With Instagram libraries full of exotic work locations and thousands of articles online describing a life of pure freedom, the life of a nomadic entrepreneur seems perfect. There’s no boring hour-long commute, no monotonous work environment that constricts creativity, and no carefully planned vacations once or twice a year. Why be cooped up in an office in the middle of a busy city when your office could be a cafe in Cancun or the peak of a mountain in the Swiss Alps?
Well, the reality is a little more complicated. Being a digital nomad is a truly unique experience, but a lot of the downsides aren’t well-known except to people that have done or are doing it. Let’s dive into the pros and cons of living a location-independent lifestyle as an entrepreneur.
The Pros
It’s not hard to find the pros of being a digital nomad; the internet is swamped with them! Here are the top reasons people live this unique lifestyle:
Pro #1: Life Comes First, Work Comes Second
When you aren’t bound by a location, you get to live your life to the fullest every single day. Why spend a week in a country saved to your Pinterest boards when you can spend a month there? Right after your work shift ends, you can close your laptop and head out to beaches, city streets, or mountain trails. You don’t have to compromise on life experiences to build up your business.
Pro #2: Your Office Can Be Anywhere
When it comes to stimulating creativity and productivity, location can be everything. An office with an unimpeded view of the skyscraper across the street can’t compare to beaches overlooking crystalline waters, vistas at mountain peaks, or cafes in exotic cities. Wherever you want to work, you can work!
Pro #3: Work With a Diverse International Team
When you don’t have a team that’s bound by a location, you aren’t limited to your local talent pool. You can rely on incredible professionals from all over the globe to grow your brand. Plus, you’ll create a powerful international network that you can rely on for the rest of your career.
Pro #4: Save Money on Work Expenses
Not needing an office does more than just allow you to travel all the time. It also means you don’t have to waste money on renting office space, gas and maintenance for driving to and from work, or public transportation tickets. The only thing you need to pay for is software tools for businesses, your travel expenses to go to your next city, and remote work gadgets to stay connected and productive.
Pro #5: Save Money on Living Expenses
When you can live anywhere, you don’t have to live somewhere with a high cost of living. You can live in countries where monthly living expenses are less than a few hundred US dollars. Instead of just keeping you housed and fed, traveling on a budget allows you to use your money for unforgettable life experiences. And if you’re only just starting a new business with a precarious future, saving as much money as possible is critical.
The Cons
Now for the part digital nomads don’t talk about. Living a location-independent lifestyle is hard and requires a lot of sacrifices. Here are the top struggles nomads have to deal with:
Con #1: Life Comes First, Work Comes Second
Wait, wasn’t this a pro? Yes — but life throws curveballs. Emergencies can happen when you live a quiet life in a single location, but when you are traveling constantly and living in new locations, they become a part of your weekly schedule. Be prepared to reschedule meetings because your hostel reservation wasn’t saved and you have to find a new place to sleep, you missed a train and have to hike four miles to make it to your plane on time, handle Visa problems at border checkpoints, or find Wi-Fi in a place with absolutely no reception.
Con #2: Your Office Will Be Anywhere
Tropical paradise will be your office. Huddled against the outside of a wall of a visitor center at the base of a Swiss mountain will also be your office, as will train stations, 20-hour bus rides, and unlit corners of dingy hostels. You can pick some of your work locations, but some will be picked for you. You’ll have to be prepared to work in a wide diversity of locations that do not match the #digitalnomad life you had expected.
Con #3: You Have To Coordinate With an International Team
Working with an international team is great, but it also introduces some pretty huge challenges that wouldn’t be a factor in a traditional office. The biggest is timezones. Meetings will have to be negotiated between team members based on what the least inconvenient time to meet is. Unfortunately, that may be 10 AM their time and 1 AM your time.
Another is that remote work is perfect for individual work, but can be draining for collaborative work. Being on a 3-hour Zoom meeting planning a presentation or project is a lot more exhausting and glitchy than gathering at a conference table. With an international team, virtual meetings are your only option.
Con #4: You Have No Community
While some can live perfectly fine with no face-to-face contact or local relationships, most people can’t. One of the first things digital nomads discover within weeks of arriving someplace new is that they are lonely. When you don’t have a central gathering place like an office, it’s very hard to build a community. That loneliness is exacerbated in countries where the spoken language isn’t one you understand, leaving you physically cut off from your established community and linguistically cut off from locals.
Embrace the Adventure of Location-Independent Living
So there you have it: the good, the bad, and the ugly of being a digital nomad. Enjoy vistas alongside bus terminals for work locations, save money in countries you need to argue with border control to enter, and forge remote professional relationships while managing loneliness outside of work hours. A location-independent lifestyle is a constant adventure for an entrepreneur, and only you can decide for yourself if its unique benefits are worth its equally unique downsides.
