidence. I acted and looked like I knew exactly what I was doing. I had no idea – I just knew I had to kick the lame routine of getting a bi-weekly paycheck. Although, I now think mundane routines are amazing – paychecks, on the other hand, are addictive and only if you love your job, are they a good by-product. My specific objectives were not defined but my goal was to see more of the world and act on a business idea that was sitting on the shelf for too long. The business idea, originally, was to develop a Free Live Chat Software for the millions of eCommerce and website owners looking to reach higher website conversions (sales). Simple really, and like any good idea – has evolved with time.

As for the concepts of starting a business and/or leisure travel, some would opt for one or the other – but I wanted both. I had spent the last 3 years reading about different people’s travel experiences while generating handsome incomes entirely via the internet. I knew about every single online business model, I had my finger on the pulse when it came to everything web related and frankly, it made me ill with desire. I knew it was a possibility and spent too much time making up excuses of why I couldn’t instead of why I could. Pushing 30, there was no better time than now (then). The opportunity to leave was there and the business model we chose was viable and could be built and managed from anywhere.

So, I spent the last 6 months in Europe with two close friends and business partners. I got to see many corners of Europe on weekends as we worked diligently through the weeks, often loosing complete track of time, days. Some weeks were productive, some were entirely wasteful. Coffee became my best friend and isolation, stupid videos and Facebook became my enemy. Progress was slow at first while I adjusted to self-monitored work. For the first months, I often questioned if I had made the right decision to leave Montreal. Incremental progress made it count – small successes fueled the why. In December, I made my way home for the holidays to see family and friends. I had many new experiences to talk about but still only fluffy progress on the business front. 3 full months of work and nothing tangible to show yet..this was a wake up call but also a realization that things don’t happen overnight.

Upon returning to Portugal, I set goals to make my time there really count. You don’t realize it when you are 9-5′ing, but the daydreams of being self employed and the freedoms associated often cloud the realities of running your own business and managing your own time – this shit is hard and keeping myself productive, accountable and in-check has proven to be the biggest challenge. This is where strong partnerships come in to play…I attribute much of the momentum that we are now experiencing, to strong partnerships and always having a bias towards action.

On March 31st, we packed everything, left Portugal and made our way across the world to the Philippines. We landed in Cebu City, Philippines after 28 hrs of hauls and layovers. Why the Philippines? Well, we run online service businesses and nowhere in the world, not even India, is there a pool of harder working, affordable, English speaking IT talent than in the Philippines. The environment is conducive to our growing business. Cebu City is the 2nd largest city in the Philippines and an emerging IT hub in Asia. Also one of the biggest BPO centres (Business Process Outsourcing) in the world.

The original idea was to find a home, near the beach, with internet, for us to run our operation up to 5-10 employees. We quickly realized that the dream house and setup was not in Cebu. Did it even exist? We decided to explore other emerging cities in the area and travelled around visiting coastal towns via dusty chickens buses and dodgy ferries. All of the small cities we looked at have massive pools of IT talent hungry for jobs. Oddly enough, we preferred the environment in the bigger Cebu City over all the others and ended up exactly where we started. We found a nice place to live..and will finally settle this week.

After living in hotels (budget hotels) for the past two weeks – we finally found our house, albeit not by the beach. Devastating..lol. We are dealing with this loss and will compensate by taking short weekend trips to many of the white sand beaches/islands close by. As the travel experiences pile up, the business (now businesses) continue to grow and it feels right, finally. Offerchat.com will launch by mid-may and our SEO business is up and running – serving clients from around the world, even without a live website. Some of you have asked for pictures…I will post those soon and make an effort to post shorter, more frequent entries.

JK

I moved to the quiet town of Aveiro, Portugal in September 2010 to live and work as a freelance web marketing consultant. While Aveiro would not have been my first choice, practical randomness are what brought me to this unassuming town as a first stop. After a month of living here, my pace has slowed down considerably and my quality of life has improved. This being said, it’s hard not to miss Montreal. The environment here is ideal for a lean web freelance company (minus the networking opportunities) and we are hours away from place like Lisbon, The Algarve and Spain.

Aveiro is known as the Portuguese “Venice” due to its many canals, bridges and painted boats called “moliceiros”. But unlike its Italian counterpart, this city is far more personal, less bathed in swarms of tourists and relatively uncrowded. Check out the fine photograph above.