Build a Location Independent Business: Course Review

Digital nomadry, location independence, beach front business in Saint Lucia—call it what you will, freelancers worldwide have long aspired to take their business with them and hit the road.

But there is a great deal of planning and preparation that goes into working remotely. Just having a laptop, plane ticket, and a moleskin full of dreams does not guarantee success. How will you get access to your bank account? How will you keep in touch with clients? How will you get new business? What about cell phones, time zones, internet access, and office equipment? You know what…maybe I’ll just stay home.

Hold on. Don’t unpack your sunscreen just yet. It’s time to dive in to Lea Woodward’s Build a Location Independent Business Course.

Who is this Lea Woodward person?

I’m glad you asked.

In all honesty, I didn’t know Lea until I started reviewing her course. After only a few minutes into the course first module, however, I began to realize that she really knows what she’s talking about. I also learnt that in fact Lea’s responsible for no fewer than a dozen excellent posts right here on FreelanceSwitch!

Lea and her husband Jonathan have been running a location independent business for almost three years now, and Lea brings a lot of her experience as a business consultant to the course. While she certainly knows the steps necessary to make a business succeed, she also shares her mistakes and knowledge of where a business can go wrong.

What’s the course all about?

The course is broken down into six different modules:

Module 1 – The Idea

Every great endeavor starts with an idea. Unfortunately, the same can be said of every great disaster. Module 1 looks at how to identify whether there is profit and success in your business idea – before you spend your time and money on it. Lea also shares her recommendations on a range of free tools widely available but often forgotten.

Module 2 – The Strategy

Lea breaks out the acronyms in Module 2 by introducing the OGSM – Objective, Goals, Strategy, and Measures. With your OGSM humming you’ll be in a better position to decide if you want to push ahead with your great idea or if it’s smarter to let it die on the table.

Module 3 – The Set-up

Now things start getting serious. Module 3 looks at how to take your strategic plans and set your business up in the “right” way from the start – including the various different types of resources you’ll need to find.

Module 4 – Marketing

Ahh yes…the dreaded marketing. Module 4 gets deep and dirty into how to set up effective systems and processes that attract and retain customers for your business.

Module 5 – The Automation

I was hoping this section would describe how to build a robot to run my business while I relax in the swim up bar drinking girly drinks. Unfortunately, it does not.

Instead, Module 5 focuses on strategic and tactical ways to streamline and automate parts of your business – ways to free up your time and ensure your business runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible…which I guess is pretty good, too.

Module 6 –The Travel

The last module goes over the very important problem area of what kind of problems will I face when I travel?

Lea looks at some of the key challenges you might face when you become location independent and how to plan and cope with them should they happen. She even goes over some of the things you’ll need to take with you and what tools make working on the move easier.

One great piece of advice—running a blog while traveling sounds like a wonderfully romantic idea. The reality? It sucks hard.

Conclusion
There is a wealth of information in this course. In fact, at times it gets pretty deep—especially in the marketing and set up modules. But don’t let that stop you from taking the course. Lea does a great job of preparing you for what it’s going to take to run a successful location independent business—even if that means spending hours doing boring marketing research.

The course costs $247 with each module taking about 45-60 minutes to complete (they are all in MP3 format so you can download them and listen to them on your pod of choice). When you sign up you get a six month window to go through the course. If you should need longer, you can pay for a six or twelve month extension. Each module also comes with an accompanying PDF.

If you’re not up to dropping that kind of cash on the course right now, you may want to check out the growing Location Independent Clubhouse. It’s a great source for people interested in the location independent/digital nomad life.

However, if you are serious about setting up a location independent business, or even currently have one running, I definitely recommend giving Building a Location Independent Business course a listen.

Travis King is a freelance designer and accidental writer. Some say he is also a fan of girly drinks…as long as no one is watching.