More and more people want to live self-determined and happy lives and travel on the road. We have been living this lifestyle – digital nomadism – ourselves for several years. It has now been picked up by many newspapers and TV channels after the successes of DNX 2014, 2015, 2016 (Digital Nomads Conference in Berlin) and is touted as a new lifestyle movement. But maybe you have also asked yourself: what is it actually supposed to be, a Digital Nomad and how do I become one myself?
What is a digital nomad?
A digital nomad is a person who pursues a digital activity as an employee or entrepreneur. He works predominantly digitally. The second part of the term comes from the nomadic lifestyle. Digital nomads work predominantly location-independent and can therefore travel very freely and self-determined.
Wikipedia refers to nomads in the narrower sense as people:
“who lead a non-sedentary way of life for economic reasons“
These economic reasons can be in the classical sense the food supply for the own animal herds, as with the shepherd peoples in the steppes and deserts of our world. Or, in a broader sense, it can be the labour supply that makes migrant workers move around.
A digital nomad (also: internet nomad) is, according to Wikipedia:
“an entrepreneur or even worker who uses digital technologies almost exclusively to do his or her work and who leads a lifestyle that tends to be described as non-sedentary, location-independent, or multi-local.”
What makes a Digital Nomad?
For a Digital Nomad, a laptop and cell phone are indispensable. Are you already a digital nomad when you dream of escaping the hamster wheel? Or only when you have created the possibility to determine your own location at any time and to work from there? Can you only be a digital nomad if you’re self-employed in the online space? And is every self-employed person automatically a digital nomad? And what is it actually supposed to be, this much-cited hamster wheel?
Our answer to that is: it depends 😉 .
Because basically, it’s quite simple: You are a Digital Nomad if you feel like one!
Now, what does that mean again? Well the above definition from Wikipedia can be expanded even further:
The Digital Nomad is characterized by living a self-determined life! He or she travels when he (or she) wants to. And if not, then the Digital Nomad becomes or remains a settled nomad. Just like the classic nomads in winter.
Not everyone who calls himself a digital nomad immediately gives up his flat and travels the world only with his laptop, as we do. (Okay, since June 2015, the laptops have been joined by Simon, the motorhome by mistake. How we accidentally bought a motorhome? Read for yourself!) Other nomads have a home base in Germany. For example, many spend the summer in Germany and migrate like migratory birds to the south when it gets colder. Some also travel a lot within Germany. Or tiny, but would have the opportunity.
Many people associate Digital Nomads with working at the beach or pool. In fact, it’s so much more than that! While many Digital Nomads are self-employed and work primarily digitally, not every self-employed person or blogger is also a Digital Nomad. That’s simply because many businesses, even in the digital realm, are heavily dependent not only on their location but also on the person running the business. Sometimes customers always want to be looked after by the boss, and sometimes only the entrepreneur himself has the essential and necessary know-how in his company. And above all, not every self-employed person automatically wants to be a Digital Nomad! And not every Digital Nomad wants to be self-employed (for a variety of reasons).
People who live their lives unbound by time and place are digital nomads.
If you are still reading this text, you seem to be interested in life as a digital nomad. You may now be asking yourself how to get there.
How do I become a digital nomad?
Well, if you’ve landed here, then the Digital Nomad lifestyle holds a certain fascination for you. Maybe you’ve also thought about breaking out of the cage of a preordained life, bringing the famous hamster wheel to a halt. Because a hamster wheel constricts you and makes you pedal without reaching your goal.
Or have you already thought about how nice it would be if you, as a free person, could do exactly what you have always dreamed of and earn money with it?
Then take the time to think about it more intensively. Close your eyes and visualize it. Or take a walk, go for a bike ride. Just do whatever it is that allows you to think about it thoroughly and unhindered. Because your path to becoming a Digital Nomad starts with the right thoughts.
Imagine how it should be, your future as a digital nomad. Take your time with it. You can imagine a specific day or a specific event.
Have you always wanted to sit on a beach in Thailand and write a travel article? Then imagine yourself doing just that. From packing your suitcase to the flight to arriving at your accommodation. Imagine as vividly as possible what it would feel like to live your dream.
Looking over relaxed legs stretched out on a lounger and beach to the ocean.
A relaxing day on the beach. Is this the dream day that you’ve always dreamed of?
Can you imagine this moment? Without doubts and fears?
Congratulations! Then you are already a digital nomad.
