Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 5mins
Being location independent is more than just being able to work from coffee shops and beaches via a laptop, whilst conversing with clients worldwide. The true location independent professional will spend a lot of time actually traveling. A little while ago, I posted an article here on the blog in regards to travel tips for entrepreneurs, which was quite popular. However this was aimed more towards people who are usually based in the same location, who travel from time to time and wanted to maximize their work on the hop, through utilizing certain business travel tips.
So, for the more nomadic modern day entrepreneurs that read the blog, here are a bunch of simple tips that you can use to maximize the time you spend on the road traveling, and generally enjoy the travel itself, a little more than usual.
Airline Food Sucks!
For any of us who have spent any real time up in the air (a la George Clooney, yet without the 1 million air miles and a personal phone operator that picks up a dedicated line when you call for reservations!), we all know that airline food is terrible.
Not only that, but the snacks that they offer are usually either:
- Too small.
- Too salty.
- Just plain horrible.
Always make sure that you carry a decent selection of nutritious, healthy snacks in your bag. These can be anything from a simple granola bar, or an apple, right the way down to pre-bottled protein shake.
Don’t Bring the Kitchen Sink With You!
Traveling lightly as a nomadic entrepreneur and location independent professional is an absolute necessity. Pack everything you can into one suitcase, or backpack and take just the absolute bare essentials in your hand carry. When I travel personally, I usually have pretty much the same stuff in my carry on bag, namely:
- Laptop & USB Hard Drive
- Cell Phone & Charger
- Notebook & Pen
- Snacks & Vitamin C
- Passport
Check out my “Mobile Office” for a video snap-shot of what I bring with me when I travel to be able to seamlessly work when ‘away’.
Wake Up the Right Way at the Right Time!
If I had a hundred dollars for every hotel alarm clock or wake-up call that I’ve missed because someone had forgotten to replace the battery, forgotten to plug the damned thing in after housekeeping has been in the room, or has just plain forgotten to make that wake-up call at 5:30 in the morning, so I don’t miss my flight to San Francisco the next day… I’d be a very rich individual…!!!
I’ve started carrying a cooking timer with me in the last couple of years whilst I travel, I got this tip from a well known location independent person that you’ve probably heard of before, Tim Ferriss, author of the best selling book The 4 Hour Work-week. This thing absolutely has never let me down in the 5 or 6 times that I’ve used it, and it only cost me $7.
Relax and Rejuvenate
Often when location independent professionals are traveling, they focus on other business travel tips and not probably the most important travel tip of all time. And that is, to sleep properly.
I’ve always been a fan of traveling, however, over the last 9-10 years, I have traveled extensively all over the world and have always had my own eye mask and ear plugs with me. They really help with relaxing properly and have enabled me to always a good quality night’s sleep. And here’s an added tip, forget about those little foam spongy ear plugs you get for free in business class, that cancel only maybe 60% of the noise that is around you. Go for the wax ear plugs instead. You can usually pick them up in any stores that sell swimming accessories. They will literally mute everything around you! Awesome.
So there you have it, a collection of business travel tips for the modern day entrepreneur, location independent professional and nomadic adventurer on a mission to make money from a laptop. If you enjoy these tips please spread the word by retweeting the article, and don’t forget to add yours into the mix in the comments section too. After all, we can all learn from each other right?
