Outourcing, outsourcing, outsourcing

We have been using Elance.com to do design but today I briefed Brickworkindia.com to do a whole bunch of desktop research for a client prject I am working on. It is the first time I have used virtual assistants in India to do work for me. I written a brief and am hooking up with them by phone today to talk scope and rate.

Will keep you posted on how I go - If it works it could change my life at work!

Muse creations aplenty!

Well Mr Smith and I have been brainstorming muse creations. These are what Tim Ferriss argues is the tool by which you can fund your lifestyle redesign.

I have started work on one muse in the coffee industry. Once the site is up and running, I will reveal what it involves. After briefing my designer via Elance http://www.elance.com/, she has come back with some fantastic logo concepts and we have almost chosen the final version. Her Elance profile is under ohSnap. The next step will be briefing in the website which I will also do via Elance or Guru.

Mr Smith and I have also come up with another idea around house-sitting. We have had frustrations with trying to find suitable places to house sit and have resorted to friends. This has made us realise there is a gap in the market which we can fill. I have again briefed the same designer (she is highly creative, quick and efficient) and looking forward to seeing her concepts.

Mr Smith is also using her for his muse logo which has just been finalised!

The ultimate aim by the end of this year is to have 3 online businesses up and running so that we can have multiple streams of income and apply E Myth principles http://www.emyth.com/ to them to ensure we have an efficient organisation that frees up time for us to focus on fulfilling our lifestyle dreamlines! E Myth by Michael Gerber is a fantastic how to book for small businesses to run your business more efficiently by working on your business rather than in your business!

Not only are we going to have more flexible income streams but also I'm learning how to set up a business from scratch and adopting skills along the way i.e. web design briefing

Lots of fun to be had!

Planning

One of the things you do when you have more savings is begin to plan. The reason for this is that the possibilities begin to be real. Things like buying an apartment, a ducati :), a holiday. Yesterday we began planning and it really gave us focus for this challenge.

We came up with a whole lot of ideas for online businesses. Most of them won't every make us unbelievably rich but they will generate good incomes for not too much effort. We have already begun to engage designers for our new online businesses. Mrs Smith briefed a designer on http://www.elance.com/. The designer came back with some great stuff and was very cost effective. It is a lot of fun when you can see your ideas taking shape though a logo.

Also we began to plan a trip. Surfing from south of France through Spain and maybe onto Portugal if we have time. That looks like being in August.

Next we have begun t think about property. Not our dream home yet but a series of places that are in great locations for us. It is all getting very real and we have only been going 6 weeks. I really do not want to waste this year. It is something that generate real momentum for us for our lives in the future.....

Muse creation has begun!

Well after putting out a project brief for our coffee muse we received multiple responses from both Elance (for the logo design) and Guru (for the web design). I (Mrs Smith) set up a spreadsheet to go through all the bids and compare what I was going to get for my money. Although we want to do it cost effectively, I don't want to skimp on quality. Some of the bids provided rate packages, which is the easiest to work with. Others required you to send more details in to get a quote back.

One obstacle I found is that most of the bids are in US dollars which of course for Australians is not great at the moment! Thus I think I will end up going for a local firm Magic Dust http://www.magicdust.com.au/. Not only are they local but they also provide a very competitive package for both logo and web design. I was impressed by their quality of work as well and they are highly experienced in building ecommerce sites. What more could I ask for!

Next I have to put together a creative design brief for both the logo and website. Who knows we might be up and running sooner than we think!

Saving begins

Today we got our bond back and our aggressive savings plan has begun in ernest. This year will be the year of building a warchest plus a few adventures along the way. The plan is to save a house deposit (20%) by the end of 2009. With both myself and Mrs Smith in very good jobs and our muses coming along nicely we should be in a great place.

As we have eliminated much of the costs of living in a rental property as well as the associated costs we have already got quite a lot of momentum. We are also keen to do a trip/s overseas. Keen to drop in a surf trip to Fiji soon and maybe a trip to Europe later in the year. It is truly amazing to discover how much money you actually have when you don't pay rent or a mortgage!

Moving to Bondi this weekend

Well, I have lived in Sydney for more than 10 years and this is the first time I have ventured to the eastern suburbs. This house sitting gig is not bad...this will be the 3rd beachside suburb I have lived in this year. Maybe we should change our goal to living at every Sydney beach in 2009 :) Somehow Mrs Smith might think I have a different agenda!

Anyhow, Gary, a good friend has opened his house to us. His wife Jen and his daughter Poppy have gone back to the UK for a stint so we are going to hang out with him. Looks like fun. It will be a hell of a lot closer to work than Newport. Early morning Bondi surfs look like part of my lifestyle next week.