Taking Your Business on the Road: How to Work While Traveling
One of my favorite things about being a freelancer is the flexibility it brings. Having control of who you work for and when is one of the boundless joys of freelancing. Couple that flexibility with location independence, and it opens up all the possibilities that come with taking your business on the road.
But traveling while working is not all beer and skittles, it takes real planning and the willingness to roll with the unexpected. Knowing how to travel and work can mean the difference between enjoying your trip or needing a vacation from your vacation.
Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail
When your goal is to work while traveling you have to think about more than if you brought enough underwear. While you will never be able to prepare for every eventuality, there are plenty of things you can do to avoid some of the traveling pitfalls.
- Schedule a slow work load. You may think you can handle your full work schedule while being away from the office, but let me tell you – you can’t. It’s no fun worrying about deadlines while you’re worrying about trying to catch your next train. So work hard before your trip so you don’t have to work hard on your trip.
- Prep your clients. If you have clients that will have to be in touch with you while you are traveling, let them know that you will be on the move but assure them that you will be taking their work with you. Inform them if you are going to be in a different time zone and replying to their emails at odd hours. You may not have mobile phone access, so let them know that email will be the number one way to get in touch.
- Prep your laptop. If you use a laptop as your main computer, you’re already in a great position to travel as you work. If your are like me and work from a desktop, you’ll want to make sure your laptop has everything you need on it. Sync your email, transfer all the files you think you’ll need (and even a lot of those you don’t), toss any critical files into Dropbox, and make sure you have all the software you are going to use installed and ready to go. As a added bonus, drop your bookmarks into Dropbox or use an online bookmark service. There’s nothing more annoying than hunting for a website you know you have bookmarked on your office computer.
- Travel light. Find yourself a comfortable backpack that can hold all your gear. But before you stuff it full, prioritize your essentials. Do you really need to lug around your DSLR and a 10 pound zoom lens when a quality compact will do? I’ve spent too much time kicking the crap out of an overloaded backpack to want to hump around equipment I end up not using.
- Prepare for the unexpected. I don’t know why it is, but traveling seems to bring all my clients out of the woodworks. No sooner have a left the door than clients I haven’t heard from in almost a year are emailing to talk about their project. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great problem to have, but be prepared to handle some work you may not have planned on. Transfer even old or delayed projects to your laptop and be prepared to have the FTP login information accessible for all your clients. I like to have a service like KeyPass set up with all my important security information and the encrypted file available on Dropbox if I need it.
Wireless – the Fickle Mistress
In a perfect world you will have fast and reliable internet access for your entire trip. But as I sit here working on this article while taking a train across Canada, I notice my promised wireless access is currently experiencing trouble. What I planned to be six hours of online work has suddenly changed to either offline work or six hours of twiddling my thumbs.
- Plan your online and offline work. There’s plenty of wireless internet out there but always have a backup plan when connections don’t go your way. You may want to research the area and the means of travel you are using to make sure there’s internet readily available.
- Have planned work stops. Plan to devote certain days or parts of days to getting work done. Do your research so that you know you’ll have all the tools and access available to do your job. So even if all your wireless plans fall through, you still be able to get at least some work done.
- Scout ahead before you commit. I always look for an AC plugin and wireless access before I buy my Americano. You may think that every Starbucks is freelancer friendly, but that is not always the case. Scout your planned work area before you commit yourself to buying anything.
Other Traveling Tips
It seems like you always learn something new when you travel. Here’s a few tips that I’ve often found out the hard way.
- Charge your gear at every opportunity. I have two rules when traveling – never pass by an opportunity to go to the bathroom and always charge your electronics when you have a chance. Mobile phones and laptops will always die when you need them the most.
- Prepare yourself mentally to face problems. Nothing will ever go perfectly according to plan. How you respond when things go south is completely up to you. Keep your cool and think things through rather than do what I sometimes do and throw what my wife refers to as my ”daily rant.” I like to pretend that I’m on the Amazing Race and this is just another challenge to overcome.
- Don’t work too hard. Remember you are out there to enjoy life and your surroundings. If you wanted to spend your whole day with your head stuck in a laptop then you could have just stayed home. Plan your work, but also plan to enjoy your travels.
Do you have tried and true travel tips or want to share your stories about taking your work on the road? Let us know in your comments!
I travel in rural Mexico where my family has a ranch. At last visit, there was no internet available in the town where we live, we had to go up the mountain to the next village. When we arrive we couldn’t figure out where this internet “cafe” was. Turns out it the garage of someone’s house, and it simply wasn’t “open” yet. So be aware of that— weird days off. This was a thursday in the middle of the day…during the main meal time. Oops. I’m more savvy now, I only schedule galley (hard copy) editing if I can help it. Although, I guess I run the risk of losing the galleys then.
