You have been in corporate ever since you got out of college. You have had many good years establishing your authority, becoming an expert in your field and climbing the ladder.

And then things changed. Your priorities shifted.

What used to be fun and rewarding today feels like a prison and you find it increasingly hard to find joy in your cubicle.

You keep seeing stories of women who quit their jobs to become digital entrepreneurs popping up everywhere. Bloggers, freelance writers, proofreaders, online coaches, designers, all working from the comfort of their home.

You wish you had the courage to do just that. But there is one problem.

However great it sounds to be your own boss, you are not sure that working online is all it’s cracked up to be…

But what if it was?

Here are 3 reasons that will make you want to take the plunge into the digital world.

 

1. Set your own hours

As a corporate employee, what you do is essentially trade your time for money. This usually translates into:

• Being trapped at your desk 250 days a year 8 hours a day
• Spending (a lot of) time commuting in and out of work
• Having to request time off to bring your kid to the doctor, dentist appointments, etc.
• Getting a meager 2-4 week annual leave
• Having little time for what really matters

With firms providing everyone with cell phones and laptops, you are expected to be reachable and able to work even at odd hours. With so many hours spent working and so few left to unwind, the incidence of burnout is through the roof.

It’s easy to feel stressed and unhappy with such pressure and no time for things that (really) matter.

Now let’s compare this to what working online could mean for you:

• You set your own schedule / hours
• You only work during your most productive time of the day  
• You get to pick up your kid(s) from school mid-afternoon
• You can go for a run or yoga class in the middle of the day
• You can meet with your bestie for lunch right in the middle of the week
• You get to sleep in or nap when / if you need it
• You don’t need to juggle your manager’s demands while looking after your sick child
• You don’t need to request approval to take time off

 

 

Going digital gives you the freedom to reject the fixed hours imposed by traditional employment.

It allows you to regain your time and organize your life the way YOU want it.

Work from wherever you want

Kiss the cubicle-life goodbye.

The next reason to take the plunge as a digital entrepreneur also happens to be my favorite.

 

2. Work and live anywhere you want

The ultimate freedom.

What is THE place where you’d love to spend your days? A place that makes you feel safe, happy, and that inspires you to do your best work?

Is it the cosiness of your favorite coffee shop? The good old library? Or this beautiful co-working space they just opened in your area?

Just pick one.

Or two.

Or more if you’d like.

 

 

As a blogger, freelancer, product creator, you can work from anywhere you want (that has a decent internet connection). This means that you can change your “office” location every day if that makes you happy.

A lot of moms have chosen to set up their office in the comfort of their home. This allows them to spend more time with their little ones and to throw a load in the washer while working.

The amazing Suzi Whitford, the blogger behind Start a Mom Blog, was able to build a (more than) profitable blog from the comfort of her home solely while her littles ones napped.

 

Live anywhere you want

But more than just working from anywhere you’d like, working online also means that you can LIVE anywhere you want.

Have you ever dreamed of moving to Southeast Asia, South America or Australia?

Is world travel high on your bucket list?

Your travel dreams can become a reality.

 

We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us. Anonymous

 

Because leaving your corporate life means you are no longer tied down to a specific location. You can work from virtually anywhere in the world.

Australians Radhika and Johnny from Full Time Nomads, are ones of the many freedom seekers who decided to give location independence a shot. In 2012, they left their jobs and set out on a 4-month long travel throughout Columbia. They caught the travelling bug and have been travelling full-time and working as digital marketing freelancers ever since.

 

 

3. Be financially independent doing something you love

Because you trade your time for money and the amount of hours you work is limited, your income is quickly capped out. This, combined with mortgage payments and “standard” spending habits will leave you in debts well into your 50s.

By the time retirement rolls around, you haven’t saved enough money to be financially independent for another 30 years.

Not really what you want to hear after years of hard work, is it?

But what if you could live well AND save up enough every month so that you can retire early?

How do we do that?

PASSIVE INCOME.

Or income you make without actively working for it = money you make while you sleep or travel.

 

 

And unless you own rental properties, you’re not making passive income working for someone else.

Passive income is revolutionizing the way that we work because how much you make online does NOT correlate with the amount of hours that you work.

And that’s especially true for entrepreneurs focused on content creation, courses / programs and ebooks. They will put in the work to create products at a given time and still reap the benefits years later.

Here are the most common sources of online passive income:

• Ads
• Affiliate marketing
• E-books / books
• Online courses / programs
• Digital products – workbooks / worksheets / calendars, etc.

While it might take a while for a digital entrepreneur to start making anything at all, once they have enough traffic, built a community, built courses or have written ebooks, they can make serious money.

 

While it can be scary to quit your day job to become your own boss, I think that the benefits largely outweigh the risks. Most of us want to live life on our own terms. Most of us crave freedom.

The freedom to live our lives the way we want to; the freedom to work when we want to; the freedom to live and work wherever we want to. And most importantly the freedom to be financially independent while doing something we love day in and day out. It has never been easier to build a business. With almost no capital, pretty much anyone can become a digital entrepreneur.

All you need is passion and the drive to make it happen.

What do you have to lose?