In 2007, Marla Bainbridge Martinez went on a trip that modified her life.
She visited Isla Mujeres, a five-mile-long Mexican island off the coast of Cancun, and fell in love with it. She returned for normal visits, assembly different Individuals who had moved there, and began pondering: “They get to dwell there. Why not me?” The reply was work — she was a advisor at a know-how agency, and could not simply stop and transfer to an island.
To make this massive change in her life, she wanted a plan. So she wrote one: She referred to as it The Escape Plan — “my detailed, step-by-step plan on how I’d stop my job and transfer to a Caribbean island,” she says.
At the moment that plan is full. She operates a enterprise referred to as OIE On Isla Experiences, which is an umbrella for a number of revenue streams that drive almost $300,000 in annual income. She books trip leases, presents concierge companies for vacationers, supplies a personal chef for folks in trip leases, operates a small cantina, makes island-related merchandise, and designs web sites for native householders.
(Full disclosure: I met Bainbridge inside SPI, a group for enterprise house owners the place many consultants, together with me, provide recommendation and mentorship. Should you’re , I am co-hosting a free occasion on November 29.)
So, what was in that Escape Plan? Right here, she breaks it down.
Writing The Escape Plan
Bainbridge has a background in training and curriculum growth — which is to say, she is aware of the right way to plan. “I began with the top in thoughts and labored backwards,” she says. “I mapped it out by month with month-to-month milestone-like targets.”
In a Google Doc, she outlined the three classes that mattered most:
1. Monetary. She took inventory of what she has, what she owes, and how much funds she’d have to dwell on. She referred to as it “Operation Debt Discount.”
2. Community. She listed out her most vital contacts, together with how they may assist her throughout this second of transition. Did any of them have work she may decide up, for instance? “I used to be capable of decide up facet hustles till I may get my finger on the heart beat of what was wanted on the island,” she says.
3. Motion: She listed the actions required to stop her job and transfer to an island. That included promoting her home, her automobile, lots of her belongings, placing different issues in storage, and so forth. “Every motion was a stepping stone in the direction of reaching the objective,” she says.
What Occurs After ‘The Escape’
Bainbridge needed to flee — however in fact, her plan needed to prolong past that. As soon as she moved to the island in 2010, she wanted to earn a residing there. However how?
Throughout her first yr on Isla Mujeres, she regarded round for issues to unravel. “There was a necessity for advertising and marketing native companies to assist them keep aggressive,” she says. “I started filling that want, constructing web sites for companies and enhancing their on-line presence on the web and social media.”
That work led to new connections and alternatives. For instance, she began constructing web sites for individuals who personal trip property leases. One shopper wanted extra assist — not simply in constructing a web site, however in driving enterprise to it. Bainbridge stepped up and finally took over the location, which she’s grown from 10 to 100 trip rental listings.
At every step, she’d repeat her course of: She’d do good work, then discover what different wants folks had. That helped her enter adjoining areas, such because the concierge and personal chef companies for vacationers.
Her Island Life At the moment
Bainbridge has been residing her Caribbean dream since 2010, and now loves serving to entrepreneurs escape to their very own fantasies. She says the foundations are easy: If you wish to construct a life you like, you could plan for it, draw help out of your group, and take actual motion.
“My story will not be solely about my journey,” she says. “It is an invite for different entrepreneurs to embark on an analogous path towards being courageous to take dangers, obtain development and refocus to construct the dwell they need to dwell as an alternative of 1 that they stumbled onto. It is being intentional and targeted about that journey.”
Bainbridge additionally credit “a good portion” of her success to SPI, the net enterprise group that we’re in. If you would like to study extra, I am co-hosting a free webinar about 2024 goal-setting on Nov 27 — you may join right here.
