When Fernando Raymond completed his MSc. in International Business Master’s Degree at the University of Worcester in 2011 he had big plans and big business in mind. However, he ended up dishing out fast food at McDonald’s. Finding a suitable role was not so easy after all and especially as a Sri Lankan in Great Britain, Fernando encountered challenges in the UK job market.
Instead of giving up and returning to Sri Lanka, Fernando was determined to make it in the Kingdom and invested all his time and effort in learning WordPress, SEO and digital marketing skills. And that marked the beginning of his digital entrepreneurship journey.
Inspiration & Motivation to Start an Online Business
Fernando always knew he wanted to be his own boss but was not sure how he could turn it into a reality. While he jobbed at fast food restaurant McDonald’s, he started blogging about SEO which eventually enabled him to offer SEO services to local London businesses who found him on search engines.
He discovered that SEO was a desired and in-demand skill and read many home business success stories in magazines, books about digital entrepreneurship and exiting the rat race like “The 4-Hour Work Week” and was inspired by the digital nomad lifestyle.
He saw the potential of the internet market and as more SEO and WordPress training enquiries flooded in, he decided to establish his own SEO agency ClickDo Ltd. in 2013. Initially, it was a one-man show, but as his client base grew so did his team. In 2021 ClickDo Ltd. employs 14 members of staff and Fernando now lives a self-governed and free life, managing his business operations remotely, just as he had always dreamed.
Starting & Financing a Home Business
Fernando invested a few Pounds in setting up his Fernando Biz Blog to buy the domain and get web hosting. Once he had acquired a few clients through his blog and had regular SEO fees coming, he used these to set up his first SEO agency website for ClickDo Ltd. He had fortunately met fellow Sri Lankan Kasun Sameera who jobbed at Tesco at the time and learned web design and development skills. Together they built the business websites for clients and the agency grew, offering services beyond SEO such as web design, guest posting services and social media marketing.
As ClickDo grew, Fernando’s clients enquired more about web hosting for the business websites ClickDo managed. He realised that he could connect web design and WordPress training with web hosting and invested the revenue from ClickDo in building the web hosting company SeekaHost Ltd. in 2018. He has never applied for government loans or other types of funding like crowdfunding and has grown both home businesses by living a frugal lifestyle and using all the savings and returns to expand both companies.
Best Home Business Achievements so far
Fernando and the ClickDo Team are immensely proud of having helped hundreds of business owners grow their businesses online, increasing their revenue and exposure while building their brands. See the ClickDo Case Studies page for reference or check the ClickDo Google Business reviews.
Fernando and the SeekaHost Team are on a mission to help 100 million people get online by providing high-quality web hosting for a very affordable price while offering solutions that help every business owner, freelancer, or private person to start a website, blog or online business. This commitment has led to SeekaHost offering various types of web hosting such as PBN hosting and Minecraft server hosting. On top of that, the team have created the SeekaHost University eLearning platform with digital marketing courses and tutorials so that everyone can learn the skills to get online.
And last but not least, the SeekaHost team have been drawing up the first ever WordPress blog hosting control panel enabling anyone to host a domain and get online with a WordPress blog in less than 60 seconds.
This innovative blog hosting services solution will enable beginners as well as experienced bloggers to set up a website in no time and track their website data with one click in the control panel to manage the website’s performance with analytics tools all in one place.
You can watch Fernando’s explainer video on the SeekaHost YouTube Channel:
Working Remotely – The Advantages
Fernando is a strong advocate of the laptop and digital nomad lifestyle and loves the freedom of working remotely. His ClickDo and SeekaHost teams all work from home and he has been managing his teams remotely for the last 7 years. He feels that remote workers are more efficient, enjoy more freedom and flexibility, have a better life/work balance, and have fewer expenses such as travel cost etc.
Fernando practices yoga and meditation daily as you can see on his social media profiles. He is convinced that working from home can lead to a healthier and more conscious life, if one is of course disciplined and implements good practices, which Fernando writes about as he tests techniques like grounding and digital minimalism.
The Future of the two Home Businesses
Fernando’s two home businesses are growing steadily. ClickDo Ltd. has been affected by the pandemic as some clients like rubbish removal companies have cut down on costs and expenses. But Fernando focuses on other business clients that are less affected like dental practices, accounting firms or law firms. ClickDo Ltd. already is an established household name in the digital marketing agency market in London and will be in the UK with around thousands of subscribers to its blogs and services in the near future. It will be relevant for people looking to work online, build home businesses and earn a living from online jobs. You can see some home business-related books ClickDoers have published on Amazon Kindle: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B086XJZVRB/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0.
SeekaHost Ltd. has seen increased demand during the pandemic, with more people buying web hosting and game hosting. The company is expanding into the Minecraft game hosting and WordPress web hosting market with an innovative blog hosting control panel unique in the industry. SeekaHost Ltd. will be a well-known web hosting brand with at least 1 million customers around the world and 100,000 enrolled students to SeekaHost University soon.
Fernando describes his mission with his businesses as follows:
“Many bloggers and SeekaHost University students I talk to encounter the same drawback: the technicality of setting up, managing, and running a blog or website, let alone several. Me and my team at ClickDo and SeekaHost have created many guides, tutorials, and support materials like online courses to help with this. I want to encourage people to get online, I want to provide technical solutions that make the whole process of setting up a business website and managing an online business as simple and affordable as possible.”
Fernando never looked back
Thinking back to the days when Fernando jobbed at McDonald’s, dealing with the struggles many people are probably now faced with, he feels that the internet has enabled him to make it as an entrepreneur in the United Kingdom. And he advises everyone to start learning the digital skills that are in growing demand as many more career opportunities arise in the world wide web.
Author bio:
Manuela Willbold – Online Media and PR strategist at ClickDo Ltd. and SeekaHost Ltd.
I am the editor in chief of various blogs and handle press releases and content writing. I have taken a summer course at the London School of Journalism, a one-day course at the City of London University in writing for the web and am myself a course instructor at the SeekaHost University where I teach SEO content writing.