Connect with like-minded people

One of the benefits of visiting a retreat is the opportunity to connect with like-minded people. Whether you attend a yoga retreat, a writing retreat, or a wellness retreat, you’ll be surrounded by individuals who share similar interests and goals. This can lead to new friendships, networking opportunities, and a sense of community. Plus, being around people who understand and support your journey can be incredibly empowering and motivating.

Reduce stress and improve mental health

Visiting a retreat can be a great way to reduce stress and improve your mental health. Many retreats offer activities such as yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practices that can help you relax and unwind. Additionally, being in a peaceful environment away from the distractions of daily life can help you clear your mind and gain perspective. This can lead to improved mental clarity, reduced anxiety, and a greater sense of well-being.

Learn new hobbies while visiting a retreat

One of the great benefits of visiting a retreat is the opportunity to learn new skills and hobbies. Many retreats offer workshops and classes on a variety of topics, such as cooking, art, writing, and outdoor activities. This can be a great way to try something new and expand your horizons. Learning new skills can also boost your confidence and give you a sense of accomplishment, which can have a positive impact on your mental health.

Learn new skills and start a new business idea

Attending a retreat can also be a great way to explore new business ideas and gain inspiration for entrepreneurship. Many retreats offer workshops and sessions on topics such as marketing, branding, and business development. This can be a valuable opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs and gain insights into the industry. Additionally, the peaceful and reflective environment of a retreat can help you clarify your goals and develop a solid plan for your business.

You can learn how to start up a retreat business and the steps to start up a successful and profitable retreat business. As this is a big topic it will be so much fun to learn with other like-minded souls.

This step-by-step guide on how to plan a retreat will help you understand everything involved. The key to learning how to start a retreat business is to give yourself time and support to do it right. Finally, if you are tempted to start up this kind of lifestyle business then we highly recommend the Perfectly Planned and Profitable Retreat System with Inspired Courses.

You can visit a retreat to start up a glamping business. These types of business retreats are even more beneficial as you can find business besties to assist you with your venture.

Return home feeling refreshed and energized

One of the biggest benefits of visiting a retreat is the opportunity to disconnect from the stresses of daily life and recharge your batteries. Whether you spend your time practising yoga, meditating, hiking, or simply relaxing in nature, a retreat can provide a much-needed break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. When you return home, you may find that you have a renewed sense of energy and motivation, which can help you tackle challenges with a fresh perspective.

Inspired Freelance

Life can be complicated. We have kids, pets, hobbies, responsibilities and other influences, which all lead to us staying in our day jobs because we simply can not figure out how we can work from home and still pay the bills. Yes, this is indeed a conundrum! Many entrepreneur stories talk about how they just needed an idea and a solution, and most importantly to take action to make their transition into the freelance market.

I would consider myself to be an entrepreneur, solopreneur, freelancer, or whatever you want to call it, but I’m no different to anyone else. I have ideas just the same as everyone. However, while most people have a cup of tea and a piece of cake and forget about their ideas, I will take action on mine – even if they fail. That’s the one key difference that makes me an entrepreneur. That’s the ONLY difference!

So if you have the commitments of a family and a busy life, and yet you have ambitions to become a mumpreneur or dadpreneur and start a lifestyle business, this is where you can make a start by building a home based business. You won’t need a remote office, but you will need grit and determination and a desire to make it work. But it can still be a bit overwhelming to know what to do next as there are so many choices out there and sometimes it’s difficult to see the wood for the trees. So let me make it a bit easier for you by giving you some real and achievable small home business ideas.

So where do you start?

Firstly, think about the kind of person you are and what you want out of this. After all, if you are going to make a new start you need to get your lifestyle design priorities in order. There’s no point in making the same mistakes again, so you need to look at your work-life balance and what you feel is important to you, so you get it right from the beginning. Everything else can fit around that.

So what’s next?

Then you need to look at your skills, what you already own, what you love to do, the assets you have and the direction you want to go in to make it easier to find your way. As a start, here are 5 suggestions for you to consider.

For The Outdoor Lover

If you can’t bear the idea of being locked inside an office and love to be outdoors, you should investigate ways you can translate that into a small home business idea. One new idea is to take advantage of the new glamping (luxury camping) trend that’s taking the outdoor market by storm, and setting up your own glamping product or service. This is particularly achievable if you already own land, or know of some you can rent. Using this business model it has been proven you can make up to £15,000 / $25,000 for every half an acre of land. Offering glamping products require less land, but more skills and can be very lucrative indeed as this is a luxury market, as long as you do your market research well.

For more information take a look at The Ultimate Glamping Business Guide

For The Animal Lover

We are a nation of animal lovers, and this is something to focus on if you are too. A recent trend shows how the owners of animals are prepared to spend a little bit extra to make sure their beloved pooch or feline are kept in luxury when they have to travel. This is why dog and cat hotels are becoming so popular. Other options are purebred dog breeders, groomers, dog walkers, trainers and accessory designs for our furry friends.

For The Home Bird

For those who love to be with all the comforts of home then offering a professional home sitting service could be right up your street. Ok, this isn’t really a business in your own home, but it’s a home nevertheless, and house sitting for a living can give you the opportunity to explore other ways to be a digital entrepreneur at the same time.  The key is being trustworthy and dependable with outstanding references, and making sure you leave no trace for the homeowners when you depart.