I’m a novice student web designer/developer but I absolutely love to travel. I make use of my iPhone completely using different apps to help me when I am not able to pull out the good laptop!! There’s an application called FTP To Go http://www.ftponthego.com, its amazing, I can login to my server or any clients server and alter their files while on a 3G network. Yes, that’s very reliable indeed!! Now the interface is easy to work with, and I completely use that even in my daily adventures, accessing files and updating clients information on my phone makes it easier on me, and keeps my clients happy as well. The application is $6.99 and if you have an iPhone and your a web designer or developer and you don’t have this application then your doing your self an injustice. I also have the GoDaddy application on my phone to create domains for clients that I could maybe possibly meet along on my vacations or trips!! Being prepared is vital, and I wanted a mobile phone that could help my business become mobile as well!! I love to travel and visit different cities and meet new and interesting people, because this can lead to new opportunities and new clients, but being prepared and organized is VERY critical!! I love this article, great writing!!
Nice article!
I don’t actually do any remote work myself, but I would like to in the future.
Great post!
I don’t travel as much as I used to but having the freedom to work from anywhere is one of the main reasons I love freelancing.
I have to agree with planning ahead and making sure you have a connection. I can’t tell you how many times planning for the unexpected has saved me.
I do this every time i go to travel. I’m also launching my travel blog very soon to share my experiences with others….
I work while traveling (currently in Melbourne) and would recommend getting a Skypein number. It lets your clients call you from a phone and will only cost them the price of a local call. I think being able to pick up a phone and get in touch can be reassuring for some.
skype is a great tool
Thanks for the post Travis! As my girlfriend and are in the midst of preparing for a 6-month visit to Cuba to live with her parents, this information is helpful to me.
I plan to work the whole time, and if there’s any storms in Cuba, it can cut out internet access, so as you mentioned it’s good to stockpile resources for offline use.
Another thing is to remember to backup ALWAYS! Keep updating those dropbox files or make sure those files exist somewhere…where you aren’t. I think I’m even going to buy a backup power cord and battery in case of emergency.
Great post, I agree with you if there is one job you can do with the flexibility of working while traveling it’s definitely freelancing. There are so many tools out there these days to make the whole ordeal quite a breeze.
definitely, there a lots of communication tools that make it simple for anyone to get ahead, even in this down economy
Its great to be able to have the freedom travel while running a business
Oddly as it sounds, I prefer not to do any travelling while having to do freelance work – way too distracting! For me, I need to draw a very firm line between me-time and work-time which is simply not accomplished when I bring all my work goodies along on the trip…
As an African, I sometimes smile when I read these kind of posts – What you’re saying above is second nature to freelancers in africa, where Internet (not even talking WiFi) is dodgy at best… A question for the fellow freelancers out there: How would your freelancing habits change when you’re stuck in a country with little to no infrastructure that supports your chosen expertise?
Great piece of an article! i’ve been reading for some time andi treasure articles like this. One of the things i’ve learnt is to have my laptop as my own server, so i can develop locally and upload only when necessary, minimizing thus the need of internet access to just the needed. I’ve been as a photographer in a couple of archeological expeditions too, so i can relate to the battery problem as well hahaha
Some great tips guys! Glad everyone enjoyed the article. Happy travels
Great post!
I’m experiencing the thrills and excitement of working on the go at the minute!
I have been traveling around New Zealand with my MacBook Pro for the last 2 months!
Haven’t been as productive as I would in my office but have loved it!
Would recommend it, if you can get out and see the world, do it!
I love this aspect of freelancing. I’m trying to build up my freelancing client list right now so I don’t have to worry about taking any vacations or time off.
Me to, hard to get a decent list of clients.
This is VERY useful. I also find myself experiencing some issues when travelling. Our business doesn’t allow us to really take time off, so it’s good to know how to plan and be sure you can keep a light work load and still not let your clients down.
Great article! With todays Black Berry Madness, it can be hard to have a personal life. Thank you for the great tips.
I have been fortunate to be working the entire time I have been traveling the past 11 months. The trick for me was to find a part time job, make them rely on me, tell them I was going to be traveling for a while, and then convince them it was possible to telecommute. It also helps to have an employer that is a very laid back and gives you a flexible schedule.
Hi,
If I am a freelance in the UK (having all my customers in the UK) can I go to the US or Canada to as a tourist and keep working on my UK projects? Is that ilegal?
Thx
Nice article. Thank you.
I am from Singapore, just started as a freelance programmer. Dropbox was a great idea, haven’t considered that until now.
Sure, can’t live without Skype.
You may also consider to use an email client together with the web mail such as Google apps.
It is a good idea to get a laptop with long battery life. Or get extra batteries. I have about 10 hours in one charge.
A note taking program with online and offline access will be very useful too.
Here is a list of places with free Wifi in Europe: http://www.wififreespot.com/europe.html
Anyone knows of any cheap EU wide mobile broad band services? I mean those with a USB dongle and a SIM card inside.
Greetings,
Tony.
Great article. I’m currently planning a RTW trip for a year, but can’t live without design of some sort so will be freelancing along the way.
Dropbox is a great idea. One thing that does worry me though is my laptop dying on me while I’m out there, I’m not gonna lie, it’s getting on a bit and by the time I go it will be getting on a lot.
It won’t be as easy as popping down to the local Apple store to get it fixed, but I suppose I have to just hope it doesn’t come to that.
Once again, enjoyed reading this article, will be looking out for more!