Confessions of a Rookie Digital Nomad

Today’s guest post is by Simon from Never Ending Voyage.  I love his honesty in this post, and if you’ve ever freelanced, you’ll know exactly what he’s talking about.  Sometimes being your own boss is harder than it sounds…

I’m two weeks in to my new life as a freelancer. It’s a warm day, the sky is clear and I’m sitting at a table on a dark wooden deck located in a peaceful tropical garden. Through the large palm leaves and pink hibiscus flowers I can hear the soothing sounds of the ocean. I take a deep breath and taste the fresh sea air before returning to work for my first client.

This is my office. This is the life of a digital nomad.

What happened next was an education.

Suddenly, I was no longer sitting in the sun sipping sangria. I was in a dingy hotel room using the worst WiFi connection I’ve ever known desperately trying to get the site up one byte at a time before the deadline arrived in four hours time.

Just as I had started to blow on my Macbook in an attempt to make it upload faster, I received two emails.  One was a huge list of amends on a job where my hourly rate had just sunk below minimum wage and the other was an attempt by a client to renegotiate the terms in such a way that I would, in all likelihood, never get paid on work worth well over $1500.

Outside, the heavy rain mirrored my mood as I took the only option I had left. I looked for someone to blame.

Then a realisation came out of nowhere and smacked me soundly around the chops. There was no one to blame. This was my business. I was in charge.

I had to face up to the stark reality that I had sabotaged me. I had screwed myself over. I had given myself a dodgy loan and now I was back to collect, goons and all.

As the thunder rolled outside, I vowed that I would never let this happen again. I would rebuild myself anew. I started making a list of all the things I’d done wrong in these first few weeks of business so that I would never make the same mistakes again.

It was a long list.

I’ll spare you the darker parts of my maladjusted psyche and instead share with you my Bottom 5 Business Blunders in the hope that you can avoid some of the mistakes I made (or at least find amusement in my ineptitude).

1) Overpromise and underdeliver

My two favourite sayings are “It won’t take that long” and “It’s not that hard”. Wrong and wrong. Without fail, I underestimate how long things take in everything I do. When you’re nipping down to the corner to pick up some chocolatey alfajores, this isn’t a problem. When you’re trying to run a business, it really is.

I started keeping a timesheet to work out how long each job took – turns out it was between two and four times longer than I had quoted for.

I like my sayings – they’re positive and they make me feel like anything is possible – unfortunately, they hurt my future self. I end up promising the world, the client gets excited about the whizz-bang features I´m going to put in and then I either have to pull back on the promises (unprofessional) or work 20 hour days to meet them (suicidal).

Now when I quote I look back at my timesheet and try to be realistic. I factor in time for all of the extras – emails, skype calls, last minute revisions, which take a lot longer than I realised – and then I charge for it.

This allows clients to change their minds without me watching my hourly rate plummet, it creates realistic deadlines and it gives me the chance to give them something extra rather than having to take something away.

2) Taking it all too personally

A client asks for an amend outside the scope of the project.

I say sure, not a problem. Maximum of a few hours. Here’s how much.

Client replies that his friend could do it in 5 minutes. Thought it could be done as part of the pre-arranged fee.

Cue huge depression, drafting of angry rebuttal to this veiled accusation of extortion (not sent) and many, many wasted hours worrying.

Things change when there’s money involved. Clients rightly want to know that they’re getting value for money. They don’t understand all of the effort that goes in to making a web page work (nor should they – that’s my job) and so, sometimes, they make suggestions that appear to undermine my integrity.

I have to not take it personally – it’s just business – and patiently explain once again that a website is not Photoshop. It’s not even Word. Simple things they take for granted on their OS are difficult to reproduce in their browser window.

But most importantly, I have to know myself that I am providing a lot of value and that I’m worth what I’m charging.

3) Not Using Protection

If you check my Terms and Conditions, they clearly state … well, not very much actually. In the beginning, my ‘contracts’ were nothing more than vague, friendly emails. One of them actually said ‘The design and development of a website.’

We all know what it means. We’re all friends here.

Of course, towards the end of the project they started to want a ton of extras that I hadn’t budgeted for. I ended up working for less than peanuts – peanut shells, probably. My idea of a finished website was drastically different to theirs.

This is the single most important thing that I’ve learned as a freelancer: Be Specific.

Spell it all out in clear terms, especially the money stuff.

All of my proposals now start with ‘Anything not included in this proposal is chargeable at my current hourly rate’ and my hourly rate goes straight in the Terms and Conditions along with conditions for refunds, additional amends, the deposit (50% up front or the full amount if the job is less than £300) and admin fees for any cancellations.

This isn’t just good for me, it’s good for them. If I have to cancel a job for a family emergency then my terms clearly state that they get a full refund. If I don’t fully implement a feature that’s in the proposal, they can pull me up on it and make sure it gets done.

Everyone knows where they stand and what they’re getting into.

4) Manning up

Unpaid invoices are a drag. No one wants to have to send chaser emails. They’re not nice to receive and they’re not nice to send. But if you’re going to do them, don’t be vague like I was:

“How’s it going? Just wondering if everything’s OK.”

“Yeah, good thanks. You?”

So now I have to either look like a jerk and admit that I wasn’t really inquiring about their health but that I was looking for the money owed, or I can reply with a ‘Doing OK. Take care’, and then wait another week before saying what I really meant.

It turns out that asking for what I’m owed and being polite and respectful are not mutually exclusive. I can make sure everything’s OK and remind them that the invoice is overdue (helpfully attaching another copy so that they don’t have to go find it).

5) Leaving out the ‘Nomad’ part

The idea is that the work should enable you to live in cool places and do awesome stuff. It’s the ultimate example of work hard, play hard. The problem is that, like most freelancers, I tend to work too hard.

One of the biggest lessons for me – and one that I’m still learning – is that if I’m going to turn on my computer, it better be for a good reason.  There’s no such think as ‘just’ checking your emails. Inevitably, there’ll be something important but non-urgent that could wait but won’t because it’s now in my head so the afternoon spent sightseeing has now been tainted as I figure out how best to respond.

Currently, I’m trying a system. I have three things to do. Once they’re done, I check my emails. If it’s quick, I’ll sort it then and there. If not, it becomes one of my three things for the next day.

After my inbox is entirely clear – either dealt with or scheduled – I shut it down and that’s me for the day. I can go and actually enjoy the country that we’ve travelled 6,000 miles to see.

The Learning Curve

Being a digital nomad has been a lot more challenging than I thought for reasons that I just wasn’t expecting, mostly because, like anything that stretches my comfort zone, they expose a lot of personal failings.

There have been some absolutely stunning moments – working on a veranda with beach in front of you and jungle behind is wonderful – but, if I’m honest, it’s dealing diplomatically with difficult clients and pushing my skills and stamina to new heights with complicated jobs and fussy requests that have provided the real growth.

I have no doubt that I am going to continue making mistakes, but each one has been a great teacher. And because I have no one else to blame, they also remind me that I’m in direct control of my own destiny – that this is my business and its success or failure is entirely up to me.

And for that kind of freedom, I’m willing to fail a thousand more times.

About the Author

Simon Fairbairn and his partner recently sold everything and left the UK to travel forever. They are currently exploring South America and writing about their travels at Never Ending Voyage, while Simon works developing WordPress sites as a freelance web designer. You can also follow their journey on Twitter or Facebook.

Pic: Magnus