How I became a digital nomad and have been travelling for 2+ years.
The digital nomad lifestyle is one that’s highly sought after, and for good reason too. Who wouldn’t want to work remotely and travel? Sounds like a dream right? This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and in 2020, I finally made it a reality. This was not only the year I started my marketing business, KW Creative, but it was also the year I sold most of my possessions, and started living a ‘nomadic’ lifestyle.
So if this is something you’re hoping to do as well, please read on. I’ll be sharing my digital nomad tips and tricks, how to get started, and the lessons I’ve learnt along the way.
P.s. If we haven’t met yet, my name is Kayla, and I’m a digital nomad originally from Perth, Western Australia. 👋🏽
What is a digital nomad?
You might be familiar with the term “nomad” — describing someone who has no permanent home, and who travels from place to place. Naturally with the rise of technology and an increase in pandemic inspired remote working environments, the 21st century has birthed a new, modern type of nomad — the digital nomad. A digital nomad is someone who, in most cases, isn’t tied to one location, and primarily works online or remotely. Hence, a digital nomad is someone lives a ‘nomadic’ lifestyle and executes their work ‘digitally’.
What are the benefits of a being a digital nomad?
There’s a reason why so many people are choosing to switch to the digital nomad lifestyle. In fact, according to recent figures collected in 2022, 35 million people globally identified as a member of the digital nomad community. Some benefits of being a digital nomad and generally working remotely/online include:
Flexibility — choosing when you want to work. This is especially true for those digital nomads (like myself) who are self-employed. We can choose when we want to open up our laptops, when to take breaks and of course, when we want a holiday.
Travel — being a digital nomad gives you the freedom to choose where you work from. As a digital nomad, you’re not tied to one location, so you can choose to work from cafes, co-working offices, Airbnbs, hotels or half way across the world. You can quite literally strike your own balance between work and travel.
Join a community of like-minded people — the digital nomad community is huge. Just try searching for “digital nomad” in Facebook’s Groups section and you’ll have an endless list of options. There are so many people in the same boat and it’s nice to know there are others out there with similar interests, challenges and tips to share.
What type of work can you do as a digital nomad?
Unfortunately, not every job lends itself to being adaptable to a digital nomad lifestyle. This is because the main requirement for a digital nomad job is the digital aspect. If you’ll be travelling (or away from your home country) and are planning to work, then your job must be adaptable to an online environment. Take a dentist for example. It would be highly challenging to adapt this business/role to an online-only business and for you to work remotely. However, it would be possible to be a business owner, hire other dentists and staff, and manage the business remotely.
For many people who are employed by businesses, becoming a digital nomad can also be a challenge, as often these companies have their own working environment rules and restrictions. Maybe this is why 83% of digital nomads are self-employed, while 17% are employed by companies as remote workers. Because when you’re your own boss, you can (theoretically) call the shots.
So what type of work can you do as a digital nomad? In fact, the roles which take up 51% of all digital nomad professions include marketing, computer sciences/IT, design, writing, and eCommerce type jobs.
Data as of 2022 and from this source.
How can I get started as a digital nomad?
If you’re ready to live your best digital nomad life, I applaud you! For me, I began the ‘nomading’ part of my journey, before the ‘digital’ part. In March 2020, I quit my full-time marketing job in the hopes of spending at least 6 months in Europe travelling (and not working). But Covid had other plans.
I had already given my employer my notice, and they had replaced me, so my now husband and I decided to stick to our guns and explore our own backyard — Western Australia. We packed ourselves into 2 suitcases, and began our travelling journey around the southwest of WA (after our local Covid travel restrictions were lifted). It wasn’t until about 9 months later that I sort of ‘fell into’ a freelancing job and began offering marketing services online to businesses in Australia.
It may sound strange, but while I was working remotely, I wouldn’t really classify my working arrangement as a ‘digital nomad’. I was still working from home, in my home country, and visiting clients face-to-face. Fast forward to April of 2022 (more than 1 year of already operating my own business) I finally took the leap to go “full digital nomad”, and took KW Creative international.
Getting started as a digital nomad doesn’t have to be complicated, but I do strongly recommend you do your research. This way, you can work out whether the digital nomad lifestyle is something you really want to work towards.
Things to consider:
Employee VS business owner? First, work out if you want to run your own business or work for someone else. Depending on your industry and field, it may be more difficult to find a job that allows for remote work, especially in different time zones. If starting your own business is an option, and you are seeking the digital nomad lifestyle, you may want to consider it. As a business owner/sole trader myself, and after having worked with so many other business owners, I know how much time/effort/work goes into running your own business, so I wouldn’t suggest starting one with the sole purpose of being a digital nomad. That said, this advice should be taken generally, and a business advisor could be better suited to give you advice in this specific area.
What type of work/travel arrangement do you want? Do you want to stay in your home country and work remotely from home? Or would you like to travel as well?
Consider your long and short term business/career goals. How long do you want to be a digital nomad for? Will you work for a short period of time or is it something you want to continue doing for many years?
Consider your health and health requirements. Every country will differ when it comes to healthcare and depending on your requirements, you may need certain medications or healthcare services. I would research your desired country and learn more about their system before securing any long term visas. Travel insurance is also a must-have and something I advise all travellers should get before they leave their home country.
Look into where you want to travel to and work from, and the country’s visa requirements. Once you know how long you want to be a digital nomad for, you can start to research digital nomad and travel/work visas. A few European countries are actually beginning to bring out “digital nomad visas” however visa requirements vary from country to country. For me, I travelled to a few European cities and countries first as a tourist before deciding where I’d like to base myself.
Consider your finances. This is a big one. I always try to keep some “emergency funds” in my bank account just in case, however if you’re wanting to become a digital nomad, it’s super important to live within your means. There are many costs associated with travelling and working, like transport/flights, accommodation, entertainment, food and more. So ensuring you have a steady income stream (or lots of savings) can really help ease the pressures. I also have soooo many suggestions on cost-saving travel tips, but I think I’ll have to write a separate post about that.
Internet and staying connected online. A major part of being a digital nomad, is making sure you can complete your work. You’ll want to make sure you have good internet coverage wherever you go — whether that’s with wifi or an international mobile / device data plan. To read about my thoughts on the best travel SIMs for Europe, you can read this post.
Time zones. Lastly, this isn’t a biggie (at least not for my type of work) but you may want to consider the time zone difference wherever you are going to be. It may mean you read emails later in your work day or are slower to respond to colleagues. Meetings may also be scheduled at different hours for you now — for example, when I was working from France, I was scheduling meetings for 6am my time (which was 1pm Australia Western Standard Time).
What does my future digital nomading look like?
All in all, if you want to (and have the opportunity to) become a digital nomad and work remotely, I say go for it. For me, my digital nomad journey has now been more than 2 years of travelling my home country and Europe (combined). As I write this post right now, I’m back in my hometown, Perth (Western Australia). I plan to stay a few months before jet-setting off back to Europe again. I’m also waiting for a new digital nomad visa to be released for Spain, which I hope will mean I can continue nomading for a while.
Some of you may also know that I have been travelling with my husband who is just beginning his journey as a digital nomad. Our goal right now is to both secure remote work as digital nomads, and meanwhile, pursue our passion for travelling and exploring all the amazing places this world has to offer.
