How to Run an Online Business as a Digital Nomad

Business Tips and ToolsMarketing TipsTravel

Oct 18

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

In 2019, we sold our home and began to travel full time in an RV. Today, we split our time in the RV and traveling overseas, with a few scattered months in an apartment. Throughout this entire time, I've been running my own 6-figure business Bran…

One of the reasons that I decided to start my business back in 2016 was that we wanted to travel more. My husband and I had always taken that regular trip every single year. And we took some pretty epic vacations while we were working our typical 9 to 5 jobs, but we wanted more flexibility.

So when I set out to start my business, we thought, hey, we're going to add another trip or two trips a year, extend our trips a little bit longer.

We did not imagine that we would quickly become digital nomads.

So today, I want to share with you some of the lessons that I've learned throughout that journey.

In 2018, our world quickly changed.

We unfortunately lost many people that we loved that year. And my husband and I realized that we wanted to take action and we wanted to take action quickly.

Essentially, we wanted to start traveling full time.

At the time, my husband was working a 9 to 5.
I was already running my business, which had grown to six figures a year.

And we decided that our best avenue at the time was to bring him home from his retail job, sell our home, buy an RV and a truck, because we didn't have that either, and set out to travel across the United States.

TRAVELING FULL-TIME IN AN RV

We traveled across the United States in an RV from 2019 to 2020. And it was an experience!

If you don't already know, we also have a child. And at the time he was just three years old and we were really learning to navigate not only running a business from the road, but also having my husband home for the first time, it had just been my son and I for so long.

We ended up traveling from 2019 through mid of 2020. You can probably imagine why we stopped traveling in the RV in 2020. And we decided to just settle down for a moment and let some things pass over.

Now, being a digital nomad for us looks different every single year.

We spent two years living in an RV.

Last year and into this year, we have had a home base in our apartment that we rent out while traveling overseas and to different countries.

We actually have been to St. Croix. We've spent a month in Hawaii. At the time of this release, we are coming back from three months in Greece.

What I love about being an entrepreneur and being able to run my business as a digital nomad is the flexibility to do it from anywhere.

And I think in 2020, we realized that not only are entrepreneurs and small business owners able to do that, but a lot of people who work in corporate or 9 to 5 might be able to be more location independent.

Here are some of the top lessons that I have learned on my journey from living in an RV to renting out an apartment and taking small trips to traveling for months at a time to different countries.

DIGITAL NOMAD TIP #1
KNOW YOUR WIFI OPTIONS

Every time someone sends me a DM on Instagram, like, “Oh, I'm thinking about doing this. What do I need to know?” I always begin with your wifi is never guaranteed.

I don't feel like anyone warned me about this when I was setting out to become a full-time RV-er. Wifi is just not always reliable. We have four hotspots and sometimes we have zero service.

We might go to a place that we're like, oh, this is going to be beautiful and scenic and then have zero wifi, zero cell service. It's happened so many times.

I have driven up to gas stations, 20 minutes away just to upload a video.

So I think one of the greatest lessons that I've ever learned is that wifi is essential as a digital nomad, somebody who runs their own business, but it's never guaranteed.

So what do you do about that?

Well, you have to really plan accordingly. I’m already a pretty big planner, have an entire video on planning six mon ths in business right here, but when you're planning as a digital nomad, it is essential, so that you know when you're able to take client calls, when you're able to maybe record a bunch of videos and upload them.

And you want to be really strategic with the locations that you're scouting out during those times.

I work one-on-one with my clients through video consultations. I also do trainings inside of my membership, Brandmerry Academy. And I need a way to do a few of those calls every single month.

When we were getting ready to head to Greece for three months, I would look at our route and make sure that none of the days that I'm planning on having calls are travel days, seriously just never schedule things on a travel day.

Meaning, you're going from one location to another, whether that's by ferry, bus, car, boat, a plane, it doesn't matter. Don't plan on having client calls on a travel day. You can thank me for that one later.

What I do after I’ve blocked out travel days is I’ll look at our schedule, where we're going and the areas, the Airbnbs, the hotels, and gravitate to where the reviews say that there is excellent wifi.

I am a stickler for looking at reviews specifically for wifi. And if there aren't any reviews about the wifi, I will even reach out to the host and ask them and tell them that I require video streaming. So don't be afraid to ask those types of questions.

Then, what I do is I adjust my availability for my clients based on that information.

So for instance, we're gearing up to spend some time in Athens. I know that this particular Airbnb has rave reviews about wifi and we're in a large metropolitan area. So even if I don't have it in the apartment, I can go to Starbucks or a public park where you can often get wifi.

You really want to plan accordingly for your calls and never just assume that everywhere you go will have wifi.

This is also fantastic because it allows you to have bulk work days as well, where you can squeeze all of your client calls into one day or any of your meetings or anything like that, which leads me to the second point.

DIGITAL NOMAD TIP #2
STRUCTURING YOUR DAYS

I love bulk scheduling and structuring my days because it allows me to get more done. I have a harder time being productive and focusing when I've got a 9 to 5 schedule available in front of me.

In fact, I share some productivity tips in this video right here. I found that when I have a more focused, intentional time, I actually get more done. So when we are traveling, obviously we want to experience new cultures and we want to see new things. That is the joy of being a digital nomad.

I have zero desire to sit in my Airbnb or my hotel all day, every day, and not experience the world around me. So I have to be really intentional with the days that I am going to dedicate to work.

And that's why I really love batching and bulk scheduling my content, to bulk scheduling my client calls, even live videos.