For the vast majority, however, it won’t be quite that easy. Because it’s human to hear one or two loud “buts” when imagining this. Don’t worry, you too are ready to become a digital nomad. The fears and doubts that arise are completely normal, especially in our very fixed and pre-structured society. Every digital nomad had them somewhere along the way. One or the other may have just forgotten by now that it was like that.
What you can do about it? You just have to keep thinking hard about what exactly is blocking you so you can overcome your fears.
Overcoming fears
As I said before, in our society it is not necessarily given to live a truly free and self-determined life. We do have all the opportunities, and no one gets tired of telling us that no one has as many chances as we do. But this does not mean leaving the predetermined path of home, work and leisure. Anyone who lives a non-conformist life will know what I’m talking about. If you want to leave this rut of school, training, moving out of the parental home into your first own flat, job, moving in with your boyfriend/girlfriend, maybe children, moving or another job permanently, then in the most harmless case you will be looked at strangely.
In our affluent society, it has long been a matter of course to have a roof over one’s head. Not to mention running water, electricity, enough to eat and fast internet. And it instinctively frightens people when someone is crazy enough to give up this apparent security of home and permanent employment. After all, who likes to think about the fact that there is no such thing as absolute security? The only thing that is really secure in our lives is our death. And only very few people like to deal with that. Which I don’t condemn. It’s human. But it prevents you from living a self-determined and free life.
Whether it’s the fear of losing security or the fear of the unknown, most people want permanence. They want to know now what their life will be like in 10, 20 or even 50 years.
If you can’t or don’t want that, congratulations, you’ve taken the next step on the path to becoming a digital nomad.
And if your fears catch you again, you can read in my article “Why am I doing all this?” that you are not alone and in this article “Fear travels with you” how you can deal with them.
Now that you have overcome your fears, or at least already recognized them, you can take the next step on the path to becoming a digital nomad: the path to earning money with your vocation.
Jobs for Digital Nomads – Making Money
Basically, the next step in your life as a digital nomad is always about the same question, no matter what starting point you come from: What is it that drives you?
By this, I mean that you should first think about how you want to earn your money in the future. What is it that you like to do? What is the one thing that makes it not feel like earning money or work? That which makes your profession your vocation. So the first step is to find out what you can do. You can read about how to do that in this article. The second step is to see how you can earn money with it. As on your entire path to becoming a digital nomad, it helps to talk to other people who know you and your skills and to talk to people who have already gone down this path or who know what is possible.
It is certainly the case that not all vocations have the potential to make money. But if that is the case, then it is important to find the path that combines both and enables you to lead a fulfilled, self-determined life. Because in the end, only YOU have to feel good in your skin and with your life!
Your path to becoming a digital nomad
The most common path is the one from a permanent position to becoming a digital nomad. Firstly, this is because it is the classic path from school to training and then to a job. Thus, the majority of people earn their money in a permanent position. But often your vocation is not necessarily the same as what you do in your job as a permanent employee. It was like that for me. I liked being a medical technical laboratory assistant because I really enjoyed some parts of the work, but it is not my vocation.
But you don’t have to quit your old job and take a completely different one like I did. It is also possible that you will become a digital nomad as a permanent employee in your profession.
How?
Well, for one thing, I’ve already described to you that digital nomadism is above all a matter of attitude. And if you like your job, then there’s nothing to stop you from exploring other options before you become unhappy in self-employment.
These other options are quite simply taking time off or trying to work from home. Of course, it’s a bit more complex than the above. This is because both options can be pronounced in a wide variety of ways.
The most classic scenario for option 1 is the sabbatical year. Here you work ahead the time you are not there, so to speak. But there are also different models for a sabbatical. If this is of interest to you, you can find out about everything you need to know about sabbaticals on popular websites. (For example, here at sabbatjahr.org or here at sabbatical24.de or here at ratgeber-aussteigen.de). There are also tips on how to talk to your employer about it.
A less common scenario for the sabbatical option is unpaid leave.
Both scenarios have the disadvantage that they are limited in time (you cannot take unpaid leave indefinitely and a sabbatical year is, as the name suggests, limited to six months or a whole year) and that you are missing out as a worker to your employer. The employer should be interested in keeping you as a healthy and motivated employee, but some employers don’t realise this or think they can’t plan for such a long absence. But let’s be honest: do you still want to be employed by an employer who only sees you as a number and not as a human being with your own desires?
