Laptop lifestyle for web designers

There is something extraordinary about living the laptop lifestyle! First of all, you get to choose your schedule. Then, you can take your entire business with you in a small bag, and then spend many hours on a beautiful beach, without having to deal with an angry boss.

You get to see your children growing before your eyes. You don't have to spend two or three hours each day on the road, driving to the office and back. And trust me, I could probably go on for an hour, telling you more and more benefits that arise from living the laptop lifestyle.

But what do you need to do and have to enjoy this type of lifestyle? Of course, you are going to need to be a skilled web designer.

If this is an issue, you will be glad to find out that there are many web design courses that you can take for free.

Then, gain some experience (and build a portfolio) by working at a few non-paid projects (maybe for a few non-profits?) until you get a decent client base.

Still, my recommendation is to invest in a paid web design course. Why should you do that? Because if you pay money, you are much more likely to actually go through the entire course and finish it! You may think I'm crazy by telling you to spend money, when there are so many free options available. Trust me, though, you will learn much more if the course costs you money. Additionally, the course quality may be a bit higher in comparison with what you would get from a free web design course.

OK, so you already know web design or you have learnt it. What else do you need? Two more things: a laptop and some software. You'd better choose a good laptop, because you are going to spend quite a bit of time working at it. So, go for a Core i7 or whatever number is making the headlines now. Screen size is crucial; a 17" laptop is probably the best option. There are other "portable" devices with huge screens, of course - this one, for example - but they aren't that easy to carry around, and often times they were built for gaming purposes, not for web designers.

Pick a laptop that has got plenty of RAM and enough storage space. If you ask me, I would go for a model that has at least 8 GB of RAM and 500 GB of storage.

If you have got the money, choose an SSD drive. Their prices have decreased a lot lately, and solid-state drives offer unmatched speed and reliability, two features that are greatly appreciated while working or carrying your laptop all day long.

If you plan to travel a lot, you will need to connect to various WiFi hotspots. This means that your laptop needs to have a good WiFi card. Sometimes you will want to use a portable router, because the hotel you're staying in may only offer wired Internet access. Or you can invest in a signal range extender and use a cable to couple it with an external antenna that can easily pick even a weak WiFi signal. By doing this, you may be able to connect to the cafeteria that's located at the top floor, for example.

What about software? Things are much easier in this department. You will need an HTML editor, such as Coffee Cup, a graphics design suite - pick your favorite, and a huge library of images and vectors. I have given a few sites examples in THIS article.

That is pretty much it, when it comes to preparing for the laptop lifestyle as a web designer. It's important to have a consistent, monthly recurring revenue before going this route, though; otherwise, you may get discouraged and forget about your dream too early.

Getting a consistent revenue stream that covers your basic necessities BEFORE changing your lifestyle is mandatory. It's easy to do that by taking on several clients for which you provide website maintenance, security monitoring and back up services, for example.

Living the laptop lifestyle as a web designer isn't easy, but I chose to go that way and never looked back. Actually, whenever I tend to think that my life would be easier working in a regular office, I look at all the advantages that were highlighted at the beginning of this article, and then smile happily. I simply love my new life!