15 businesses you can run even from Bali: what the start costs and what they bring after a year

A month of living in Bali for one person costs, according to 2026 nomad budgets, roughly €760 to €1,200 in Ubud or Uluwatu and €1,400 to €2,200 in Canggu. Nomad List counts on €2,900. So the question isn't whether you can live in Bali off a laptop, but off what. And one more thing course sellers don't mention: in seven months of 2025, Indonesia deported 2,669 foreigners, most often for working on a tourist visa.

We took 15 full-time businesses, no side hustles, and for each one we pulled the start-up capital, income after the first year, time zone, first customer and the trap from price lists, laws and statistics. The monthly amounts are calculations, we treat them as estimates. The ranking goes from worst to best, and in the second half come businesses where Bali is an outright advantage. Most of the figures are Czech examples converted at 25 CZK = 1 EUR, so adjust them to your own market.

The ranking in a nutshell

Places 15 to 11: laptop work you can turn into a company

Bookkeeping for Airbnb and Booking hosts rests on one fact: since 2023, the platforms have reported hosts' income to the tax office every year by the end of January. A host needs a VAT identification, the right tax category (accommodation is a business, not a rental) and the tourist tax paid. In Czechia, accountants advertise bookkeeping at €40 to €100 a month, so 30 hosts are around €2,000. The routine, Airbnb statements and matching with the bank, is handled by AI. The catch in Czechia: the trade is regulated, you need a degree and 3 to 5 years of practice or a certified partner, and tax advice is reserved for licensed advisers, so check the rules in your country. That's the difference from tax advisory for Airbnb hosts.

3D visualisation for developers: in 2025 a record 7,800 new flats were sold in Prague, and every one of them was sold from a picture before it was built. Foreign studios charge Czech clients roughly €160 to €1,000 per image, ten images a month is over €4,000 in revenue. With free Blender the start costs €2,000 to €2,800 including the machine, with paid software €4,000 to €6,000. The Brno studio FlyingArchitecture delivers this way even to Zaha Hadid's office.

IT recruiting on commission pays 15 to 20 % of the placed candidate's annual salary; for a developer with an average Czech salary of around €3,060 a month that's €5,200 to €7,400 per placement. On the biggest Czech job board, over 1,000 developer vacancies hang in a single category. Careful, in Czechia this is not a simple trade licence: recruitment needs a labour office permit, a school diploma, 5 years of practice and a delivery address in the country. For Bali it's the worst item: candidates call after work, which is around Bali midnight. A similar but calmer model is a remote HR assistant.

Online academy: the Czech platform Herohero has 400,000 paying subscribers and 7,000 creators, people pay for content. Membership costs €8 to €24 a month, a course €80 to €600. The platform Kajabi reports that its six-figure creator has on average 4,000 e-mails and 309 customers. The biggest mistake is spending half a year filming a course nobody ordered; a pre-sale is market research that pays you. You'll find two models in an online course library and a challenge subscription.

A web and e-shop studio has plenty of customers in Czechia: 48,491 e-shops run on Shoptet and the 100 biggest shops have 93.8 % of the turnover, the remaining roughly 49,600 share 6.2 %. A company website is advertised at €200 to €1,800, an e-shop including setup at an estimated €1,200 to €6,000. The number of revisions and pages belongs in the contract; two thirds of freelancers have done unpaid extra work on their last job. The ideas websites without writing code and website audits for small businesses make a good entry product.

Before you fly: the visa, 183 days and health insurance

On a tourist visa you may not work for anyone Indonesian in Indonesia. For remote workers Indonesia has the E33G visa: a year of stay, documented income of at least 60,000 USD a year from a company outside Indonesia, fees around €720 and a ban on earning in Indonesia. How a sole trader meets the employment contract condition, check with a lawyer. Working on the spot, meaning weddings, retreats or factory inspections, means an Indonesian company and a work permit. Since October 2025 a foreign company needs an investment plan above 10 billion rupiah and paid-up capital of 2.5 billion rupiah, about €132,000.

183 days make you a tax resident both at home and in Indonesia. Whoever keeps a flat at home and returns stays a resident there; whoever spends more than half a year in Bali also deals with Indonesian taxes at 5 to 35 %. Double taxation is handled by your country's treaty with Indonesia (the Czech one is from 1996). For stays over 6 months, check the rules of your public health insurance: in Czechia you can deregister by proving insurance abroad and handing in your card, otherwise you keep paying the minimum of about €130 a month. The time difference is 6 to 7 hours, a European morning of 9 to 13 is 15 to 19 in Bali. Whoever needs European evenings works nights in Bali.

Places 10 to 7: businesses where Bali is an advantage

A sourcing agent and quality control in Asia is the only item where Bali wins geographically: China is in the same time zone, Vietnam and Java one hour behind. Inspection companies charge 268 to 419 dollars for a day in a factory, an agent takes 5 to 10 % of the order and €400 to €1,600 for finding a supplier. In 2024 Indonesia exported furniture and crafts worth 2.6 billion dollars. The biggest trap is a hidden commission from the factory, which is normal in the trade, so a transparent commission in the contract is your main selling point.

