White-collar nomads

As both a travel addict and a former shoestring-style backpacker who is currently in the process of launching a multi-media company, I’ve been struggling for years with a bit of a tricky existential dilemma: How can I possibly hang on to my beloved independent lifestyle – I tend to relocate from city to city whenever the notion strikes, and I love the convenience of travelling abroad whenever I get the urge – while also launching and operating the business of my dreams?

Tough one, right? Well, maybe not as tough as it might have been ten years ago. Author Timothy Ferriss makes the case for “escaping 9-5, living anywhere, and joining the new rich’ in his rather bold new book, The 4-Hour Work-Week, which I’ve been enjoying immensely over the past few weeks. But if you’d like to read a more brief primer about the subculture of brave business people that some reporters are now referring to as “white-collar nomads”, take a look at this recently-published Business 2.0 article, “Extreme telecommuting“. Oh - and get your passport ready.

Hear, Hear: An online magazine about creative entrepreneurs and small business owners

I was walking up Broadway with C — this was back in November 2006 – when the idea popped into my head that I should relaunch Young Pioneers as a magazine about creative entrepreneurs and unconventional small business owners. We had just left the Strand, where I’d picked up a cheap review copy of a book titled Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. 

I can’t say for sure, but it seems likely that the book’s concept — unconventional entrepreneurship can be creative, positive, and even fun — was probably responsible for putting the idea into my head in the first place.

To be honest, I don’t know all that much about business. I never studied it in college, and aside from the fact that I technically operate a small business because I work as a self-employed freelance journalist, this entrepreneurial stuff is all very new to me. So naturally, once I committed myself to the idea of relaunching, I also hit the local libraries and bookstores, where I started gathering information about things like state licenses, business plans, and tax law. I also tried to discover if any publications existed that were similar in spirit to the one I wanted to create. For the purpose of simplicity, I’ve been limiting my search to the United States and Canada. And as far as the newsstand is concerned, I haven’t found any publication, with the exception of certain articles in Fast Company and bits and pieces of Inc., Business 2.0, and FSB, that approaches business editorial with the same attitude I intend to on the pages of Young Pioneers.

But when it comes to the internet, it’s a slightly different story.

Last week, I was checking my email at a youth hostel in Prague, of all places, and I somehow stumbled upon an online publication called Hear, Hear: Intelligence for Small Business. The site is operated by two guys who run a design studio in New York City, and the handful of interviews they’ve posted with other entrepreneurial types (musicians, designers, textile mavericks, etc.) are simply priceless.

I especially like the fact that Hear, Hear was launched for largely altruistic reasons. According to information posted on the publication’s website, at any rate, the idea was simply to share knowledge and resources with other entrepreneurs — or would-be entrepreneurs – who might be struggling along the path to success. In other words, Hear, Hear seems to view its business peers not as competitors, but rather as fellow pioneers with whom to share ideas and resources. Take a look at the group’s mission statement:

Hear, Hear is an online publication for small business owners, freelancers, and other like-minded people. We publish new findings on the web (articles, tools, how-tos), we interview interesting people and businesses, and compile useful references for our readers to help them succeed in running their own businesses.   

Sounds interesting, huh? Believe me, it is. To learn even more about the publication, click here. If you’d rather go straight to the homepage, click here. 

Upcoming Moon Handbooks interview in next week’s Pittsburgh City Paper

A few weeks back I posted an item about being interviewed by the arts editor of the City Paper; we met at a South Side cafe and talked for maybe an hour about my recently-published Pittsburgh city guidebook. The editor himself, Bill O’Driscoll, tells me his article about the book is scheduled to run in the paper this Wednesday, August 15. If you aren’t in Pittsburgh but would still like to find out how the interview went, log onto the City Paper’s website on Thursday; you’ll find that week’s entire issue online. I’ll also post the article right here on the Labor Party.