What Is This “Flexpat” Business and How Does it Really Work?
Just a few questions.
Imagine being a freelancer and fully taking advantage of all the freedom your status allows. You can work from anywhere, so one week you work in a cabana in Tulum. Next week, you’re double-fisting madeleines and financiers in Paris hunched over your laptop from a cafe. Three months later, you spend a month in São Paulo. You live out of a backpack. You have started a blog. You live your life by your rules, man, and you’re experiencing the world for all it has to offer. Also, somehow you’re making money. Steady, consistent money.
This is the dream that Flexpat, a company that sounds like something gross you might do in an exercise capacity, but is really a startup that allows freelance individuals to work remotely from anywhere in the world, with the added bonus of providing them income security.
Flexpat. Combine the freedom of a freelancer with the income security of an employee.
If you want to become a Flexpat, all you need to do is sign up. They’ll screen potential Flexpats for their skills and then match them with work that also somehow guarantees a secure income. Then the Flexpats can work wherever they want, because that’s what it means to be a Flexpat. You can work in one of their “hubs” in a variety of locations where they will provide housing and a group of other like-minded individuals that are also doing the same kind of work you’re doing. Seems perfect…but how is this sustainable?
Here’s a hint as to what they’re all about, from their FAQ, but without any real clarification on the logistics of this entire operation.
We believe that people should spend most of their time on things they like rather than on tedious, time-consuming organizational tasks. Leave that hassle to us, so you can do the things you like. Flexpat facilitates:
• Income security
• Accommodation
• Workplace
• Skill-building through trainings & workshops
• Community events with like-minded people
• A lot of fun!
The site is vague enough to almost make me apply; that vagueness worries me just a little bit. This is too good too be true, right? Essentially, it’s a temp agency for freelancers who want steady work with the ability to travel — it’s Remote Year, but with the added guarantee of income security. Some questions, then.
- What kinds of jobs are available? Is it weird SEO-blogging for content farms or is it telemarketing? Will you be sorting through Google Images for porn? Will any of the work that you do actually build your career or will it just be a means to an end?
- Nothing in life is free, kids, and this service most likey isn’t either! If Flexpat is providing accomodations as well as trainings and workshops AND community events, how are they making money? They must be taking a cut because how else would they pay for this?
- How much of the administrative work do they actually handle?
- Why is the website vague to the point of feeling like a scam?
Being a flexpat sounds like a dream that could work for some, but for others could be kind of a nightmare. Working from paradise would stress me out even more, because I’d be working from paradise — trapped in my bungalow and not swimming in a clear blue ocean because I’m doing work.
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