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Welcome back to Nomad Cloud, do you remember the first time you felt that feeling of freedom, that anything was possible? That’s the feeling we want you to feel every time you read each edition of Nomad Cloud.

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• Newsletters selling for millions 👀

• Mental Health Made Easy 🧘‍♀️

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🔥 HOT OFF THE PRESS

• Diary of a Digital Nomad 📖 (spectator)

• WFH is dying out. Guru says that’s false 📡 (fortune)

• $225 a night Cabin in Upstate NY Built for Remote Work 🌲 (dwell)

• Companies watching remote workers home on camera 👀(fortune)

🙋🏾‍♂️ A WORD FROM OUR FOUNDER

In the interest of transparency, we will periodically be sharing the progress we are making with our newsletter. Currently, Nomad Cloud generates between 500-1000 USD per month primarily from affiliate links and occasional advertising banners.

"What the?" you may ask, but it's not that hard to believe when you take a closer look.

Email is a platform that has stood the test of time, through old social media platforms like Vine and possibly soon-to-be-eliminated platforms like TikTok.

Billions of people around the world open their email every day, and it's without a doubt a valuable asset since it's where newsletters are sent.

We can't sweep it under the rug; it's a hard fact.

Newsletters are trending.

The Hustle, a newsletter focused on finance and tech, was rumored to have sold for $20 million. This massive win for email spurred a lot of interest in a once-forgotten asset.

Do we believe newsletters are here to stay and even encourage you to start your own? Heck yes!

"But I don't know how." Well, today we're going to break it down for you.

First, how do you pronounce "niche"?

I started this newsletter from an already-established community of digital nomads.

It's a headstart for sure, but the reason we're growing 100 subscribers a week is not because I'm some sort of genius, it's because we doubled down on our niche: location-independent entrepreneurs known as digital nomads.

That’s all we talk about, nothing else.

The lesson here?

Pick a niche you're familiar with and create enjoyable content.

Next, you're wondering where you should publish your newsletter. I recommend Beehiiv.

It's the platform I'm currently writing this to you on, and folks, isn't it a beauty? I think the user experience is miles above any other competition.

It's super simple to write and customize to your liking (colors, fonts, buttons).

"What do I write about?"

I'd recommend you find something you can write content on for eternity, something you either have a ton of experience with or expertise.

That way, you also have credibility. Of course, the buzzwords right now could work - "AI," "NFT," and "Creator Economy" - but think deeper.

Are there untapped sub-communities that would flock to your weekly newsletter on, say, plant medicine?

“Spirituality” would be too broad.

I'll leave it to you to ponder.

"How do I get subscribers?"

Just ask... kidding.

It's not always that simple, but that's exactly why most people never do something right? Don't be most people.

The best way we're growing now (simple secret I'm excited to tell you) is by ASKING people to join your newsletter.

I literally ask people after they become new LinkedIn contacts if they would join our growing community. A lot of people say yes. "The beauty is in the follow-up."

Final question: "How do I monetize?"

Wish there were more words in this "Deep Dive," but the best I can say is to build relationships with brands in your chosen newsletter niche.

If you don't want to figure it out on your own, I'll tell you a secret.

I created a 1-hour Masterclass breaking down everything I know (including some crazy growth hacks I've kept close to my chest for years).

You can get it here for $97 (usual price is $197)

🧘🏽‍♂️ DIGITAL DETOX

4 Mental Health Tips for Digital Nomads

Written by Urvashi Maharshi 

Legs up, flip-flops on, slathered in sunscreen, sipping piña coladas with fancy umbrella straws… we’ve all seen this tempting vision of digital nomadism. While a few days around the year do resemble this picture, it fails to account for the tedious and sometimes mentally-draining days in between.

First, there’s the months of obsessive planning and the dredging through immigration and bureaucratic drivel and then, what transpires ahead needs a dash of intuitive and impulsive instincts. From deciding on daily meals to making sure your back-up plan has a back-up plan, everything about the digital nomad lifestyle takes extra effort. Of course, it’s still exhilarating and fun, but that doesn’t mean the stress won’t take a toll on your mental well-being.

The digital nomad lifestyle isn’t always easy, but these mental health tips can help digital nomads who may be struggling with stress on the road.

Find a Semblance of Routine

It’s easy to get lost in the chaos of life, especially traveling to exotic locations as a digital nomad. The lack of stability and rapid unexpected changes causes excessive stress and anxiety, making it hard to track your time on the go and form a routine.

To help your mental health, start slow and pick one thing to do every day at the same time. It could be as simple as unwinding with Netflix every evening or taking a morning walk. Try sticking to a simple schedule no matter where in the world you end up. Building habits will help you boost productivity in the long run.

