In my previous article, I wrote about how Las Vegas is a logistically strategic location to operate our network marketing business. It is located in and near major market regions. It is one of the best cities for frequent flyers. It is in an ideal time zone. All of these are great reasons why Las Vegas is good for network marketing, but it was my driving reason to move to Las Vegas.
Personal Development
My desire to move outside of Las Vegas is a desire to grow. Not just my business but personally. I have an innate desire to learn more and change for the better so that I can live out my purpose empowering others with the freedom to choose their future and alleviate suffering in the world by promoting healing. While I can do accomplish my mission in Hawaii, I felt that moving outside of Hawaii gives me more opportunity to connect with more people. People that can help me grow. New environments challenge me to learn to adapt overcome obstacles. This makes me feel alive. It represents my core values: education, relationships, freedom, and adventure. Moving to Las Vegas was not only a financial decision but a personal one. By growing personally, my business grows with me. Becoming a better person means I can run a better business. A better business means people are better serviced, more people are reached, lives are changed, and we are alleviating some of the suffering in the world through our actions.
I believe getting out of our comfort zone is the best way to grow. Surrounding ourselves with people that think differently and challenge ourselves also help us to grow. It was the same reason I chose a college thousands of miles away because there was more new experiences to gain by moving away. It also helps create more of a sense of independence.
Likewise, moving to Las Vegas keeps me from being complacent and challenging the status quo. I was extremely comfortable living in Hawaii. At age 29, I was too young to take it easy after 7 years of business I wanted something more.
Moving to Las Vegas helped me grow with new challenges and more resources
- Moving is a new challenge
- Starting a new business market is a new challenge
- Las Vegas and nearby cities have higher caliber of network marketing leaders and professionals I can learn from
- Las Vegas and nearby cities have more resources and educational opportunities than Honolulu for network marketing professionals
If I wanted to grow, I needed to move. It didn’t have to be Las Vegas, but it is one of the best cities for network marketers.
Las Vegas is home to Eric Worre and Network Marketing Pro events. Here I can connect with other network marketing leaders that are are 6 and 7-figure earners. They built their business differently from most of the top networkers I knew in Hawaii. They built bigger businesses, in more places, utilized advance strategies, developed more skills. All of that intrigued me. I had to move closer to all the action than Hawaii. People move to Nashville for music, Los Angeles for film, and Silicon Valley for tech. For me as a network marketing professional, I moved out of the reason for similar reasons.
In order to be better, you have to surround yourself with the better people. In order to be the best, you have to surround yourself with the best. In order to develop more skills, you have to find people that have more skills. As I grew, it was difficult finding other successful network marketers in Hawaii that could help me grow. I realized, in order to grow, it meant moving out of Hawaii.
Taxes
The beauty of network marketing is that it is location independent. If you’re in business, it’s best to consult with a tax strategist. Nevada, like several other states have no state income tax. Hawaii on the other hand has the second highest tax burden behind New York, according to Wallet Hub. Hawaii is the only state that has a “General Excise Tax” which looks like a Sales Tax to the average person, but is fundamentally different. Hawaii’s GE Tax is the tax levied on most business activity than Hawaii. It’s calculated on gross income, not on net profit. In Hawaii, service providers like real estate agents, accountants, and lawyers pay a general excise tax of approximately 4.2% on their earnings in addition to state income tax. The GE Tax is applied in a way that it wasn’t originally intended as it was created in the early 1900s, when Hawaii’s economy was based on agriculture and farming, decades before Hawaii even became a state. While I believe that taxes are important to fund essential services, the way the GE tax is structured makes it unfriendly towards businesses. While some people choose to incorporate their business elsewhere without moving, I decided to make Nevada my domicile state.
While there are several choices for states without income tax, I chose Nevada because of Las Vegas strategic location although Texas was also on our radar. Some of our network marketing colleagues have moved to Florida, Texas, and Tennessee in recent years because of tax law and other policies and legislation.T he bottom line is reducing tax liability not only puts more money in my pocket and improve my lifestyle, it frees up more capital to grow my network marketing business.
Lifestyle and Cost of Living
When Cassy and I decided to move to Las Vegas, we weren’t only looking for the right place for our business, we were looking for the right place to live as well.
The major factors we looked at was lifestyle and cost of living. Like lowering tax liability, a lower cost of living frees up more capital for my network marketing business. With a lower cost of living, you can either reduce expenses, improve lifestyle, or both. Honolulu is the third most expensive US city to live in behind San Fransisco and New York City. If you can make the same amount our more, moving almost anywhere outside of Honolulu is an automatic pay raise. So there are a lot of options.
Southern California is a major market for us and is a strategic location that is better for our network marketing business than Hawaii. It is actually a better location to travel from and do business than Las Vegas.
However looking at other factors like Tax, Cost of Living, and Lifestyle (government policies), Las Vegas offers more benefits without sacrificing the California market. It takes us 3.5 hours to drive to Disneyland from our home, which means we can commute to California if needed.
While living in Las Vegas is a lot different than living in Hawaii, Las Vegas is a city that suits our lifestyle. I write about this in my article about why we love living in Las Vegas.