For The Office Addict

If you still want your freelance freedom but can’t bear the thought of not using your office skills to start your own business, try becoming a virtual office assistant. In this digital age we don’t have to be based in a company to work for it. We can offer our stills on a freelance basis and do it from anywhere in the world, as long as it’s on the clients worldwide time clock. Services such as People Per Hour, oDesk or Elance make it easy for us all to find and keep clients no matter where we choose to work from, so we can stay in the office on our own terms.

For The Party Goer

If you are a party lover then you could consider turning that into a home based business. Event planning is a growing industry, especially now we are coming out of a declining economy and moving into a bull market. As people have more disposable income they want to take the pain out of having to organise their own events, and simply enjoy them instead. So from parties, festivals, weddings and gradations, to funerals and business events with a difference, this could become one of the best small home business ideas just for you.

What do you think? Do you have any small home business ideas to share?

Nowadays, things are surprisingly simple if you are contemplating going freelance and becoming a digital nomad. Instant communication has totally changed the way we can work, if we are brave enough to take the plunge and embrace the digital age. Once you have decided on your new, unique or low competitive niche and have done your homework, you are off. There’s nothing that can stop you!

Your new life as an entrepreneur can begin with two very simple things; a laptop and mobile phone. Next you’ll need a website, preferably with a memorable name (URL). If you’re not particularly web savvy, consider using the services of PeoplePerHour, oDesk or Elance. They are excellent at plugging the gaps in your knowledge, while leaving you with more time to work on your lifestyle design and business branding. In fact, outsourcing is very cost effective, if done correctly and can leave you to maintain focus on marketing your product or service to keep those bills paid.

Your website can be fairly simple, but should stand out, have a USP (unique selling point), a sales page and contact details. Again, one of the previously mentioned services can help with this. You can opt to use WordPress or similar template platforms, which can be set up by a third party and maintained by you further down the line. The most important thing for any small business is to ensure your new website is mobile responsive. Did you know that 85% of Internet users research products and services on their mobile devices before purchasing? This is a pretty hefty statistic to get familiar with, especially if you are a freelance digital nomad who wants to work from anywhere.

Next you’ll need to spread the word about your budding business. Make sure you have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and business forums in your field. These can all be automated, so you can gain exposure without burning out. Your lifestyle business is about spreading the word effectively with as little effort as possible; don’t forget about the time you want to spend on that beach!

Once you have this in place, your business can be run from anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. If your product or service is good enough (presumably you’ve already thought that one though), the tools available to us all online can run your business for you. From social media to spread the word, eBay or Amazon as a shop front, PayPal for easy online banking and of course your own online bank, running a small business has changed from being a local entity to being a worldwide one… and for me that’s really exciting!

So make life a beach… not a bi*ch… and get out there and online. If you want a digital nomad lifestyle then don’t put it off any more. The time to get involved has arrived.

Picture Credit: Taxedo

Do you often feel as though there are still so many things left on your ‘to do’ list, most of which require more investment from you of time and money?

Do you often look around and feel envious about what others have achieved in what seems like half the time, especially when it comes to their lifestyle business branding?

This is particularly relevant if you are only just starting your journey as a digital nomad or entrepreneur, and especially if what you want to do requires an online presence.

I have recently found something I want to share with you that could help. It explains how easy it is to be distracted by the achievements of others and deterred from making your own progress about lifestyle business branding, simply because you don’t know where to start or you’re concerned about how much something is going to cost you in the short term.

When starting any business, no matter how large or small, it is important to work on your business branding. As I have explained in my own business tutorials on Inspired Courses:

 

Your business brand is made up of what you are, what you want to be and how people perceive you. It is how, what, where, when you share your message and whom you plan to share it with. It should show the customer instantly what they can expect, so it helps shape how people see your business and identifies your presence when you’re out and about, both physically and virtually.

From names, symbols, logos, websites, taglines, design templates, colour schemes, packing and promotional materials, they all go towards establishing and communicating your brand, which is unique to you.

 

Although having a great brand is an essential advertising tool, helping you to build confidence and trust with others, it can be costly to develop. It should tell the story of your business and help others instantly identify what you do in an instant. Your logo and tagline are particularly useful for this, which is why I rate it so highly in everything that I do.

However, before you go charging off to a designer to pay them loads of money to develop something that you might want to change in a few months time as your business develops, I recommend you read this. It is probably one of the most helpful articles I have read about logo development and I simply can not recommend it highly enough. It will help you think through the strategy of your lifestyle business branding and where your next steps should take you to get what you want for a fraction of the price… and in most cases for free.

It’s what I’ve used and I suggest you check it out right now.

Why a Fancy Logo is a Waste of Time and Money (and What You Need Instead)

Let me know what you think of it in the comments section below.

Sarah

I am often asked how I make my living and how something like a blog or website can actually be part of that. So I thought it might be helpful to firstly run through a list of ways you can get your blog ready to earn money, and then to list the (absolutely amazing) ways you can use your platform to earn an income, which I’ll publish very soon. Many of the ways have taken me years to perfect, so by doing this I will hopefully be able to save you time and energy so you can hit the ground running with your own ventures.

However, I feel I must point out a few things to consider first. This does take time so you must be patient. It is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. But it is very definitely possible to do it alongside a regular day job so it becomes possible for you to get your earning potential increased before you go completely freelance.

