What I learned, gained and lost from running a business from home.

2018 was about new beginnings, doing things differently while combining skills that I had accumulated in the previous 12 years.

I left my last corporate role back in June 2018. From the outside, I had a great job working at one of the biggest consumer electronics company’ on global launches, orchestrating teams, partners, and agencies across 3 continents and 4 time zones.

But it also came at a high price: No time for family, hobbies and other things that make life colorful. I knew I had to change something, and this organization was (though at that time unknowingly) the best training for a new lifestyle.

Since the people I reported to were in different time zones, office appearance was not mandatory. I was already only going to the office around three days a week when I took my chance to spent the summer of 2017 in my family’s summer house in Germany.

There was one caveat, though: I had to organize the company’s biggest launch together with another Fortune 500 behemoth partner.

I spent that summer locked in conference calls for many hours at a time, but at least my wife and kid enjoyed the garden, and from time to time, I would sneak out, taking a swim in the nearby lake or going for bike rides to cope with stress.

In the end, this project was a huge success. I had proven to myself that working from home (where ever that is) is a viable option for me.

Friends who knew me before would likely not expect that I was that type of a digital nomad person.

I was more of the complete opposite. In my previous role at a global ad agency in Beijing, I would fly 5000 km or more for a one-hour meeting with a client if I felt it was worth it. In retrospect, It was not, but since this was my model, and I was in an organization and country where face to face time was interpreted in carrying for the clients, I went with it.

My business trips were a lot less at this consumer electronics company, but I had to be away every few months for 7 days or longer and was clocking 60–80 hour weeks and, in addition, was doing a part-time MBA.

I was the archetype of a weekend dad.

2018 I decided to take a break and go on a sabbatical to see (again) what else life had to offer. The timing was perfect, I felt exhausted, my MBA was about to complete, and all I had to wait for was one more bonus check.

In the beginning, I had no real clue what would be next, and in hindsight, this was the best condition since I could just let things happen organically. It was frightening in many ways, but that’s natural when you shake things up (big time).

For around six months, I was healing my wounds from the battlefield of business (aka having lots of fun), getting on a new healthy diet, becoming a more regular sleeper, and genuinely interested in meditation. At the end of these six months, it dawned on me that I had to find a way to build up cash flow again.

I already knew how to make a six-figure salary in a large organization, but I did not feel I wanted to go back on that path.

Money becomes less relevant if you start to enjoy the simple things in life, good health, and don’t need to compensate your soul with gimmicky pseudo luxury items.

I began to reach out to old friends from the grind era. One of my long-time buddies and colleagues from Beijing had left his global PR role before and had opened his own boutique communications agency in.

We started loosely collaborating on a project for a large Chinese brand. Since we already worked together and knew about the other one’s qualities, it felt natural from the get-go.

Right from the start we established some simple principles that guide our work since then: Focus on the area(s) where we are experts in (Tech), work for companies we think have products we (would) use ourselves, do it all remote and partner up with people we like and trust.

This year we worked for 21 clients across many tech verticals (think of AI, Blockchain, Ad-tech, etc.) on global, North America, as well as Asia projects.

There was not one face-to-face meeting needed to make this happen (I did one client workshop, but this came after working already together on another six remote projects with them).

I’m living life and working like this for a year now, here is what I learned, gained, and lost (you almost can have it all).

What I learned:

• Face-to-face interactions with prospects and clients are not needed to get a project and deliver it successfully.
• Having all work files accessible for the team is the only way to ensure that work can get done smoothly across time zones and ensure everyone has the latest version on hand (in the cloud).
• At least internally ditch email in favor of messaging apps. As team structures are fluid you might not be able to have them all on the same platform. It’s not an issue working across a few (for us it’s WeChat and WhatsApp) messaging apps.
• Time zones are a blessing and a course. Use them to your advantage when someone could get the job done while you enjoy dreamland or at least reply when a task gets looked at. At the same time, protect team members and push back if it’s late for someone or already/ still weekend.
• There is minimal correlation between hours worked and the actual return. The trick is to focus on value work and where you have an aptitude to deliver high quality in a fair amount of time. And of course it helps that we work 100% without political office games.
• You can have a lot of fun with coworkers, even if they are thousands of kilometers away. Don’t be greedy and keep those Gifs coming plentifully.
• It makes a difference (at least for me) if you dress up for work regardless if you go out to work from a coffee shop or sit at your desk at home.
• Only work with people that you trust, and if its newbie, you do not work with before onboard them through a low-risk assignment on a project that is not that time-critical. If things go sideways, there is time for adjustments. We did not have any significant issues but certainly had to invest a few more hours shaping things to meet our internal standards (and with that show our new collaborator where the bar actually is).

What I gained:

• A lot more control over my time. That requires practice in protecting when you are working and when not, but that’s the same everywhere. It’s a lot easier though if you are a) your own boss b) have maintained your schedule before and know how to setup up routines and keep following them.
• Better health (because I eat home-cooked food almost every day, exercise and relax whenever I need it).
• A lot of confidence that I can make money without a big brand employer name card or any other things that come with a gig in the corporate world.

What I lost:

• There is almost nothing to complain about. One thing, though, which I realized is that if both partners are working from home (I’m also involved in my wife’s business), things can get intense occasionally, but this can be easily adjusted by just going out for a walk or work from a coffee shop.

A few words of caution: Working from home, and especially if you do run a remote business needs to fit you as a person. If you get into procrastination mode easily, it might not be for you. Also, if you enjoy coworkers around you and the perks that could come with a cool office should be something taken into account before joining the digital nomad tribe.

I do certainly enjoyed the fun I had with colleagues and team members when I worked from cool offices, but as a dad of a fast-growing child and husband of a lovely wife, I prefer their company over anybody.

I would love to hear from you if you are a remote entrepreneur or considering to become a digital nomad. What do you learned, gained and lost?