Starting a Small Home Business

Running A Business From Anywhere

October 5th, 2007 Filed under: Uncategorized — Small Home Business Author

As a location independent professional, you can run your business form virtually anywhere in the world. There are a number of different business models which allow you to do this but almost all of them require you to consider the following things before you hit the road…

1) How stable is your income.

When you hit the road, the last thing you want to worry about is that your income will dry up after a couple of months and you will be left high & dry and have to return home just to earn some money. Whilst nothing can be guaranteed, it is worthwhile considering setting up multiple streams of income generating avenues so that should one dry up, others remain. It is also worth considering the business model you use and whether it can be adapted to provide you with a regular monthly income rather than ad hoc one off payments (e.g. subscriptions, 6 month programmes or contracts etc.).

2) How will you get new customers & clients?

Whilst you may have an existing client/customer base which provides all the income you currently need, you need to ensure that once you are traveling & have left your home that you have systems & processes in place (marketing) to attract & generate new business. Running your business as you travel the world exposes you to many different cultures & opportunities that you may not have experienced otherwise…just make sure you are in a position to take advantage of them & generate new business whilst you travel.

3) How will you ensure the impact on your customers & clients is minimal?

Changing time zones, patchy internet & telephone communication, adverse weather…how are you going to ensure that your traveling does not impact your clients adversely? A really simple mistake to make when traveling and scheduling calls, web meetings or virtual conferences with customers & clients is to get the time differences wrong. Ensure you make your transition and your traveling as smooth as possible for your customers & clients…they should not experience any negative impact from your own plans.

4) Do you have a contingency plan?

What if your worst fears come true? You get cut off without internet access, you lose your laptop, your clients start to desert you. What happens then? Do you have a contingency plan? A back up fund? If you have done all your preparation work, then none of the above should go wrong but you just never know, especially when you are living in a foreign country or traveling between different places constantly. Planning for the worst means you can be confident that should anything happen, your whole world won’t fall down around you.