The other factor to consider is that your blog design must be better than mediocre. That is the only way to stand out from the crowd (and believe me there is a crowd, with thousands of new blogs being produced each year) so having a good design and a unique selling position (USP) is essential. But more on that in another post right here soon too.

So in a nutshell, here are my quick and easy steps to get your blog ready to earn money…

Get Social

Getting involved in social media not only generates a loyal audience, but it also generates backlinks to your site which in turn can increase its ranking in search engines. Google particularly pays attention to users of their platform G+, so if you’re not already using it and linking it to your site then you simply have to. Also, Pinterest is becoming one of the biggest generators of traffic, and this is set to increase further as image led Internet use expands, which in my opinion is inevitable. So if you’re not already including images in your site then you should seriously think about it.

Think About SEO

This is another post I’m working on as there are simple things you can do to improve the visibility of your site on the Internet, so its found more often for the right reasons. Many of these tips are very easy to do, such as adding keywords to the ‘alt-tags’ on your images and throughout your text. But how do you identify the best keywords? I’ll be sharing my secrets to identifying the right keywords here next week. 

Self Hosted WordPress Blogs

For the benefit of those who don’t know, there are two types of blogs. Those that are hosted by the originating template company (e.g. Blogger, WordPress.com, etc.) and those which are not (e.g. wordpress.org, etc.). I always use wordpress as Google just seems to love their clean and functional template designs and background structure, and having it self hosted allows me to earn money through advertising options not available through the non self hosted alternative. So if you intend to make a business from your blog I would thoroughly recommend using a self hosted wordpress.org platform.

Design A Media Kit

I am regularly asked what my statistics and advertising terms are for my original site, so to save me time I have a very thorough Media Kit to hand that I send out. This saves me heaps of time and secures many earning opportunities as it is a very professional response to this type of enquiry. I will be sharing the layout and structure of the Media Kit I use in a future post soon.

Collect Emails

If you want to be found by fans of your work, you need to be able to stay in touch with them. The best way to do this is via email, and this can be done quite simply using a number of free and inexpensive tools. To find out what I use and how I set it up all you need to do is make sure you sign up to future Inspired Freelance updates in the box that’s just popped in on the right.

Network

One of the best ways of generating interest and influence is to link to and support other bloggers in a similar subject area to your own. This approach has been known to influence Governments and entire populations, so it definitely works.

Back Up Your Blog

When you set up your self hosted site, make sure you have some way of getting a daily or weekly copy generated. Tiny things, such as changing your design template, can completely mess up your site and having a copy is the peace of mind you need for those unforeseen situations. My moment came when my main site was hacked and totally deleted. I watched in tears as years of sweat and toil, of hours crafting its content, got wiped permanently from the Internet in front of my eyes. Having a backup service helped make a terrible experience slightly less terrible than it could have been. More on that and what I’ve learnt about website and WordPress security in a future post.

Share Your Story

People like to know they are listening to ‘humans’ when they read content from the Internet. If you don’t share your story then you will be unable to make that ‘connection’ with your audience, which means it will be difficult to grow and generate any sense of loyalty with them. This is how I’ve shared my story here.

Give Proper Value

In my experience, giving either products or information of value is the best way to generate an audience that wants to keep visiting you. If you are giving away something for free that you yourself found of value, (whether that’s a product or information that has taken you time to put together) then your audience will value it too… and they’ll definitely want to thank you for it.

Inspire And Be Entertaining

People have so much to do in the modern world, and there are endless pressures on their precious time, so why will they give you some of it? Well if you inspire and entertain people, while also giving them value, then that’s three reasons why they might.

Turn The Telly Off!

This is a strange one for the list, but from experience I have found it to be invaluable. In my opinion watching TV will make you less successful. Why? Well, there are so many things you can do, plans you can make and successes to have, if you give yourself the time to work on them. If you watch TV then it will eat away at your time and you’ll find yourself saying things like, “I’d love to do that and make that happen… but I just don’t have the time.” So turn it off and make the time! You’ll feel better for it and you’ll give yourself the chance to succeed.

Think Carefully About A Name

Take your time about choosing a name for your blog. The general rule is to keep it friendly, keep it under 25 characters, include a keyword in it, and make sure its easy to remember. Then of course you have to see if its available. That’s the most challenging bit.

Keep The Bigger Picture In Mind

Your blog might be a platform you intend to use for other things. If this is the case then you must have this in mind with everything you do, making sure all your actions will complement this ultimate goal. I started a blog as I needed to write because of my illness, however, I also had a desire to one day earn money from my writing and to help people. That was my ultimate goal and the bigger picture I had to work with, and I have never lost sight of it during my journey.

Write Epic Shit!

I have borrowed this title from someone who I consider to be a friend. Corbett Barr was the individual that helped me onto this new path in my life after my illness and he absolutely hits the nail on the head in this piece he wrote about the need to make content on your website absolutely epic. In it he explains…

Building a raving audience online all starts with writing epic shit. Period. Hands down. End of story.

I couldn’t agree more!

3…. 2…. 1…. Landing Pages

You really do need to pay attention to the ‘bounce’ rate of your landing pages. This is the number of people that visit a page on your site and simply bounce straight off it again as they haven’t found what they are looking for (see below how you find out what yours is). Visitors to your site will make up their minds about your content (images and words) in a ‘blink’. As a result you need to get the right message across to them in the same about of time. This is definitely a big ask, and developing the right templates for landing pages is something I am currently working on and will definitely share with you at a later date.