Simply breaking out and letting the wind blow around your nose can quickly bring you closer to your actual goal. Scenario number 2 can be more flexible and can be a real win-win situation. It is about “working from home” in the broadest sense. In many sectors, it is already common for part of the work to be done from home. Then it’s a small step to being able to do the work completely independent of location. And from there, time independence is also feasible. Because you might want to travel to another time zone and not have to work through the night there because you have to stick to German working hours.
There are already companies where such alternative working time models are possible. It is possible that these are often young and smaller companies from the large area of new media and online marketing. But there are certainly many others that do not yet work according to these models but are open to new ideas.
I can’t tell you whether either of these scenarios is possible in your profession. There are too many different professions with various working time models in Germany for that. What I do know is that if you have already found your calling in your profession, it is definitely worth trying to achieve local independence. Because “I can’t do that with my job” is just an excuse out of fear. Maybe as a saleswoman, it will be difficult to work from home, but if you are a saleswoman by vocation, then you will do your job very well. And then you can certainly talk to your boss and get him to let you work overtime for three weeks and then take it off in the fourth and fifth weeks at a stretch. That way, you would have two weeks off every three weeks. And with that, you can bring a lot more freedom and self-determination into your life.
The path is the goal, and sometimes the path is also the path 😉 What I’m trying to say is: it’s the path that counts. What I want to tell you is: there is always a way! And with the right reasons, you can also convince your boss of the benefits of becoming a digital nomad. Before you talk to him, you just need to be aware of these reasons yourself. If you are unsure what the right reasons are to convince your boss, then think carefully about the benefits of becoming a digital nomad. And please be honest with yourself!
Then just take the next step towards a self-determined and free life. After all, it doesn’t help anyone if you end up burnt out and completely unable to work.
Your path to self-employment
Your path as a self-employed person into digital nomadism is always about breaking down dependencies. These can be dependencies on location due to a shop or office, as well as time dependencies due to projects and/or customers. Because as a self-employed person, you don’t have a boss you have to convince yourself that it’s better if you become a digital nomad, but you might have clients. And that could be a much bigger problem!
Because customers are often very anxious people who see their success at risk if something changes. But if you approach conversations with your clients as well-prepared as a permanent employee approaches a conversation with his boss, then nothing should stand in the way of your success. Take your clients’ fears seriously and present them with concrete solutions rather than general platitudes. And ask them what their specific concerns are. Maybe you’ll find points that you didn’t even have in mind and that still need to be addressed.
Probably the better (and easier) plan, in the long run, is not to have clients, but to focus exclusively on your own projects. This gives you even more flexibility and freedom. But as long as you still have clients, you have to satisfy them. And very often, communication by phone or email is not enough, but personal contact is necessary. You can carry out this regular personal contact yourself by being in Germany at certain times and meeting with your clients. This limits you somewhat in your independence of location, but with a little planning, it is quite easy to realize. Maybe it’s not even a problem for you. Because as I said before, being a digital nomad doesn’t mean constantly travelling around the world. It’s all about a self-determined life. And if you enjoy meeting your clients in person on a regular basis, you shouldn’t let anyone talk you out of it.
You can also solve this human need for personal presence through a project manager. They will then act as a contact person for your clients. You don’t have to hire someone to do this if you don’t want to. Many project managers work freelance.
Another option is to get one (or more) partners on board who don’t feel your urge for freedom but are happy to be on-site and take over the personal contact with the clients. Or you could share the “on-site times” and alternate between travelling the world and being available locally for personal contact.
All these considerations assume that you already run a business that is independent of location. Then all you have to do is take care of the points mentioned above and any paperwork (more on this later.) and start travelling. If this is not the case, then your path begins at this point.
For almost all jobs in the field of online marketing, new media and the like, location independence is easy to realise. Basically, all you need is a powerful laptop and a sufficiently fast internet connection.
As a digital nomad, you don’t need much more than the internet, food and a roof over your head.
But even if you run a shop, you don’t have to give up your dream of becoming a digital nomad. You can turn your retail shop into a pure online shop and work with drop-shipping or fulfilment solutions. This means that you take care of the sales and collect the customers online. With drop-shipping, you then work with a retailer who stores your goods and ships them on your behalf (and ideally also takes care of returns, but this is often not the case). With fulfilment solutions, your partner takes care of everything from warehousing to shipping to returns management. A well-known provider is Amazon, for example, which takes care of everything from A to Z for you. All you have to do is come up with the idea. In return, however, Amazon wants a not entirely small piece of the pie.
Which way makes the most sense for you depends on you and your business. But as you can see, there is a solution for everything. You just have to want to find it.
