Costa Rica Vacation Inspires Online Business
Taylor Banks is running multiple businesses from an RV he shares with his wife. One online business (Ace Hackware) was born out of a 2010 working vacation to Costa Rica. Banks explains…
“In 2010, we went on a pseudo-working vacation in Costa Rica, because we realized it was cheaper to meet my business associate there rather than either of us flying to meet the other. While there, we had this epiphany. We were busting our butts, doing this rat race thing. In Costa Rica, we had this little casita on the beach with no TV but thankfully wireless internet. It was life-altering. We thought, ‘this is what we should be aiming for’. We said, ‘let’s make this plan to move to Costa Rica’.”
Around the same time, Taylor read Tim Ferriss’ The 4 Hour Work Week. “I was pumped up by this idea, by the concept of outsourcing to make this happen,” he told me. He built his first ecommerce store on Shopify. Ace Hackware – a source for hidden cameras, lock picks, and pentest drop boxes – was an obvious freshman shop for a self-proclaimed “long-time penetration tester and hacking countermeasures instructor.”
It took off, thanks to a small but growing community of security enthusiasts, but they still hadn’t made any progress in moving to Costa Rica. The logistics and paperwork involved in moving to (and running a business) from a foreign country, it turns out, were prohibitive. The couple then realized that while they loved Costa Rica, there was still much of the US they hadn’t explored. Beth convinced her company to allow her to work remotely, and they haven’t looked back.
“Credit to my wife’s company for allowing her to work remotely. Companies are starting to realize that remote doesn’t mean less productive – and in some cases it means more productive. Beth has discovered that she can get a lot more done on a day out of the office than a day in the office.”
Running Ace Hackware remotely relies on outsourcing a lot of the business. Taylor hired a VA three to four months into launching the store. She’s covered everything from bookkeeping and managing the site, to customer service and backend process management. Years later, she’s still on the team, and an integral part of business operations, affording Taylor a much lighter schedule than a typical entrepreneur.
The Banks haven’t yet transitioned to living in Costa Rica. However, they are creating a consistent revenue stream to sustain them when (and if) the time comes.
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