Sign Up For Google Analytics

If you haven’t already done this then do this TODAY. It is an amazing way to monitor the visitors to your site, what they like, what they don’t , your overall bounce rate and then gives you precious hints about what you should do in the future. My own analytics shapes everything on my sites, and monitors my investments and campaigns… and did I mention that Google gives it away for free, making it both free and priceless all at the same time!

Stay In Touch

This is one area I myself need to improve on. There should be no excuses here as not staying in touch will lose you credibility with your audience, and force you to work even harder to make it up to them. That’s why I’m working so hard for you now and have set myself a massive list of things to share with you over the next few weeks, that I truly hope you find of value.

So what do you think?

Have I missed anything out and what are you going to concentrate on first?

Inspired Freelance 

You can use it to help you discover what you are interested in, like to do, and that others will find useful, therefore giving your idea the best chance of success.

How To Decide What Business To Start

There are many free tools and processes you can use to come up with the best freelance business ideas, so if you’re thinking of taking the plunge into the freelance world and quitting your day job, then this article is designed to help you do just that.

Focussing on what inspires you and what you’re passionate about will make sure you’ll be interested in what you decide to do enough to build the business over the long-term. Believe me when I say you’ll be eating, sleeping and breathing your business 24/7 so it’s important you love it and won’t mind.

This is why choosing the best business idea for you is really essential. You may already have your idea, or have many, but the following steps are really useful to go through to make sure you’ve really made the best choice.

So to give you an example of how it’s done, I’ll show you the simple method I used to come up with the idea of Inspired Camping.

Firstly I made a list of my passions, fears and any problems I had on a daily basis… and it goes a little something like this:

Then I investigated the markets and any trends coming out of these passions, fears and problems and researched how competitive they were. I did this using a number of tools available for free for anyone to use. It wasn’t long before I began to develop a picture of what I wanted to do and where there was a gap in the market.

It may sound a bit complicated, but if you have the right tools then it is actually very simple and also extremely enjoyable. This is what I used and you can too…

Tools Available To Help You

Google Trends

I find Google simply amazing. They make so many amazing tools available for people to use for free. Google trends is one of these and allows you to research and compare trends visible through search queries being used by people worldwide or in individual countries using the Internet. This includes top regions and cities where people are from and related keywords and emerging trends. This helps with identifying keywords to focus on as well as trends. All essential if you want to know who your potential audience will be and therefore how best you can find and communicate with them.

Google Insights

Another free and simply fantastic tool that allows you to compare different search terms users are searching for when using the Internet is Google Insights. This is particularly valuable for those wanting to have a big influence online.

Survey Monkey

If you already have a following or access to a community of people you can use this free survey tool that allows you to easily build your own survey, distribute it and then analyse the returning data. This is hugely valuable if you have an idea but are not entirely confident of its value to the potential customers. With this you can ask them directly. Just remember to keep your questions short, simple and ask nicely!

Amazon

Yes surprisingly enough Amazon can be a great tool for researching what customers are saying about a particular service or product. Once you’ve found what you’re looking for simply look at the customer reviews to build a picture about what’s being done well and what isn’t. It may also give you an understanding of what people want but can not get. Plugging this gap in the market is key to success.

App Marketplace

If you’re thinking of building an app, or backing the development of one, the best bit of research you can do is within the app marketplace itself. iTunes and Android, etc. have essential information for you. They tell you what’s already out there, what they do well, what they don’t and how a better product can be developed. Many people make a great living doing this, and if done well it can be very lucrative.

Market Samurai

Finally, the best and most valuable tool I continue to use today, is Market Samurai. This is not a free tool but when you consider the time it saves and the benefits it brings it is definitely one of the most valuable tools available to businesses that understand they need a strong online presence to succeed. Basically this tool allows you to investigate the market of your potential business, study the competition, choose the best keywords, monitor your business website ranking, assist with your website content and help your publicise and make money from what you do. They even give helpful tutorials to make sure if you don’t know what you’re doing then you can learn. It’s one of the best investments I’ve made and it continues to shape my online journey on a daily basis and saves me a heap of time.

Once you’re satisfied you are on the right track you can think about ways of generating an income without chaining yourself to a desk. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Find a Job:

Unexpected I know, but a temporary job or local seasonal employment may be all you need to keep your bank balance healthy while you enjoy your new nomadic lifestyle, hang out more with your family, or fund your new freelance business through its development stage.

Entertain:

Can you play an instrument or do you have any entertainment skills?

There are many jobs available to those who can entertain and make people happy and they are often as free and flexible as the festivals that often host such acts.

As you will work near or with children it is advisable to have a certificate from the Criminal Records Bureau to hand for any potential employers, and even if you won’t be these are great for giving your service a sense of professionalism.

Alternatively you can simply play music or perform acts in town centres and at festivals in a more unofficial capacity. However, you may need to get permission from the land owner or local council to do this otherwise you may be moved on.

Write: 

There are a number of ways you can make a living if writing is your thing. You can:

Become a freelance writer and sell your work as you travel. There are many ways to do this including through People Per Hour, Freelancer and Odesk.

Set up a blog. This isn’t a get rich quick scheme, but if done properly it can produce a steady income. However, as there are so many elements to making money through a blog and ways it can be done the best thing to do is start from the beginning and invest in a training programme from an expert that can help you on your way quickly.

