Getting started as a nomad maker

It has never been easier to travel. You just have to visit Skyscanner.com and find tickets to dream lands far-away for less than 40 bucks. It mainly revolves around being time and location independent. Fortunately for makers, full-time or not, we usually can be both.

Anyone can become a nomad maker, but it is not for everyone. This is why the first and most essential step is to assess whether this lifestyle suits your individual needs or not.

Find your why

There are many good reasons to travel.

Most business owners tend to have a limited budget. It may feel counterintuitive, but under those constraints, you cannot afford not to travel. Relocating gives you room to breathe. For example, by relocating from Paris to South-East Asia, I cut my monthly costs by 50%. Instant double runway to make new products.

However, nomadism is a hugely demanding lifestyle in terms of self-knowledge. It takes a lot of self-control to implement the right routine for you to get the work done and stick to your new habits. Your environment will change every one to three months. If you are not capable to quickly adapt to those changes, your product will not make it out there. Travel is a double-edged sword: it can make or break your productivity.

Perhaps equally important: if you are an extrovert, chances are you will not make it in those conditions. Loneliness is the number 1 issue all digital nomads tend to face.

Do you think you have what it takes? Let’s see how you can get started and figure it out for yourself.

Start small

A lifestyle is just a set of habits to integrate in your daily life. And to build new habits, you have to start small. Digital nomadism is no different.

Find a city nearby in your home country. Relocate there for a week with your friends, your family, or your lover. Maximize your comfort zone, and start making. Feel how your body and mind react. To be able to build products efficiently, you will need a minimum of comfort. It is okay to go to backpackers hotels, but you will need a desk and a good-enough Wi-Fi. Do not underestimate the impact bad Wi-Fi can have: it can kill your productivity.

Get to know your limits

The more you experiment, the more you will get to know yourself. Learn about your limits.

How long can you sustain being in a given place? How about your social life? Do you manage to make new friends when you travel? Can you maintain a good work/life balance? How about your family and friends? How long before you miss them? And so on…

Nomadism is full of not-so-well-known hardships. What works for one nomad maker might not work for you.

Make the jump

Once you know if this is a sustainable lifestyle for you, you can go ahead and make the jump to become a full-time nomad maker.

Being a nomad maker does not mean traveling full-time. In fact, historical nomads do not travel. They just go around in a specific territory depending on the seasonal cycle throughout every generation. You can work remotely from home most of the year and still travel to new places once in a while when you feel like it. The only rule is that there is none.

Services that will help you to get started

All makers like products tailored for their needs. Here is a non-exclusive list of products designed for nomads:

• Nomad List: the must-have guide to find your next location. But try avoiding suggested cities once in a while to see how it impacts you.
• Nomad Flights: to receive alerts when cheap tickets are online for sale.
• Rome2Rio: to find the best way to go anywhere
• …and many more!

Sedentarism is cool too

If nomadism is not for you, it’s okay. Digital nomadism is overhyped for the wrong reasons. Moving places can help you run away from realities, but not for long.

If you are a healthy human being who needs stability and a close circle of friends at reach, don’t lose your sanity going around the world. It is not important. What is important is how you feel and how can you do your best work. Your best work will impact others in a positive way, and that’s what really matter: a meaningful life.

Being serious about entrepreneurship means spending countless hours getting things done. Traveling won’t get you around it.

Mental stability is of utter importance, and is usually the result of a stable environment.

Keep experimenting

Digital nomadism is an important trend that is still vastly misunderstood. Experimenting it for yourself is the only way to know if this is a sustainable lifestyle for you. It is both an incredible opportunity for makers to be their best and make better products by experiencing new cultures. It can also become your doom. Just like most things in life, it is all about finding your own balance.