Q: How can you afford to be on the road full time?

A: Dan has worked for himself since 2001. He’s kind of an idea guy so he’s always working on something. Although he has many irons in the fire, we’ll mention just a few of the more important ones that contribute to our income.

• We own a collectible manufacturing business called Great American Collectibles. We have a wood carving artist create folk art figurines for us every year. Then we take that original wood carving and replicate it in resin and the resulting figurine is then hand painted. Our line of Santas are called “Great American Old World Santas” and they have been an annual fixture in the collectible markets since 1988. There is a long story behind how we came to own that company but you can read that at the Great American website under the “About” link.  We have Old World Witches for Halloween, too. Great American does require Dan to fly back to the US every once in a while to do some prep work for the seasons. But the majority of the work is contracted out to friends and relatives.
• Like a lot of Dan’s ideas, MD Summary sprang out of Dan’s desire to be able to see our daily sales totals by just glancing at one page. So he built it as an online service for anyone that uses Authorize.net as their merchant processing company. It’s a nifty way to see an array of sales figures for online vendors by just glancing at a web page when they so desire.
• We sell bespoke email addresses at common names. Like @deb.me, @anne.me, @cindy.me, @campbell.me and even @Christian.me and @Baptist.me. Check out the list of names and see if yours is on it. You could be sporting a shiny new custom email address before the sun sets!
• Dan started a business opportunity blog at DanSherman.com, in the early 2000s. It was his way of sharing some of his ideas since there wasn’t enough time in the day for him to implement all of them. He figured if someone else had some time and motivation, they might benefit from the synergy. Even though he hasn’t updated it for a LONG time, the site still gets a TON of traffic and there are affiliate links sprinkled throughout that we continue to receive money for, month after month.
• Dan’s also part owner of a pharmaceutical supply company.
• There are others but you get the point. We have many fires going and the key ingredient to all of them are the fires can be tended from anywhere there is a relatively consistent internet connection.

Allison helps where needed with the businesses but her primary responsibility is President and CEO of ATDE (All Things Domestic and Educational).