Digital Nomad Entrepreneurship: Building a Startup While Traveling.

People quitting their job and living the nomad life has exploded in popularity since Covid. Learn how to navigate travelling the world while building a profitable business.

Here we’ll dive into business ideas to support the nomad life, what to look for when choosing a destination and how to maximise your business growth.

Heading abroad to build your start-up can work wonders for business growth while living a fulfilling lifestyle and exploring new places in your downtime.

As someone who has travelled to 16 different places in the last 12 months while running two businesses, I have put together some of the best advice I can for those aspiring to go on a similar journey.

What is a remote entrepreneur?

Remote entrepreneurship or digital nomadism is an easy and effective way of working in remote locations. This is an enterprise model where you can run your business from anywhere in the world without having to face any limitations.

Digital nomad business ideas

Firstly, you’ll need to decide on a business idea for your start-up. You should consider both the product/service itself and how it could be delivered remotely.

Agency.

Starting an agency is one of the most practical ways to enter the business. You can easily take your skills and experience or learn a new one if you have to, then package them up as a service to help other businesses.

The is to focus on something which provides a high value add such as SEO or UX design. If you can, go deeper and focus on a particular segment and become a master at that. Next up you need to find someone to sell your services to, again, the more niche the better. Focus on an industry which is lucrative and find a particular segment such as early-stage sass companies or 7-figure e-commerce businesses.

Ask yourself: “who can benefit the most from my service and pay me the most?” 

Saas.

Software as a service is one of the most lucrative and practical business models, purely business it’s easy to scale once you have a foundation. The downside is that it’s tricky to build a foundation: it can be expensive and time-consuming to build the software as well as acquire your first clients.

This route may not be ideal for beginners but if you can nail it, you’ll be rewarded. Keep a list of problems which irritate you, this is usually the best source of ideas for products to build out. If you’re technical, then you have a strong advantage to build a prototype and test it out. If not then you need to find someone who is.

Website flipping.

If you don’t have many ideas but have some cash to invest and knowledge of how to grow a business, you could consider purchasing a website or existing online business through places like microacquire.com.

What to look for is a whole different topic, but essentially you’re looking for something where you can add value and grow the existing income using a method which you’re familiar with. You can then keep the profits or sell the site again for profit.

Digital Products.

Digital Products are one of the most popular ways to make your first Dollar online because anyone can do so without permission. Simply take a topic in which you have experience and build out a course or how-to guide which you can sell.

The beauty is that you only build it once and it can generate revenue forever. That being said, this works best when you have a larger audience to sell at high volume and there is competition so make sure your work is high value.

Pros:

• Low barrier to entry.

• High-profit margin.

• Zero delivery work.

Cons:

• Works best with a large audience.

• High competition in popular fields.

• Can be time-consuming at the start.

Droppshipping.

Dropshipping has exploded in popularity in recent years. No longer do you have to have a physical expensive location and hold lots of stock in order to sell an item. With tools like Shopify and Amazon FBA, you can sell anything from your kitchen without ever seeing the product or customer in person.

Use tools like Exploding Trends .com to search for trending items which you can potentially sell. Then get to work on creating a site and your marketing strategy. Your content and ad strategy will be vital in order to stand out and drive traffic, so it can be worth investing in outside help if you don’t have experience.

Digital nomad tax.

Most people overlook tax because let’s be honest, it’s not the most exciting part. However, it can have a huge impact on your profit if you don’t get it right. When travelling abroad you can open yourself up to tax implications.

It’s advisable to get this right from the start so consider where you’ll register your company and pay taxes.

I would highly recommend hiring outside help for this. For example, as a UK citizen and business owner there, I’m required to be in the country for at least 30 days of the year (not consecutively) in order to maintain tax residence there. As my company is there it makes sense to still maintain my tax residence there so I bear this in mind when making travel plans.

Find local companies to advise and make sure you have a personalised plan.

Use your nomadic lifestyle to leverage your startup

The beauty of the Nomad lifestyle is that you can live a much higher quality of life if you’re earning in the western world but living in a developing country where the cost of living is much lower.

Use this to your advantage to invest in things which will have a positive impact on your health, business and overall well-being such as: regular massage, hiring a trainer and a meal-prepped service.

You’ll likely be around other like-minded business nomads which you might not have access to at home. Again use this to your advantage to network and fuel your ideas.

The environment is key for your fulfilment and productivity, so make the most of being somewhere completely different to your home town and don’t take it for granted.

Digital nomad entrepreneur essentials.

When choosing a place to visit and packing your bags, I highly recommend the following:

1. Reliable wifi.

2. Vibey coworking space.

3. Noise-cancelling headphones.

4. Nootropics and supplements (stock up before you leave).

5. Calm and clean living space.

6. International business/credit card.

7. Strong Nomad community.

Don’t be afraid to overpack and bring any home luxuries which add value to your life, as you may not be able to buy them where you’re going.

Sites such as Nomadlist.com are ideal for exploring destinations. You can also check out places such as nomadretreat.com which organise everything for you.

Top locations?

Tips for Digital Nomads:

Time zones: Understand if you’re required to be in a certain time zone. While Bali is one of the most popular places, it’s also way ahead of most other time zones which means late-night phone calls if you’re working out of the US or Europe.

Community: community is everything, you want to easily find friends but it will require effort such as going to events and putting yourself out there. In some places, it’s easier than in others. Get a feel online but check out any Facebook and Whatsapp groups to sense what the vibe is.

Safety: while some countries look beautiful on the outside, there can be a dark underside. It’s great to feel like you’re at home but you should be more careful in certain places. Research this beforehand and understand which areas to avoid. It’s always best to go in a group and be careful with your belongings.

Slow-mad > nomad: don’t fall into the trap of working on a different beach every two weeks. It’s not as glamorous as everyone makes out. Aim to be somewhere for at least 3 months so you can fully emerge into the local culture and establish a routine without disruption.

Packing list: start by packing for the climate you're visiting in terms of clothing and always bring your nomad tech and health essentials. You’ll likely pick up new things wherever you’re going so having extra space will help a lot.

Destinations: this is a hot topic and very personal. If you’re going on the Nomad Entrepreneur adventure for the first time, I would advise somewhere like Cape Town or Medellin. You’ll find many home comforts such as sleek apartments and coworking spaces + things like Uber eats. The community is one of the best aspects but you’ll still find amazing local culture and local scenery. Just be cautious of the safety aspect.

Enjoy the journey and make the most of it! Get out of your comfort zone and use this opportunity to learn about yourself and those around you. Take advantage of business networking, self-development courses, fitness classes or just a simple conversation with someone new. Try to look at obstacles as opportunities for growth.