Build a Strong Social Network

Loneliness is part and parcel of life as a digital nomad. We get used to missing birthdays and weddings. We feel homesick and worry about family from afar. While it’s a choice we make, missing friends from home is often the hardest part to make peace with.

Thankfully, we live in a highly-connected age where you can, and should, contact your family and friends regularly. Whether it’s a daily five-minute chat or a weekly hour-long video call, it makes a big difference. You can also join groups online and offline to connect with your fellow digital nomads or enroll in classes to hone new hobbies and meet like-minded friends. Most importantly, be open. Don’t refrain from connecting with locals and try to mingle and chat with people in your hotel, stores, cafes, or coworking spaces.

This post was written by our friends at Nurall

🌎 NOMAD OF THE WEEK: Dave Williams

A serial entrepreneur in the digital marketing, advertising and ad tech industries from the USA, Dave Williams founded and sold 360i, IgnitionOne, BLiNQ Media, and other industry-pioneering ventures since 1996. In 2016, he co-founded NomadX in Lisbon Portugal where he’s been a resident over the past five years.

Connect with Dave: Linkedin

🏊 DEEP DIVE

How To Convince Your Boss To Embrace Corporate Nomadism by John Lee.

There are plenty of barriers to allowing you to work remotely abroad, but what if you turned the argument on its head and convinced your boss to embrace the corporate nomad life? Today, we'll touch on some of the key concerns companies have in relation to tax, employment law, immigration and other risks, but also show you ways of presenting the options to help you build a strong business case for embracing international remote work flexibility.

The Work From Anywhere Revolution: Not So Fast

We saw in 2021 and 2022 so many pictures of individuals working from the most exotic locations with their laptops, but heading into 2023, many companies have started to pull the reins back in and one of the key reasons has been tax and other compliance issues. Before we go into how you can build the business case for work from anywhere, as boring as it sounds, we first need to dive into what the key compliance issues your boss is worried about.

True Work From Anywhere Is A Myth

The first myth to debunk is that it’s actually not possible to truly work from anywhere you want. The first barrier will be your passport - every passport has some limitations on the countries they can access (see Passport Index to find out where your passport sits). Not only that, but there are a host of other limitations which we’ll explain in this article. Think about it for a second - if you were in your bosses’ shoes and somebody told you they wanted to work from anywhere in North Korea for 9 months a year, what would you do? They probably can’t get a work visa, so if they went they’d be working illegally. There are no double taxation agreements in place. There’s a risk of triggering individual tax residency (amongst others). And you’re going to run into a serious data security risk, on top of a fairly obvious duty of care risk in case you get detained.

This is an extreme example, but this is one of the reasons why most companies give a menu of countries they’re open to allowing international remote work from, because they have to wrap their head around the compliance risks otherwise you’ll land them in serious trouble.

Tax Considerations

One of the primary concerns of HR managers when allowing employees to work abroad is tax compliance. Before presenting your case, research the tax laws of the country you wish to work from, and be prepared to demonstrate how you can avoid double taxation and ensure compliance with both local and international tax laws. Providing your HR manager with a clear tax plan will help put their mind at ease. However be careful of the 183 day myth - some countries have much lower trigger days for tax residency, furthermore, your employer may have a potential wage tax withholding requirement after as little as 1 day.

Permanent Establishment The Elephant In The Room

The biggest risk for most companies when they worry about international remote work compliance is Permanent Establishment. This is a situation when your company triggers a taxable presence in a country. If your company misses your individual payroll tax withholding, that might cost them a few thousand dollars, but if they trigger Permanent Establishment this could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in additional corporation taxes and penalties, so this is one not to be messed with. When we served over 100+ companies employing 1.7m people this was by far the biggest risk for companies.

Tax Resources To Help

Thankfully there are plenty of B2C tax tools and platforms out there which you might find helpful as part of your research:

• Nomad List has a day tracker built in which gives some day trigger notifications, they also have some community support in each country within their Slack community

• Taxes.pages.dev has a useful guide for people looking to understand taxes at a high level

• VisaDB has some handy tax rate guides

• Deel have a user-friendly guide on remote work taxes

• Tytle is an up and coming platform that helps with tax filing

• Ejectmo is another solution focused on workations

• There are also nomad specific tax consultancies such as Nomadtax, Heavnn and Wanderers Wealth (VisaDB above also have a tax expert marketplace)

Employment Law

Other risks worth bearing mind include employment law. Different countries have varying employment laws that may impact your ability to work remotely. So try to research whether there are any major employment law issues and be prepared to show your HR manager that you can adapt to these regulations and ensure that your company remains compliant, even while you're working abroad.

