For the uninitiated: “A gap year is time out to travel between life stages. It is also known as a sabbatical, time off, time out and a year out, referring to a period of time (not necessarily 12 months) in which people disengage from curricular education and/or work and undertake activities such as traveling, volunteering or working abroad.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Get ready for a remarkable story and some serious business education. Amar Hussain is in the house. He started Gap Year Escape as a hobby blog in 2009 to document his world travels. The blog today is on track for six-figure annual revenues and is one of the largest Gap Year blogs on the planet. Enough said.

Here’s what you’ll learn from the case study:

How Amar went from a frustrated management consultant to a world-traveling, blog-writing entrepreneur. He describes in detail his epiphany in Mexico – the moment he decided to end his 9-to-5 misery and work on his side business full-time. 

How he carefully planned his grand escape (20-country trip from Vancouver to Antarctica) with his buddy Andreas Kambanis (prior guest on Radical Tribe). Lots of practical tips here.

How his blog makes money while he sleeps, and how you can easily start making money from your own blog and run your business virtually.

How to use controversial tactics (fully legal) to boost your blog’s traffic.

How to use Search Engine Optimization – the top three things you can do to improve your site’s SEO.

Top 3 actions you can take to quit your 9-to-5 and jump into business.

A common theme that’s emerged from my conversations with a dozen guests so far is that businesses usually start as side projects. There’s nobody I’ve spoken to that has quit her day job cold turkey and started a business from scratch (except myself – I was stupid but lucky it worked out!).

To illustrate further on how to start a side business and smoothly transition it into a full time gig, I invited Alexis Grant, a former reporter at U.S. News & World Report, to tell me her story. Alexis started off as a part-time social media consultant and freelancer and now runs a full time business (with a team of 10) that includes blog management, email marketing and social media products & services.

In this case study, you will learn:

How Alexis started her side business or ‘side hustle’ – from ideation to launch

How she mastered a skill she knew little about (and made a business out of it), and how you can too

The easiest way to land your first client and the smartest way to look for gigs online

Common challenges 9-to-5ers face before making the leap to business ownership, and how to address them

How to network (even if you’re an introvert)

Alexis’ product vs. service revenue mix, and why the latter is important in the early stages of your business

3 actions and tips to get started on your side business

When Vizag, India-based Purna Duggirala’s twins were born, he decided he wanted to spend more time at home. His full-time corporate gig entailed too much travel, which he wasn’t fond of. So a few months later, he quit and decided to work full time on his blog/side gig, chandoo.org. From a mere $10,000/year in 2009, the business generated approximately $600,000 in 2012.

In this case study, you will learn:

From personal blog to side business to full time business – the Chandoo.org story: the ups, downs and everything in between

How Purna smoothly transitioned from working a full time job to running a full time business

The best way to know which products to create (even if you have no ideas)

The key factor involved in increasing his business’ revenues by 400% from 2010 to 2011

The various challenges that cropped up in the early days, and how he dealt with them

3 wise actions you can take to start and own your freedom business

Greg Miliates, Part 2: 

I broke out of 9-to-5 prison in 2009 by becoming a location independent strategic planning consultant. I can work from anywhere in the world and have clients more than 10,000 miles away, most of whom I haven’t met in person. I’ve loved every bit of the last three and a half years as a consultant. There’s never a dull moment as I’m always learning about new industries, businesses and challenges.

I am a big fan of Greg Miliates and love the work he’s doing over at StartMyConsultingBusiness.com where he inspires and teaches thousands of people to become consultants. So I invited him over to chat about how you can become a consultant.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this case study:

How to transition smoothly from a day job to owning a full-time consulting business

How to identify your skills and choose a market

The key factors that are necessary to succeed as a consultant

How to price your services, and the key to value-based pricing (even if you find it difficult to quantify the value of your services)

How to get clients – and keep them

The paths to growing your consulting business

3 specific actions you can take to start your journey in consulting

Greg Miliates, Part 1: 

I broke out of 9-to-5 prison in 2009 by becoming a location independent strategic planning consultant. I can work from anywhere in the world and have clients more than 10,000 miles away, most of whom I haven’t met in person. I’ve loved every bit of the last three and a half years as a consultant. There’s never a dull moment as I’m always learning about new industries, businesses and challenges.

I am a big fan of Greg Miliates and love the work he’s doing over at StartMyConsultingBusiness.com where he inspires and teaches thousands of people to become consultants. So I invited him over to chat about how you can become a consultant.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this case study:

How to transition smoothly from a day job to owning a full-time consulting business

How to identify your skills and choose a market

The key factors that are necessary to succeed as a consultant

How to price your services, and the key to value-based pricing (even if you find it difficult to quantify the value of your services)

How to get clients – and keep them

The paths to growing your consulting business

3 specific actions you can take to start your journey in consulting

Andreas Kambanis started working full-time on his one year old hobby blog – LondonCyclist.co.uk when he became really frustrated with his 9-to-5 job.

