Cross-Border Business Advisor for European Professionals
ABOUT
Maria.
Cross-Border Business Advisor · Founder · Expat & Nomad
THE HONEST INTRODUCTION
I didn't plan this life. I built it, One border at a time.
I moved to London with 1.500€, no contacts, and no job lined up. I didn’t speak English and had a clear sense of what I wanted, even if I had no idea yet how to get there.
That was the first time I started from zero in a new country. Little did I know that it was only the beginning. And somewhere between rebuilding my life in London, falling for Cape Town, and eventually anchoring in Estonia, I realised I had quietly built something repeatable.
Not luck, a structure. One that worked and kept working every time life changed.
That structure is what I teach today.
16 years
YEARS ACROSS BORDERS
4
INTERNATIONAL VENTURES
3+
CONTINENTS, BUILT ON
THE STORY BEHIND THE WORK
chapter one
London. 1.500€. Zero contacts.
I knew early on that Germany was only the beginning. I wanted to learn proper English, not classroom English, real English and I wanted to work with the best people in the industry. The only way to do that was to go where they were.
So I packed up and moved to London with almost nothing. No safety net, no plan B. Just a clear direction and the willingness to figure the rest out.
“Eighteen months later, I was fluent, fully booked, and being offered opportunities I hadn't imagined when I arrived.”
One of those opportunities took me to Cape Town. I wasn't supposed to fall in love with it. I did anyway.
chapter two
Cape Town changed everything.
When I arrived in Cape Town, I didn't know I was about to build the framework I'd spend the next decade refining. I just knew I wanted to stay and that staying required structure.
So I did what I'd later recognise as the Location-Independent Blueprint in practice: I connected with the right people, organised my legal and business setup, and was living and working between London and Cape Town before most people I knew had even considered something like it was possible.
“I repeated similar setups in Germany, Mallorca, and Estonia. Each time, the same structural questions appeared. Each time, I got better at answering them.”
By the time COVID hit, I had been living this way for over a decade. While others scrambled, my setup barely needed adjusting. That's not luck, that's what structure does.
chapter three
The pattern became a blueprint.
After years of relocating businesses across countries, navigating different tax systems, banking environments, registration processes, and compliance requirements, I started noticing something.
The same questions appeared every time. Tax residency, company setup, banking access, compliance, healthcare, mobility. The details differed. The structure did not.
That pattern became the Location-Independent Blueprint™ — a repeatable framework for building a business that moves across borders without creating financial or legal chaos. Not theory. Sixteen years of lived, tested, refined practice.
THE PATH SO FAR
GERMANY: Where it started
Freelancing, building, knowing it was only the beginning.
FIRST LEAP: 1.500€ and a direction
Zero contacts. Fully booked within 18 months.
CAPE TOWN: The city that changed everything
Second international business structure built from scratch.
MALLORCA & CÁDIZ: Rebuilding, again intentionally
Refining the blueprint through repetition.
ESTONIA: Current base — Ethosun OÜ founded
Business restructured, location-independent by design.
NOMAD: Mexico · Caribbean · Indonesia · Vietnam · Thailand · Spain · Montenegro · and counting
The blueprint proven across every timezone.
“If my husband walked in tomorrow with a job offer in Peru, I wouldn't panic. I'd make a few calls, restructure what needs restructuring, and move within weeks. That's not luck, it's structure.
ONE OF THOSE VENTURES BECAME SOMETHING BIGGER
Building a brand from 5.000€ to six figures.
One of the most significant chapters of my business life was green planet COSMETICS® — a luxury holistic skincare brand I built entirely from scratch, self-funded, across international markets.
Within two years it scaled from 5.000€ in early sales to over 150.000€ in annual revenue. It ranked number one in its Amazon category for several consecutive years.
“But the real education wasn't the revenue. It was learning how international systems actually work: Marketplace regulations, cross-border logistics, compliance, financial reinvestment across multiple countries at once.”
Building something once can be luck. Building internationally, repeatedly, teaches pattern recognition. That's the experience I bring to every client I work with today.
#1
Amazon category ranking for several consecutive years.
4
International ventures founded, not experiments. Real businesses with real revenue.
150k€+
Annual revenue within two years, fully self-funded.
16
International ventures founded, not experiments. Real Years of cross-border business, as both expat and digital nomad
HOW I WORK
I sit between the experts.
