Top Tips From 5 Digital Nomads Take your work anywhere you go. Just be ready for the bumps in the road.
By Tyler Leslie Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The freedom lifestyle is more popular than ever. A lot of young entrepreneurs want the freedom to live where they want, not have to go into an office and to essentially be able to travel as much as they desire. With that has come the idea to create a business that can be run from anywhere in the world. And that dream is getting easier to achieve.
With all the advances in technology, if you have a skill that someone wants to learn, you can easily create your own program, market your program and sell it all through your laptop or phone. The best part is, it doesn't have to be location specific. You can do it from anywhere in the world. It's not easy, but it is being done by many people.
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The term "digital nomad" has become popular over the past few years, and it's something a lot of entrepreneurs dream about. Being someone who has started a online consulting business with my partner, I wanted to get some advice from a few of the most commonly known digital nomads. I asked all of them "What advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are wanting to become digital nomads?"
1. Create your schedule, and find your work rhythm.
Matthew Kepnes, the founder of Nomadic Matt says, "Create a schedule for your work, and find your rhythm. Learn about yourself and when you're the most productive. If you're a morning person, wake up and get your work done so you can go enjoy the day. If you're a night person, commit to being back by 6 p.m. and burning the midnight oil."
Finding the time that you're most productive is essential to your creativity and getting important things done. For a lot of people, the most productive time is in the morning. But don't just follow the trend. If you're more productive at other times, work then. Make sure you find what works best for you.
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2. Make sure you're OK with being uncomfortable.
Natalie Sisson, founder of The Suitcase Entrepreneur, says it best: "You need to understand what type of entrepreneur you're wanting to be. You need to make sure you're cut out to be a digital nomad. You have to be OK with not having a home base, and you have to be comfortable with booking your own travel and scheduling everything for yourself. Know going into it that you do have to deal with no internet connection at times, different styles of food and bad infrastructures. Being a digital nomad is a great adventure but can be difficult at times."
If you're OK with managing your schedule and being able to deal with the difficult circumstances that come up sometimes while traveling, then you will enjoy the adventure that comes along with running your business on the road.
3. Stop following and take more action.
Johnny Ward from One Step 4 Ward had this to say: "Stop sharing inane motivational quotes and following people on Instagram, and take actual action today. It seems so fashionable to be a 'digital nomad' or to work in 'startups' or to refer to yourself as an 'entrepreneur.' It's a worrying trend. We should worry less about how sexy a label is, and concern ourselves more with taking action."
He hit the nail on the head. If you want to become an entrepreneur, you need to take more action.
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4. Work on skills that you can leverage.
Jodi Ettenberg from Legal Nomads says, "It's important to work on skill sets that you can leverage to build the life you want, not simply head out as a digital nomad expecting that the rest can fall into place. If you're already an entrepreneur, and have worked on developing skills and a business, then it is important to live in places with an existing entrepreneur-leaning community."
If becoming a digital nomad is something that you want to do, you need to sit down and figure out the skills you have. Once you've done that, sharpen those skills and find the people who are looking for what you are offering.
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5. Figure out what you want to do before you hit the road.
Ryan Biddulph, the founder of Blogging From Paradise, says, "Face your pressing problems now in your home country, before you start traveling the world. If you're a budding digital nomad entrepreneur who builds their business from a space of passionate fun, you'll have the right intent to build a successful venture from anywhere on earth. Pick a fun, freeing driver. You may not solve all of your issues before you become a digital nomad, but at least you'll root out some of the deeper stuff that would have damaged your business venture if ignored."
Biddulph and Ettenberg both agree that you need to figure some things out first before hitting the road instead of trying to figure them out on the way. There are tons of things that you won't be able to figure out until you've really stepped out there, but a lot of important things can be figured out or planned for in the meantime.