A Day in the Life of Andreas the 9-to-5er (then) Vs. Andreas the lifestyle business owner (now):

Andreas the 9-to-5er: Wake up, hit the alarm as many times as possible till the last minute, cycle to work, arrive late, waste time eating breakfast there, take a shower, be a nightmare employee who didn’t want to be there, have disagreements with manager, and leave at 5.30 on the dot.

Andreas the lifestyle business owner: He’s traveling 12 months from Vancouver to Antarctica. Wake up, have breakfast, take it easy, meet and chat with other travelers, do 3 hours of work on his laptop, then he’s free to travel around and do whatever he likes wherever he is in the world that day. This is a dream come true.

Enough said. Listen and lean. 

Alyson B. Stanfield of ArtBizCoach.com teaches artists business.

How to promote.

How to sell.

How to crunch numbers.

In the process, she’s built herself a multiple-six figure coaching business that has lasted over 10 years and still going strong. Here’s her story.

In this case study, you will learn:

What to do when fear grips you whenever you think of starting a business

How to build an email list and grow your coaching business

Secrets of building a coaching business that stands the test of time

How to listen and let customers tell you what they want

3 things to think about before you decide to start a coaching business

And lots more…

After graduating from high school, all Henri Junttila did for a living was play online poker…for 5 years straight. When he finally realized he needed another calling, he spent over $10,000 on business coaching, ‘get rich quick’ schemes and other online business experiments before settling on a business he completely loves. And the lifestyle of his dreams.

In this case study, you will learn:

In-depth details of how Henri started and built his major products, including a niche health website; a series of affiliate product sites; and WakeUpCloud.com

The failures he encountered prior to launching the niche health site which ended up costing him over $10,000

How he attracted 1000 email subscribers within 100 days; and how he quickly grew the subscriber count to nearly 11,000 within 3 years.

Current and lifetime revenues of all of Henri’s major products

The shockingly simple way to differentiate your business in a crowded market (this will work for you, too)

Why you should start your business even if you are not 100% sure about what you’re doing

And a whole lot more…

In 2009, Jen Adrion and Omar Noory wanted a world map they could hang up on a wall to document their travels. When they couldn’t find one they liked they, like true creative pros, decided to make a couple of maps themselves. Since the printer’s minimum order quantity was 50, the duo ended up with 48 extra maps. That’s when the light bulb turned on…what if other people are interested in buying the leftover stock?

Fast forward 3 years. The enterprising duo has a neat 6-figure e-commerce business selling high-end maps of the world, countries and cities. Stay right here to learn how they did it.

My mission is to provide you with as much inspiration and actionable advice as possible so you can create your freedom and live the life you want. This detailed case study aims to do just that. Learn  how Jen and Omar built their business since its launch in 2009. This case study includes:

How random art projects by Jen and Omar led to the accidental start of TheseAreThings.com

The dead simple tactic they used to get the word out about their first sale (and how their entire stock sold out overnight!)

The ‘business planning technique’ the duo used in the early days, and still uses today!

The mysterious art of pricing art

How they simplify difficult decisions about business growth and what products to create next

How they dealt with challenges faced in the ‘deep end’, especially those related to online payments and shipping

Actual revenue figures for 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012

Finding the perfect balance between freelance ‘client work’ and their own creative ventures/products/projects

Three useful things/actions creative pros should keep in mind before they start a business

Nev Lapwood moved to Whistler, Canada from New Zealand to do what he loves to do most: snowboard. He even got an evening job at a restaurant so he could snowboard all day. When the restaurant laid him off at the end of snowboarding season, he started a virtual snowboard training business. He still snowboards a lot and travels the world with his girlfriend 4 months in a year while working on his business for a couple of hours every day.

In this case study, you will learn:

How he and his team created their first product in just 2 weeks

The dead simple technique Nev used to grow his email subscriber base substantially

How the team built momentum and got others to market their company’s products

What types of social media work for a video training business

Where SnowboardAddiction.com gets its traffic from

How much revenue SnowboardAddiction.com pulled in last year

The company’s various revenue streams – which ones work and which ones don’t (including details about their hottest new revenue stream)

Under the hood: How the team is set up for shipping, marketing, web design and development, coaches, video editing, translation, etc.

The top 3 things you should keep in mind before you turn your passion into a business