Women without borders

Women weighing up their options during a slow job market might want to consider an alternative path that until recently has been trod mostly by men. Living as a "digital nomad" or location independent entrepreneur has become an increasingly attractive option for those with the chutzpah to sell products and services online.

In places such as Southeast Asia and parts of South America in particular, such entrepreneurial communities are springing up, allowing men and women to network and develop their businesses while living in exotic and inexpensive parts of the world. Stacey Herbert, a copywriter and online marketing consultant, left her native London for Bali after a break-up. She saw the upheaval as an opportunity to get out and create a new life, and has built a thriving online business since relocating to Asia.

Herbert's professional background was in fashion journalism and drug rehabilitation. When she was asked to write marketing material for the first time, she realised she could parlay her skills into a new career.

"I didn't come from a business background," she says. But when she arrived in Bali and met entrepreneurs and other people in business for themselves, "I saw real people making money doing what they loved. I just sat at everyone's feet and asked questions that probably made me sound like an idiot but I didn't care. 'How does this work? How does that work?' That's how I became a copywriter."

Herbert is not the only one who made the leap from her native country to location independence via Bali. Elisa Doucette, a writer, content strategist and columnist for Forbes, left a promising career as a corporate executive to pursue her passion for writing. Doucette was already developing an impressive portfolio, with a syndicated dating column for MaineToday.com and the Portland Press Herald, and another, Shattering Glass, for Forbes, before she moved to Bali to work with Tropical MBA, a company that supports entrepreneurs, among other endeavours.