THE DIGITAL NOMAD GUIDE FOR ARCHITECTS
Who are the digital nomads? This document describes who the digital nomads are and how some of them work for the AE industry. Some CEOs of traditional and conventional AE enterprises have dropped out and have joined the ranks of the digital nomads while still serving their same clients. I suspect that this may be the beginning of a trend which could eventually completely transform the AE industry.
The term, digital nomads, implies that they move around and some of them certainly probably do. However, many if not most of them remain in one place for extended lengths of time and work for many different enterprises in many different places. So when we refer to digital nomads it is not so much the digital nomads who move. It is the succession of work assignments which do the moving. Digital nomads can mobilize together very quickly with other digital nomads and client enterprises, and they can liquidate just as fast when assignments are complete. Digital nomads may work on multiple assignments simultaneously and may have 24/7/365 work schedules in order to fit into the workday routines of all of the remote clients being served.
TRAINING AND PRODUCTION
Checking with Chatgpt, I found that there are no colleges or universities that offer majors to study about how to become and to function as digital nomads. Presently, being a digital nomad is a very small slice of a very small piece of fruit. I think that situation is changing fast. I think the business potential for digital nomads is very good, but my impression is that at the present time there are not very many digital nomads. However, I suspect that a lot, if not most work will be done in this manner five years from now.
There are a number of fields related to being a digital nomad, listed on Chatgpt, including entrepreneurship, business administration, computer science, information technology, digital marketing, communications, and media studies. You could probably cobble together the knowledge from these various fields of study to learn how to become a digital nomad. However, doing it that way would require sifting through a mountain of information not specific to the objective. That could take a lot of time. People generally become digital nomads by self-teaching and personal discovery. There is pretty much no one to show the way.
You can do some surfing on the Internet and you will soon see a profuse population of online architects and they mostly represent themselves as resources for what might be referred to as so-called “outsourcing.” Almost none of these architects are digital nomads. They run drafting and modeling enterprises, sometimes consisting of several dozen or several hundred if not several thousand computer operators all employed and working under one roof. These architects are not solo, they are not mobile, and their enterprises are not easily scalable. Their enterprises are static and confined to their respective locations. These enterprises tend to be multilayered managed so that the clients being served are separated by management manipulation from the people doing the work. It is difficult in such business relationships for quality to be nearly as important as money. Where the work has low demands on quality it’s probably OK. However, the AE industry as a client group usually demand the utmost highest quality, making conventional outsourcing a problematic option.
CONNECTING
Some of the kind of professionals I am referring to are individuals, who can at the drop of a hat pick up and go anywhere in the world where they can access the internet and set up shop and start trucking within a few minutes of arriving wherever that might be, and they can stay for a few hours or indefinitely for as long as they are needed, but many more digital nomads stay put wherever they are and work long distance. When digital nomads make contact with clients or prospects, unless the digital nomad reveals it, the person on the other end of the connection usually has no way of telling that the digital nomad is anywhere other than where the contact information on his email signature says he is.
BUSINESS STRUCTURE
I am an architect digital nomad. I use computers. That part of me is not unusual, but I consider myself a nomad because I am not living among my family or my coworkers the way others do and I have lived like that for many years, and I move around from time to time. I work for other architects and engineers, and almost without exception I am never among them either but the succession of my time for architects and engineers and their respective projects is spread out all over the United States. In fact we almost never meet even once during the times we know each other and work together. I am remote and alone except that I am connected online with an incredible international pool of architectural and engineering talent that can be turned on and off like a faucet. I am the CEO, Founder and lone employee of ARCHLINE.COM, LLC, which is a limited liability corporation. The Corporate Office for ARCHLINE.COM is located in a virtual office suite at 5050 Quorum Drive, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas 75254, USA. The only person at that location associated with ARCHLINE.COM is a receptionist-secretary, who works for Regus, which is an international executive office suites company with almost a thousand locations all over the world. That receptionist-secretary does clerical work for ARCHLINE.COM as needed on an hourly basis and all that work is either digital or presented via air couriers. ARCHLINE.COM’s only physical presence in the Dallas, Texas office, other than the receptionist-secretary, is a company post office box. If needed ARCHLINE.COM can rent office space from Regus by the hour, day, month or year anywhere in the world where there is a Regus office. This can be done wherever or whenever a business conference might be needed or to conduct some other business. However, a physical presence is almost never needed. ARCHLINE.COM receives and sends most of its corporate communications to and from that Dallas, Texas location. Presently, I am personally living and working from a leased apartment, located at 125 Plaza Marina, Marina Vallarta 48335, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico. I have lived in Puerto Vallarta for almost 4 years. I am planning on moving soon to Hawaii on the Big Island.
