Feels like the Universe is with me now!

The book "Aleph" is the only one I have read of all Paulo Coelho's writings.  I loved the story so much that even though I have so little time to grab a hardbound book, I really made efforts to read every single page of it. But if I am to answer which of his famous quotes is my favorite, it would be the one he mentioned in his book "The Alchemist."

He said "when you want something, the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it".  And I think I feel the same way now. When you really want something so bad, then you put all your heart into it... everything else will follow.  

I have almost nothing when I left my 8 year old job in August of 2013. I did not know how to start a new life as a bootstrapping entrepreneur. My friends and family members are not into this. I was desperately looking for an environment of like - minded individuals who are into this as well. I think if not because of the online world where one can easily connect to another one, I am still stuck somewhere.

From the scratch I was able to build a business that works. I am also not afraid to share my concept of how I do it for the possibility to be copied. Ideas can be exactly copied from words, to design up to the result. Any business owner knows that. RJ David, co - founder of one of the leading buy - and - sell website in the country, mentioned in one of his Facebook posts that copying is a legitimate business model. Even if there are 10 exactly the same businesses selling the same stuffs, there will always be only one that will reach on top. The rest are second, third, fourth so on and so forth.  That is because when it comes to execution or the process of how they make it work, everyone of them has their own way. They will do it according to their knowledge and tools they have.

So what is my business model anyway?

This is no sweat, honey! I throw in clients to my more than a dozen travel partners (accredited travel agencies around the country) in exchange of commission.  Our partnership is not bound by any contract. Whether I give them or I have none, there is no pressure. Aside from the money, they also give me free trips. I have met only 3 of them in person, but yeah we have been seriously doing business remote transactions online every single day!

How the heck I can get big number of clients when my online shop is well, not famous?

As a bootstrapping entrepreneur who has no big budget to splurge on high - caliber way of advertising, I do SEM (search engine marketing). This involves a bit of technical details so I will try to explain it as simple as I can.  Instead of focusing to a big number of audience, like on TV or newspaper advertisement appearance I chose a small number of people who are really looking for a tour package and the most important, READY TO PAY. I find them through targeted ads via search engines. Yes I pay for every clicks these ads get. Let's say a person is looking for an "el nido tour",  my ad will only show up only if that person typed it that way. But if it was typed "do it yourself tour to el nido", my ad should in no reason to show up!

I hope to learn more about SEM and to connect with search engine marketers. I am also ready to pay a reasonable amount via a workshop or certification who can teach me more of this. If you know anyone, I am just a cup of tea away!

To those who want to build an online business, I want to share three things for you to start with. I learned these during a paid talk "Create Your Freedom" workshop led by Lois, the blogger behind the wearesolesisters.com and a certified passion test facilitator.

You have to know the answers of these below:

1. Passion : What the things you love to do?

2. Talent :   What the things you're good at?

3. Career :   What the things you someone will pay you to do?

So there you go, I hoped I helped a bit to anyone who also wanted to take the path of entrepreneurship by setting up an online shop. I am telling you it is priceless of having a life that you can choose anytime and anywhere to work.  But prepared for the road along the way, it is gonna be really really unpredictable.