A course I recommend to those on a lean start-up budget is Rockstar Blogging. It is particularly suited to those who are at the beginning of earning money or wanting to get free stuff through their blog.

It has been put together by Miss Frugal Beautiful, who runs a very successful US website, and is great value for money. The aim of this course is to equip you with the specifics you need to gain some VIP action with your blog and traffic.

It shows you exactly how to pitch companies, grow your social media networks and earn income from reviews, giveaways and corporate sponsorships. This isn’t a get rich quick scheme, but if done properly it can produce a steady stream of free kit and extra income.

I was lucky enough to be involved in the development stage for this training course so I really know how much valuable information it gives you, which makes it your perfect guide to earning your first big score of freebies and income through your blog.

Click here to visit Rockstar Blogging and I have made some other recommendations for digital nomad tools and training here.

Set up a membership site. If you become an expert blogger and grow an engaged audience, you may want to make your blog into a membership site to offers premium content with a monthly fee, or asks for donations to keep the content rolling. There are simple plugins available for WordPress sites to help you do this (more on the WordPress plugins I recommend in a future post).

Produce and sell access to an online magazine about a subject you specialise in through issuu. Some VW Magazines I’ve had experience of that have got it right are AirMonkeys and Aircooled Classics.

Publish and sell an instructional book or fictional story as an eBook. A brilliant independent publishing house for this is Smashwords. It’s free as they only take a small percentage of your sales so there are no up-front fees. If you don’t like the idea of just offering electronic books then you can organise pay on demand paperback books at Lulu.

Give your opinion and Write reviews for places you visit or products you use. These don’t earn much but if you get in the habit they can help pay the bills. You can also be paid for filling out surveys too. Be warned though there are a few rogue sites doing this so be careful and make sure you do your research before handing any personal or payment details over.

Sell Your Photographs:

Are you good at taking pictures? Have you ever thought of selling them? Rather than spreading them for free all over Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter (who may sell them on your behalf and not give you a percentage), you may want to sell them through a stock agency instead. The most popular are Shutterstock, Fotolia and iStock Photo.

If you’d like a more tips to help you improve your photographs to sell them, take a look at these simple tips from an expert and useful photography and video apps.

Teach:

If you have a knack at getting your point across think about teaching through schemes such as TEFL that allow you to get paid very reasonable fees while keeping your working life flexible.

Build An App:

With the development of mobile devices apps have never been in such high demand. However, don’t be fooled into thinking you need to be a computer programmer to do this. All you actually need is a great idea. Then with investment in an app developer this could help you bring in a very nice regular income. If you’re not scared of a bit of code then you could even do it yourself. Nathan Barry can show you how.

Sell your skills online:

If you have a skill then you can guarantee that someone, somewhere will want to pay you money for you to help them out. It may be graphic design, article writing, web design, office skills, photography, business advice, crafts, gifts, etc. The key is making the connection with the person who wants your skills or needs your expertise. This is where websites such as 99Designs, Odesk, Etsy and PeoplePerHour can help out.

Sell your products online:

If you have a product that can be easily sold while you are on the road, then websites such as eBay and Amazon are perfect for bringing in a regular income. If you make your own products then Etsy is perfect.

Be creative:

If your roadtrip is interesting enough with a lot of positive outcomes, it may be an interesting concept to start a Kickstarter Project. This is where projects can request donations for funding. I interviewed Allie Bombach who successfully achieved funding for her Airstream camping project through Kickstarter.

What do you think? Have I missed out any vital digital nomad income streams. Let me know in the comments box below.

Smiles – Sarah x 

Picture Credits: Inspired Camping and 23 Feet

But we all have pressures to pay regular bills, so for many this is just a hopeful pipe dream… or is it?

Wikipedia defines a Digital Nomad as:

… individuals that leverage digital technologies to perform their work duties, and more generally conduct their lifestyle in a nomadic manner. Such workers typically work remotely—from home, coffee shops and public libraries to collaborate with teams across the globe.

It seems that technology has suddenly developed enough to do just that and it’s happening everywhere. As Timothy Ferriss pointed out in his book about escaping the 9-5 there is no need to wait for your retirement and every reason not to.

Have you ever wondered what you would do and where you would go if you could fund a nomadic lifestyle… even just for a short time?

Would you use the opportunity to be at home more with your family, would you travel or would you just seek out a better lifestyle?

Here are my top 5 tips from what I have discovered so far to help you with your own nomadic journey.

[hr]

Believe In Your Digital Nomad Dream And Start Planning It Today

This will give you focus and motivation to striving for your dream. Think about the detail, visualise it and plan it. Think about where you would like to be in 1.. 2.. 3.. years time and what you will need to do and learn to get there. Plot this on a wall chart and put it somewhere you can see it daily. It is also worth getting your family involved in your endeavours. If they understand what you are trying to achieve and why, they will be more likely to support you.

Pay Off Your Debts

Start by reducing what you owe. This will help to reduce your stress and allow you to focus on what you need to do to achieve your dream nomadic lifestyle.

Investigate Ways Of Saving Money

Being a digital nomad can be expensive at first. Setting up a remote office and sourcing your equipment can cost more than you have. However, with extra planning there is always money to be saved and grants available for certain types of activities.

