Everyone dreams about tossing a stack of papers in the air and storming out of the office for good. But most of us restrain ourselves because…well…it’s “irresponsible” by most perspectives.
However, your dream is not lost!
Becoming a digital nomad and working the laptop lifestyle is within reach if you’re willing to invest some front-work and be disciplined.
In this post we’re going to dive into the best career paths (most profitable and easiest to get into) for anyone who wants to take charge of their destiny…
When to Fire Your Boss
Before we go any further, let me be clear – I’m not saying to walk out with no money or plans. Instead, you need to figure out where you are now, where you want to be, and what skills you need to acquire to cover that gap so you can start making money. It’s’ important to be realistic about this step if you’re trying to build something sustainable and profitable.
Fortunately, we’ll show you the best resources to acquire these skills below…
Disciplining Yourself to Do the Work
As nice as it is to work from a computer on a beach in Hawaii, it takes some discipline to get to a place where you can actually realize that dream. Namely, you need clients and money…
And while you’re building your financial stowes and book of business, you’ll probably have to work double time – hence the discipline.
While I was building my business, I worked as a sales manager at a solar company during the day. Then I would go home and study courses on marketing, build my own sites and learn the skills I needed to eventually open my company. It was a slow process with a lot of overtime – but it’s paid me back in spades. And the same can be true for you – whether you want your own company or simply a job with freedom.
In the meantime, while you’re building up to firing your boss, you’ll need to invest this time on nights and weekends. It takes discipline and a strong desire to achieve your goals – not just a “hope”. But if you’re willing to be disciplined and do that work, you absolutely can and will be able to run your life from a laptop – no question about it.
Money and Passion – What Skills Matter?
The fastest way to get from your day job to a place where you’re making job replacing money is to find where your passion and the money intersect. Think about it this way, if you’re not passionate about the job – even if it pays well – you won’t put in the effort required to build your skills.
At the same time, if you love the job you’ve picked – but nobody’s paying for the service – you’ve just wasted your time (like pursuing a liberal arts degree…). So I recommend you get out a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left, put “things I love” and on the right put “things that pay”.
Go through and make the lists on things you love and things that pay (these should be things you can do from a computer if your goal is the laptop lifestyle). Where these two columns intersect, is where you should get started.
For me, I loved writing and the things that pay are blogging and digital advertising. So that’s where I started. I bought courses, started a blog and moved full force into that space. For you, it might be different. We’ll cover a few popular and profitable skill sets below to help you figure this out…
Services That Every Business Need
The skills I’m putting below are in high demand right now. Every business needs them, the owners know they need them, and it’s an easy sell if you can show them that you know what you’re talking about. So let’s get started…
Digital Advertising
At the top of the list is digital advertising. The big goal for most business owners is to sell more products and make more money. They all know that advertising is the fastest way to see an ROI but most don’t know how to run ads or write decent copy.
Learning how to use Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads is a really great place to start. You can price for services based on flat fees or as a flat fee and percentage of ad spend. As you build your portfolio and you can show clients you know what you’re doing you can start pursuing bigger clients and might even be able to negotiate for a percent of the profits.
Some of the best starting courses on Facebook and Google ads are put out by the companies themselves:
And to kick things up a notch, Lynda and Udemy have great courses on both topics as well:
- Facebook Marketing: Advanced Advertising
- Ultimate Google Adwords Course (it’s from 2017 but still highly relevant)
Social Media Manager
For a busy business owner, making posts and responding to comments can quickly fall by the wayside. But everyone knows how important social media can be for their business. So this presents a unique and profitable opportunity for anyone who’s mastered the art of being digitally social. You can charge as much as $1,000 per client without blinking an eye and if you’re good with ads, you can also sweeten the deal by running ads for this same client.
Where to learn social media marketing:
Both of these are great places to start. And if you got the Lynda course from above, they also have many great courses on social media.
Web Design
All businesses need a website – even the least techy business owner can’t argue this point. So if you’re a creative person who enjoys drawing, likes writing and has an eye for web design, then this is a great skill-set to have.
It’s a very easy sell that consists of “Hey business owner, your sites really bad because (insert why it’s not working) but I can do (insert what you can do) to help you get more conversions and make a better impression on prospects. Are you interested?”
Not everyone will say yes because not everyone can afford it. But, if you can demonstrate your ability and start building a portfolio, you’ll always have clients. At this point we get so many referral website clients that I can’t even advertise for it until I add more people to the team.
Where to learn web design:
There’s no shortage on courses for building sites on WordPress so you can pick a basic one and start learning immediately if this is interesting to you.
Blogging
I put blogging on here to dispel the myth that all you need is a blog and a dream to get rich. It’s not true (anymore). While this was true in 99’ when the internet was new and you could write about almost anything, today the landscape is much more competitive.
Running a quality blog requires versatile knowledge on SEO, Social Media, Content Marketing, WordPress, and a general technical ability. Additionally, blogging requires consistency and time for Google to begin ranking your posts and sending you traffic.
However, as much as I may be crushing your dream, it’s still very doable and the best time to start a blog is now. To start a blog here’s the 30,000 foot view of steps you need to take:
- Pick an industry / niche that you really enjoy writing about.
- Get a website on WordPress or another CMS.
- Do some keyword research to figure out what people are searching for.
- Write about that topic and publish the article.
- Share the article on social, repurpose the article into video format, make a slideshow to put on slideshare and reach out to influencers asking them to share it. You may also want to run some Facebook traffic to the article.
- Repeat steps 3-5 again and again.
It will take time to build your organic traffic so you have to invest this front work and be patient. And if you really feel passionate about starting a blog, there’s a lot more you can do to increase your chances of success and shortcut the time it takes to be successful.
Here’s some great courses to start with:
Conclusion
Living a remote, laptop lifestyle and firing your boss is very achievable and probably easier than it’s ever been in history. All you need to do is figure out where you are now, where you want to be and what skills you need to get from point A to point B.
Fortunately there’s many free and paid courses you can do at your own pace to learn the skills you need. I haven’t listed everything that’s possible in the online job world but the things I’ve listed above are proven to work – both from my own experience and by the many people doing this right now.
If you have any questions or you’ve achieved the digital lifestyle yourself, leave me a comment below.