That's the point.
I'm not a licensed accountant, I'm not a lawyer. And I don't replace either. What I do is sit between them and translate structure into lived reality.
Most professionals operating across borders work with multiple advisors who each understand one piece of the picture. An accountant in one country. A lawyer in another. A banking contact somewhere else. Nobody is standing in the middle, holding it all together, watching how the pieces interact.
That's where the expensive problems live. And it's exactly where I step in.
I help you identify blind spots early, ask better questions before decisions are made, and connect the dots between advisors who have never spoken to each other. Not because I researched it once, because I've navigated it personally, across multiple countries, for sixteen years.
Over time I've also built a trusted international network of professionals I personally trust and recommend. So you're not spending years testing the wrong people.
WHEN THE BANK SAYS NOW
I know what to do next. Which alternatives actually work, which don't, and how to position your application differently the second time.
WHEN TWO ADVISORS CONTRADICT EACH OTHER
I recognise where the misalignment sits (usually because one is applying domestic logic to an international structure).
WHEN A LETTER ARRIVES YOU DIDN’T EXPECT
I understand the mechanics behind it. What it means, what it doesn't mean, and what the right next step actually is. Although, the goal is to avoid these.
WHEN YOU’RE ABOUT TO MAKE A BIG DECISION
I help you stress-test it before it's made, not fix it after. Prevention consistently costs less than correction.
WHY STRUCTURE AND WELLBEING ARE CONNECTED
Unstable structures create chronic stress. That's not an opinion, It's physiology.
Alongside my background in business and accounting, I also trained in herbology and phytotherapy. Re-connecting with my body taught me something that crossed over into everything else I do.
When a business structure is fragile, when compliance is unclear, tax residency is uncertain, and banking could fall apart at any moment, the body registers that as a threat. And long-term quiet stress has a very predictable outcome.
"Freedom that constantly triggers anxiety isn't freedom. And it's not sustainable."
The structures I build are designed to give flexibility without fragility. Not just because it's better business. Because your health is your most important asset and it deserves to be treated as one.
THE 30 MINUTE PERSONAL RECALIBRATION
Every strategy session includes a focused conversation about the human side of what you're navigating: Energy, pressure, lifestyle alignment. Because business decisions rarely exist in isolation.
LIFESTYLE AND WELLBEING SEGMENT
A dedicated segment covering the routines, practices, and real-life tools that keep you grounded and well while your life stays in motion. Coming soon — waitlist open. Already fully open to my one:one cross-border clients.
HERBOLOGY & PHYTOTHERAPY BACKGROUND
A second discipline that informs how I understand the whole person, not just the business. The body and the business are not separate systems.
WHO I WORK WITH
European professionals who are done guessing and ready to build it properly.
I work with people who already generate income and now want location flexibility, built on a structure that actually holds up. Here's what they tend to have in common.
They value lived experience over theory. They know the difference between someone who has navigated this personally and someone who has researched it.
They understand that prevention costs less than correction. They'd rather invest in getting it right the first time than spend twice as much fixing it later.
They want clarity and structure without losing flexibility, creativity, or the ability to change direction when life does.
They educate themselves but understand that YouTube summaries aren't structural strategy. At some point, you need someone who actually knows.
They're not trying to escape their lives. They're building options and the freedom to choose, not the need to run.
They are ready to take responsibility for their decisions and want to make those decisions from a position of genuine understanding, not guesswork.
BEYOND THE SERVICE PAGE
Maria Unleashed
the Podcast
Some things don't fit neatly into a strategy session or a service description. The grey areas, the silent risks, the decisions that don't have a clean answer. The moments where everything worked and the ones where it didn't, and what I learned from both.
This is where I talk about the unfiltered reality of designing a life and business that moves across borders. Not the highlight reel but the honest version.
If you want to understand how I think before we work together this is the best place to start.
WHAT WORKING WITH ME IS LIKE
"It was a real pleasure to work with a seasoned professional who communicates clearly, and most importantly, genuinely cares about her work and the people she interacts with. Not many people combine these strengths and qualities. I left our session with clarity I hadn't expected to find so quickly and the confidence to move forward."
— Benjamin, Cross-Border Strategy
Feel like you've finally found the right fit?
If what you've read here resonates, the directness, the lived experience, the combination of structural expertise and genuine human interest in the people I work with, then we're probably a good match. Let's find out.