Introduction
In the past few years, the number of people chasing the digital nomad-lifestyle has soared. Indeed, many people now opt out for being their own bosses and Covid-pandemic has accelerated these processes significantly. While some people might still question the workability of digital nomads remotely and efficiency of workload delegation, there are plenty of reasons to become a digital nomad.
Being a digital nomad has obvious advantages for both employee and employer. As for you, once you choose this lifestyle, you are free from any formal and corporational ties to your office and workplace. This gives you more flexibility to work from wherever you feel like without affecting your productivity. You can be traveling in South America and working for some European companies or vice versa. As for employer they save a great amount of time and money on different materials – they no longer need to provide different administrational resource, like office, laptops, stationary, bills etc.
So, if it has so many advantages, why not chase it?
How to Become a Digital Nomad?
Although you might feel that you don't have the skills to be a digital nomad, take it easy. There are plenty of job opportunities for people who can use computer and can do basic online jobs, like data entry, translation, virtual assistant tasks, customer support services etc. And they pay quite good amount of money.
All you need to do is to identify what is the type of job that you would like to do and start looking for them online. You will be amazed to see how many job opportunities big and small companies offer in these fields. What this means for you is that you can be traveling to Europe while doing some online job and every morning you can jump from one city to another, instead of jumping from one bus to another to get to your office. You can have morning coffee in Paris, in front of Eiffel Tower, not some dull coffee machine from your office kitchen. If you are already up for doing some traveling and online job, don’t hesitate to check out ETIAS website. It will provide you with all the necessary information related to the EU travel.
1. Identify Your Skill Set
First, identify your current skills and what skills are most in demand in small businesses in order to be a digital nomad. Next, plan how to improve your most valuable skills by enrolling in courses or shadowing professionals who will help you learn from them.
Some of the most important skills to have as a digital nomad include:
- Self-discipline
- Organized
- Excellent written & verbal communication skills
- Sales & marketing skills
- Budgeting & decision-making skills
- (Obvious, but vital) High-quality digital skills
2. Work on Your Portfolio
It's important to have a portfolio as a freelance digital nomad. You can use Squarespace or Wix to build professional websites that showcase your experience and skills. You can create your own logos and graphics to represent the kind of work that you are most excited about sharing with clients.
These platforms are affordable and help you build a website. A portfolio website that showcases your best work will be well optimized for SEO (search engine optimizing), and should include an "about me page" to tell potential clients why they should hire. (This is where testimonials are important).
3. Start Networking
It’s an important step for becoming a successful digital nomad. You might be a professional with highly-demanded skillset, but if no one knows about you, it all goes in vain. You can market yourself on different freelance platforms and social media platforms like LinkedIn. You can promote your work, write some tips and recommendations for those who want to engage in digital nomad lifestyle. You can also share some background information what you’ve done and how you’ve done them.
Don’t hesitate to attend different forums and events that are happening near you and is connected to your field of work. Here you have a chance to meet a great amount of people with the same interests and some of them might be looking the last piece of a puzzle, that can be you. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and be the first one who takes the step in formal or informal communication.
4. Plan Your Nomadic Lifestyle
While being a digital nomad also includes the possibility to travel a lot around the world, you need to be super precise in your planning. Traveling is all fun and games, but how are you going to adjust it to your working lifestyle? Will your efficiency and productivity be the same if you are traveling a lot? Or maybe settling at one destination for quite some time is better for you? These are the questions that you should ask yourself and once you have your answers, you can go all for it.
Conclusion
Chasing the digital nomad lifestyle is becoming more and more popular. And you have a chance to jump on the opportunity before it’s still a new thing. This means that you will be more likely to succeed if you start right now. So, why not? All you have to consider is what are you going to do and how are you going to do it. Once you are settled with all these questions, you’re good to go on this big adventure full of perks and benefits.
