Entrepreneurship

Tips to Successfully Explore the World Through Work-Away Travel

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Work-away trips are a fantastic thing: running your business while traveling.  Last year I tried it myself for the very first time by staying in Prague, Czechia for a month.

This trip was different from past travel in both its extended duration and for the combination of work and pleasure.  Because it was my first time doing this, I learned an amazing amount about myself, my business and how to travel while working.  That last sentence can also be written as follows: because it was my first time traveling it was painful and not as much fun as I’d hoped.

You see, I didn’t think ahead about time zones, access to health care, pilot strikes, cost of changing a portion of a trip, mental recovery time or how living outside of your comfort zone can be challenging even if you are loving it.

So, in an effort to prepare you for work away travel, here are tips from business owners who are successfully taking extended travel without losing momentum in their businesses.

  1. Schedule client calls with care. Due to poor planning on my part, while I was in Prague I found myself taking client calls at 8 pm and that was after working several hours during the normal day. As a result, I missed out on some fun things that others in my group got to do.Jane Garee with Showstopping Sales says: “I set up my Google calendar with both my home-based time zone and the time zone I will be working from on the trip about a month in advance. These can go side by side in Google so you see both time zones simultaneously. I also put both time zones on my Apple Watch (it’s very cool and both time zones can go on the same screen). I find that being able to quickly translate time zones in my head goes a long way to keeping stress at bay…  I’m a planner by nature so feeling good about what’s on my calendar and knowing I can easily fit in work and playtime makes living and working in a different country much easier.”
  2. If you are staying a longer time, pack less than you think you have to. For my Prague trip, I packed everything forgetting that I can do laundry in the apartment.Susan O’Brien, Owner of EcoLux Interiors says: “Coordinate every piece so that it goes with several other pieces and base it all on lightweight, and for the weather, you are heading into.  You need half of what you think you need, and a couple of scarves make a nothing outfit quite fun!”
  3. Book your flights way ahead of time if available and understand the fine print before buying a lower-priced ticket.Louise Crooks of Keys to Clarity Coaching says: “I book my flights to really far off destinations quite well in advance. Sometimes 9mths in advance. It means my tickets can be 35% cheaper than most folks will end up paying. Great way to save on a budget.”
  4. Keep your home in mind while you are away.Pam Ivey of Adventurous Life says: “I line up my petsitter right away to ensure the fur babies are looked after. She also picks up my mail, so that’s taken care of too. I ensure lawn maintenance/snow removal is arranged so it’s not a dead giveaway that I’m not home, and I’ve made sure everyone I want to keep in contact with at home (mom, sister, friend) has Skype at the ready and a tutorial given if needed.”  Another option is WhatsApp.  It’s an a
  5. Keep a copy of any important documents in the cloud somewhere. This includes business and personal documents along with copies of your passport.  Pam Ivey of Adventurous Life and Donna Kozik of Write a Book in a Weekend both agree with this.
  6. Don’t skimp on a carrying bag and accessories for your daily commute to the “office.” Finding a co-working space is the best way to be sure you keep up with your work.Pam Ivey of Adventurous Life says: “Make sure you have a good bag, whether it’s a shoulder bag or backpack to carry your laptop back and forth to the office. (I love my backpack because it keeps my hands free.) Don’t forget adapters! And adapters with built-in USB ports are awesome.

The 3 Ways to Run Your Business While You’re Away

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I meet business owners all the time who share my love of travel.

And then there are those who – burned out by corporate road warrior days – shudder when they think of traveling.

What I realized is that “travel” can’t be used as a one-size-fits-all description. You’re familiar with vacation and business travel, but there’s also work-away travel, which is becoming increasingly popular with business owners.

The tactics for successfully running your business while taking time off are very different depending on whether you’re on vacation, traveling for business or on a work-away adventure. Here is a breakdown of the different kinds of travel and how to get the most benefit out of each type.

Vacation Travel

Benefits: On vacation, the idea is that you get to completely disconnect from the business so you can come back refreshed and renewed.