If you are a US Citizen and you plan on becoming an international digital nomad I strongly suggest that you establish and maintain some sort of US based address similar to Regus and have a business structure for receiving income inside the United States to avoid paying income taxes wherever you will be living and working. My company is legally located in Dallas, Texas and I have no business presence in Mexico. Since I receive no income in Mexico I am not subject to Mexican income taxes. I am subject to US Income Taxes just as though I lived in the United States.
ARCHLINE.COM has a second saddress at 1910 Pacific Avenue, Suite 2000, PO Box 2535, Dallas, Texas 75201. That is an IPostal1.com branch office. Although the overwhelming number of payments for ARCHLINE.COM’s services are paid via wire or ACH transfers, all ARCHLINE.COM payments by check are sent to that location where they are scanned, endorsed via an ARCHLINE.COM delegated power of attorney, and then forwarded via USPS for deposit in the ARCHLINE.COM Corporate checking account at a Plano, Texas Frost Bank Branch. It would have been preferable that such transactions be provided at Regus, but unfortunately Regus does not offer that service. In the rare instances that paper checks find their ways to me here in Mexico, I have a smart phone app where I can manually endorse those checks, take photos of the fronts and backs of the checks and make an online digital deposit into the ARCHLINE.COM business checking account in Plano, Texas.
PURCHASES AND DELIVERY ISSUES
Whenever I order office supplies or other merchandise from online vendors such as Amazon.com, almost unilaterally they will not ship directly to Mexico. The alternative for me is to ship to my Dallas, Texas office. When the shipment arrives in Dallas, I am notified of the delivery and I prepare and email a DHL Waybill to my Dallas Office in pdf format with instructions to print the file and give the printed waybill and the shipment to a DHL driver who picks it up and takes it the airport to ship to me in Mexico. Tariffs apply to most “things” sent to me here, which end up just about doubling the cost of the items over whatever the US based price is. Tariffs vary according to the country. Virtually ALL documents couriered to me here in Puerto Vallarta are opened and inspected by Mexican Customs Officials. One time someone opened and stole some new bank cards being shipped to me. I think DHL is the best air courier I have found to use for international shipping but they are not easy for the uninitiated. All DHL shipments to Puerto Vallarta go through customs in Guadalajara. The Mexican Customs Agents do not speak English and my Spanish skills are quite rudimentary. Nevertheless, these Agents contact recipients to verify shipments. I used to list my email address and local phone number in my DHL Waybills, but the language problem kept the Agents from being able to verify shipment information and many of my initial shipments to Mexico either got lost or were returned to my Dallas office address. I retained a Mexican Customs Consultant and found out that my waybills needed to list my Consultant’s email address and phone number and that I needed to name my Consultant AND myself as the recipients of the shipment but that I also needed to provide my personal local street address. This allows my Mexican Customs Consultant to be contacted. Her name is Cecilia Rabaga. She speaks Spanish and she now provides all of the confirming information the Mexican Customs Agents need. Even with all this I still had problems because my street address in Puerto Vallarta is behind a locked security gate and the delivery driver had no way to deliver. So, I obtained the street address of the nearest DHL office and on subsequent shipments instructed DHL to hold the shipment at that office for pickup. Things have been much smoother since then.
