Hi, ho, hi, ho, it’s home from work we go…..hi friends! This month I have been working on location, like leaving the house to work, something I haven’t done for years! Normally I work at home. But I miss the social contacts, so I decided to leave the house more. The work feels good, cooking with a bunch of enthousiast hobby-cooks in a district kitchen in the really lovely city Gouda, you know: Home of the famous Gouda cheese (which actually comes from surrounding villages) and home of the stroopwafels! So yes, good food!

I teach these friendly cheesy (not that kind of cheesy) Gouda people about cooking like a pro and give them advise for healthy food choices. Working with people feels good and it balances me with my online work. I do need both. We all do, being an online entrepeneur can be quite lonely. So doing some jobs here and there is nice and so is driving hard on the motorway!  Next month, in october, I will host music salons, playing vinyl on a portable recordplayer, for elderly people, do some dancing with them, I love these small local social activities, the simple things in live that mean so much! So many interests, so many jobs…They also provide in some extra money to save up for buy that camper we want. Like I said we have to be creative since we don’t have savings.

 

That’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into!

That’s what I do think sometimes. I do not blame anyone but ourselves, and I don’t mind really. Our livingroom looks like we are a goodwillproject for Romania or something like that, there’s stuff everywhere, toys, clothes, books, all the things that have to go, I am trying to sell them. But it takes time and if it’s on thing I’ve learned past 1,5 year with being a lot on the French countryside is that time flies and things always go slower then you want them to go, simply because we have many different things to do and I do not want to just throw everything out, we need the money. So it’s either fast with a lot of money, or slow with just a little money: we go slow. We will get there, and it gives me time to prepare and think about doing business while travelling.

Subscription funding

One of those things that I am thinking about these weeks is “the modern cultural business”, that’s what they call social media and the subscription-based media platforms like Amazon, Netflix, HBO, Spotify. The business model is not really modern, subcribing to new content started in the 17th century where people could subscribe to newsbulletins and books.

I was thinking, could we do something like this? To make some extra money while being on the road, to get paid for all the creative hours we make. Social media is ok for me to post something now and then, but not on a daily basis, and you can’t make money from the platform itself. Subcription-based media could be a be a better option. With subcription media you let people pay, or better say ‘fund’ you on a recurring basis. It’s like Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform, but that’s only for one-time projects like: Help me to raise money to buy a camper. In return we give you art or whatever.

Patreon is such a subscription based platform where creatives and podcasters upload content on a regular basis for their audience. You can upload illustrations, tutorial video’s, podcasts,these are mostly digital products. It’s the same as having a subscription on a magazine, like we used to have on the Donald Duck when we were young, but instead of real products, you get your stuff digital. On Patreon you can find podcasters, comedians, Youtube stars, novelist, illustrators and comic book artists.

Roy is anything but digital, we could make video’s from Roy while he is working. So subscribers can see how a drawing or painting is being made. Roy draws something once a week. You support him with €2,00 per drawing. He will upload his drawing on his channel where you can download it. Only patrons (subscribers) can see the drawings. When you fund more, you can also watch video’s of Roy working, or insight of his mind: where do all these ideas come from? I don’t know, everything is possible.

For my business as a nutritionist it could be a subscription for extra content, like new recipes once a month. I see it happening all around me. The businesscoaches I follow want me to subscribe for a monthly payment so I can access all kinds of extra video’s, and it’s true, it’s easier to pay €10,- a month for a subscription, then to pay €300,- at once for a package of video’s or a training.

I do like the idea that you can spend more time on creating products for your audience. I know from my own business, that I have been working months on a e-book and eventually it will sell to a small audience. The time and effort is so much greater then the profit. So yes, I would like to get paid for the work that I do. This way I can support myself while helping others. In the end we still need to eat, pay health insurance and fuel the stove.

To get an idea what Patreon is like and for some inspiration about camperlife you can visit Bob Wells’s Patreon. He is like the campervan guru of the U.S. and a good source of inspiration.

And if it all doesn’t work out, we can always learn to be a magician by joining magicstream.com