Last week I summed up how I fell into the #digitalnomad lifestyle, this week I’ll cover off on some of the nuts and bolts of how it worked and how I made it work for me.
One of the first questions that I’m usually asked when people find out about my lifestyle is: “How do you get customers?” which is usually either preceded by an ignorant statement like: “I thought Travel Agents were dead anyways”.
The easy answer is that you generally already have customers, because most Mobile Travel Agents would’ve worked in a shop for quite some time before taking their skills (and clients) to their laptops.
However, I recommend being upfront with any repeat clients; I told them about my plans and relayed some negatives that they might experience if booking with me in the future. Like, longer waits to receive quotes due to time-zone limitations. So anyone thinking of taking the plunge should account for a good 25-50% of their client base to book elsewhere – but don’t let this scare you, it’s still worth it.
Facebook pages are a great way to maintain and build a loyal customer base. Agents should analyze their customer demographic though and play to their demands. For example, if most of your clients are less inclined to use social media, then perhaps a quarterly newsletter sent out by post or email would suit.
Also, I surprisingly picked up a bit of business in hostel common rooms, long bus trips and once (famously) on a hike in the Colombian jungle. Yeah, I bagged a Busabout hop-on/hop-off booking for an Aussie couple while dodging snakes, rebels and clingy solo-travellers. I’m still waiting for my award for that.
Obviously I had to wait until we were back in civilization before actually booking them in, Wi-Fi is pretty scarce in the jungle. Which leads me to how I overcame obstacles.
Finding good Internet was tougher than I thought it would be, the key word here, being ‘good’. I lost hours worth of work at times due to power outages, bad weather and even simply too many dickheads watching Netflix on the same Wi-Fi connection, which brings down the bandwidth or something like that.
The next biggest thorn in my #digitalnomad life was time zones. Because 99% of my customers lived in Australia meant that during most of my trip I was working an Aussie nine to five in the middle of the night. This either meant sleeping during the day and working while everyone else was enjoying a night out; or by managing emails and client expectations for how long it would take for me to get back to them.
I found that the best way forward was to deal with any urgent requests as they came in and then sandbagging the rest for 3-4 days, then doing a full days work all at once. This meant that I could enjoy my travels on most days, rather than worry about finding a power point.
Matt enjoying a pizza. Photo credit: Elle Patrikis
Another common question I was asked was: “So you can support your travels while doing this?”
Yes, in certain areas of the world – and on good months for bookings. This is the thing, there is a lot of uncertainty about how much you’ll make and also how much work it will take to get there. I’m pretty fast now, so that means that I could balance my enjoyment and free time with dustings of work here and there.
In really cheap countries I would say that I would be cash flow positive. Now to reveal how much money I made. On my best month as a Mobile Travel I made around $4000 – on my worst month, I made zero. On average, I’ve been paid about $2000.
It doesn’t seem like a lot, but if you’re in Colombia and a private room in a hostel is what you can afford, rather than a bunk or a hammock – it’s a win.
Next week I’ll give some more tips for aspiring Mobile Travel Agents, what I think I did wrong and… if I would do it again.