A Guest post by Milosh Zorica
portfolio – http://www.coroflot.com/miloshz
Being a design consultant allowed me to travel a lot. Most often all you need is a laptop and a decent Internet connection. Some other tools might be needed as well. Traveling is not luxury affordable only by the richest. Well, no more. Just about anyone who can perform their work using Internet and phone can become a nomad.
There are different ways how freelancer can become a nomad without loosing their freedom. Reason most of us are both, freelancers and nomads.
The first one is by landing contract work in country you’d love to live and work. Contract might be either project-based or time-fixed. They last from a few weeks to more than a year. Such contracts are widely available in the industries like game and multimedia/interactive/web. Even though you’re on the road you’ll be living in the same place and having daily routine. Sure, in different scenery and with amazing experiences. Very important advantage is that most likely you wouldn’t be involved in client-handling so you’ll avoid issues that arise. Your network – expanded! Gained experience – priceless! The best way to discover a country or a city is by working there. Professionals with international business experience and multicultural knowledge are highly demanded nowadays.
The second one is by working for your clients (back home and scattered world-wide alike). If you can maintain the same level of reliability and quality of services regardless of location and Time Zone, freelancing on the road is something you might consider. Unlike contract work it’s more demanding and you need longer extensive preparation at an early stage. Quite often you’ll wonder more on where you can find wi-fi hotspot than museum/gallery/nightclub. On the other side it gives you freedom whether you’d love to work from a café in New York, sandy beach in Puerto Plata or a cozy wooden house in Irkutsk. Sure, as long as you have connection (wi-fi, 3G, EDGE, cable, ADSL, LAN, etc.). How the clients will react is way individual. In my case it was mostly from sympathetic to envious (sure, in a positive way). Honestly for a while I was even hiding the fact I don’t work in an office but a hotel room, café, friend’s apartment/office, library or you just name it. Gregory Moulinet is even branding his business based on being a nomad. So far it goes well for both, thank God.
There are plenty of other ways how you can make money to support your travel while utilizing skills and knowledge you have and most important – your imagination! I’ve just mentioned two most often, with what I have an extensive experience!
Various issues are to be considered and resolved. But, it’s highly rewarding!
Useful links:
http://www.nunomad.com
http://www.workingnomad.com
Where Neo-Nomads Ideas Percolate
How startups go global
Going Bedouin
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6 Comments
Thanx for the nice article. You seem to be at the forefront of this trend, as it seems to be the not-so-distant future of design, especially web design. Quality will prevail, location is irrelevant, similar to what is web-hosting nowdays. Thank you Internet, laptop, wireless, low-cost air airlines. Global Village, here we come.
Nice article,
I am glad that the internet is allowing people to live the lifestyle they have always dreamed about.
My only concerns would be customer service and quality of work, the best clients want long-term relationships. I personally would shy away from hiring a nomadic freelancer unless it was for a specific, time limited project that had no potential for future development.
As for finding work its probably best to concentrate on the big cities like London as unfortunately that is where most of the work is.
As i’m sitting reading your blog I am on vacation in Orlando Florida. I love the fact that I work for myself and am by the pool working on some clients projects.
It’s not easy but it’s not a bad life.
Great post rock on!
Very interesting post! I only discovered this website 30 minutes ago and am loving it already.
I have a dilemma about wanting to travel after I graduate and was hoping you could give me some advice on the matter. Im in my final year studying Visual Communication at Birmingham City University (Formerly UCE).
Part of me feels traveling after graduation is the right time too as I’ll have no responsibilities, nothing tying me down. I feel that if I go straight into a career then the rest will follow: marriage, kids etc then I will have missed my chance.
The other part of me thinks it’s risky because when I come back I will have lost touch with what’s going on in the industry, I’ll have a whole load of new graduates to compete with and I’ll find it hard to start looking for a job.
Yet I’ll still have my portfolio and I have heard that travelling can look credible on a CV? As it requires lots of organisation, determination and you learn a lot about yourself.
So I’m confused as what to do, and lately have been asking all kinds of people from the industry, who have gone travelling and have not, for their advice.
So do you think its wise to travel, take a year out after graduation? Or should I make the most of my new degree and get out there?
Hi Liam
To be honest, I don’t know, it is hard to get a job when you have just graduated I remember. Isn’t there anyway you could tie in graphics with traveling, maybe try and get some design work experience in different countries? Maybe someone else has taken a year out and could advise how it worked out for them.