Skills
Basically, anyone with the right attitude can become a digital nomad. However, some qualities and skills will make the path easier for you. Don’t worry: you can learn both the necessary attitude and the skills!
Time management/self-organisation
I would argue that the most important skill of a Digital Nomad is time or self-management. This basically applies to all self-employed people, but especially to those who travel a lot.
Because if you are not able to organize yourself, then your business will quickly descend into chaos, you will forget important things like maybe payments, miss flights and generally feel like you never have enough time for all the tasks.
Therefore, my tip: Before you get bogged down, take the time to organize yourself! And if you now come with “Yes, I’ll take care of that when I have time”, then let me tell you: You don’t have time, you take time!
Like everyone else, you only have 24 hours a day. And that is not negotiable. Since your life as a digital nomad should not consist of working 18 hours a day, eating briefly in between, sleeping and then starting to work again, you should simply start organizing yourself right away. Otherwise, you’ll soon end up on the other hamster wheel.
So how do you do that?
Well, there are many ways and tools you can use to organise yourself and your life. For a start, the most important ones are:
- Your goal setting or business plan, which shows you what you want to do and why. I used the BMWi’s business planner for the professional part because it gave me the necessary structure right away. For my private goals, I use goal collages. This may sound a bit like “name-dancing”, but it helps me to find out what I really want and to focus on it.
- This leads to a schedule: what do you want to achieve and when? You should write down these milestones in a calendar and maybe even add reminders. I use the Gmail calendar for this because I use Gmail anyway and because I can create and display different calendars in the calendar. So I have one with the milestones and important dates of my business plan, one with my private appointments and one as an editorial schedule for my blogs. I can display these individually or together, share them with other people or just manage individual appointments together.
- With the calendar, you have the next organizational tool at your fingertips: the monthly, weekly and daily schedule. It may sound like a lot of work at first, but if you take 10 minutes every evening and morning, you will never feel disorganized again. Because in the evening, as the last work activity, so to speak, you check off the things you have done and are happy about them and put off the unfinished things until the next day. And in the morning, as the first activity, you write down the things that have to be done and prioritize them into things that you absolutely have to do today.
Into things that you absolutely have to do today, into things that are important but can be done tomorrow and into things that can also be done at another time and which you set a deadline for next week, next month or whenever.
- To know what still needs to be done, an indispensable tool is the to-do list(s). With it, you will never forget anything again. Prerequisite: you use it regularly and maintain it properly! To start with, you can use apps like Wunderlist, which has the advantage that you can enter appointments and reminders, or Evernote, which has the advantage that you can also save notes, websites, videos and pictures.
- The above tools are ways to organize your work life. Now you need an app like Tripit to organize your travel life. There you have the entire travel itinerary at a glance, including hotel dates, arrival and departure dates.
These are just a few ways to organize yourself. For me, these are the basic tools I work with myself, and I always find that I feel stressed and uncomfortable when I don’t use them for a while. Even though I know this, it happens again and again. Because I don’t feel like being organized or disciplined, because I’m lazy, or for other reasons that I can’t even tell you. But when I notice that I get chaotic and dissatisfied, I start again and .it gets better again 🙂.
Job and career ideas for digital nomads
In this section, I want to briefly give you a few ideas for possible jobs. There are certainly many more, but to get a start, this list is certainly good.
“Digital” jobs:
- Web designer
- Designer
- Copywriter
- Programmer
- Webmaster
- Affiliate
- (travel) Blogger
- Virtual Assistant
“Analogue” jobs:
Attention, you are not a true digital nomad with one of the following “analogue” jobs. But who cares about definitions, you?
- Photographer
- Yoga, diving, surfing, skiing, climbing, language and other teachers
- Dog trainer
- Travelling salesman
- House Sitting
- Farm work
- Management consultancy
- (online) Lecturer
- Giving lectures
- Musician
- Finance, stock exchange, trading
The list can be extended almost indefinitely. In our time travelling, we have met so many different people doing all kinds of different jobs on the road to make a living. I’ve come to believe that you can do almost any job that doesn’t require you to have special tools or rooms that you can’t take with you. And even then, you can still find ways.
What it all has in common is that you have to care and take things into your own hands.
Health insurance
When you’re young, you probably don’t think much about illness and health insurance doesn’t figure very prominently in your thoughts. At least that’s how it was for me. Now, at almost 40, that has changed a bit. Above all, we have learned that something can happen. An accident, for example, for which you are not even to blame. Good health insurance then suddenly becomes very valuable. Depending on how often you want to travel abroad, there are different sensible products and strategies.
