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One of the undeniable perks of being a solopreneur is the freedom to work from anywhere in the world. These days, all of my work in done online, from my laptop, and I have very little one-on-one time with my clients.
So when I finally stepped away from my corporate 9-to-5 job, one of the first things I did was book a flight to Thailand. And whilst siting on a boat and writing emails in my bikini had me feeling so freakin’ #blessed, there were some frustrating circumstances that took away from what would’ve otherwise been perfect, truly magical days.
Fast forward to a few months later, I travelled to Bali, the U.S.A, Turkey, Georgia (the country) and Greece with my laptop in-tow, and continued to earn money in my business from all corners of the globe.
So fellow entrepreneur, if you’re dreaming of the #digitalnomad life, here’s the juicy lessons I learnt from working + travelling overseas, and how you can have a seamless experience:
BYO Internet Connection
There’s very little that I need in order to work, however a strong internet connection is at the very top of my list. Unfortunately, a strong and safe connection is often hard to find when travelling.
Hotel wifi is always slow and often times-out, I don’t love working from noisy cafés and I’m forever dubious of free public wifi.
My solution? I have an old iPhone that I always take travelling. As soon as I get off the plane I purchase a cheap sim card from a kiosk at the airport, and load it up with tonnes of data. A local data-only sim card is generally inexpensive, and saves me hours of frustration and stress whilst I’m on the road.
Now whenever I need connection, I simply hotspot off my phone and I’m instantly connected to my work.
Timezones Can Be Tough
When in California earlier this year, I had a handful of Pinterest Management calls booked with future clients. Only problem was, there’s a big, fat 16 hour time difference between Perth > L.A. Not wanting to make my prospective client get up at 2am to chat with me, I was up very late into the night so we could chat all things Pinterest marketing.
Be Prepared to Miss Out on the Fun
A working vacation is exactly that, and in exchange for the privilege of travel, there’s also work to be done. Consequently, this can mean that whilst your friends are heading off on an adventure, you’ve got to stay behind at the hotel and get sh*t done.
TIP: Automating systems within your business like scheduling your social media posts (I love Later), bulk uploading pins for Pinterest (Tailwind is your new bff) and client project workflows (Dubsado changed my life) will mean there’s more time for hiking/massages/margaritas in your day.
Invest in Smart Tech Pieces
A lightweight laptop bag, a set of compact earphones and an international power adaptor (bonus points for one that can charge multiple devices at once) are just a handful of smart tech accessories frequent travellers should consider investing in.
TIP: If you ever forget to pack a power adaptor, ask for one at your hotel’s reception. Forgetful travellers (such as myself 🙋🏻) often plug them into the wall sockets and leave them behind.
Be prepared for stuff to go wrong
Bummer alert: Sometimes when travelling, things can go wrong. Luggage can get lost, and items can get damaged or even be stolen. Though most travellers will enjoy an incident-free vacation, it always pays to be prepared for the worse:
- Backup your work to a hard drive or cloud software before you leave
- Have a copies of all your essential documents in Dropbox or Google Drive
- Make sure you have the right insurance.
- Use cloud software all your passwords (I highly recommend LastPass) so you can still log into emails and other essential programs in the absence of your laptop.
Knowing that you can still service your clients and make money – even if things go wrong – will turn a disaster into a slight inconvenience.
Are you a digital nomad or a frequent business traveller? Jump into the comments below and let me know what makes your life easier when on the road!
With love,
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