Traveling Entrepreneur

 Please help raise funds for work permit by donating to or sharing this post. My site/business will be a success as I have already reached page 2 of Google (for my business/page keywords) and have sold pieces in my test market with very positive feedback.

In a previous life, this is how we refer to our lives prior to our traveling, I was a successful SST in a top semi-conductor industry who was a safety committee member, peer trainer and team leader. I fully invested in my 401k and all stock options (which, as so many people, truly hope is still there when old enough to withdraw.) At 23, my husband and I purchased our first home. We had the life our environment lead us to believe would give us fulfillment and felt we had taken life by the horns. At the age of 22, I started showing signs of chronic pain in my upper extremities (which was diagnosed many years later as fibromyalgia.) By the age of 25, we were both so unhappy with our first world lives and the stress that life created, that we decided we needed a serious change. We felt we were too young to be embedded in the "work until you are 70" life plan and needed to see and experience more of the world. Having grown up in Va. and moving to Or. for our work, we saw a small glimpse of how diverse cultures can be (and yes, east and west coast have very different personalities and cultures.) Having worked so hard to establish a solid life foundation at such a young age was a hard thing to decide to walk away from, but... I kept seeing myself in my upper 60's asking myself, "Why didn't I ever venture out into the world? Why did I give my life to a company that continually sought out ways to decrease what it gave to me while requesting more of what I gave to them?" The idea of living with that regret scared the hell out of me. Once we decided on a change, things started to move quite quickly. The house went on the market and we began to sell everything we had worked so hard to collect. I use the word collect because most of what we had was useless stuff. We collected it out of obligation or expectation but it was mostly things we never used. (ex.->a collection of nut crackers my grandmother started giving me when I was around 3. I had over 25 on display just in case she would come to visit, she never did and I had lugged all those silly things across the country out of obligation.) NO MAS! We downsized from a 3 bdrm, 3 fl bath, ½ finished basement, detached 2 car ½ finished garage to a little motor home on its last tire.

We sold our house and nearly everything we owned in 2005, 5(me)/7(him) years into our trained professions. Fortunately, we planned all this before the market crashed and was able to pay off our student loans and tie up any other financial obligations. It was a very liberating and inspiring time in our lives to have ties to no one & no where, but it was also a huge commitment. Not only would we have to go back to school to get back into that field (accrue debt again, no thank you!) but we were now considered unstable employees. Those were some of the professional sacrifices we made for our separation from that lifestyle but I will never regret the change. We bought a 6mo round trip from Va to Cancun and we had no idea if we would use the return tic. The proceeds from the house were feeling pretty cozy under our belts. We had a wonderful time spending the entire 6mo in Belize going anywhere the bus and then our feet would take us. After a great effort of investigating each district, we felt the most love in Bullet Tree village just outside of San Ignacio, Belize. Towards the time of the tickets expiring, we found a beautiful acre on the river in Bullet Tree and of coarse, it was near the amount we still had in the bank. It seemed to all fall into place, so we purchased the property and went back near our families to work and save. The property is too remote for us to live in but is a retirement goal. While back in the states, I apprenticed in jewelry repair and manufacturing under my mother-n-law and Brad continued repairing large expensive equipment, but at a clay mine. I had no idea I would enjoy and be so good at working on jewelry. I soaked everything up from my (awesome) mentor/mother-in-law that I could while in Va. Two yrs later, 2008, with our meager earnings, we returned to Central America. We've been on the road since then (minus a 3 month trip to meet new family members and gather some funds.)

This past December, we happened to find ourselves in a village we feel like we could settle down in while we wait for it to be feasible to move onto our own property . I also found myself in a position where I had the time and technological resources to kick start a major long term goal into motion. I got to making some jewelry and learning how to build a web page. In the last 3 months I have built a web page, made around 50 pieces of product, gotten to page 2 with my SEO and launched a month before Valentines 2013. Unfortunately, the creation of my business, even when doing all aspects myself, proved too costly for me to also afford a work permit. I was previously told that I did not need a permit if my profits did not originate in Belize. Upon my last trip to immigration, I was told otherwise. I am currently stuck in a cycle where if I purchase the work permit, I no longer have the funds to stay in Belize. If I stay in Belize without the permit, I have to close my page/business. Without my page running, we lack the steady income to be able to settle here. Round and round we go. Our monthly trip to immigration, $100 US, is our highest expense. Our rent, electricity and water run around $63-65 US/mo. and eating moderately runs us about $75US. We live a very meager life and are not going hog wild greengo crazy . I genuinely appreciate having the opportunity to live in this village and thank my luck (and intention) often for living somewhere I enjoy but I am not in a position to gather $2,000 US each for us to have the chance to settle down here. Are you in a position to help us over this road block?

I would like reiterate two of my points made above: 1.) The money I make thru my online business, from the goods I hand make, and personally manage on my sight goes back into the village I live in. 2.) Once I am established, I would like to expand my page to feature local artist and their handmade goods. 

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this (and send positive thoughts my way) as well as to those who help by donating to or sharing my story.  

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