What Does it Take to Get Out of Your Office and into the World?

So – what does it take to break free from your office and start seeing the world? I see it as three main things – desire, creativity, and organization.

First, working while traveling is not an easy thing to pull off so your desire to do it must be great or you will lose interest in the preparation.

Second, you must be creative in your thinking about how you can do this.  What skills do you have that can be used via the telephone or internet?  Are you a designer with a loyal clientele? Perhaps a webby who can set up money making sites?  A service professional who can communicate by telephone? Perhaps you are already working online most of the time.  Is there any reason you need to be in your office/home office?  What will you need to do to keep your clients or bosses happy while you travel and engaged with you in your efforts? 

Third, organization.  There are three sides to this. Organizing your trip, organizing your business, and organizing your home while you’re away.  The more of this you do up front, the more successful and less stressful your adventure should be.

  • http://www.laptophobo.com Laptop Hobo

    I see a 4th item, an important one—yet one that you have touched on already. You have to have already established a service or work record. If you are fresh out of school or have a dead-end job that cannot be performed by phone or computer, or taken with you, then you have to (as my mentors have impressed upon me some time ago) “pay your dues.” (Read on. The medicine is not that bad.)
    For five years now I have been servicing my clients (building it up nicely as well) while traveling the world. I’m a website designer (and a laptop hobo). In the morning I check my emails to see if I have any updates to do. If not, and if my new project work is done for the moment, I then go do what travelers do: experience new and interesting places and people. Otherwise, I do what any other work-at-home person does: work. Aw, but my office view is always far better than that of Los Angeles! I regress. Sorry.
    Anyway, when I first started traveling the world (without a laptop or client-base), that was 10 years ago. I was not a website designer yet. All I had was the desire to see the world for a long time, but I didn’t want to have to work in the countries that I liked most. (Asian, developing, low-paying countries.) I had a small print graphics and printing business that I operated with a small, dedicated, staff in L.A. So, when I returned home after a year of traveling, I thought about what was possible for me to do anywhere in the world. More importantly, how could I make the high earnings of a western country (in my case, the USA) while spending it in another (preferably cheaper to live) country. It became clear to me that it would have to be something I could do with a laptop and over the Internet. And since I had 10 years experience producing newsletters and other collateral items for my clients, it became obvious that I could steer my talents and clients away from print and to the Web. At first I thought I would simply manage and broker the product, having website professionals actually doing the work. Then I took an HTML class and found that I really enjoyed this sort of creation process and then the rest simply fell into place. However, it took 3 years to go from that first HTML class to arriving in a foreign country as the new me: the laptop hobo.
    So, the point I’m making here is that you have to have some sort of ability to sell to someone. If you need to go back to school to learn a skill you could do on the Internet, then do it. And/or go work an internship with an organization or company that will let you do research, design, translation, communication, or whatever—as long as you can do it remotely. Then once you get good (or good enough) at what it is you are doing, that your client/customer really appreciates your service/product, and you’ve found that you don’t need face-to-face meetings with people to get the job done, then you are almost there. Your next step is to plan your departure carefully. You don’t need to hide the fact to your clients/customers that you will be doing your work remotely. In fact, I have found that it works in my favor. (My clients vicariously travel through me.) Lastly, make a deal with your clients/customers that they can’t refuse. Where you were charging $40-$100 per hour to do, offer then a 50% reduction. Really. If you are making only $20 per hour in a developing country (let’s say, Thailand) and you work on average 1-2 hours a day, you are fine. (You are living large!) Your overhead is nearly nothing and all it is you have to do is prove your worth again—and that does not take long. Within a year you can bring your rate up a bit. And for new clients, you can pretty much charge what you want. And if you are wondering “Why would anyone hire me when they could outsource to India?” Because you connect with YOUR clients, they trust YOU—you speak their language (sort-of-speak). So, its sort of outsourcing yourself! Anyway, just like at home, you have to have a skill to sell.

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