Think Of Different Ways To Earn A Living As A Digital Nomad

Take stock of your skills and experience. Any skill in demand can be useful and you can often get a good idea about what you do that others need by thinking about what people (friends and family included) most often ask you for. This can be anything from writing letters, listing things on Ebay, writing resumes or teaching others different skills.

Make sure you have a varied portfolio with different income streams, so when one dips another will hopefully support you, and take the time to set everything up properly. For example, build an image of trust for whoever may want to use your expertise. Have professional business cards and a resume with references to hand. If you’re tight on time then there are always services such as Vistaprint, Moo and The Resume Writing Service to help you. If you think a particular skill would be useful to you, then get the training at the beginning of your venture. Finally make sure you automate as much as possible and have everything you need easily accessible online. After all, that’s what being a digital nomad is all about.

Get A Plan ‘B’

Thinking of how to fund a nomadic lifestyle is only a small part of gaining location independence. Being a nomad isn’t for everyone. It’s important to be prepared about what life is like as a freelancer and how much work is actually involved. From experience I can say you should think about how much money you want to make and reduce it by half, and think about how much work is involved and double it. So a plan ‘B’ is needed if  it doesn’t quite work out for you.

In my next post I’ll be exploring the potential income streams available to digital nomads during this Internet working revolution.

See you on the site soon.

Smiles… Sarah x

Go Here For Digital Nomad Part 2

Much can be learnt from others and this is why we contacted Allan McDonald from EQUIPnTRIP. Allan hasn’t even started his leap into the freelance world yet, but this hasn’t stopped him from making astounding progress in preparation for his transition. In my interview with him he explains:

• Why its so important to follow your interests when starting a new business;
• How to get ready to move from paid employment to freelance work;
• The importance of networking, networking, networking!
• How you can use a social media following to boost your business;
• The importance of thinking it through and making a robust business plan.

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What is your business called and what industry is it in?

We are presently establishing an Internet-based business covering several outdoor interests we’re passionate about.

Our brand name came about in an unconventional way. We planned to research outdoor market segments to understand the state of the market and find gaps that offered business opportunities.

Establishing a brand right from the start proved to be a smart decision. Using our brand as we researched and connected with people online exposed the brand to thousands of social media users.

Three years ago we established the brand name EQUIPnTRIP and the tag line “sharing outdoors knowledge”. The branding is descriptive enough to allow viewers to understand that it has something to do with the outdoors. Yet, it is broad enough to allow us to choose from a wide range of topics.

We engaged a graphic designer to design our logo that we modified to also use as an avatar. We use the branding wherever we have a social media presence on the Internet.

Whilst conducting research we identified gaps in the outdoors market that mirror our passion for the outdoors. Later this year we’ll launch the EQUIPnTRIP online community for outdoors enthusiasts.

What motivated you to start your freelance business?

Several considerations drive our motivation.

After 40 years in the workforce we have a growing desire to shape our own destiny by running our own business.

Our children are now adults and we have financial capacity to transition from full-time to part-time employment that will allow us time to commit to building the online community until it becomes financially viable.

We wish to remain active and don’t want to stop working for several years.

We enjoy independent travel and wish to share our experience and skills with others.

We enjoy meeting people whilst we travel and on the Internet.

Tell us more about your business, what it is you do, and (if it isn’t totally clear for readers) how you earn your income.

Our business is in the development stage and is yet to generate revenue.

The primary focus of our business is building an online community for outdoor enthusiasts to connect and share their knowledge and experience with other community members.

A secondary focus of the business is to offer consulting services, as freelancers, to businesses that sell outdoors related products and services and wish to enhance their online social media presence.

In time we intend increasing our own independent travel that will provide useful content to the online community. As an Internet-based business we will be able to manage the online community from anywhere we have an Internet connection. Likewise, we will be able to provide freelance consulting services whilst we are travelling.

We are clear about the need for our business to generate revenue but it’s not our main consideration for the first year. Initially we will concentrate on building the community.

From year two our business plan sees revenue being earned from a range of sources including advertising, sponsorships or ambassadorships and product sales. In year three we will also start offering our skills as freelance consultants.

What is a typical day in your work life like?

My wife and I have backgrounds in face-to-face sales, business development, marketing and account management. We are both presently employed full time in sales and business development roles.

EQUIPnTRIP has been an after-hours activity for the last three years. For several years before that I enjoyed reading outdoors forum threads and articles. The transition to researching for EQUIPnTRIP was effortless as I did the same reading but with more rigour around research, workflow and making connections on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube

I presently spend one to two hours per day undertaking activities associated with EQUIPnTRIP. With a passion for the outdoors I’ve found research and making social media connections fun and relaxing.

As EQUIPnTRIP comes online, our emphasis will change as we commit more time to building the online community. In time, we’ll commence transitioning from full-time to part-time employment to allow us to commit more time to EQUIPnTRIP.

An example of the luxury camping information sharing undertaken by EQUIPnTRIP

What have been your biggest successes so far and what was the main catalyst for achieving them?

Our biggest success is yet to come but we have had some successes to date.

Beyond research to make social connections

Several online sources recommend blogs address a narrow topic. This was in contrast to our own interests in the outdoors that are broad and cover a range of associated topics. We believed that there must be others who also have similar broad interests in outdoor topics.

We could have conducted passive research on the Internet and probably never verified that others also have broad interests in the outdoors. Our first success was realising that people who engage on social media generally have interests in a range of associated topics.