Obstacles: As a business owner, it is tremendously challenging to completely step away. Most business owners end up checking email anyway, taking calls, putting out fires. Our business is such a part of us that there is serious resistance to completely shutting down. This often results in taking shorter vacations than you’d like.

Success strategies: In order to completely give yourself the freedom to disconnect, you’ll want to start with your “I’m out of the office” autoresponder on your email, but also have a second-in-command who can handle inquiries while you’re away. This can be an assistant or even a fellow business owner. And one thing that always helps my brain relax is to schedule prospect appointments the week following my vacation, so I know that my vacation isn’t breaking the momentum.

Business Travel

Benefits: Pretty obvious, right? You get out of your comfort zone, build your network and your business.

Obstacles: These are primarily about managing your energy. Even if you are doing the exact same work that you’d do in your regular office, being in an unfamiliar environment takes more energy. And don’t get me started on food choices while you’re on the road! Managing food choices on the road is an energy drain no matter what: you’re either expending energy to search out good food choices, or not fueling your energy by making not-so-great food choices.

Success strategies: Acknowledge that you will not have the same energy capacity as you do in your usual work environment. Choose a schedule of transportation that doesn’t have you arriving depleted, even if it costs an extra $20-50. Don’t overschedule your time and set yourself up for failure. Think about food choices before you go, packing some healthy snacks so you’re not grabbing bad choices out of desperation. And exercise. Even 15 minutes on a treadmill will do you good!

Work-away Travel

Work-away travel is where you run your business from another location, while spending a good amount of time NOT working and instead exploring and enjoying the place you’re visiting. For instance, last year I stayed in Prague for the month of September. I worked on average 3 days a week, then explored and vacationed the rest of the time.

Benefits: Work-away combines the best of vacation and business travel. But unlike vacation travel, you aren’t expending energy trying to resist working on your business. This allows you to be a lot more present for your time off. On the business side, you can not only keep operations moving, but also find opportunities local to where you’re staying to expand your business through speaking, networking and prospecting (this takes a little pre-planning). And finally, it allows you to travel and stay away longer. It’s a great choice if you love really sinking into a new country or community and soaking up the local experience.

Obstacles: These can all be lumped under “planning.” Planning for the expense in your budget and for the operations of your business – those are pretty obvious. But also for how you will spend your time off, because you want to make sure you take that time off! And planning for what happens if you get sick. And for any time zone differences.

Success strategies: Yes, I waxed eloquent about the benefits, but in order for this option to really work for you and your business, you’ve got to be strategic. Think through your schedule and decide how and when you want to work while you’re away. Let your clients know way ahead of time. If you will be unavailable for any of that time or don’t want to take client appointments during that time because of a difference of time zones, start writing that into your client contracts. Create a budget! And make contact and set appointments BEFORE you arrive. It’s a great idea to travel with other business owners so you’re not trying to figure all this out on your own. See one option here: https://marycravets.pages.ontraport.net/irelandretreat

For more on successful “work-away” travel that allows you to get away for a whole month (or more) without losing any momentum in your business, check this out: https://facebook.com/MaryCravets/videos/618741008905041/

2017: Successful? Yes. Peaceful? Not so much.

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Walking along the beach on New Year’s Day, I reflected on how I felt exactly one year earlier: filled to overflowing with a sense of wonder and possibility.

Feeling inspired last January, I picked up pebbles on the beach, wrote a blog about them, then mailed them out across the country.

My intention was to remind us all to keep that sense of wonder and possibility with us throughout 2017.

How would you rate your success with that intention?

I give myself a B minus.

I took plenty of time off for friends, family, roller coaster and otters. And grew the company by about 25%.

But a consistent sense of wonder and possibility? Not so much.

In between the fun time off and the accomplishments was a lot of fretting. “Am I going to get this done? When can I take a breath? Am I doing the right things? What if I never get another client?”

I can track all of this fretting to a serious lack of space for thinking. For exploring. For analyzing and creating. For wonder and possibility.

This year, I want to get an A+.

