Jason Vander Griendt, 40, brings in about $2 million in annual sales to a solopreneur company powered by a loyal team of contractors. And he does so as he travels the world, home to a two-bedroom apartment at the Four Seasons Toronto. He has visited 60 countries since he started his business, JCad Internationalwhich produces 3D representations of products and parts, and an ancillary business, Fast 3D Rendering, which creates photo-realistic digital representations of real estate. He founded JCad as a side job in 2006, while working in a corporate job until he was sure he could replace his paycheck. JCAD now brings in 30% of the revenue and Render 3D Quick, founded in 2013, generates the rest.
Vander Griendt is part of two trends that place him on the brink of economic change. For years, he ran a million-dollar sole proprietorship, a “non-employer” business in US government parlance with no employees except the owners. He relies on more than 50 experienced contractors, some of whom have their own teams, in countries around the world, who pay them approximately 4x the market price.
The million-dollar sole proprietorship has grown every year in recent history, with 43,012 breaking through in the $1 million revenue category to $2.49 million in 2019 (the most recent year for which Census statistics are available), an increase from 41,666 in 2018. A super-efficient 2,553 made sales of $2.5 to $4.99 million, and 388 made sales of $5 million and more.
Vander Griendt is also a digital nomad, a trend accelerated by the pandemic. Within the US, 16.9 million American workers currently describe themselves as digital nomads, an increase of 8% from 2021 and a whopping 131% from 2019. These are employees who “work and live remotely, anywhere in the world with internet connections”. as described in the Report Digital Nomads 2022 by MBO Partners, a provider of back office services to the self-employed, and prepared by Emergent Research.
Some of the digital nomads are independent freelancers and entrepreneurs such as Vander Griendt. About two-thirds are employees who were allowed to work remotely during the pandemic.
What is driving the trend? An early but ongoing source of inspiration for many, including Vander Griendt, is Tim Ferriss and the lifestyle he described in The 4-hour work weekpublished in 2007. “Tim Ferriss was ahead of its time,” said Miles Everson, CEO of MBO Partners.
The pandemic also played a role, with technology rapidly improving and more companies embracing remote working. The pent-up demand to get outside the four walls within which many of us have spent the pandemic also played a part.
“So many people want to travel now that the pandemic is over,” said Steve King, a partner at Emergent Research. “With a lot of people coming out of Covid, we see the continuation of the interest and to get out there and do things. Almost all of them tell us that they will be doing some international travel, but most are more domestic in terms of time commitment over the course of a year. One of the fastest growing sub-segments is ‘van-lifers’: people in RVs and vans. Most digital nomads are part of the slow travel movement.”
That could be a harbinger of things to come, as Gen Z and millennials make up two-thirds of the digital nomad population, Everson said. “If you think of your workforce planning as a business, understanding how to embrace and inspire digital nomads should become part of your core strategy,” Everson says.
It remains to be seen whether the tax laws will catch up. It is complicated for employers to pay taxes if employees spend part of the year in other countries or even regions within their own country. “Companies are just starting to figure that out,” King says. Beyond this, immigration laws often limit visits to other countries to three months, he says.
Despite existing limitations, Vander Griendt created a lifestyle that revolves around freedom. “I don’t have a schedule,” he says. “I do what I want. I can do it when I want, where I want.” (You can learn more about his philosophy by watching the replay of this free community event at the New York Public Library that I recently moderated with him and two other like-minded entrepreneurs and in these two businesskinda.com articles: “How To Think Like A Million-Dollar, One-Person Business Owner” and “He 3D Printed His Way To a million dollar sole proprietorship.”
On a normal day, he gets up at 8 or 9 a.m. Then he spends an hour answering emails that come in at night (unless they’ve already been answered through automated templates he uses to streamline communication). Vander Griendt, not one to follow industrial-age constructs like team meetings, avoids them, instead writing to all the contractors he needs to reach by email and then sending the completed work to clients. “Then I drink coffee, relax, go to the gym,” he says. “I’m going to the spa and steam room.”
During the week, he reads three books a week, highlighting his favorite business books on his Instagram account (@jasonvandergriendt). Some of his choices: Genghis Khan and the Genesis of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford, A few lessons for investors and managers by Warren Buffet, and The top 5 regrets of the dying by Bronnie Ware.
He believes that living in an apartment in a hotel is ideal for an entrepreneurial lifestyle, given the constant influx of other business people. “It’s a good place to meet like-minded people,” he says.
He has also spent a lot of time finding and developing relationships with his contractors, mostly through the freelance platform Upwork. He usually tests them with a small pilot project, lasting about five minutes, something along the lines of “Put this on the left. Put this on the right. Make this blue and make this red.” If he gets the project back and they have followed the instructions, he will entrust them with a more advanced paid project.
Over the years he has run his business, traveling to Eastern Europe and around the world to meet the contractors and their families. In August he traveled to London, Italy, Greece and Turks and Caicos, where he combined business and pleasure on a trip that allowed him to meet contractors and a client.
All of its prime contractors have started their own businesses, often employing other contractors in their country. His relationships with his team, including many contractors who have been with him for years, transcend the usual outsourcing relationship.
When Vander Griendt learned that one of his contractors, who lives in Ukraine, had to work at night because the local power plant had been bombed and there were restrictions on using electricity, he bought a generator for his team member. When another had to move into an apartment after his house was bombed – and then the apartment was destroyed as well – he paid his contractor’s full salary for a month so that the contractor could get a new place to live.
He got to know his contractors so well that he put them in his will. “During covid I thought that if I ever went unexpectedly when I was young there would be a lot of people relying on me who suddenly have no source of income,” he says. “That’s not fair to them, so part of my estate would go to them equally. They’ve done so much for me, so it’s the least I could do for them as they transitioned to something else.”
Those strong relationships have helped position his company for growth. Sales tripled during the pandemic, while its marketing costs fell. “When Covid hit, a lot of my competition closed,” he says. “We all worked remotely. We didn’t have to close. The competition on Google dropped like crazy. They have all turned off their Google ads.”
He also runs his business according to the Pareto principle, being aware that 80% of the results come from 20% of the input. He pays a lot of attention to this when he gets a question from a customer, asking himself, “Is this one of the 20% of the customers that gives me 80% of my revenue, or wastes 80% of my time? “
The continued success of Vander Griendt’s company is a good sign for other digital nomads who want to live free from the limitations of the past and embrace the freedoms that the internet continues to bring – whether working for themselves or for someone else – and looking are in the company of fellow nomads. As Everson says, “This population will only continue to grow.”
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.