Aussies feel free to find success in Bali

Last year, more than 1 million Aussies visited Bali, but for many of them, it wasn’t the first time. With year-round hot weather, friendly locals and stunning landscapes, the island has a way of getting under your skin. For some, the pull is so strong they make it their home. But how do expats make a living in Bali when wages are so low? Working online is one solution, though it’s not for everyone. Some believe starting a small business is the way to go. In today’s paper, we speak with three Australian business owners in Bali to see how they made it happen.

THE BEAUTICIAN

For nearly a decade, Anna Kosic worked as a psychiatrist and social worker in Australia, helping people suffering from severe mental health conditions. She had a rewarding but taxing and stressful career. Today she lives in Bali, is the mother of a healthy three-year-old, and runs Beam and Bare, a beauty salon in Bali.

“We do laser hair removal, facials and body sculpting,” she says. “We have five-star reviews. Business is booming.”

Anna first came to Bali in 2015 after being inspired by a magazine story about a Balinese artist. It didn’t take her long to fall in love with the island, and two years and several more visits later, she quit her job and moved to Bali for good.

“I did not have a plan. I knew I wouldn’t be able to work in mental health in Indonesia so I just took a leap of faith,” she says of the move. “At first I looked at what other expats were doing to establish themselves here. I wanted to enter the beauty industry but didn’t know how to go about it. I worked online, I worked in marketing, and I taught English. I consulted for other people’s businesses, I worked at a horse stable with kids, and I also worked in a few beauty salons where I learnt how to do laser hair removal. Last September, I opened my own.”

The journey hasn’t been easy.

“I had to start my life from scratch. It took me many years to get established and I still don’t find it easy doing business in Bali,” Anna says. ”It’s challenging to find qualified staff here and even more challenging retaining them, and there’s a lot of competition in niche industries like mine.”

Most expats living in Bali do not speak Bahasa Indonesia. With so many tourists on the island, English is widely understood. But if you want to run a business in Bali, you need to learn it, Anna believes.

“My parents immigrated to Australia, they learnt English, they assimilated, and I’m trying to do the same thing here,” she says.

“I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to create a business and earn a living in Bali, so I learned Bahasa to show my respect to the locals.”

The best thing about living on the Island of the Gods? “Freedom,” she says. “Not having to live under the yoke of nine-to-five. I don’t have the same old boring routines here as I did back home where everyone works, does the shopping, does all the cleaning, and the weekend is your only freedom. I work a lot of hours here, that’s for sure, but there’s much more flexibility. Things are far less rigid than they are in Australia.”