Interestingly, more and more western men who are married to Southeast Asian brides are starting businesses with their wives these days. If you are one of them, this article will provide you with relevant information that may support you in this journey.
What does “work wife” mean?
In American English, a work wife is a woman with whom you share a special relationship with. You have bonds similar to those of a marriage. Note that a work wife may not just be a female co-worker of yours, but can also be somebody in a similar field – this person works closely with you but she is from a partnering company. Of course, in this article, I’m talking about making your Southeast Asian bride your work wife if you plan to start a business with her. In other words, your Southeast Asian bride can be your work wife at the same time – this is the best way to make the most of this marriage: she is your wife, and she also helps you with your business. How wonderful is that?!
Southeast Asian women are very hard-working, intelligent and switched-on, so they are great work wife candidates ? Congratulations!
What business structure do you need?
Because I live in Australia, I will use the Australian context as an example. Frankly, other English-speaking countries probably have very similar systems anyway, so you will benefit from reading this section.
Your ideal business structure at this stage is sole trader if you just get started now. I think as long as you have an ABN (Australian Business Number), you are already a sole trader, so there is nothing to worry about in this regard.
When you actually sell a lot of products (products bring passive income), you will need to start a company which will allow you to pay less tax. Note that company owners don’t necessarily make more money than sole traders.
Being a sole trader is the best business structure for you when you get started.
At the initial stage, your goal is to create a business that actually brings you revenue. Your revenue should be higher than your business expense. This is the most practical way to start a business with your wife from Southeast Asia.
Because English is probably not your Southeast Asian wife’s first language, she possibly doesn’t feel confident enough when it comes to writing and publishing content in English on a website (and she might want to hire an editor). But in reality, chances are your Southeast Asian lady’s English is good enough for online writing because online writing is more about selling rather than writing. An article published on the Internet is a content marketing material, i.e. something that indirectly sells something else.
What’s more, at least 50% of people who run blogs, websites and apps in English are not from English-speaking countries, so these individuals’ English can be worse than your Southeast Asian beauty’s. That means many people can’t tell whether your wife’s English is 100% native-like or not. As to your audience, most people are only thinking about, “What’s in it for me?”, so your audience aren’t judging your sentence structures (your audience are only looking for information that can benefit themselves).
A mentor of mine told me this anecdote: clients from English-speaking countries are much harder to please, compared to clients from non-English speaking countries. That’s because people from English-speaking countries live in a capitalist society where the customer is always right (they feel more entitled). In contrast, people from non-English speaking countries work much harder than westerners & most of them understand the difference between the big picture and small details (they actually have better business skills because they have to – they weren’t born in a wealthy country & they must know how to hustle well).
Recommended rituals:
You and your Southeast Asian wife would be well-advised to read a book every two weeks. In order to minimize your risk, you can borrow books from the library. Books can be about business, relationships & personal development.
You and your Southeast Asian mail-order bride can watch these people’s videos on YouTube every day (Note that these people are all flawed, because nobody is perfect. Therefore, you only need to learn what works for you and ignore information that doesn’t apply to your situation. The reason you should watch their YouTube videos is because they are using free videos as their content marketing tools – that’s exactly why you should use their content marketing strategy to your advantage instead. In other words, these people publish videos on YouTube because they want to monetize their audiences – they sell online programs, books, etc. But you can just learn from their free content and ignore their commercial offerings. This is another way to minimize your risk.):
1) Business videos:
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- Marie Forleo
- Kate Northrup
- Wade Alters
2) Relationship videos:
- Matthew Hussey
- Hayley Quinn
- The Natural Lifestyles
- Richard la Ruina
3) Other videos (mindset, personal development and lifestyle):
- Gala Darling
- Christiane Northrup
- Tom Bilyeu
- Lewis Howes
- Shawn Stevenson
- Jordan Harbinger (currently, his podcast episode “Feedback Friday” is released once a week, but maybe not released on YouTube.)
In order to make sure you and your Southeast Asian bride’s venture will be on the right track, you may consider using a business strategy called “Stealing and Building”.
Description: When you’re about to write something on your business’s website, look at other successful websites’ existing work that you’d like to emulate. Then tweak their ideas, structure and style & make it your own. But you must avoid plagiarism.
Remember to use colloquial words on your business’s website.
As you’re actually writing a sales copy for your business, you’d better use colloquial words rather than academic words as people want to feel that you’re talking to them – there’s a human connection.
Examples: Instead of using “we have”, you use “we’ve”. Instead of using “Fortunately, …”, you use “Luckily, …”. This is especially important in email marketing.
The most important topic that people tend to avoid: Money management in your marriage when you and your Southeast Asian wife run a business together.
Both you and your Southeast Asian lady should remember this golden rule: Try your best to only use money that you’ve made from your business to invest in this business. Avoid spending your own money on your business if you can.
That means when you want to register a business name, the registration fee should come from your business revenue, not from your personal bank account.
When your business has generated some revenue, this is how to manage your business income:
1) Save a percentage for your tax.
2) Invest in your business only when it is absolutely necessary (e.g. business name registration, starting another website, etc.).
3) Invest in your education when you think it’s necessary (e.g. buying 1 or 2 business coaching sessions, hiring a mentor, etc.)
4) Save the rest of your income.
5) When the savings reach a certain amount, consider investing a part of your money in something like the stock market or real estate.
A successful person juggles 24 balls at the same time and allows 9 balls to drop, while everyone else only holds 1 ball.
Generally speaking, there are three topics that can do well online from business’s perspective: 1) health and fitness; 2) dating and relationships; 3) money and business. Therefore, if you can choose one of these, you will be in the right industry.
Create new concepts and coin new terms if you can. For instance, Ginie Sayles invented the concept of “a bona fide relationship”; Matthew Hussey invented the concept of “unique pairings”; Jade Seashell invented the concept of “terms and conditions in the sugar bowl”.
Your Southeast Asian bride can easily become your work wife as well. Make sure you make the most of this marriage.
