One of the most fascinating new business trends to emerge in recently is the growth of virtual businesses — many of them home based. In the last few years we have seen an explosion in the numbers of virtual businesses being set up. Things are happening today that would simply not have been possible just a few years ago.
Virtual businesses are now a reality thanks to the ability the internet has given us to work with people on projects wherever they are on the globe. Email, online phone calls through Skype, social media, online video and file sharing sites are just a few of the tools that make them possible. What this also means is that business has been democratised in a way that, for all but the most visionary people, was unthinkable a decade ago.
A century ago, at the peak of the industrial age, you needed land and enormous amount of capital in order to build a factory if you wanted to make it big in business. Today, we all have a “factory in our pocket” — or what is more commonly known as a smart phone.
The key, of course, is knowing how to use it. That’s where the recently published book “Never Work Again” comes in. Written by author and entrepreneur Erlend Bakke, Never Work Again is a “how-to” manual for the aspiring virtual business owner.
Already a bestseller in three countries (the US, Canada and the UK) Never Work again takes the reader step-by-step through what it takes to set up a no money down virtual business. And as the owner and CEO of three companies with twenty staff, all of which are run primarily through outsourcing, Erlend is well placed to teach us how to take advantage of the possibilities offered to us within this online world. Despite being only thirty-one Erlend has already achieved both financial freedom and time freedom — things that most of us have to wait until retirement for, if we ever achieve them at all.
Amazingly, Erlend is able to run his three companies while working an average of just five hours a week. This is possible because Erlend has mastered the art of building virtual business teams using the best talent available online regardless of where his outsourced workers are based. And while some of his staff do indeed come from the Philippines and India he also works with people from the States and the UK. “It’s about getting the right team together and coordinating them, wherever they may be,” explains Erlend.
Yet if you think that owning a virtual business is only something for serial entrepreneurs then think again. More and more ordinary people are starting virtual home based businesses both as a way to get control of their work schedules and escape the 9 to 5 and as a way to supplement or increase their incomes.
The lifestyle possibilities that the virtual business world offers are something that Erlend wants to share with people — hence the book. Just three years ago Erlend was so stressed through overwork that he ended up collapsing on a London tube train and being taken to hospital in an ambulance. This dramatic collapse was a wake-up call. Today he is happy, healthy and the owner of three businesses that bring him a monthly disposable income of $20,000 — even though he works fewer hours in the average month than most of us do in the average week.
The fact that Erlend (who had never outsourced anything in his life prior to that fateful tube train collapse) was able to transform his own life this way in just three years is testimony to the fact that we all have the potential to do it if we put our minds to it. Never Work Again is Erlend’s way of getting the message out and teaching others how to make the lifestyle changes that he’s managed so successfully.
As well as explaining step-by-step how to both set up and run a virtual business the book also reveals several online business models. However, it’s much more than just a practical blueprint. The book also has a philosophical side:
“You think it’s about the money, but it’s not,” explains Erlend. “Yes, the money is important, but ultimately it’s about following your passions and living the life of your dreams.” The question you will answer as you read through the book is “what does freedom mean to me?”
Never Work Again is available from all good bookshops and can be ordered online from Amazon either as a hardcopy or on Kindle. To visit Amazon and order a copy of Never Work Again click here
Contact name: Erlend Bakke
Email: [email protected]
Company: MrOutsource.com
Address: PB 101, 1300 Sandvika, Norway
http://www.amazon.com/Never-Work-Again-Less-Freedom-ebook/dp/B00F0OOE7Q/