VISAS AND DRIVERS’ LICENSES
Traveling around the world for US Citizens is usually no problem if you have a US Passport. Living in many locations can require a visa, and that is the case where I am in Mexico. I think there are a number of different kinds of visas for Mexico, and I am familiar with a couple of them. There are temporary visas and permanent visas. Getting a temporary visa is easier, but you are only allowed to stay in the country for six months, and then you have to leave. You can come right back, but the Customs Agents at the border apparently exercise a lot of discretion on letting you back in. I think since it is a temporary permission to live here it can begin to get a little tenuous if you keep coming back into the country over the course of several years. I have heard of instances where people with temporary vises have been denied entry after multiple border crossings into the country. A permanent visa allows unlimited border crossings with no limit on how long you are in the country or how long you might be gone. However, you have to show a certain level of financial stability and independence in order to qualify and you have to complete your application for the permanent visa totally outside the country before being allowed to enter. It is a much longer process, involves much more paperwork, and finally you have to attend an interview at a Mexican Consulate or the Mexican Embassy in Washington, DC. It takes about six months to process. The visa application and approval process varies considerably from country to country so you need to check out what the requirements might be for whatever country you might choose for living. Just about all countries in the world require visas of some sort if you plan to be there for very long.
There are all kinds of constraints which hamper being a digital nomad. I lived in Hawaii before coming to Mexico and I had a Hawaiian Driver’s License. It came up for renewal, and I called the Department of Motor Vehicles in Hilo, where I had been living to inquire about renewal. I was told I would have to come in for an interview and that I should bring my vehicle VIN number with me and a copy of my latest electric utility bill to verify that I still lived in Hawaii. Obviously I could not comply and I had to let my Hawaii Driver’s License expire. Suddenly I was confronted with not being able legally to drive a car, or to purchase an automobile in Mexico, and I could not even rent a car. Luckily here in Puerto Vallarta where I live and work there are plenty of taxi cabs and they are quite reasonably priced. I applied for and obtained a Mexican Driver’s License which surprisingly did not require either a drive behind the wheel test or a written test. It DID require that I present my Mexican Permanent Visa Card and my US Passport. All I had to do was fill out some forms, get finger printed and photographed and pay a fee. Unhappily, not long afterwards my pocket was picked and my Mexican Driver’s License and my Mexican Permanent Visa were gone. It took a year to replace my Visa and I could not apply for a replacement Driver’s License until I had obtained my Visa. To get my Visa I had to fly to Phoenix, Arizona to attend an interview with a representative of the local Mexican Consulate. I was given a special temporary visa to reenter Mexico and I had 30 days to go to a local Mexican Immigration Office to get finger printed and photographed. I have these credentials now but I never carry them with me. I keep them locked up in my apartment.
I am mentioning these issues for Mexico as a small sample of the myriad of rules, laws and regulations you are apt to encounter in many different forms, depending on which country you might decide to move to and live and work there as digital nomad.
TELEPHONES
I have three telephone numbers. One is (214) 304-2850, which is a “voice over Internet protocol” VOIP land line connection. This connection funnels all calls through a “Wireless Fidelity” WIFI connection. That WIFI connection can be located anywhere in the world. Here in my apartment it is relatively fast, over 100 mps. The hardware for this tool is a small box having a footprint smaller than the minimum sized USPS postcard. It has an USB port wired into my laptop and to a standard telephone cable that connects to my analog phone. Another cable comes out of the VOIP box and plugs into my Internet service provider’s modem. I carry these devices (not the modem) with me when I travel. I also have a cell phone (808) 747-4460. Both phones are US based but ring wherever in the world I happen to be at the time. Lastly, I have an enterprise toll free telephone number, (888) 608-4030, which is also a VOIP connection. The server for my VOIP connection is with a small company called Voipia Networks, Inc. in El Dorado Hills, California. They have excellent 24 hour per day tech support provided through real time telephone conversations with techs who really know what they are talking about. Voipia has my 214 phone number set up to ring simultaneously with my 808 cell phone number. This allows me to receive my 214 telephone calls instantaneously wherever in the world I might be, coming through on my 808 cell phone number. Real time live telephone tech support for my phone has been valuable on numerous occasions. My cell phone has call waiting and I can set up conference calls with up to 10 people.
