If you’re anything like me, deep down, you’ve had the desire to work and live from anywhere in the world, or at least to have the opportunity to do so with your own business. I know not everyone starts their own business to be able to travel, but I’m sure it crosses their mind at some point.
I’d like to hazard a guess, from the many conversations I’ve had with fellow entrepreneurs and workaholics, that achieving this level of freedom and flexibility is not something many of us manage.
The travel suitcase for women in Budapest market
Well I’m here to chart my journey on how I make this a reality. I’m writing this while travelling ‘backwards’ on a train from Budapest, Hungary enroute to Graz in Austria. The sun has dipped under the clouds, which is giving me some welcome respite from the relentless heat that I’ve been experiencing since arriving in Europe.
There’s no air-conditioning, only hot air that circulates through the window and every so often the smell of oil wafts in. If you’d walked into my carriage five minutes earlier you would have found me nodding off listening to the amazingly talented band Keane.
My laptop battery will not last for longer than an hour and my iPod is running even lower. This, my friends, is my attempt at working whilst travelling. Not sounding too successful I agree, but I’m only just beginning and looking forward to the adventure.
Up until now it’s been a lot harder than I had anticipated for a few reasons. I decided to concentrate fully on competing in the World Club Ultimate Frisbee Championships in Prague last week. The schedule of our games, early starts, warm ups and the travel to and from the fields at different locations meant each night I had less and less time to check in online, and less desire.
Then after a full on week where we beat our seed but missed out on our team goal by losing two universe point games, I simply felt like a break. A break from everything, and the chance to just be a tourist when I arrived in Budapest with some of my team-mates. I was offline for four whole days, nothing short of a miracle and trust me it felt good.
The other reason is lack of reliable internet which I fully expected on my travels but didn’t realize would be so disruptive. Trying to do this from busy and hot hotel foyers is just not conducive to being productive at anything.
My Location Independent Remedy
I’ve taken a few important steps in the last few days to ensure the rest of my journey of running my business from afar goes more smoothly.
**Step 1: Always adapt
**I have an adapter that I will not lose or loan out (I learned my lesson on that last week). This means I can charge up wherever I go and never be `uncharged’. Don’t underestimate the power of the right tools for the job.
**Step 2: Go Offline
**I finally enabled Gmail offline. I’ve never really had a need to read, write and respond to email when not connected and then send it when I’m back online – until now. Email clients like Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird are great for this but I love that Gmail offers it too and I know I’m going to find this a super handy tool like so many of you already do. Imagine what I can achieve without a connection!
**Step 3: Be courteous
**If you know you’re not going to be online, set up an autoresponder that says so. I put mine on from day one saying with the header `Natalie is away working and travelling in Europe’ and a simple message saying because of this I may not be responding to emails quite as quickly as normal. So far it’s been great, people have answered their own questions or simply noted they’d meet with me when I’m back.
**Step 4: Create a schedule
**Obviously one of the easiest things I can do is plan my travel schedule better and commit. Now that I’m off to stay with friends in Graz for a week I know that I will be in one place so I can get a routine going.
I intend to get up early before the sunrises and get some solid work done and then enjoy the late morning and early afternoon to explore. Once satisfied I can use the cooler evenings to get more work done before dinner. I’ll also use travel time on planes and trains to the max.
**Step 5: Keep on communicating
**I love Skype (when it doesn’t crash) and given all you need to use this is the software and a headset I intend to set up some weekly meetings with my intern plus some interviews when I have reliable internet. No need to stop with the communication in any way shape or form these days, plus it’s free!
Step 6: Stay focused
It’s pretty easy to get distracted when you’re travelling to beautiful cities like Prague and Budapest and a group of friends suggests visiting the castle over the 3 hours you intended to work on your eBook, sales strategy or application development.
However this is a business you’re running, so know what your priorities are and make an intelligent choice based on whether you’ll find more joy in visiting that magnificent attraction and experiencing the here and now of the country you’re in, or whether finishing the critical work that needs to get done will be even more enjoyable.
Step 7: Learn from the best
If you’re subscribed to my newsletter then you’ll know I’m excited to feature two interviews this month with successful women entrepreneurs already making it their business to travel and live where they want while making a living. For me emulating those who already do what you want to do, and do it very well is simply the best way to learn.