Bali blackout | New nomad flight route? | Montevideo | Issue #0037

Blackouts, new potentially game-changing flight routes, a new country opening their borders, fast ways to scale. Let’s just get straight into it this week…

Kicking off May with:

🛫 Is LA→BKK incoming?
👨‍💼 Have you heard of offshore staffing? It’s how many scale faster
🇺🇾 Do you even recognise this flag? It’s an underrated dn hotspot
💻 Do you possess these entrepreneur skills?
🧪 Take a free values test

NEWS
Bali plunged into darkness…again.

A lot of you will be in Bali, or planning to head there this year. It is perennially popular amongst a large set of digital nomads.

Last Friday much of the island was hit with a power outage though, unlike recent Nyepi - the Balinese New Year where the island is shut down for 24 hours - this was not planned. It took several hours until most of the power was restored.

Given it’s overpopulation in parts, there was plenty of disruption and chaos especially as it started late afternoon, just as rush hour was kicking in.

Spain and Portugal’s power outage last week was much more widely reported and likely some of you will have experienced that too.

Were any of you there? Let us know how either of them impacted you.

WHAT ELSE…

✈️ New routes incoming? The regs that meant no direct US-Thailand flights have been sorted, so how long until airlines start routes?

💺 A very quick upgrade This airline only started up a couple of months ago as a budget carrier, but it’s already decided to go premium.

🎒 Price hikes There was wide outcry from backpackers at the price of southern Thailand this year. Are they being priced out? Is that good for nomads?

🇲🇹 Visa ruled illegal  Not really digital nomad-relevant, but Malta’s “Golden Passport” has been ruled to contravene EU laws.

GET CONNECTED

Find WhatsApp & FB groups in your current or next nomad destinations here:

If you are in a nomad hotspot then help another nomad out and share any communities you are in, run, or know of with this quick form.

BUSINESS GROWTH
Scaling your thing might be closer than you think

We visited with Mathias Sivertsen at one of the beautiful Azendo offices for a f&f barbecue recently, not realising their service really existed. Now - if/when The Digital Nomad was to become a global behemoth - we know exactly where we’d find teams to make that happen.

Whatever sized business you are - one-man-band or sprawling global ecommerce company - finding an offshore team might just be the smartest way to expand quicker than you’d really imagined. And without the lottery of gig sites and VAs.

Who is going to benefit most from Azendo’s services?
At the moment we mostly help American and European companies who want to look into cost reduction, but don’t want to lose the human part of building a team. They’ve maybe used companies in South Asia, the Philippines, for example where employees are just a number on a sheet. The companies that use us can see we take care of employees and create offices and environments they’d have in the west.

What sized companies use an outsourcing company?
Any size company. We have some who start with just the company owner and hire the team through us. One of our current clients is a marketing agency that started with just the two of them and we’ve helped them grow to 15. And then there is the other side of it where bigger companies that add an extension team, for example they add customer service or a sales team with our teams.

This sounds like it’s a very economical strategy to grow a small business.
Yes, small companies use us to get that first employee in much earlier than they would be able to in their home country, because the costs would be high.

What roles can you help companies fill?
In theory, everything that can be done remotely. If you need an engineer and they can work remotely for you, we source and recruit an engineer. That is the great thing about the way the world is expanding right now. It is easy to have teams on different sides of the world. 

What exactly does a company get when they recruit through you?
Once we have a brief, we go out and source candidates, interview them and then involved the client at the point they want to meet them. We onboard successful candidates and they work out of our office, and then they work for the client in the role. It’s a fully managed service, but you can be as involved in as much as you want.

So rather than using gig sites or VA recruiters, it’s a more invested approach.
One of the things that many of our partners enjoy about it is that they don’t have to take care of day-to-day people management. We deal with it if someone’s having a bad day, the HR side of things, salary negotiations - they get to save money hiring outside of their local area, and get a fully or semi-managed service.

Where are the employees from that might be recruited by you for companies?
They are all based out of our offices in Chiang Mai or Bangkok, but it’s a 50-50 split of Thai employees and foreign. We have so many different cultures in the office. In the office I have an Indian guy, another from Mexico as well as a Spanish guy alongside our Thai team members. Living in Thailand is appealing for many of them!

How did the idea for the company to be based in Thailand come about?
So, four Danish guys were living in Thailand and working for a company they thought weren’t delivering good products, so they wanted to make a good version of this marketing agency. They realised wages are lower here than at home, so started delivering a high quality product for a much lower fee. That was 15 years ago, and over time the company moved into 100% outsourcing.

Every business is different, but if you are considering growing your team get on a call with Mathias or one of the team at Azendo to find out how it would work for you. Check out their website to get in touch.

