A Pause in my Writing Career

September 11, 2020

A number of people have asked me – “when will the next book in the Billy Houston series be available?”

Well it’s all on hold for the next couple of years. Because whilst travelling around Southeast Asia for the last three years with intermittent trips to my home town of Noosa, Australia I’ve seen a business opportunity.

An opportunity as far removed from my previous life as an accountant and co – founder of a financial services licensee as one could imagine. After assisting hundreds of businesses grow in Australia in my previous life as an accountant and mentor I thought I’d drift off into retirement and write a few books whilst lazing away on the beaches of Phuket and Noosa.

But the last three years have rekindled my entrepreneurial juices and given me time to contemplate and ask myself what is the perfect business to build?

To me it must have all of the following ingredients –

a systemized, process driven business that has an ability to be quickly leveraged with minimal effort and capital
a charitable focus of giving back to those less fortunate
incorporating the latest technology – in this case using the power of iOS and android mobile phones
utilising the power of social media and digital marketing to achieve exponential growth
providing a product that helps people improve their lives
requires minimal staff
is easily transported from one market place ( country ) to another
is fun
requires minimal amount of my time so I can still laze about on the beaches of Phuket and Noosa
is very profitable

For those of you who have read my second book, Billy Houston Fall from Grace I am building the exact business that Billy built though hoping I don’t experience the same Fall from Grace.

We have a launch date of March 2021. The accountants in Bangkok are putting in place our business licensing requirements to enable us to operate in Thailand and thereafter other countries in Southeast Asia. The Branding Agency in Bangkok is finalising logo’s, name, colours layouts etc.

The two video production company’s are ready to go and shoot videos in Noosa, Sydney, Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket. We are just waiting for international travel restrictions to be lifted. The line-up of Thai and Western instructors is being finalised.

The Digital Marketing Agency in Bangkok commence in March the Facebook, YouTube, Google AdWords, Instagram posts along with enabling the Thai Influencers to share relevant content.

And of course the app builders have started building the app which is a seven month project.

The final step is to finalize the three Thailand charities who we will be donating monies to.

This business has been 12 months in the making with constant trips back and forth from Phuket to Bangkok pre covid meeting with various potential service providers.

I think it’s going to be a lot of fun building and running this business firstly in Thailand then other countries in Southeast Asia.

I’m not sure whether I’m a fool or a genius but I guess time will tell. But there’s no point lying on your death bed wondering what could have been. By then it’s all too late.

What’s the worst thing that could happen to me? I could fail but that’s nothing to be ashamed of. It won’t be the first time that I’ve failed nor probably the last.

For the readers out there ,which number nearly 5,000 who have read my two books – a big thank you. Interestingly I had more readers in America than Australia.

I’m a big believer in “Carpe Diem” – seize the day

By the way I have started book three. I’ve just put it on hold for a couple of years. Perhaps this little venture may well make up a few chapters in my next book.