Podcast | Work From Anywhere

RVE 003: How to Launch a Successful Business on the Road (After Failing Miserably)

February 17, 2016 by

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What do you do when you have a plan for making money on the road, but once you hit the road that plan 100% falls to pieces and doesn’t work? That’s exactly what happened to Nick Peterson from LivinLightly when he and his wife Shae hit the road a couple years ago.

In episode 3 of The RV Entrepreneur I sat down with Nick to hear how he and his wife bounced back after his software start up didn’t take off.

What’s cooler than Nick’s story of pivoting his business and income strategy, is how he and his wife went about planning their departure for traveling in an RV. Nick and Shae came up with a long list of all the obstacles that were holding them back from hitting the road (including paying off debt, finding an RV, etc.) and literally took a year and half crossing off every item on that list.

Pumped for you to hear this episode!

#lilhoneyryder on the #slackline

A photo posted by Nick Peterson (@livinlightly) on

In this episode we talk about:

  • How Nick and Shae built their income from a niche site called TeachersPayTeachers.com
  • Creating a plan of attack before hitting the road
  • How much money you should have saved up before hitting the road
  • Nick’s original business idea that totally tanked and how he overcame it
  • Building niche websites that pay you money via affiliate sales

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Q&A with Nick:

Every episode I’ll be doing this brief Q&A at the end to cover some of the more commonly questions about living in an RV.

What do you use for internet on the road?

If there isn’t wifi at campgrounds, friends houses or other public spaces we tether to our iPhones through ATT. Have a 10gb shared plan and its been sufficient.
How many hours do you typically work per week?
For the past 3yrs we probably averaged 20-30hrs / week between the both of us. This has changed recently as we are leveraging our income. Now I work from Monday, Wednesday & Friday plus some early mornings. Shae works Tuesdays. We now average over 40hrs between us.
What kind of RV did you choose and why?
Vintage Airstream. Look, quality and resale value.
What do you guys use for Health Insurance?
For the first few years we had a catastrophic plan that allowed us to use a HSA. We pretty much paid everything out of pocket (we are healthy) but had the insurance just in case. We now have a traditional plan that we purchased through the health exchange.
What is your monthly budget while on the road?
Our base expenses (food, auto+health insurance, cell phone, personal spending allowances, clothes, misc essentials) is $1500. Add in campgrounds + gas and any attraction fees. This is typically less than $2500.
What is your typical monthly income on the road?
Depends on the season…anywhere from $1000 – $5000. (Back to school is a big time and late Fall is a slow time. We are working to fill in the gaps to our seasonal products and level this out a bit.)

You’re Awesome! Thanks for listening!

This whole podcasting world is super new to me, so thanks for joining me in this little experiment! If you have any constructive feedback for me about the podcast (or just want to ask a question), leave a comment below and I’ll respond to all of them!

If you enjoyed the show, I would love a review in iTunes. 

Also, HUGE thanks to Nick for trooping it out on the show with me while he was sick!

Until next time,

Heath

 

Love startups, traveling with our two kiddos, and RV life. Cofounded CampgroundBooking.com and sold it to Camping World. For six years Alyssa and I traveled all over the US full-time in our RV before settling in southwest Colorado.

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