Do you have expert knowledge that you can write books about? From your current job or from one of your hobbies? Are you passionate about it? Why don’t you write those books and sell them online? If you have something really useful and interesting to say, you might be able to sell enough in order to live out of that. Especially if you move to a country with lower living costs than in your home country. In some cases you might even have substantial tax advantages.
Example: Brazil
Take Brazil as an example. It’s one of the largest democracies and free market economies in the world. Tropical climate, excellent food, ice cold beer and caipirinhas, affordable housing… and you pay only 2.28% of taxes on your e book sales revenues.
Found a Company
You must open a company and invest a considerable amount of money in order to obtain your investment visa but this can be a profitable investment, e.g. if you invest into the booming real estate market in times of World Cup and Olympic Games. The currency exchange might also be interesting as the Brazilian currency has lost 25% vs. $ and €, i.e. you get more value for your $ and € than one or two years ago. Moreover, the Brazilian Real might become stronger again in the coming years. Your investment now might be worth more in a couple of years from now.
Benefit from Low Cost
In order to benefit from the low tax rate of only 2.28%, you must exclusively export your e books to customers outside of Brazil (sales to national customers will be taxes with 12 to 15% minimum). However, you will face an additional 12% cost if you enable your customers to pay through PayPal as PayPal applies unfavorable exchange rates and service fees of almost 9% for transfers from the US or Europe to Brazil. Nonetheless, costs for selling e books in Europe and in the US can be considerably higher than in Brazil.
Here is an Example
An example of a company that followed this path is Lavario. Psychotherapists and psychologists from Europe and the US offer e books, audio books and individual coaching packages through emails for addicts trying to overcome their addictions. Being in Brazil also enables them to offer live chats online most of the day. Brazil is located between European and North American time zones. Therefore, you can chat with your customers or answer emails at almost any time of the day.
How much Time Will it Take You?
If you consider running an e book business, be aware that every sale of an item needs to be registered with national tax authorities. In highly bureaucratic countries like Brazil filling in documents can take 5 – 10 minutes per sold book. You might want to hire somebody to do that for you or spend a few hours every week doing it yourself. Obviously, the amount of time depends on the number of books that you sell. Selling books or packages with audios, videos and personal coaching at higher prices might be a good idea then.
Author Byline:
I am Frank Lavario, founder and author of the Lavario self help programs against addictions. My colleagues and I have been working a lot with addicts all over the world during. Sometimes we put our experience into short articles.