So for 2018, I budgeted and protected time for wonder and possibility. I shared my calendaring process for the year in this recent blog, because I do not want to repeat the intermittent crazy of 2017.

I want to know… how’d you do?

Take Time to Smell the Otters

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Last week I took Friday morning off.

Despite the fact that I had three presentations to revamp, 20 prospects to follow up with, and a seriously neglected email inbox.

I took it off anyway.

You see, Otto was being released back into the wild, and nothing was going to keep me from being there to see it.

Otto is a rehabilitated otter being released back into the wild right here where I live. To watch him galumph into the water, swim off into the bay and silkily dive back into his home was one of those priceless moments that NO amount of work should make me miss.

It got me thinking more clearly about why I work for myself and do what I do. If I had a “job” I’d most likely have missed this opportunity to see my favorite animal this close up and on land.

What do you love that you’re missing because of work and worry? Put these important things into your schedule, and you’ll find your life so much richer and your entrepreneurial experience all the more worth it.

Enjoy Otto’s YouTube debut!

For the Days You Consider Working at Starbucks

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“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” – Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter

Wow. The co-founder of Twitter?

From him, those “ten years of trying,” sound almost romantic and heroic, don’t they?

He fought the good fight and came out a champion, even when everyone thought he was crazy.

But what about those ten crazy years? Can you imagine quotes from that time?

  • “I have just enough money in my checking account to cover the month, with no idea what to do next.”
  • “In one day, I got a new client and a deal fell through. It feels like I’m just spinning my wheels.”
  • “My spouse asked me for the third time this month why I’m crying over my business when I could just go get a job.”
  • “I work and work to make a positive impact in the lives of others and I just got called sleazy. On Facebook.”

I made these up. Because who would be crazy enough to write about the grueling days of entrepreneurship?

This girl.

All through my toughest years of entrepreneurship, I wrote: I laid bare every struggle, every strategy, every mindset shift I had to make in order to persevere long enough to become an “overnight success.” I put everything down on paper that helped me build a business, to stretch my comfort zone, and to laugh at the absurdity of entrepreneurship.

You’ve heard the quote, “Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 80 hours a week for themselves to avoid working 40 hours a week for someone else.”

Absurd, right?

But also incomplete.

Entrepreneurs work those crazy hours and endure the struggle because we are committed to making a difference. We improve the lives of others. We educate. We inspire. We transform.

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart, and to succeed, being smart and strategic isn’t enough. To help you laugh, be inspired, and focus your efforts, I’m sharing a free chapter from my book, Smile When They Call You Sleazy! I hope it lets you know that you are not alone on the crazy journey.

And who knows? Maybe it could even help you shave a few years off of your journey to “overnight success.”

Sign up to receive your free chapter now: http://marycravets.com/bookchapter/

I believe in you!

How She Wrote 5 Books

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Several years ago, I had the pleasure of consulting with a wonderful woman named Lakota.  When we began our consultation, she had three primary activities that occupied her time. She wanted to determine how she could best utilize her time to make these successful and meaningful.

As we worked together, it became clear that one of her activities was not in alignment with her goals, and was also emotionally taxing, pulling energy from other areas of her life.  Together we determined she should phase out the most stressful activity, leaving more time to focus on other valuable things. With a newly aligned course of action, Lakota took steps in a direction more to her liking.

For the next four years, she devoted much of her newfound time to her passion for writing. I happen to know that throughout those years she still faced serious adversity— she wasn’t just holed up peacefully writing in a cabin in the woods! Despite the adversity, she continued writing, and today I’m happy to report that Lakota has created not one but FIVE novels! Her books are slated for publication over the next 18 months, beginning with her first mystery novel, Death in Copper Town.

In a recent email, she wrote me to express her profound thanks for offering clarity and helping her succeed at this accomplishment. I’m so proud of Lakota’s drive to pursue her goals, first by asking for some guidance to find the right path, and then by persevering with her passions! She’s achieved a great win over the last four years.  What win are you willing to spend years to achieve?

If you’d like to draw inspiration from Lakota’s win, check out Death in Copper Town, available now on Amazon!