OK, this post is definitely late. As I write this, I am actually in the train moving to my second country stop: On my way to Amsterdam, Netherlands.
So, this is a recap of the first 3 months owning an IBC (International Business Company). The first chosen country was… Switzerland. Yes, that was the country that I decided to leave. And I did, moved to Portugal for a while while paperwork was still resolving, to London for a few weeks for work and running my workshop, and then moved back to Switzerland, but this time after revoking my resident permit, so, as a tourist. I rented a chalet literally in the middle of the alps, in Stechelberg. This was my “office” for 3 months:
Now regarding the offshore side of things: The difference is huge as you are not ripped-off with the usual resident “welcome pack”, which applies to every country. That translates really quickly in time saved, huge amounts of time. Yes, time is money, and it also works the other way around, so, if you are not throwing half of your money in the trash (paying politicians luxuries and their holidays and the usual crap), you don’t need to work as many hours, which means you get more free time, either for dedicating to your good clients or to your own projects. That’s exactly why I started investing part of my time after some “bad client cleanup” in some projects of mine I had to push forward. One of them is Macacool: a web and mobile series of games which I started as a spare-time project with my cousin David, almost 2 years ago, moving slowly but now finally getting launched. The first (of many) games is actually now on pre-release in Facebook: BuddyBonk and the mobile versions are on the last beta stage. I am also involved in an exciting project, music related, that I can’t announce yet, but I will soon.
This first 3 months of my “nomad-geek” life were in fact really productive and they went really fast. I started a new exciting client project after I carefully assessed my availability regarding time I could dedicate to new projects. The rule was to only get something really interesting, as I had enough work filtering out clients and projects I was better off without, and wrapping those up. At the same time I was also working on gotoAndSki, my developer conference, that takes place in the middle of the alps every year. And it went really well this year again. the fact that I was on location helped a lot with organizing everything. I was missing the alps immediately after leaving but now I guess I am settled in Amsterdam, well, until next stop in mid-May: Beijing. The alps will be my only fixed yearly stop, because of my conference, and because I don’t think I’ll be able to leave without the mountains in there, and all the lovely local people.
I should also add that the fact that I had no Internet access (except email on my mobile phone) in the chalet led to one of my most productive quarter, ever. I was “forced” to focus on no-internet activities in the morning, meaning no distractions at all. Everything that needed a connection had to wait for the afternoon, as the nearby hotel as a connection. Very slow connection, in fact, and for a few times I worked from an internet-cafe (with amazing food and tea) in Lauterbrunnen, 15 minutes bus ride anyway.
The few times I really needed a car during this first 3 months without my beloved Prius, I just rented one, and guess what, it’s freaking cheap compared to owning a car (and parking, and insurances, and whatever).
From January also, as a new year resolution, I declared Monday as my official day off, and further, Monday is my MANDATORY Spa day (and I mean full-day). In the alps there’s plenty of Spas but ended up most times at Interlaken. Why Mondays? Well, definitely is the day of the week when everyone from your customers, to service providers, and even random people you might need to deal with will be on their worst mood, if not fussy. So, I skip this day regarding interactions, specially related to work, and specially meetings, even phone and Skype ones. It’s now declared as the day I am unreachable. My other day off is usually Sunday, but Monday is THE confirmed one, for sure. Made a huge difference.
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