The catalyst was our decision to “actively” research by connecting with others using social media tools. Whilst undertaking research we find interesting posts on blogs and websites about several topics of interest. We bookmark and tag those posts using Diigo, an online bookmarking service.

We then promote the posts to several social media platforms and in return we receive direct comments from our connections and from metrics of the numbers of people who click through to the posts. This provides us valuable feedback about what posts are of interest to people and proved that readers generally have wide interests in the outdoors that go beyond the narrow topics recommended for blogs.

Verifying that many people have broad interests changed our approach from a blog with a narrow topic to deciding to build an online community that will cover several topics of associated interest for community members.

Achieving our goal triggered action
The second success was reaching 10,000 social media connections. This was achieved without a blog or website and having never published any of our own content.

Early in our research we decided that if we reached 10,000 social media connections then we should start our online business.

We recently reached our goal. If just one percent of our 10,000 connections join the EQUIPnTRIP online community then we’ll start the community with one hundred members; a fantastic way to kick start an online community.

What have been your biggest challenges and what have you done to overcome them?

We had two main challenges.

Challenge One: Moving beyond our comfort zone
The first challenge was moving from active research to implementing the online community. We were in our comfort zone conducting research and making connections where there is no commitment to anyone. It’s also easy to fall into the trap of analysis paralysis where you endlessly analyse your metrics without committing to the next step.

Setting a goal to take action when we reached 10,000 social media connections was an important target for us. We were receiving about 100 new connections per week so it was easy to calculate when we would reach 10,000. As we neared 10,000 we started preparing an implementation plan that we are now executing.

Challenge Two: Adopting an evolutionary approach
The second challenge was finding the gaps in the market that offered a business opportunity and deciding which gaps to act on.

No-one wants to start a business and fail. We wanted to ensure that we started our business with the right focus. This proved to be a roadblock to us because we couldn’t decide which gap in the market was the “right one that guaranteed success.

We also knew that an online business gave us the flexibility to fine tune or change direction at minimal cost and effort. Eventually we flipped out thinking and decided to approach the EQUIPnTRIP online community as an evolving experiment.

Having this mind set will allow us to actively listen and encourage community members to contribute ideas about direction, focus and development of the online community. Importantly, the platform we will have the flexibility to support this approach.

Adopting an evolutionary and consultative approach to working with our community has freed us from much of the concern we had about trying to ensure we had the right focus from the start.

What have you discovered are the best ways of attracting new clients?

Regularly posted quality content At this stage our clients are the people we have established social media connections with and others who follow EQUIPnTRIP but have not connected.

We’ve found that people like regular, quality information on the subject/s they’re interested in. We put in place a workflow that takes the best posts we find and promotes them on various social media platforms.

We publish links to these quality posts four times a day. Research on Twitter use advises that publishing at around 4.15 pm increases the number of people reached. Therefore, we publish at 4.15pm for the UK, US west coast, US east coast and Australian east coast.

Reputation and credibility
In three years we have promoted over 4,000 posts on social media platforms. Over this time we believe that we have built a reputation and credibility in the eyes of many of people we are connected with. They can rely on our posts being regular, offer quality information and are interesting.

The 10,000 connections we have established comprise outdoors enthusiasts, bloggers and outdoors businesses with an online presence.

How do you manage to stay an inspired freelancer and keep motivated?

Having an interest in the field and an open mind to learning new things helps to maintain motivation. I’ve never considered it a chore spending time finding useful outdoors information and sharing it with like-minded people. As we find information we’re also learning more about the outdoors.

Obtaining comments, feedback and thanks also helps to stay motivated. We regularly receive all three from those we are connected with.

Finally, we are motivated to shape our own destiny by eventually leaving our current paid employment to become self-employed running the online community and offering consulting services as freelancers.

What, in your opinion, is the main benefit of being freelance?

Freelance work offers variety. Businesses operate in different ways and engage freelancers for a variety of assignments. The variety offers the freelancer the opportunity to not only apply their skills in slightly different ways to meet the needs of each assignment but also allows the freelancer to learn and broaden their skills.

If you were to do it all again what would you do differently?

Within 12 months of starting our research for EQUIPnTRIP we had a reasonable idea for our focus although we hadn’t identified the gaps in the market at that stage. We would have achieved greater brand exposure by starting a blog as a “home base” and fine tuning its focus as we progressed our research.

A home base on the Internet is a website or blog where your brand, products and services are displayed. Social media tools such as Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube and Facebook are “outposts” that should connect to your home base.

Chris Brogan coined the term “home base” and Darren Rowse at ProBlogger describes a home base and outposts in this post.

What are your top 3 tips for others wanting to follow a similar freelance path to yourself?

Tip One: Conduct research Research is essential to gain an understanding about your target market and to discover where the market opportunities exist. From your research you want to find at least one gap in the market that you can fill.

Your research should also reveal that you should develop your backstory to describe how you arrived in your current position or how it lead to your product/s being developed. Your backstory should be authentic and resonate with your readers. It may also connect to how you can solve the problem of your customer or improve their business.

Tip Two: Have a plan
Even a rudimentary plan is better than no plan. When you start your research you don’t need a business plan but your research should aim to answer questions that allow you to complete a business plan.

Goals should act as triggers to prompt you to move to the next stage. Set goals that are realistic and help to maintain forward momentum. When you reach a goal you should be confident to act and move on to the next planned stage.