SALES AND MARKETING
Most of the continuing work for ARCHLINE.COM comes from repeat business and referrals, but I have found that it is always a good idea to keep on selling even when there is a lot of business. ARCHLINE.COM has done this using many methods, including cold email broadcasting, telemarketing, webinars, Linkedin participation, and more. This is a subject I will get into in more detail at another time.
ONLINE TOOLS
Email, telephone, Bluebeam, BIM Collaborate PRO, Teams Viewer, Zoom, Dropbox.
TEAM MANAGEMENT
Digital nomads are especially suited to function as part of decentralized organizations of armies of one in collaboration with their counterparts living and working in far-flung long-distance locations spread out to the four corners of the world. The work of digital nomads is not conducted on employer employee relationships or even based on long-term commitments, but rather as project-by-project mobilizations and management of projects, based on selections of teams of world class quality, fastest performance and lowest compensation. These project-by-project teams can liquidate at the end of each project and then be restarted again based on best-in-class team selections. Where groups of digital nomads congregate online to perform their duties my experience is that these groups tend to be organized in tiers so that there are about seven or so individuals, working under the leadership and supervision of a team leader. Where larger groups might be needed additional tiers of individuals can be organized where each tier includes about seven individuals, and where each of the members of one tier become the leaders of seven additional persons at the next level downwards. People within each tier can be added or deleted and even whole tiers can be added or deleted. Weekly or even daily online team meetings are typically held where all team members are present, and additional one on one sessions are encouraged to discuss more finely defined issues that need attention, not requiring focus from the entire team.
TIME ZONES – 24 HOUR WORK SCHEDULES
Just three digital nomads, strategically placed at the third points of latitude around the globe, can each work one eight hour shift to accomplish an aggregate twenty four hour per day work schedule among the three of them by passing the baton of work along as the day progresses. This can be applied at scale to achieve massive advantages in production. Architects in the Mainland United States can get benefit from the differences in time zones in Eastern Europe and Western Asia. These offshore teams have the advantage on the day of an uploading deadline to be able to work all day and upload to architects in the United States who are just coming to work as their offshore colleagues are finishing up their own local workdays.
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
Starting in 2008 the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards began offering NCARB Certificates to architects in other countries via the Broadly Experienced Foreign Architects (BEFA) Program. Some of these architects are digital nomads. This has evolved to become what is now known as the Architectural Registration Program. Basically, certain well qualified experienced architects in other countries can get NCARB Certificates and become licensed in many of the states and territories of the United States. They can do this without the benefits of US Citizenship, US Visas, US educational credentials or internships, or even US residencies. They can get registered in Oklahoma, for example, and live and work as US project architects of record in, say, Bogota, Colombia, and they can benefit from extremely low compensation requirements and higher profit margins than can be offered by their peers in the United States. They need only submit evidence of education, IDP compliant experience and to take a standard ARE examination, fill out some forms and pay a fee to obtain certification from the NCARB
To date almost all the business I have heard of that has been done by international architects for AE firms in the US has been in the form of providing support services. Architects and engineers, working as employees, in many countries around the world with college degrees and professional credentials in their local jurisdictions are compensated at very low US Dollars per hour, often half or less of the US Federal Minimum Wages. During the last decade or so many of these architects have become proficient in producing professional services specifically for projects in the US, and the quality of their work equals or surpasses the value add of work produced by domestic US AE firms. Again, some of these architects are digital nomads. Where they organize into groups they may have group billing rates in the US$55.00-US$60.00 per person hour.
