Tired of the daily grind in our three-bed Surrey semi, we risked it all, bought a website for £30 a year, and now run a £1MILLION business from our home in Mauritius

Swimming with dolphins just ten minutes from their home in the tropical paradise of Mauritius is how Tom and Olivia Herron now like to start their working day.

It is a far cry from a couple of years ago when public relations consultant Tom would trudge upstairs to a cramped attic office room in their three-bed semi-detached home in Haslemere, Surrey.

One bleak morning, staring out the window at the rain, Tom, 42, had an epiphany.

He says: ‘A WhatsApp message showing a digitally enhanced image of my dad looking fatter than he really was, on a sofa with a beer in his hand, made us all laugh. But then we thought, if AI can create such a message for free, why can’t we use this technology to make personalised greetings in various fun or humorous settings that could be sent in the post? So we started a business.’

After sharing the image with his wife Olivia, also 42, and brother Spencer, 38, they took a huge leap of faith and decided to create a greeting cards business relying on the skills of artificial intelligence (AI).

Customers send in photos of family, friends or pets to be digitally enhanced to provide sentimental or humorous personalised cards, typically for events such as birthdays.

Tom adds: ‘Although none of us come from a computer background I was hungry to learn, using free AI tools such as Google Gemini to answer questions about how to go about creating cards. I got help creating images from websites such as Replicate and other AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Canva, to design different cards and generate templates that could be adapted for photos.’

They bought the website lookalikey.com for £30 a year. While the AI images could be created for free on a laptop, they spent £500 on a colour printer to turn the designs into cards to post out.

Tom and Olivia Herron with their three children in Mauritius

They are ten minutes from the local beaches in their new home on the Indian Ocean island

But within a month of launching, using social media to spread the word, they became overwhelmed with the printing and postage of a thousand cards from their home – and so outsourced it to a company in Guernsey. Although the cost of a card and postage is typically £4.49, at least £4 of this goes on production, postage and packaging and card marketing.

A key driving force to starting their tailor-made greetings cards business was that it might enable them to quit the rat race and work from abroad. Again, the couple turned to AI – to ask where they should live.

Tom says: ‘It came up with places such as Panama, Costa Rica and Malaysia, because they offered nomad visas and lower tax on incomes. But we eventually chose Mauritius because it was such an idyllic location.’

So, in January, Tom and Olivia, with their three children Max, 11, Finn, eight, and Eva, now six, having sold their £900,000 home, packed a single bag each and took a one-way flight to Mauritius, despite never visiting it before.

Four years earlier, in 2022, the couple had bought a run-down family home for £750,000. But after spending £150,000 on renovations over a couple of years, doing much of the exhausting work themselves, they were looking for a fresh start for the family without a mortgage, soaring energy bills and crippling high taxes.

Before they moved the couple were feeling they had little time to enjoy family life – with Tom working full-time just to pay the bills and full-time mum Olivia spending any spare time when not looking after the children doing up a property that was in desperate need of renovation.

Having escaped an exhausting and mundane routine that did not allow time for adventure, they still put in a full working day but now they have flexibility. Olivia says the more laid-back lifestyle and warmer weather of Mauritius leaves them freer to enjoy life.

Olivia often takes the children for a picnic on the beach after school – something she could never dream of doing before. Renting means they also no longer worry about the cost and time required to maintain a property.

In January the family packed a single bag each and took a one-way flight to Mauritius, despite never visiting it before

Tax rates are far less punitive in Mauritius than in the UK, meaning the Herrons can out aside at least half their income into stocks and shares tracker global funds

Tom says: ‘A key part of the business is it allows us to live wherever we want. We wanted to escape the treadmill of working in Britain – continually having to worry about how to pay the next bill. Having an affordable English-speaking international school was also a key factor in deciding to move here.’

Lookalikey is headquartered in Bolton – as this is where its accountant is based – and it pays UK corporation tax. This starts at 19 per cent on profits of less than £50,000 rising to 25 per cent if above £250,000.

The couple says their business is profitable but do not wish to share the figures, but they can sell 1,000 cards a day and enjoyed company revenue of £1million last year.

Olivia says: ‘The business grew far quicker than we expected, and last Christmas we were taking as much as £40,000 a day.’

As residents in Mauritius, they have free digital nomad visas – known as a Premium Visa. To get these you must prove you have a minimum income of $1,500 a month (about £1,132) per adult and $500 (£377) per child. So, for Tom and Olivia their income must be at least £40,740 a year.

When applying for a visa it is also necessary to provide proof of private health insurance cover, which costs them £2,400 a year.

Expats such as the Herron family – who live in Mauritius at least 183 days in the year – are deemed tax residents if their money is put in an island bank account.

But rather than pay the onerous income taxes of the UK, the rates are far less punitive – with no tax payable on the first Rs 500,000 Mauritian Rupee (about £7,968), 10 per cent on the next Rs 500,000 and anything above Rs 1,000,000 is charged at 20 per cent.

After day-to-day living costs the couple can afford to put aside at least half their income into stocks and shares tracker global funds and high-interest instant savings accounts. This money is salted away for emergencies and long-term retirement savings. They pay £5,000 a year for each of their children to attend a private school and rent a three-bedroom villa for £2,500 a month.

Energy costs are less than a quarter what they were in Britain. Despite a need for air conditioning, they no longer need to worry about heating. Going out can be more expensive than Britain if they opt for tourist restaurants – but the Herrons often go where the locals prefer to dine.

Tom says: ‘You soon adapt to the rhythm of the island. Grocery prices are not cheaper than in Britain, and the cost of living can be higher. But strolling along the beach or snorkelling around coral reefs costs nothing – and we constantly have to pinch ourselves at what a wonderful adventure we are now all living.’

Have you made big changes for a cheaper or easier lifestyle? money@mailonsunday.co.uk

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