Immigration Requirements

Working remotely in another country may require specific visas or permits. Thoroughly research the immigration requirements of your destination and present a plan to your HR manager detailing the necessary paperwork, timelines, and costs. Make the effort to already check your visa eligibility by checking for example visa research websites such as VisaDB, CIBT Visas or also keep an eye out for digital nomad visas via websites from Deloitte, Citizen Remote and many others. Not all digital nomad visas are well designed, but those that are well designed can offer peace of mind to your employers for longer remote work trips.

Data Privacy & Security

Data privacy and security are of paramount importance, especially when working remotely. So take the time to outline the steps you'll take to ensure the confidentiality and security of company data while abroad. This may include using a VPN, adhering to company data protection policies, and keeping devices secure with up-to-date software and strong passwords. Show your HR manager that you understand the risks and are committed to protecting company information and adhering to company policies. Take a look at websites such as NCSI index to understand the cyber security risk of the country you want to visit.

Duty of Care

Companies have a duty of care to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their employees, even when they're working remotely. If you’re in a country with very strict employment laws that focus on duty of care specifically, then it’s helpful to show your HR manager how you'll mitigate potential risks while traveling. This could include researching local safety conditions or checking the local travel safety risk using sources like the US State Department Travel Risk Advisory platform. Another option is to look at remote work specific insurance policies from the likes of SafetyWing, Insured Nomads and similar companies.

Why Employing Digital Nomads Is Difficult

By outlining some of the issues above, you can hopefully begin to get a picture of how this looks from an employer perspective.

This is one of the reasons why lots of company only allow work from anywhere in countries where they have a legal entity, because they already have the in-country tax, employment law and other knowledge to manage the risks.

This is also why many companies only allow a limited number of work from anywhere days in any given year, for example Publicis’ Work Your World initiative, which includes home swap options, is limited to only 6 weeks. It’s why Twitter, before they pulled back on remote work, expressly said “digital nomads need not apply”.

Employing true digital nomads means you expose the company to major risks and certain costs that often go way beyond what that digital nomad might be earning themselves as an individual.

Building The Broader Business Case

But all is not lost.

There is a clear path to convincing your boss to allow you to work remotely abroad.

Yes companies are pulling some people back to the office. But the trend towards corporate nomads will continue well beyond 2023.

Companies that are in a war for talent will look holistically at all their employee benefits, and for some people, the ability to work remotely internationally is non-negotiable.

Say that company wants to hire a very niche, experienced technology engineer? Trying to do so without some degree of remote work flexibility will make that task next to impossible.

We have also seen how companies such as Spotify reduced their attrition rate by 15% when they introduced their work from anywhere policy and Airbnb increased their career page views to 800k+ the month after they announced their work from anywhere policy.

Don’t be afraid to push back on your boss - ask your HR department if they track attrition due to the lack of an international remote work policy, or even better ask them what is the % of candidates that are being churned in the talent acquisition funnel because of the absence of a flexible international remote work policy.

This might just give them ideas to be able to build the business case internally themselves.

Technology Tools Available

Some bosses might push back and say they don’t have the budget to go to external tax advisors all the time or that the rules are far too complicated.

However you can use this as an opportunity to show them that there are plenty of really powerful technology platforms out there that allow companies to navigate the tax, legal and immigration risks of work from anywhere.

Employers of Record are also emerging innovations that have shaken up the global hiring model (however Employers of Record do not apply for periods of less than 3 months).

What Are My Final Thoughts..

Convincing your HR manager to allow you to work abroad is no small feat. However, by properly researching some of the key concerns mentioned above on tax, employment law, immigration, data privacy, security, and duty of care, you can build a strong case for the benefits of corporate nomads.

Try and also build the business case from their angle.

Pushing them to allow you to become a full-time digital nomad might be a stretch. Some companies will have a low-risk appetite and might never allow it, such as heavily regulated banks, but others, especially those in the technology space like Hubspot, might allow up to 90 days a year.

Going beyond 90 days a year typically moves a company into a much higher risk level and pushes them to find a more permanent solution. But there are plenty of companies that have been allowing international remote work trips from anywhere from 30 days to 90 days.

In any case, with thorough research and a well-prepared plan, you'll be well on your way to becoming a successful corporate nomad while still keeping your boss happy.

P.S. Did you know that you or your HR team can access a free 7-day trial of the Work From Anywhere platform here which shows you the risks and solutions for both work and hire from anywhere? John also put together a list of all the various technology solutions for international remote work compliance here.

Connect with John: Linkedin, Twitter.

📰DIGITAL DIGEST

🐦TWEET OF THE DAY

 ^{🗓️ UPCOMING EVENT: RUNNING REMOTE 2023}

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This year, the Running Remote conference is happening in Lisbon, Portugal on April 25-26. You’ll have two full days and 19+ hours to learn from industry experts with extensive experience leading, running, and managing remote and hybrid teams.

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