Tip Three: Evolutionary thinking
Freelancers often work in fields that are specialised and continuously evolving. Businesses typically employ core skills to operate their business. They hire freelancers for their specialised skills that are outside of their core business skills and are used to meet a specific short term need.

To remain competitive a freelancer must continue to learn and keep abreast of the evolving developments in their field of expertise.

What are the top 3 tools you use that help you achieve what you do?

Our top three tools are information management tools. They are:

RSS reader – until recently we used Google Reader but from mid 2013 it will be decommissioned by Google. We’re now trialling Feedly and gReader to see which of these RSS readers will best meet our needs.

Diigo – an online bookmarking service to catalogue, tag and publish via RSS feed all the great content we find.

Hootsuite – for managing social media connections and publishing to Twitter, Google+, Tumblr and other social platforms.

What do you think is the next big thing in your industry?

The way businesses engage with each other and the way information is consumed will both continue to evolve and are important to our online business interest.

Business to business
Most businesses don’t have the wherewithal to establish a viable online presence that attracts an audience, subscribers or membership.

Blogs, forums, websites and online communities build audiences, subscribers or membership that are attractive marketing channels to businesses that wish to sell their products and services.

New business models will emerge that support partnerships and collaboration between businesses that wish to gain access to consumers, and online businesses that have those consumers in the form of audiences, subscribers and members.

Consuming Information
People will continue to seek out quality online information on topics of interest to them. They will also continue to use the Internet to connect with friends, peers and others who have similar interests. Their buying decisions will be influenced by what their connections buy and recommend.

Online communities provide an environment where people can consume quality information, make connections and research buying decisions and recommendations of their connections.

What’s next on the horizon for you?

There are two goals:

2013 – Launch the EQUIPnTRIP online community

2015 – transition to full time work on the EQUIPnTRIP online community and offering freelance consulting services.

Readers are welcome to contact us via: About Me, and Google+

Huge thanks goes to Allan McDonald for a fantastic and informative interview, and Brent McDonald for the brilliant photograph of Allan.

There are key things in my remote office toolbox that I simply could not do without. All of them give me the flexibility to work wherever and whenever I like. When I’m with my family, at the beach, at the park or in the campervan, I can take my office with me and everything fits nicely inside one small backpack. So to help you with your own location independence I’m going to share with you my top 5 remote office tips to help you become a digital nomad and entrepreneur.

Get A Solar Backpack

I use the Voltaic solar backpack, so I know I’ll have power for all my gadgets when I need it. The 3 solar panels on the bag either charge directly or store power in a battery ready for the next time I need it. I love to visit the beach in my campervan and walk my dog so while I’m doing this I can also charge my ipad and iphone ready for when I need to use them. It has so many adaptors  – USB cables, etc, it can charge most handheld electronics. It also helps me feel earth friendly while I’m doing it, which for me is an added bonus.

Get A Smart Phone

I’ll be amazed if you don’t already have one as this is my number one most used remote office tool. My personal preference is the iPhone, but I understand from others that the other Android phones,etc. are now catching up with Apple’s technology. Personally I’m an Apple Mac girl, as their products are so intuitive for me, and I also find that having an iPhone in my backpack means I have hundreds of tools rolled into one. For example, I always use the camera in the phone and edit my pictures using Camera Bag before uploading them. I also use a multitude of other photo apps I’ve summarised here. As an added tip, I often us the camera to scan and send documents by photographing them and emailing the files.

The added bonus of an iPhone is if you have a contract that gives you an unlimited data bundle you can tether your phone to your laptop, which acts as your Internet receiver. This gives you Internet access that is often better than the speeds people often get from their home wifi.

Get Your Data Storage Sorted

As I’ve already explained, I’m an Apple girl so this task is simple for me. I use the iCloud, but there are many other options too, such as the Amazon Digital Cloud, and these are only going to increase as data storage becomes more and more popular and necessary. I also use a GDrive slim to backup my computer harddrive, just in case the unthinkable happens.

Learn To Love Google

Not only are they one of the largest search engines in the world, but they are also one of the biggest providers of free and paid-for tools to help inspired freelancers. For example, within Google+, their new social media and business expanding tool, you will find an ability to organise a ‘Hangout’. These ‘hangouts’ are similar to the paid-for Skype version, but with one vital difference… they are free and easier to use. With the ‘hangout’ tool you can chat to people on the other side of the world, listen to their music, share and work on documents together, share ideas, give presentations, train others and the list goes on. I have managed to generate a healthy income training individuals using Google+ hangouts as my venue.

Another fantastic tool they offer for free is their analytics. I can not urge you enough to get fully acquainted with this tool in relation to your online presence as it allows you to identify your audience, their interests, what they like about you, what they don’t and what they may want from you in the future.

Automate, Automate, Automate!

A freelancers time is precious, and in order for you to get to the beach as often as possible you need to automate as much as possible. This is actually easier than you might think and there are tools to do this when thinking about social media (Tweetdeck), selling advertising space on your website (CrankyAds), earning money online (Adsense), posting articles (WordPress Scheduling tools), sending out correspondence to customers (Mailchimp), etc, etc. I personally try to automate as much as possible, apart from being social where I think the personal touch is essential in order to make strong connections with your audience.

So what do you think of my remote office tools? Do you have any others you would add to the list? Let me know in the comments section below… I’d love to hear from you.

Sarah