Meet Nic & Tamz Liu | Digital Nomads | Entrepreneurs | Vloggers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nic & Tamz Liu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nic & Tamz, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
This might sound a bit cliche but my husband (Nic) and I really just wanted to own our own life. We were tired of waking up early, sitting in traffic, sitting in pointless meetings all day, to only repeat that process again and again.

By looking at our boss and our boss’s boss, we quickly realized that corporate life would never give us the life that we wanted. Of course, our seniors were getting paid much more than us but the question is, at what cost? They were more stressed, more unhealthy, had less time, and were more unhappy.

Unfortunately, we were not willing to give up our time, health, and most importantly our happiness to climb up the corporate ladder. This is what led us to start our own business.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Our business focuses on assisting small to medium-sized businesses/entrepreneurs with video editing, web development, virtual assistance, graphics design, content creation, and social media management.

What we are most proud of is that we started this business with zero capital. We both had two 10-year-old MacBooks lying around the house and we used that to get started. They were definitely super slow and would freeze quite often but we understood that getting better tech/equipment won’t make the difference between success or failure.

This journey looking back was definitely not easy, but we wouldn’t say it was extremely difficult either. Since we had zero experience in any of the services we currently offer, there was quite a steep learning curve for us at the start.

10 lessons we have learned so far along our journey:

1. Always say ‘yes’ to every opportunity that comes your way at the start because every opportunity affords you the chance to grow.

2. Always have a positive mindset.

Nic always tells me ‘everything happens for a Good reason’, even if it seems negative at the time. As Steve Jobs famously said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future”

When we look back now, we can clearly see that every opportunity, obstacle, and failure that we faced always happened for a Good Reason.

3. The difference between success and failure is not due to something you lack at the start of your journey (tech, knowledge, etc.).

Tech/knowledge allows you to scale your business faster but your desire to ‘Live.Different’ and achieve your goal is ultimately what we believe makes an entrepreneur successful.

‘Just get started’ as we tell people that want to start their own business.

4. Be humble.

When we first started, we started out as virtual assistants. For many that we spoke to in the professional industry, being a VA didn’t quite fit their image of success. What they don’t realize is that being a VA opens up a whole host of opportunities. What do we mean? Business is all about trust, when people trust you they are more willing to do business with you. Being a VA allowed us to build trust with our clients, which ultimately led us to assist them with video editing, web development, etc.

5. Be willing to start small to learn.

We were willing to charge way below what we currently charge when we first started in order to get our foot in the door. Our primary focus was to learn how this whole industry works and if we got paid that would be a BONUS.

6. Measure your success based on your level of Happiness.

This is an important metric, as it guides us on who we take on as clients and what projects we choose to work on. This level of freedom to choose who we take on is why we love our business and clients so much.

7. Invest in yourself

Having a growth mindset for yourself is always important to continue to serve your existing and new clients at a higher level.

8. Invest in your business after you have established proof of concept

As mentioned previously, we started with super slow laptops. Once our business started making more money and we had proof of concept that this business had the potential to scale. We decided to upgrade our laptops, invest in software, etc. This allowed us to increase our productivity and our cashflow.

9. Go the extra mile even when it costs you more

Our goal is always to make sure our clients are HAPPY with the end result. This has served us well as there is nothing better than having happy clients that refer us to others in their network.

10. Don’t treat your lower-paying clients differently from your higher-paying clients.

What Nic always tells me is that it doesn’t matter how small a client is paying us, we need to treat them all the same. Looking back, we are super glad that we adopted this mindset from the start as some of our smallest clients are now our largest clients.

We hope that our story is able to inspire others to take the leap to Live.Different and to Choose Happiness as their success metric.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Johannesburg is South Africa’s largest metropolis and is brimming with hidden gems.  It has a wide variety of cultural institutions, recreational venues, and public green spaces.  In addition, it serves as a convenient starting point for a wide range of exciting excursions, from safaris and rafting to roller coasters.

Some of my favorite places to go:
– Enjoy some wild rides at Gold Reef City Theme Park
– See some wildlife at the Lion and Rhino Park or take a day trip to Pilanesberg National Park
– Drive out to Sun City for a day of fun at Valley of the waves
– Visit Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens for some greenery, waterfalls, and a good old-fashioned picnic.
– Hike at Groenkloof Nature Reserve
– Go rafting on the Vaal river

My favorite places to eat:
– Fourways Farmer’s Market
– The Neighbourgoods Market
– Ghazal (Indian)
– Japa (Japanese)
– Shun De (Chinese)
– Flames (Western)
– Iris Gardens (Cakes)
– Have a braai (Local barbecue)

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We want to send a shout-out to our friends and family for supporting us along this journey.

Here are a couple of books that helped shape our entrepreneurial thinking:

– The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
– The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson
– Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
– The Magic Of Thinking Big by David Schwartz
– The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris

Website: Nicandtamz.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicandtamz/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamryn-liu-0111a57a/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicandtamz

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_55YAEbCr4FqY9CBEsTUeg?sub_confirmation=1