Taking your business on the road

iPad on beach

In search of flexibility working hour and the ability to work anywhere in the world, a number of entrepreneurs, freelancers, and contract workers are choosing a freer, more nomadic lifestyle.

Increasingly workers are feeling disgruntled with the humdrum of 9 to 5 office hours and the idea that “other stuff” in life should be designed around working hours. People are demonstrating a keen interest to adopt a more modern working lifestyle that drives access to family, health, and hobbies, says Thomas Henningsson, Sales Director from Vorwerk, who sought out a research study on about career satisfaction and alternatives to current work life in the United Kingdom.

The term digital nomad is being tossed around the Internet these days, but the generally agreed upon source of the term is from book called, “Digital Nomad” written by Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners in 1997. The book espoused that humans will revert back to their traditional nomadic lifestyle human beings once utilized that depended on moving often in search of sources of food and water. Given the availability and ease of use of information communication technology the return to a nomadic lifestyle is now in search of satisfying life experiences.

Digital nomads are people that work remotely from any place in the world that has a good Internet connection. Digital nomads use telecommunication technologies such as mobile phones, laptops, cloud computing, and VOIP to conduct business in coffee shops, libraries, co-working spaces, hostels, or hotels.

Cheap air travel, fast and rampantly available 3G/4G and wireless internet, as well as the exchange of information available on the Internet dedicated to the nomadic lifestyle depicting working on the beach with a beer, have encouraged an estimated 2.2 million digital nomads in the world today.

Attractive destinations for digital nomads are either low cost cities offering a high quality of life or high cost cities and living in alternative living situations such as AirBnb or Vandwelling (where a network of housing is offered in vehicles such as recreational vehicles, camper vans, or mobile homes).

Low cost cities that are most popular for the nomadic lifestyle are Ubud in Bali, Chiang Mai in Thailand, and Ho Chi Ming City in Vietnam. Expensive cities such as Oslo, Norway or Singapore.

Co-working spaces, such as Roam, are all inclusive lodging and working spaces devoted to digital nomad types that can co-exist as a large and diverse community working and adventuring in exotic destinations around the world.

For example, Roam has locations in Miami, Tokyo, Bali, and Thailand. I tried one out for 2 weeks, in Bali, in order to understand the lure of the nomadic lifestyle. That is where I met Matt.

Digital Nomad Success Story

Nomadic for 4 years now Matthew Smith, a British citizen, fell in love with the city of Singapore after living in Budapest, Ubud, and then Ho Chi Ming City.

After working from his Mac Book and iPhone for years in his Cryptocurrency consulting firm he decided to set up a brick and mortar business in the Central Business District of Singapore.

In order to overcome the complications of establishing Singapore Permanent Resident status he outsourced the procedure to Immigration Solutions Singapore http://www.immigrationsolutions.sg/. Matthew claims that after establishing his residency he is free to enter and exit the country with ease, as well as revert back to his digital nomadic business style of working from cafes and beach bars.