These types of business relationships have been increasing between US AE firms and architects and engineers in other parts of the world and in fact ARCHLINE.COM has functioned as a facilitator in helping many US and foreign architects find each other and to manage co-ventures doing business together. The potential for international professional reciprocity and international professional practice is certainly there and may begin to emerge as a competitive factor in AE business. Local US domestic AE firms may begin to realize that in providing AE professional of record services to clients in the US that it will become necessary to co-venture the functions of professionals of record with international architect partners in countries with developing economies and low compensation structures in order to continue to remain competitive in a fast-changing US marketplace, and again some of these architects are digital nomads. In this context it is not so much emphasized that they are nomadic but independent and therefore more flexible for dealmaking.
EXPLODING TECHNOLOGY – SMALLER ENTERPRISES – MORE PRODUCTIVITY
Exploding technology and changes in the way US architects and engineers work could result in reductions of the number of enterprises coupled with equal increases in the volumes of work capable of being performed by each of these enterprises. The results will be a very small number of enterprises left standing.
CONTRACTS – TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Typically architect digital nomads work for other architects and engineers under a series of independent project related written Agreements. I have included a boilerplate form below of the type of Agreement I prefer to use. I vary this form according to the needs of each individual project. This Agreement excludes Additional Services. It contains no confrontational language, such as provisions for litigation, arbitration or mediation. There is no initial payment. Payments are not timed to occur at regular intervals but are timed to be made at the successful end of each major stage of the Project assignment for ARCHLINE.COM’s services. Most work is done in Revit. ARCHLINE.COM’s architect clients do not experience any negative cash flow on ARCLINE.COMs services during the life of the assignment. However, architects, who use internal personnel must continually meet payroll regardless of the progress being made on the Project. ARCHLINE.COM’s architect clients know what their margins are going to be before work starts rather than having to wait until the last timesheets are presented by internal personnel.
STANDARD FORM OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN ARCHITECT AND CONSULTANT
Between the following Parties:
__________________(ARCHITECT)
Street Address, City, State, Zip Code
Voice:
Cell:
Email:
Website:
and
___________(CONSULTANT)
Street Address
City, State, Zip Code
Voice:
Cell:
Email:
Website:
Project: ____________________
I. CONSULTANT'S RESPONSIBILITIES
The CONSULTANT will provide Building Information Modeling (BIM) and/or CAD Services to prepare Architectural Construction Documents (CD) for the Project, using whichever Revit OR AutoCAD Release is required by the ARCHITECT as follows:
1. First Stage (FS)
The CONSULTANT will assist the ARCHITECT in the development of an initial BIM and/or FS, including views of floor plans, building elevations, and site planning for the Project.
2. Second Stage (SS) Upon the ARCHITECT’S approval of the FS the CONSULTANT will assist the ARCHITECT in the development of BIM and/or SS, which includes views of details and materials for the Project.
3. Third Stage Construction Documents (CD)
Upon the ARCHITECT’S approval of the SS the CONSULTANT will assist the ARCHITECT in the development of the BIM and/or CDs, which includes views of detailed drawings establishing the requirements for the construction of the Project. The CDs will describe the quality, configuration, size, and relationships of all components to be incorporated into the Project.
4. Fourth Stage Pricing and Permitting (PP)
Upon the ARCHITECT’S approval of the BIM and/or CDs the CONSULTANT will assist the ARCHITECT in the ARCHITECT’S responsibility to develop PP for the Project. The Project’s estimated construction cost will be determined, and the BIM CDs will be submitted to all the appropriate jurisdictions for permit applications. Revisions to the BIM CDs will be made to accommodate requirements for the Project.
Altogether these Services, shall be known as the Work, which will begin immediately upon execution of this Agreement and end upon approval of PP.
The CONSULTANT will utilize information provided by the ARCHITECT to do the Work. All Work shall be the ARCHITECT'S property.
The CONSULTANT will make progress uploads of the Work as requested by the ARCHITECT, including Revit files, pdf files, and if required, AutoCAD files. A mutually agreed production schedule will be followed. The CONSULTANT shall not billable for delays in completion not caused by the CONSULTANT. The CONSULTANT shall be finished with the Work, when the CDs have been approved for permitting and pricing. There shall be no Additional Services for this Agreement.
