5 tips for running your business and travelling at the same time

Today, I'm talking about how to run your business while you are travelling. I might have struggled a little bit over the last couple of years, especially here in Australia, we couldn't really travel internationally.

 

Finally, now I can. All of the systems that I've put into place in my business will allow it to run while I'm travelling. I can see if this all works because I have been working towards building a business that allows me to travel and work at the same time for so long.

The first time I attempted travelling and working at the same time was back in 2017 or 2018, over Christmas-New Year period. I was in Europe. That was really challenging because I was working predominantly with clients.

I still had to meet client deliverables, I had client calls. Most of my clients were in Australia, which meant that I was getting up at 3:00 AM sometimes for client calls and that was really challenging. I constantly felt this guilt when I was out exploring. I felt this guilt of, I should be working. I shouldn't be out here exploring.

Part of the reason I fired my clients at the time was that it didn't give me the freedom I wanted, but it was also that the business I had built didn't feel sustainable and it didn't light me up. I knew that what I really wanted to do was teach people the skills of doing their own marketing rather than just constantly doing their marketing for them.

Then fast forward to 2019, and I was pretty broke most of the year. I had slowly started letting go of my clients and slowly started making a little bit more from the membership that I was running at the time, which I no longer run and a couple of courses that I had, but nothing that was really groundbreaking. It was enough to stay up flirting most months but it was really quite tough.

And then 2020 happened and my business took off at the same time that the pandemic hit. So for the first time in my life actually had the money to go and travel. But I couldn't physically travel!

So this was this trip that I've just come back from in Europe was a really great way to test this. And for me, it was like this validation of the systems you've put in place, the team you've got, everything's going really well because, not only are the wheels not falling off, but the business actually continued to grow while I was away. And that's huge!

A couple of tips that I picked up while I was in Italy for running your business and travelling at the same time.

 

Tip #1: Set expectations and boundaries for yourself before you leave for your trip

Regardless of how long this trip is going to be whether you're going for two weeks, six months, or whatever. Set those expectations and boundaries. How much do you want to work while you're travelling? Do you want to work three days a week? And then what hours would you like to work? Because if you know what hours you want to work and what days you're going to be working, you can communicate this to your team and your clients and also to whoever you are travelling with.

This is really important because a few years ago, I travelled with somebody who did not have their own business and it caused a lot of friction because whenever I needed to work, they would say something like, but don't you want to come and do this with me and do that with me? And I said, well, actually I'd love to, but I have client work. And I think if I had better communicated that before the trip, then it wouldn't have been as much of a sticking point.

Communicate those time zones as well. If you're going to be in a different time zone, communicate that to your team, communicate it to your clients, and let them know what hours they can expect you to be online in their time zone so that they know if they need to get in touch with you.

Having those expectations with yourself can help to prevent you from guilting yourself because you feel like you should be working or guilting yourself because you should be traveling if you have those boundaries.

Like there's no set amount of hours you should be working. This is the magic of having your own business. You can set those hours. So knowing what those expectations are of yourself means that you aren't guilting yourself while you're outside.

With those expectations and those boundaries and the hours and all of that, there is no right or wrong. It's just what's going to work for you and you need to be aware of what's going to work for you.

 

Tip #2: Do what needs to be done before you leave

In my case, I don't really want to travel with my microphone and mixer and all of that. Like the amount of admin involved in making sure that the room sounds good and every time I take the microphone and carry on luggage, it always gets stopped at security screening. So I don't really want to travel with a microphone.

So make sure that anything that needs to be done before you go is done. Make sure if there's anything your team needs you to do, anything that they need because it's holding them back from moving forward on their work, make sure that's done. If there's anything you can do to set your clients up for success while you're away, make sure that's done as well.

The week or two before you leave is probably going to feel pretty stressful.

 

Tip #3: Have things ready to work on when you have downtime and make sure that if you are going to have times with no internet, download some things that you can work on offline

I am a big fan of making the most of that travel time but if you don't have something you can work on, it can actually be really frustrating. But if you can get that five hours of work done, that's almost a whole day of travel. And if you're flying without kids, you have the benefit of no distractions.

I love to use this time to work on deeper work things like creating course content, outlining a webinar, or writing articles. And it really makes the whole flight go a lot quicker as well. I also love to use this time to learn if I don't feel like writing and my brain is just not feeling creative.

 

Tip #4: Get a digital SIM card

I don't know if this applies to people with Android phones but if you have a newer iPhone, you can get an e-SIM without an actual physical SIM card and these will give you unlimited data for a week or two weeks, or a month, or however long you need it for. And I found this to be a lot more reliable than just hoping that my hotel or Airbnb wifi was going to be good enough for zoom calls. And it also means that you can work on those train rides if you don't get motion sickness from riding on a train.

But it also does unfortunately mean that you have your inbox and you have your social media with you when you're out and about and exploring. So try to resist the temptation of checking that. But it's a cheaper and easier alternative than trying to get a local SIM card. I know some countries won't let you even get a SIM card if you don't have an address.

 

Tip #5: Allow yourself to enjoy the travel and enjoy the downtime a little bit

You don't have to be constantly either working or exploring. You can also have a bit of rest there. You know, my suggestion is to work till 10, explore till four and then work again till dinner like that.

You don't need to actually do that. I wasn't really sticking to that perfectly while I was away. I worked when I felt like it. I worked when I had that energy, that creativity. And usually, I find that after a few days of not really working that hard, the energy and the creativity come back a lot stronger.

So if you're not feeling creative, you're not feeling like you want to work, give yourself a little bit of time just to disconnect and enjoy the travel, and communicate it with your team and your clients. But maybe you just need a little bit of rest and a bit of downtime. It's not the end of the world. If you fall a little behind on work, you can catch up when you get home.

Your trip is only a short period of time and the work is always going to be there for you to do. Taking a couple of days to just step back and be present with some friends, was really like the creative energy booster that I needed. It's allowed to be easy and it's allowed to be good.

 

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