Exporting furniture from Bali benefits from zero EU duty on wooden furniture, rattan carries 0 to 5.6 %. A forty-foot container to Hamburg costs an estimated €2,400 to €4,800 and travels five weeks via Surabaya. The start-up cost is the highest in the whole ranking, €28,000 to €48,000 for the first container; a shared container brings the start down to €6,000 to €12,000. From the end of 2026 the deforestation regulation applies, you need the geolocation of the plot for the wood. And buy only teak dried to 8 to 12 % moisture, otherwise it cracks in a heated European flat.

Bali retreats for people from home: the island had almost 7 million foreign arrivals in 2025, the biggest Czech travel site lists 49 Bali packages for €1,000 to €2,900 and a foreign yoga week costs €1,400 to €3,000 without the flight. Twelve people at €1,800 give €21,600 in revenue and roughly €8,600 in margin. But accommodation plus programme is legally a package tour, which only a licensed tour operator with insolvency insurance may sell; in Czechia the fine goes up to €40,000. Without a licence you sell through a partner agency. We did not find a Czech retreat with a price list in local currency, that's a gap.

Selling on Amazon in Europe: 225,000 European small businesses sell on Amazon, a fifth more than a year ago. One product at €25 and 400 units a month gives €10,000 in revenue; Amazon takes the commission, storage and advertising, an estimated 30 to 45 % together. Around €3,000 remains, and the first half year you're in the red. A warehouse in Germany means German VAT and every product needs a responsible person in the EU.

Places 6 to 4: the highest ceiling

Your own subscription software is the only item where it's honest to state the distribution instead of the average: of 970 solo products with verified revenue, 80.9 % earn under 500 dollars a month, and solo founders reach 10,000 dollars a month half as often as teams. Pieter Levels makes, by his own numbers, around 3 million dollars a year alone, after 70 failed attempts. The start is €0 to €800 plus 6 to 12 months without income.

An IT contractor for foreign companies has the highest reliable income: the median German IT freelancer makes €95 an hour, a Czech contractor at home gets around €44. 120 billable hours at €70 is €8,400 a month. A developer from Sloneek worked half a year from Bali and Vietnam; he and the company agreed on 5 to 6 shared hours a day. It's not number one, because you're selling hours.

AI automation and agents for companies on a retainer: according to the Czech Statistical Office, 18 % of Czech companies with 10 or more employees use artificial intelligence, so 82 % is the market. Setting up one process costs an estimated €400 to €1,600, the retainer €200 to €1,000 a month per company. Make, the tool you'll build it on, was born in Prague as Integromat. A retainer sticks only to a process the company can't invoice without. You'll find three forms in the ideas automation with Zapier, AI consultant on a retainer and AI chatbots and agents.

Third to first

Bali weddings for couples from home: the 122 members of the Bali wedding association handle 2,500 to 3,000 weddings a year, and Bali is Asia's most popular wedding destination. A wedding for 40 to 60 guests without flights costs €10,000 to €28,000, a wedding at home in a countryside venue comes to about the same. The coordinator takes 10 to 15 %, that is €1,600 to €4,000 per wedding. Without your own company you sell and coordinate from home and a licensed Balinese organiser delivers on site. A marriage in Indonesia is valid only with both religious and civil formalities, which is why most couples marry at home and hold the ceremony in Bali.

A performance agency for e-shops: online advertising in Czechia reached €2.8 billion in 2025, up 10.6 % year on year. Managing ads for a small e-shop is advertised at €120 to €560 a month; 12 e-shops and two bigger clients give around €6,000 in revenue. The trap: if you pay the ads from your own company, you become liable for VAT on the platforms' invoices, so let the client pay the budgets. And don't take just a percentage of the budget, the agency then earns more even when conversions fall. The entry version is ad management for one platform.

Number one is a subscription service. The model is Designjoy: one designer with no employees, the client pays 4,995 dollars a month, submits requests to a queue, one at a time, delivery within 48 hours, no calls or meetings, pause or cancel anytime, and according to the founder over a million dollars a year. Six clients at €1,600 is €9,600 a month, the start €200 to €800. In Czechia nobody we found does this publicly. The mistake: promising unlimited without the limit of one request at a time; even with the limit the founder burned out after five years.

Bonus: podcast production as a complete service

In 2024 Czechia had 1,577 active podcasts, in 2025 over 200,000 new episodes were released and 4.8 million people listen to podcasts every month. Editing costs an estimated €60 to €160 per episode, the complete service with editing, clips, guests and distribution €600 to €2,400 a month per show. You don't need a studio, guests record remotely. We have the pieces of the puzzle as separate ideas: podcast editing and mastering, clips for social media and guest booking.

The takeaway

After a year, all 15 businesses pay for a month in Bali; at the start only the contractor, the agency, automation and the subscription do. Software, the academy, Amazon and number one get by without European working hours; recruiting, retreats and weddings mean Bali nights. And three things before you fly: the visa, 183 days and health insurance.

This is only 15 items. We have over 140 online businesses alone in the database, and next to them over 1,200 more ideas, tools and proven franchises. Browse the catalogue of ideas on inodemy or more articles on the blog.