If I'm doing live videos, I'll put them all on the same day. So we know that those days, we're not going to go out and wander. I'm going to get a bunch of work done, and then we're good. We don't have to worry about it anymore.

I highly recommend that you start to group your activities together.

If you need to record videos, record a bunch of videos, choose the day that you're going to do that.

If you're going to do podcasts, bulk those together.

If you need to write emails, do those all together.

Client calls, like I mentioned, I always bulk those together when we're traveling so that I don't have to go out and then think about when I have to come back and so on and so forth.

I shared my bulk creation process in my first vlog here where I bulk created 90 days worth of content, which is also something I recommend before your trips.

I also talk about my entire planning process in this video, where I talk about planning 90 days worth of content.

Sometimes you are going to notice that you've got a lot of preparation before you jet set and head off to an awesome destination, but that preparation and maybe intense time is going to allow for a ton of flexibility and movement and exploring when you're in that new location.

DIGITAL NOMAD TIP #3
COMMUNICATION IS KEY

My third tip for you is all around communication. It’s incredibly important that you explain to the people that you work with, your clients, your bosses, your coworkers, your team, what's happening, your flexibility, and your availability.

This is going to make a huge difference.

The last thing that you want is to be out doing something freaking awesome, like in a helicopter ride or something like that. And someone's messaging you about something that's not urgent.

We have a tendency to check that stuff.
We have a tendency to want to check back in on our emails and our Gmail and all of that and those moments can take us away from the moment.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you completely ignore your communication platforms, but by having these boundaries in place you’ll find people are more intentional with how they communicate with you.

One of the best things that I've done is set really clear boundaries and expectations with the people in my life. And that goes from my team members who know that I'm going to be out exploring for the next four days.

Unless it's an absolute emergency don't message me.

My clients also understand, because I tell them, that these are my travel days. These are the days that I'm flying. I probably won't get back to you just then.

If I'm in a different time zone, I always let my clients know that I'm in a different time zone. So I might be getting back to them at 3 AM.

I set up those expectations and I really communicate this clearly before I set out and do anything. I always email my clients, including my membership Brandmerry Academy, to let them know I'm going to be traveling.

What's so cool about it is everyone is awesome about it. Everyone's respectful about it because we love when people set clear boundaries, because it lets us know that we can do that in our own lives as well. And it just sets the stage.

So I have never once had someone get mad at me because I'm super clear and upfront ahead of time on what they can expect. You can do this no matter what you're doing. And I highly, highly recommend it.

The other thing that I'll say about communication and boundaries is if you are traveling with your family, let's say in a 36-foot travel trailer across the United States, boundaries and communication are so important.

My family knew my entire schedule for work days.
When did I have calls?
When did I need to record?
When did I need to laser in and focus?

We talked about that every single week so that we could really enjoy our lives and really laser in and focus and grow my business while also being a digital nomad.

It takes a lot of balance because you're going to want to just go out and be on vacation every single day, but the reality is that you are a business owner and you've got to set these boundaries with other people and also yourself.

And that leads me to my next tip.

DIGITAL NOMAD #4
NOT EVERY DAY IS A VACATION

Not every day is a vacation.

My husband and I will go on a weekend trip to the Dominican, or we went and took my son to Disney. Those are specific vacations, meaning I'm not working while we're there and we're just really enjoying ourselves. We're not trying to juggle both.

But as a digital nomad, there's this misconception that every day is a vacation.

And I believed that for a really long time, when we first started traveling, I wanted to do everything in every new location. My husband and I had to have conversations because he's home with our son supporting him, running our household, essentially, and he’d want to go hiking and I’d agree, but after a while I realized we couldn’t maintain that every single day.

I had to get better at setting boundaries with myself.

That means that having those clear bulk days and a structured schedule will take away the pressure to go out every day because you know you have full days to work and full days to explore.

Another thing I started doing is checking in on my work stuff early in the morning to answer emails, etc and then log off for the rest of the day. This allowed me to be present in the biz, but also enjoy myself fully when we were out exploring.

I also highly recommend working in full vacation time. What I mean by that is even if you are a digital nomad full-time, you can still take time off work. I recommend taking at least one week of “vacation time” every quarter!

I think that's incredibly powerful when you are running your own business.

But if you feel like you can't take an entire week off, just know that you need to choose very deliberate days, where you are stepping out of the office.

When your office is your laptop and your phone, anywhere in the world, you have to set those clear lines and it's really going to help you to experience the cultures and experience life and experience all the reasons that you want to travel in the first place, while also growing a successful and sustainable business.

CONCLUSION

I really love sharing information about the lifestyle that we live. And like I mentioned, I recorded a vlog on how I prepared my content to travel for three months.

If you want to check that out, you can go ahead and check that out in this video right here.

As I've mentioned, this is our life. And even as we're gearing up for next year, 2022, we will be traveling the majority of the year, 10, 11 months out of the year and the things that I've done in my business and having these systems and these workflows has really supported me in being able to do that.

It took us a while. It might take you a while too.

Maybe you're like I was, and you're watching this video and you're just starting your business and like, "Ooh, I want to do this. Like, what would this be like? What do I need to do?"

What I recommend is just starting to build these systems in your business and really focus on that scalability and that sustainability so that you can step away when you need to, so that you can hire a team member to support you.

And if you’re looking to start your business so you can leave your corporate job and travel, then I invite you to learn more about Roadmap to Freedom, my comprehensive 90-day group program that helps female entrepreneurs make money on their terms.

Learn more at brandmerry.com/freedom.

P.S. Have you tuned in to The Brandmerry podcast? I release new episodes every Thursday on topics around branding and marketing! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at brandmerry.com/podcast