Virtual Jobs for Working Nomads and the Benefits of the Digital Nomad Lifestyle

Are you sick of your 9-5? Do you have a lengthy and early-morning commute? Do you have to dress up in business professional for work every day? Are you sick of living for your two weeks of vacation time every year? Do you envy the lives of working nomads you follow on Instagram?

Listen sis – if you don’t like it…CHANGE 👏🏻 IT 👏🏻

You found this post for a reason. Clearly, you’re unhappy in your career right now and it’s time to make a change. If you’re honestly ready to make that change, then joining the ranks of working nomads might be the right call for you. Keep reading for the benefits of the digital nomad lifestyle and virtual jobs for working nomads!

Itching to transition to the digital nomad lifestyle right away? Skip the post – enter your information below and download my FREE guide, “The Best Remote Jobs for Digital Nomads.”

The Pros of the Digital Nomad Lifestyle

If you’re reading this, it probably doesn’t come as a shock to you that there are many pros to the digital nomad lifestyle. Although there are countless benefits of being your own boss, I’ve listed a few of my favorites below.

The Ability to Set Your Schedule

In my opinion, the biggest benefit that us working nomads enjoy is the ability to set your own hours. Some days I start work at 9AM and work until 10PM, some days I work 9-5PM and some days I work an hour. It depends on how much work I have, if I have important deadlines to meet and, some days (let’s be brutally honest here), if I’m nursing a brutal hangover or not.

The biggest piece of advice I can offer you, when you have complete flexibility over your schedule, is try to keep your clients informed. Yes – you can decide to take a spontaneous day off – but if you make a habit out of that, you’ll get a reputation for being a bit unreliable. It’s better to schedule your time off in advance and let your clients know ahead of time.

It’s important to keep in mind, when deciding whether to join the ranks of working nomads or not, that you need to have a high level of self-discipline. Although the flexibility of the digital nomad life is a HUGE perk, you need to actually DO the work or else – newsflash – you won’t make any money.

Live Anywhere in the World

The next biggest perk that working nomads get to enjoy is the freedom to live anywhere in the world! So far, I’ve lived in Florence, Italy; Roatán, Honduras; and Southeast Asia.

Although for the most part, the world is your oyster, there are a few factors to consider before packing up and moving abroad:

First and foremost is WIFI. Although you don’t need to move to the heart of Hong Kong…a log cabin in the remote areas of Greenland might be better saved for a long-weekend vacation than a home-base. A happy medium between the two will suffice. When determining if a city is a good fit for working nomads, I’ve found Facebook groups to be an invaluable resource. Nowadays, most tourist cities have Facebook groups where you can ask anything from “are there co-working spaces?” to “where is the nearest Sephora?”

The second factor to consider is TIMEZONE. If your clients expect you to complete scheduled tasks at a specific time each day, moving to a country with a 12+ hour difference in timezone is probably not going to be the best choice for you. If you’re a freelance writer with a couple projects each week and established deadlines, then timezone probably won’t matter to you at all! …Besides the occasional nighttime Zoom call.

Lastly, depending on your choice of remote jobs, you may want to factor in ease-of-shipping when choosing a destination. For example, it was extremely difficult for me to conduct brand collaborations (involving physical products) in Roatán since the average package took 2 months and cost $50 to ship to the island.

No Commute to Work

A simpler, but still awesome, pro that us working nomads enjoy is the lack of lengthy work commutes! When I lived in Roatán, most days, I worked from my living room desk. If I chose, I could take a five minute walk along the beach to my favorite coffee shop. Not a single part of me misses my 2-hour daily commute in Chicago traffic.

Basically, you might have a commute, but it’ll be your own choice.

No Dress Code

I work in pajamas. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I do. There ya go. You can too…just don’t forget to shower.

Freedom to Design Your Life

Being a digital nomad and owning my own business gives me the freedom to design my own life. I can design exactly what my week looks like. If I want to take off Monday and Tuesday to go scuba diving, I can do that. If I want to start work at noon and work until 10PM instead, there’s nothing stopping me. I especially love the feeling of choosing where to live next. It’s an incredibly freeing feeling and there’s nothing like it in the world.

The Ability to Say “No”

I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t very good at saying “No” at first. In the beginning, I was so happy to have clients that I just threw around “Yes” left and right, no matter the request.

Now that I’ve been an established Virtual Assistant for two years, I’ve learned the value of saying “No.” I’ve decided there are certain services that I don’t offer and I no longer feel guilty for declining the occasional client request (although I still go above-and-beyond to make my clients happy). The nice thing is that those decisions are 100% mine to make.

The Cons of the Digital Nomad Lifestyle

No job is perfect, and mine is no exception. To be completely transparent with you, the main cons of Virtual Assistant life are the lack of consistent income (which makes it difficult to budget) and the lack of health benefits.

The cons of being a digital nomad will greatly depend on which career you choose. They’ll also depend on your personality type. The life isn’t for everyone, but – if it’s for you – the cons will be worth it.

The Best Virtual Jobs for Working Nomads

So you’ve decided to join the ranks of working nomads all over the world – now what? The first (and most important) step is picking your job! There are plenty of great options to choose from, depending on your interests, availability and skill set. There are even some freelance options that can be done seasonally, for teachers or other seasonal workers looking to travel while still bringing in a steady income.

For the complete list FILLED with digital nomad job ideas and recommendations on how to get started, enter your information below to download my free guide, “The Best Remote Jobs for Digital Nomads.”

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Virtual Assistant

To give you a little preview of one of my favorite jobs on the list (not that I’m biased or anything), let’s start with the ins and outs of being a Virtual Assistant.

I started as a full-time Virtual Assistant two years ago, smack dab in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it was definitely a learning curve, I fell in love with freelancing instantly. After my first couple weeks, I knew deep down that I couldn’t go back to a traditional 9-5 after experiencing that level of freedom in my career.

Fast forward two years! I went from a single client and a small array of services I was qualified for – to working with seven clients simultaneously, having two amazing Virtual Assistants in my employ and offering a wide array of services to fit most of my clients’ needs. To learn…

• Which courses I took to learn the skills I use as a VA
• How I find clients
• The best programs that I can’t live without

..and more, head to my comprehensive post – “How to Get Clients as a Virtual Assistant.”

If you don’t think being a Virtual Assistant is for you – no worries, it’s not for everyone – make sure to enter your information below to download my free guide filled with tons of other ideas for working nomads. And, if you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy my related posts linked below.

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