I Spent 6-Weeks In Vietnam To Grow My One-Person Business. Here’s What Shocked Me.
The chaotic traffic, food, and lots of adventure
After my grandmother’s 90th birthday, I left for Vietnam.
I was able to spend 36+ days in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh to work on my one-person business.
Here’s what happened next.
I was slightly burnt out.
I arrived in Vietnam tired.
I’d just gone through an intense period of scaling my business from $9k to $18k (AUD) per month.
While enjoyable, I pushed slightly too hard.
My time in Vietnam was spent reflecting and strategizing for the next phase. I also got to spend time with my mum and brother in Hoi An.
I knew I didn’t want to intensely scale again.
Money is always nice, but I also wanted to enjoy life and live a little bit. I went full Monk mode in Bali and lived like a hermit.
In Vietnam, I prioritized:
Working a bit less.
Meeting new people.
Going on random adventures.
I feel like I’ve got my energy back. Plus, I still made some good progress (more on that later).
Treat business like seasons of the year.
Not every season is scaling. Not every season is growth. Sometimes you need to rest and have a ‘slower’ month to get perspective on what you want next.
Rest is a feature of business, not a bug.
I was feeling lonely.
So, I joined a co-working space.
After spending months working from random cafes, I needed a proper space for work. One that had offices all around Asia.
This was one of the best decisions I’ve made.
I now have a space that’s dedicated to work. I don’t need to worry about wifi, if my stuff will get stolen, or if I have quiet place to take calls and film content.
Every country I visit, I’ve now got an office space to work from.
I’ve been able to meet other creators, solopreneurs, and business owners. I even found a guy that connected me to someone to help me move my business to Singapore.
A dedicated work environment also helps me to:
Not work in my hotel room.
Keep focused and productive.
Enjoy social connection while I work.
I now feel less lonely while also getting more done.
That’s what they call a win-win in my books.
Your environment isn’t something. It’s everything.
I had to go backward to go forward.
Scale broke my biz systems.
For the 6 weeks in Vietnam, I went back to:
Fix my systems.
Update my processes.
Document my standard operating procedures.
At the start, I felt like I was going backwards. I wasn’t growing in monthly revenue. I started to get worried.
But then I realized biz growth can take many forms.
I need to be ready for the next phase of growth. So I needed to invest money, time, and energy into building infrastructure that will allow for that growth.
On paper, I went ‘backward’.
My monthly income dipped slightly, but this time gave me clarity on:
The current gaps in my business.
The current gaps in my skillset.
What I need to work on next.
I now feel crystal clear on what I need to do next.
To take 3 steps forward, you sometimes need to take 2 steps back.
I got help.
I’ve contracted a virtual assistant.
They help me with:
Podcast management.
Client relationships.
Design & admin.
A one-person business doesn’t mean you don’t need help.
That’s a lie.
All the best solopreneurs, like Justin Welsh and Dan Koe, have a team of contractors they work with.
We are slowly building a workflow to allow me to delegate any work that I don’t enjoy doing. This will give me more time to work on high-leverage activities.
This includes:
Sales.
Writing.
Marketing.
Moving more into video content.
My goal is to keep my energy on content creation, and surround myself with a team who can take care of the editing, management, and processing.
80% done by someone else is better than 100% done by me.
What’s next?
I’m writing this before my flight from Vietnam to Singapore.
I’ll be in my homeland of Singapore for a week to speak at a conference before heading to Taiwan. I’ll be located in Taipei for the next 3-4 weeks.
I plan to focus on 3 things:
Digital product creation.
Growing my community offer.
Consolidating my content ecosystem.
By the end of 2024, I want to grow to:
$20k monthly recurring revenue.
100,000 total audience size.
This will set me up for a solid 2025.
But for now, I’ll see you in Singapore (and Durians)!
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I like how you mentioned you were realizing holes in your game. But you can only realize them when you’re actually doing the work or on a project. You realize the gaps and either address them or know that you need to address them.
Super helpful! Thank you.
Love this quote, “Not every season is scaling. Not every season is growth. Sometimes you need to rest and have a ‘slower’ month to get perspective on what you want next.”