Hi there,
loved to read the first 5 pages of this thread. then dropped off, it was a little funnellig around a few ideas and mostly thinking how to beat the system or get away uncaught.
Here my 5 cent:
You really need to leave your comfort zone first and think out of the box. You cannot compete with local businesses in remote countries - it simply will not work. Skills you might have or have not are great to keep you afloat and maintain your boat cheep during your journey, but this will not help you make an income where you are.
First things first. You ARE a citizen of a country - no matter what - and you CAN run a business in that country legally. So why not capitalize on that?
1.)
You know your home land quite well and are connected with people there / relatives, friends... You and they know the trends on that place, the prices and demands of the local market. Trading / importing goods is easy as a local company. You discover fancy products you haven't seen before while traveling remote places... Fine, so buy some and ship them home, try them in an online store in your home country, may be they sell well - may be not. Don't rely on a
single product, grow your business with small inexpensive cool things - especially in the Asian region there are great start-ups trying to sell great ideas / products. You are the trend-scout, the
purchasing department. Someone home will have to sell them - or you outsource the supply chain to a well known logistic company (Amazon, eBay & other local market places) - this makes your margin smaller and adds competition - other wise you have a competitive advantage to be THE source for that particular stuff in a "Special Online Store". As a Amazon Trader with local registered business - you cann
trade whatever is
legal in your country, pay the
taxes and get the income while abroad.
You are not a sales guy, but you have some more spare money?
2.) go for the rental business - rent a flat / house / boat to a
charter company and let them do the work for you. Even you can buy / finance /
lease a brand
new boat and let the
charter management do their job insuring, maintaining and chartering it for you, you sell it every 5 years and get a new one. Especially the
catamaran market is crazy nowadays, you can sell a 10 yr old boat for 60-80% of the
buying price, so you have to write off 40-20% in 10 years - this is 2...4% per year physically, the tax deductibles are much higher, and you'll have a decent income yearly of 5-10% of your investment - not so bad if you look at the
current interest rates. Also real estate rental can make a decent profit by conserving the value of the property.
3.) you are not the excel guy and crazy enough to sail the world - fine. There is a million crazy people out there waiting to give you their money. Just do crazy stuff: become a fortuneteller, a global warming scientist, sell esoteric products from remote tribes and religions, run your own religion / sect, make artist work - from creating "garbage recycling art" to stand up comedy. Anything goes, sell fridges and AC to Eskimos and life belts for the island natives, sun blocker to the African natives etc. for the global warming, T-shirts to the nudists and hot pants to the Amish people. Just do crazy things no one else would consider.
4.) You want really to work yourself? OK, then look for a company in your country that is willing to pay you traveling - make surveys of boats (you need some skills there),
survey tourist locations / hotels /
marinas / activities / adventures on remote places for travel agencies. You are fluent in several Languages and have special skills and know different cultures around the globe? Fine, then you probably can do some abroad project work to facilitate international expansions of companies from your homeland as an expat / external consultant. But be aware of, that this will be a hate/love relationship, because you will seriously work for a given period of time in a real job at one location until the project finishes, and then continue sailing until the next opportunity comes around. This is a good Freelance-Opportunity.
5.) You are a computer guy with programming skills - you can develop the next great piece of
software / app / whatever on your boat and sell it from home-based registered business - or through the app-stores of Google, Microsoft or Apple, but programming is nowadays a
cheap business off shored to
India and Pakistan - so do not expect to get hired or contracted as a developer for a big company. You have to have the right idea at the right time...
6.) you can write about your life, take pictures and make movies about your adventures and travels or what ever your fantasy is able to imagine and try to find a publisher to print and sell this stuff for you, you can make some presentations / speeches at
events e.g. about living on board and making money,
blue water courses or anything else where you consider you have a unique selling point of your knowledge, you can sell this courses on
DVD / BR - simply said: become a guru.
7.) Teaching is a good point - you can do courses about anything you consider are good at and
record them professionally on Video, then sell them online from your home-based company, you can even make live sessions and
events using skype - if you have somewhere a good
Internet connection.
8.) You can join the modern begging business using Patreon or with some reputation get sponsored by some companies whose products you would preferably use and promote on Youtube and ads on your boat. Youtube can be a good income channel combined with a blog and affiliate programs like Amazon etc. where you can make some extra cash and get known / build a reputation. You can become a trend scout-thing or brand ambassador or product evangelist if you look
funny or are young and pretty and have something to say. But it is a lot of work! Another way is crowdfunding. Works for any idea.
9.) You are no good at nothing, anything you start is a fail? GREAT! Youtube is your friend. Fails generate far more clicks and income than competence.
All have one thing in common. You need a registered business in your home base for the
legal transaction of the income. Business abroad is like business at home - besides you are somewhere else most of the time.
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