Tagged: entrepreneurship

This month’s ‘Escaping the 9 to 5 Case Study‘ is about 27-year-old Ron Fortin, an aspiring entrepreneur in Antigua, Guatemala. Ron is currently the director of a school for impoverished children and in the meantime, has started Homeschool Spanish Academy, a website that provides interactive Spanish tutoring for middle school and high school students through video conferencing. Like so many of us, Ron is trying to find a way to ‘pay the bills’ without compromising his lifestyle. He has a great story and some really insightful advice.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. After high school, I spent four years in the United States Marine Corps and left for boot camp two weeks after 9/11. After my last duty station in Okinawa, Japan, I attended Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas in August 2005.

What happened after you graduated?

I graduated in May 2008 and was lucky to get a job straight out of college as an IT consultant. I was living in San Antonio, but flying to Dallas every week for work. I was riding around in limos, living in five-star hotels, and eating at fancy restaurants, but at the same time, I wasn’t fulfilled. I was learning a lot, and the people were great, but there wasn’t enough creativity, responsibility or risk. I also couldn’t get past the fact that I making more money for an already rich company.

What did you do to change your circumstances?

During this time, a good friend of mine, Brandon Brickley, was the current director of the Scheel Center in Guatemala. I knew he was coming home at the end of the year, and I thought to myself, “Man, when am I ever going to have the opportunity to visit Guatemala again?” So instead of flying back to San Antonio one weekend, I took three days to visit my buddy in Antigua, Guatemala.

My last day in Antigua, we were sitting in a coffee shop and he said to me, “Ron, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I feel like God’s telling me to tell you to quit your job and move down here to be the next director of the Scheel Center.”

“Wow!” I said, “I’m flattered you think so highly of me, but a lot of things would have to change for me to be able to make a move of that magnitude.”

To make a long story short, I went back to my life in Texas, and in the course of three and a half weeks, my entire life flipped upside down. Every excuse I had for not going back to Antigua simply evaporated. I didn’t even speak Spanish, yet I knew I was supposed to be there. Two weeks after I made the decision to move to Guatemala, I told my family, and they were incredibly supportive. A week later, I told my boss I wasn’t returning after the New Year, and a day later, I bought a one-way ticket to Guatemala. I arrived on December 27, 2009, and by January 3rd, 2010, I was the director of a school for impoverished kids.

Tell us about Homeschool Spanish Academy, the current venture you’ve started. How did you get to the point where you decided to just go for it?

As I mentioned, I didn’t know any Spanish. I knew I was going to be running a school in Spanish, so I thought it would be good to learn (at least a little bit) before I left the States. So, five weeks before my flight, I took Spanish classes three days a week via Skype, with a teacher Brandon recommended. When I arrived in Guatemala, I could understand enough to get by and be conversational. I thought to myself, “If I learned this much in five weeks online, imagine what you could learn in five months? In a year?” Then I started to think, “Man, I wish I had had this opportunity when I was in middle school and high school!”

So I came down with a plan to siphon off my savings. While evaluating my financial situation, I had to figure out a way to support myself in Guatemala for at least another year. It wasn’t the problem of having money in Guate; it was that I still had to pay bills in the States.

In my heart, I’ve always been somewhat of an entrepreneur. I have an entire folder of ideas with projections, descriptions, and plans, but Homeschool Spanish Academy was an idea that had all the right boxes checked. In other words, it passed the marketable test, competition test, scalable test, need test and bootstrap test. Most of all, it was based in the U.S. and could take care of my bills. It was when I hit the financial “point of no return” that I said, “I’ve always wanted to start my own company! Now’s the time! It’s now or never, do or die!”

Of course, I also consulted business savvy friends, who usually kill my ideas, and got them to say, “You know, this might actually work!”

Tell us a little bit about the process of starting your own business and what you’ve been doing pre-launch.

Research took a lot of time. You really have to beat up your own idea and get others to beat it up too. You have to ask everyone and their mother what they would like to see. What’s important? What’s a good price point? There’s SO much to do, and at the same time, you’re usually strapped for cash.

In the pre-launch phase, I drew up my business plan, selected my staff, trained them, and then ran them through a series of quality control simulations. Essentially, once I had a rough game plan in my head, we just had to hustle and execute.

What is the overall business model you’re using? Are you outsourcing? How many employees do you have? What tasks have you delegated?

My overall business model is to operate as cheaply as possible, and if I’m not the best at something, then I get somebody else to do it. There are lots of folks all over the world who are really knowledgeable and have the skills that I don’t. They also want to work hard, and with the U.S. exchange rate, I can usually pay them a manageable salary that they’re also happy with. Basically, I outsourced everything I sucked at or quite frankly, just didn’t want to deal with.

Everyone in my company is contracted, except me. I have two full-time Guatemalan employees and six part-time employees. HSA is a virtual company so I have people working for me in Pakistan and India (logo and brochure design) all the way to Indiana and Pennsylvania (accounting and sales).

For a lot of people, money is a big hinderance for not pursuing a potentially great idea. What do you have to say to them? How have you managed your day-to-day expenses?

I agree, money is a big hinderance! It always will be! It was an issue even when I was making a consultant’s salary! It all comes down to lifestyle choices — what do you want your story to be? Do you want it to be about the things you purchased throughout your life? Or the things you experienced and learned?

I have always been quite frugal and subsequently had a low five-figures worth of savings when I made my decision to move to Guate. Money always disappears a lot faster than you anticipate, so I had to find other means of supporting myself.

To supplement my income in Guatemala, I took advantage of my strengths while also staying true to my lifestyle goals. I play saxophone in a few restaurants on the weekends, and I teach Kali, a form of Filipino martial art, twice a week.

What are your goals for HSA?

Firstly, I’m not trying to be the next Google or Facebook. If it gets there, then great, but I also know companies like that are the exception and not the norm. I do want to be the biggest fish in my niche, however, with the best-quality product. One of my personal goals is to earn enough of a salary to stay in Guatemala for another year or two or three…

I want to have a successful launch and then grow modestly. After about a year, I’m hoping to see more exponential growth and gradually expand as far as we can take it. I’ll know I’ve hit my exit point when I’m not having fun anymore.

Lifestyle-wise, I would like to get HSA to the point where it’s fairly self-sufficient, and I can take three to six months off to travel, check in virtually, but still watch it run almost flawlessly.

What advice do you have for others who dream of escaping the 9 to 5?

1.) First, know yourself. It’s not necessarily for everyone. If you’re in a 9 to 5 job, however, and you’re feeling like you want to live now rather than later, then DO IT! Escape!

2.) Build a cushion. Before you make the leap, it’s a good idea to have some sort of financial cushion. Your destination will dictate how much you’ll need.

3.) Evaluate your strengths. Use them to your advantage and outsource your weaknesses. Know what you’re good at. See how you can play that up to earn money, meet more people, or change your lifestyle. What can you do better than anyone else?

4.) Have a plan, but also have an exit strategy.

5.) Go with the flow and be flexible! No matter how much you plan for things, it rarely goes accordingly.

6.) Readjust. When your plan goes astray (and it will), don’t freak out, and quit just because you’re scared. Take a deep breath, relax and evaluate the situation. You have options. Talk things over with an intelligent person who will challenge your assumptions; and then make a decision and act on it!

Homeschool Spanish Academy launched yesterday, Nov. 15. We’ve already told Ron how great our readers are about spreading the word, so if you can help him out, do your thing! {r}