SCOPE OF THE WORK
Exhibit “A”, attached at the end of this Agreement, is part of this Agreement and is a Sheet Index, showing the names and Sheet Numbers for each Typical Building for the Project. The Scope of the Work under this Agreement includes Architectural CDs, but not Engineering or Landscape Architecture.
ARCHITECT'S RESPONSIBILITIES
The ARCHITECT shall provide information to the CONSULTANT as the basis for the CONSULTANT'S Services to ARCHITECT. ARCHITECT shall provide, pay for, and coordinate all engineering services for the Project. ARCHITECT shall manage and coordinate as necessary with any authorities having jurisdiction over the Project or any financial institution or other organization responsible for the Project. The ARCHITECT shall be responsible for providing the CONSULTANT'S Compensation.
CONSULTANT'S COMPENSATION
The ARCHITECT shall make all payments according to this contract in collectible funds as follows:
The CONSULTANT’S Compensation is $0.00
Bank Name: Frost Bank (direct deposit) Routing #: 0000000000 Account #: 000000000
The ARCHITECT shall pay the CONSULTANT the Compensation Amount of Dollars ($0.00) for the Project's SD, DD, CD, and PP, payable at each Stage as follows:
1. FS Stage: $0.00
2. SS Stage: $0.00
3. CD Stage: $0.00
4. PP Stage: $0.00
TOTAL $0.00
The ARCHITECT shall pay the CONSULTANT Reimbursable Expenses for Project-related costs, such as computer plots and couriers, which the CONSULTANT provides to the ARCHITECT.
The CONSULTANT will submit emailed invoices to the ARCHITECT for progress payments for the CONSULTANT’S Services and Reimbursable Expenses. These invoices shall be submitted at completion of stages or at times mutually agreed to by the ARCHITECT and the CONSULTANT. The amounts paid shall be based on the total amount of work complete to the date of invoicing minus the total of all previous payments. The final payment shall be due upon completing the CDs. Failure by the ARCHITECT to pay collectible funds on any invoice following these terms shall be sufficient for the CONSULTANT to interrupt providing all services. Any damages from the failure of payment by the ARCHITECT shall be borne solely by the ARCHITECT.
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Complete execution of this Agreement requires signatures and dates below by the ARCHITECT and the CONSULTANT. The ARCHITECT and the CONSULTANT both have the right at any time at each respective party's sole discretion to terminate this Agreement by giving immediate written notice to the other party. Termination shall be for just cause. This Agreement requires that the ARCHITECT and the CONSULTANT shall only modify this Agreement by mutual written consent. Any scope of Work not described in this Agreement is outside the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
ACCEPTED BY THE ARCHITECT: ACCEPTED BY THE CONSULTANT:
________________________________ _________________________________
By: Date: By: Date:
LOCATIONS AND HEALTH INSURANCE ISSUES
I personally live and work in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, I will soon be moving to go live and work in Hilo, Hawaii in the United States. The reason I am moving back to the United States has to do with international coverage for health insurance. I am covered internationally by my United Healthcare insurance policy for emergencies. That is not an optimum situation. I have made successful claims for emergency events since I have been living here in Mexico, but last year I encountered a situation where my claim was denied and I had to return to the United States for surgery, which in this instance was an inguinal hernia that popped up suddenly after I completed a workout at a local gym. I had the surgery done in Dallas, Texas and it was fully covered. When I return to the United States and establish a place of residence there I will get Kaiser Permanente Healthcare Insurance, and if I return to Mexico and keep that residence I will be fully covered here on a reimbursable basis, so that is what I am planning to do. Or I might go live in some other low cost of living country.
If you are a US Citizen and you intend to function as a digital nomad outside the United States I recommend you determine what your situation is with your health insurance carrier before you move to another country and settle down for a long or permanent stay.
CONCLUSION
That about wraps up most of what I can think of to share with you about the opportunities and constraints of working as an architect digital nomad. I hope this is helpful for you. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.
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