Think about it, what would you do if you had no financial worries? You’d probably travel the world, right? Well it is more than possible for you to do that, and you would be surprised at how easy it is for you to make it all happen. If you are a digital nomad, then you can work entirely online and you can also work anywhere you have an internet connection. This is much more common than you’d think and the experience in general can be highly rewarding. There are some myths surrounding this however, and some of them can be found below.
It’s Unproductive
If you believe that travelling the world is hard to do while you are working, then you may be worried about your productivity slipping. You should note however that travelling does not make you less productive at all. In fact, a recent study has been done and they interviewed more than 3,700 remote workers. They found that more than a third of people came back to say that they had trouble disconnecting from work, and that travelling did not really impact how much they were able to get done in a day.
It’s Super Expensive
If someone was to tell you that they travel the world, for nine months every single year, you would probably look at them with awe. You may even wonder how they do it. It’s easy to think that only the richest of people travel the world, after all, flights are expensive, and hotels are even more so. If you take a deeper look into it all however, you will soon find that it is not expensive at all. Consider Tomas Lau, who is an experienced writer and a digital nomad. He has shown that travelling the world is actually super affordable, and this is especially the case when you compare it to the expenses of living at home. Another reason why the digital lifestyle is cheaper is because you are forced to spend your money on what you think really matters.
It’s Impossible to Build a Business While you are out Travelling
It’s very easy to believe that by constantly being on the move, you will have a very hard time starting and growing your business. As you can imagine, this is very false. There really are countless companies that have been started and even run by digital nomads. Some of these companies include Hotjar, And.CO. and even Buffer as well.
The Perfect Business
Becoming a digital nomad is an incredibly unique experience so the challenges that you face while running your business are not at all like the challenges that you will face in your conferences or even in your journals. It’s doable but there are so many inconveniences that you will need to overcome. Digital nomads and even entrepreneurs adapt to their circumstances and they have to share a few different attributes.
A Remotely Delivered Product
The key here is making sure that your company can be dealt with remotely. You also have to look at things such as virtual communication and even Skype too. Think about it, what makes a digital nomad able to manage their own business? If you are able to deliver your product without having your customer present, then there is a high chance that you can manage it remotely. Think about your software company, if you sell some software, what difference will it make if you market it from Buenos Aires, Cape Town or even Kuala Lumpur?
Bootstrapped
Another thing that so many digital nomads have in common is that they are able to prioritise their freedom. Their finances are no exception and they are also able to self-fund their business. They can do this by going through side-hustles or even by reinvesting any profits that they make. In entrepreneurship, the term for companies that forego investors or even bank loans is known as bootstrapping. It doesn’t matter what you call it, as long as you are a financially independent business, there is no reason why you really can’t go on to experience a ton of success.
High-Margin Offers
Any business owner will know that there really are two elements that help to define the future of a company. You have to think about revenue and cost. Both of these elements will determine how profitable a business is, and they really can affect the life of a digital nomad. Geo-arbitrage really does help to lower the cost and it still gives them the chance to live a very good life as well. A company that makes a little bit of profit will easily turn a potential travel-friendly activity into a complicated adventure. You don’t want to be visiting places like Da Nang to see the beaches while you are worried about how you are going to make enough money to try and sustain your lifestyle.
Digital Info-Products
A digital product is any kind of online-based content. It includes eBooks, videos and even webinars as well. The key element that helps to make digital info-products so great is that they can be created all at once and they can also be sold indefinitely as well. They also give you the chance to really create the passive income you need, helping you to make money while you sleep without worrying about having to close all of the sales yourself.
Drop Shipping
We all know that starting up an ecommerce store is a very lucrative way of doing business online. On its own, it should be noted that the delivery is done online. It is very easy to bootstrap this and it is filled with niched companies in almost every industry possible. The margins are often great as well. Drop shipping is where you have a manufacturer or even a reseller send the product that you are trying to sell, to the customer. You do this right from the fulfilment centre or even from the warehouse. This way you use their logistics system and the only thing that you have to focus on is the attention that you pay to things like your marketing.
That doesn’t mean to say that drop shipping doesn’t come with its disadvantages. You will be diluting a huge portion of your margin because someone else is taking control over the essential part of your company. They will also be violating the third element of your perfect business. Drop shipping entrepreneurs have worked hard to try and start their own nomadic lifestyle and this is because the hands-off approach is really beneficial. You also have a low overhead too. It’s almost too easy at times to start up a drop-shipping business!
Software
Software really is everywhere. The marketing industry has nearly 7,000 companies and the finance industry has their own space as well. Despite the competition, digital nomads and software really are a match made in heaven. Most software businesses are bringing home revenue and it will also help you to generate it over months on end as well. The disadvantages of starting a software business is the cost of developing it and even marketing it as well. Website developers are among some of the best-paid jobs in the whole of the US. At the same time, promoting a business that deals in software is not easy at all and this is especially the case if the price of the product is around the low-end of the spectrum. Regardless of the disadvantages you have, there are a ton of software companies that are run by nomads.
Services
A service business is quite possibly the easiest way for you to become a digital nomad. At the end of the day, it only takes a few clients for you to travel the world and when you are able to capitalise on this you will find that success can happen in a few months.
Niches
By now you will probably know that behind every single digital nomad business, there is efficiency. You have geo-arbitrage, very high-margin offers and even remote delivery as well. The final point of being a digital nomad in business is the fact that you can target any one market specifically and this is otherwise known as a nice business. The whole purpose of having a niche business is that it makes it way easier to market. Sure, the market shrinks but the message that you have to deliver increases as a result.