Imagine this: you’re running your own business as a consultant. At the same time, you’re a hyper-social person who doesn't enjoy working alone at home. Sitting around in coffee shops with your laptop gets uncomfortable after a while. What to do? Instead of renting an office with some other self-employed people, Janne Saarikko in Helsinki came up with a completely new concept. He is now the Office Nomad.

The deal is simple. Janne stays with different host companies and keeps changing offices every month. The host provides a desk, internet, printing facilities and sometimes a meeting room. Janne does his own business without bothering the new “co-workers” too much. But if they want, he’s there to give free consultancy marketing issues, communications, social media or business development. And if the consulting services, the media attention and the nice atmosphere he brings (yup, he’s a nice guy!) is not enough, Janne has yet another unique selling point: he always brings with him a real espresso machine and provides fantastic coffee and some training in how to make the perfect espresso. Ahhh, now we’re talking.

The Idea Nomads met up with the Office Nomad when passing through Helsinki, and we had a chance to try his coffee first-hand at his host company Netprofile. Netprofile’s Christina Forsgård provided the meeting room and was raving about how great it is to have Janne around. Only negative point: he’ll be leaving for another office soon! Well, a nomadic life has to be full of bye-byes. But of course it’s easy to stay in touch these days with social media and whatnot. Janne’s crowd in Finland is incredibly up to date with all kinds of new communication – Helsinki really surprised us by being such a hotspot for new media and design.

How the meeting went? Well – conversation was smooth and lively, we got some new ideas going, and the espresso was the best one we had since Shanghai. We’re excited to follow the development of the Office Nomad concept, as Janne has hinted he’s about to expand the concept to make it possible for other people to become office nomads too. Good luck with that Janne, and all the best for your nomadic venture.

> see what Janne writes about meeting the IDEA NOMADS. And a video, too!

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