We love to feature nomads and what you do that can help the rest of us. Fill out this form and tell us about your thing!

POLL
You're still reading, so you must like us a little!

If you haven’t heard of Nomadicards, you can download a pdf set on their website, or perhaps find a deck at a nearby coliving space. Thanks to Francesco for sharing his work with nomads!

SPONSOR THE DIGITAL NOMAD

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Fill in this form if you want to be seen by an engaged base of subscribers to the The Digital Nomad.

DESTINATIONS
Rarely mentioned, but ticks a lot of nomad boxes

South America is emerging as a more popular destination for a lot of you, but Montevideo, Uruguay, doesn’t feature on lists as much as perhaps it should. It has a lot of what other well-visited cities, including:

1. Reliable, high-speed internet. Montevideo actually boasts some of the fastest speeds in Latin America, averaging 156Mbps.

2. Affordability. A lot more budget-friendly than a lot of the west. Apartments around $500 p/m, and $2k a month will pay for a pretty nice lifestyle.

3. Friendly visa situation. There is a digital nomad visa, and it’s easy to apply and you’ll get 6-12 months without too much hassle.

4. Safe & welcoming. Ranks as the safest city in Latin America, and the city’s residents are known to be friendly and hospitable.

5. Culture & natural beauty. It’s on the beach for a start, but as the capital there is a vibrant cultural life.

Montevideo seems to be popping up on our feeds more lately, but read more here.

BRAIN FOOD

Growth - Making decisions might be easier if you know your values. Free test.

Listen - EMDR music is believed to help relieve stress and tension.

Read - You may not have even read this far, and this is why.

Food - Travel means food for many. Are you dining out sustainably, though?

If you have any recommendations we can share here, let us know.

MAKE DIGITAL NOMAD LIFE EASIER
Resources that are actually helpful

Check out our new resources page for the longer list and a range of discounts across useful digital nomad products, services and events. Here are a few notable deals for retreats or getaways coming up:

• The legendary Nomad Cruise has only a few tickets for the June cruise left... or go big with the US-Australia cruise later this year!

• The next The Nomad World event is in the Algarve at the end of May.

• Bansko NomadFest is in June and tickets are now available. €25 off with code TDNBANSKO.

Other popular products or services right now:

• Solis 5G and Lite models have been discounted by 5-15%. A great time to grab your portable WiFi kit.

• Onward Ticket is a nomad staple for getting into some countries. If you need proof of exit from your next destination, there is no better option.

• Global Nomad Pass - get deals around the world and support local businesses while you’re at it. 10% OFF with this link.

• Make.com is the go-to for automating processes in your business - or just your life!

• Splitwise is a simple way to split bills when you’re out at nomad dinners.

• GetNomad is a global eSIM provider. Get 10% off clicking here.

• 73% off and free months when you sign up to NordVPN with this link.

• Blotato - social media AI designed by one of AI’s big thinkers.

Check out resources page, which includes finding cafes to work from, VPN deals, nomad insurance and tools and services for your business.

THE LIST
Essential business skills for solopreneurs

Solopreneur, entrepreneur…same thing in our book, but there are skills that will help whichever you identify as. Forbes have offered up 5 essential ones that could help you on your way if you are starting out or need some forward momentum:

1. Online writing that converts. Whether it’s a hook, story, CTA this is imperitive in our book (but then we’re copywriters so slightly biased!).

2. Talking on camera. Get over yourself - people respond to people so show your face.

3. Adaptability. You don’t need to be an expert in everything, but keeping up with what works will be an asset.

4. Reframing. Being mentally resilient means setting up your mindset to value feedback and setbacks.

5. Vision for the future. Make your own future, or at least map it out as if you have #3 you’ll be able to work with changes.

Check out the full breakdown and some ideas for each in the Forbes piece.

TRIVIA
Can you take the heat?

Which four of these digital nomad destinations feature in the top 50 hottest places on Earth?

*figures from Wikipedia. 1991-2020 from a World Bank Group study.

Answers below.

COFFEE BREAK

🗽 History - Peter Minuit is credited with purchasing Manhattan on this day in 1626.

🗒️ Old skool - Level up the old break-time paper aeroplanes origami.

📸 Pics - What a weird and wonderful world this is sometimes.

WHAT DID YOU MISS?

If you are new to The Digital Nomad - or just want to go back and read a previous issue - then you can find them all here.

ANSWERS

UAE (11), Singapore (29), Cambodia (38), Sri Lanka (44).

Thailand (51), Malaysia (62), Philippines (65), Indonesia (69), Brazil (85), Colombia (92) all made it into the top 100.