4 GUYS Oct 2016 issue October 2016 issue #2 for 4 Guys Magazine | Page 8

All you need is a laptop, accounting certfication and a
phone.
“Entrepreneurs don’t want
to be tasked with driving to
hour long in-person meetings
to take care of the mundane
tasks that go hand-in-hand
with running a business anymore,” says Ian Crosby, cofounder and CEO of Bench,
an online bookkeeping company.Crosby notes that to be
a successful online company, customer service through
communication is incredibly
important.
“What we’ve found is that
tech-friendly entrepreneurs
aren’t looking for [in-depth
conversations]
anymore,”
Crosby says. “They’re looking
for fast, convenient and delightful communication. None
of which can be achieved in
an hour-long meeting in a
tube-lit office space.”

The best part? Zintro is run entirely online. Levin says most of
his interactions with customers
are through the phone or email.
4. TECH SUPPORT
Not everyone is tech savvy,
which means that technical support companies are a great way
to make some money. This may
require time spent in the field,
showing up at businesses or
homes to help troubleshoot
issues, but you can still run this
company from anywhere.
Daniel Gagnon, president and
cofounder of TekHattan Holdings, a company that specializes
in IT support in New York City,
capitalized on that concept three
years ago. Gagnon and cofounder, Alexander Hernandez, were
working as a senior manager
and IT Technician (respectively)
for CityMD while doing IT support on the side.However, their
side business grew following
customer referrals, so they quit
their jobs at CityMD, and TekHattan was born.
“I had to make the decision
to leave my day job in hopes of
making the American dream,”
Gagnon said. “It paid off.”
He emphasized that communication and customer service are
two of the most important aspects of an online company.
“We’re on call 24/7/365 for all
of our clients. If one of our clients
has an IT emergency at two in
the morning on a Saturday, we
need to go out and make sure
they are taken care of. And we
do this with pride, every time.”

You’re not the only one. If you
are well versed in grammar and
love to read and write, online editorial services might be a good
option for you.
There are several ways to approach this business -- you could
create software that auto edits
content, you can edit the content
yourself or you can do as Wordy,
an online editorial service, does
and act as a go-between for
those who need content to be
edited and freelance editors you
hire.
What you can charge depends
on the amount of material and
difficulty in editing; however Anders Schepelerr, the CEO and
founder of Wordy, says not to
make your primary focus about
pricing.
“Trust is so important for proofreading and copy-editing, so we
believe in establishing long relationships,” he states.

3. MATCHMAKING SERVICE
We aren’t just talking about
talking about Tinder or eHarmony. A matchmaking service
can be any form of technolo6. DIGITAL MARKETING AND
gy that matches businesses
PR If you have a background in
or individuals with the sermarketing and publicity, consider
vices they require. This business can be run from anytaking those skills online. While
where, because it can all be
TreDigital has its headquarters in
done online.
Seattle, CEO Maria Dykstra ofOne way to run a successful
ten runs her company from Rusmatchmaking business is to
sia, where she has family. She
make expertise available to
companies when they need
also has team members all over
it fast like Zintro, a website
the United States and across the
that matches companies to
world.
experts for projects, phone
“But we operate as a team,”
consults and jobs, offers to
she says. Dykstra notes that you
its customers.
Zintro’s cofounder Enrique
can actually be more productive
Levin says that the way the
while traveling, like she expebusiness works is that cusriences, due to the lack of local
tomers will submit a project,
meetings that interrupt her greatand then experts will reply
er focus on growing the busiwith a summary of their qualifications and a bid as to why
ness.
they would be the best candi- 5. EDITORIAL SERVICES
Another thing to be aware of as
date for the job. This makes Do you find typos in emails annoy- digital nomad is the importance
it easy for users to hire an
expert without having to go ing? Think that misspellings in a of maintaining strong relationnewsletter are unprofessional? ships with clients, says Andrea
to many places.
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