How to Prepare your Business for Extended Travel as a Solopreneur
As creative business owners, we wear multiple hats everyday to keep our businesses going.
It's tough keeping up with client work, emails, meetings, blog posts, newsletters, social media, and finances on a daily basis.
Now imagine doing all of that while also relaxing on vacation... Hah, yeah right!
I am all about that work life blend, but in this case, I needed less work to make time for more play.
Taylor and I are headed out on a three week road trip this month. It's something we've been planning since last November. (Okay, he did most of the planning... Fine, all of it.)
The only planning I did was for my business.
The goal: minimize the amount of work I would be doing on our road trip.
Let's get to it!
Here's the golden list of everything I did to prepare my business for nearly a month of travel.
TRAVEL BINDER
Creating a Travel Binder before your trip is the perfect way to keep all of your paperwork in one place. You can include itineraries and maps, addresses of family and friends you want to send postcards to, journal pages to track your travels, printed e-books you've been meaning to read, photo inspiration you've collected for the trip, and blank paper to doodle ideas on.
Whatever you choose to include, it will all be in one easily accessible spot. Plus, if you're anything like me—ehem, crazy bag lady—you can't over pack bags full of work that you'll never actually get to!
If you can't fit it in the binder, it's not coming on the road trip. Simple as that!
Here's what's in my travel binder:
Blank paper to track any fun stops I might want to share on my blog recap
About, Branding Breakdown, Process, Services, and Hire me outlines for my website + blank paper to turn those outlines into actual copy
E-books on passive income and getting organized
A few printed pages of photos I love to inspire some of my photos for Instagram
A list of my community member's addresses who opted in to receive fun travel goodies from me along the way
SOCIAL MEDIA
You never know when or how much wifi and cell service you'll have on a road trip, especially if you'll be weaving in and out of the mountains out west like us. For this reason, I recommend you schedule most of your social media ahead of time.
CLIENTS
I always dreamed about traveling full-time and taking my business on the road with me.
However, when I would day dream about this trip—which was pretty much on a daily basis—I imagined hiking through the mountains, sitting around the camp fire roasting marshmallows, looking up at the stars, feeling the sand between my toes, swimming in the ocean, soaking up the sun, sipping cocktails on an outdoor patio...
None of these day dreams involved me hopping on client calls at dinner or brining my Mac to the beach.
So I decided I would not be booking any one-on-one clients while we were traveling.
Taking on clients or blocking off your calendar for an extended period of time is something you will have to decide. Take some time to imagine your trip.
Do you see time for coffee shop meetings and late night work sessions?
Where are you going?
How long are you traveling for?
Are you going to be on a cruise ship, at a hotel in the city, or in the middle of the woods?
Who are you traveling with?
Will you need to be in constant contact with your client or do you just need to meet with them one time during the duration of your trip?
Ask yourself some of these questions, and I think you will find your answer pretty quickly.
COLLABORATIONS
If you know you're going to be gone for an extended period of time when you start a collaboration, let the other person know! This way you both can set a schedule accordingly.
Each collaboration will be affected differently depending on the type of collab and how many people are involved. Just be open and honest with your collab partners. Once you share your travel plans with them, chances are they will be excited for you and do everything they can to work around your schedule!
BLOG + NEWSLETTER
The way I see it, you have four options for your blog and newsletter while you travel.
Option 1 — Create + schedule content out ahead of time.
Option 2 — Announce that you're taking a brief break.
Option 3 — Organize guest bloggers to cover for you.
Option 4 — Blog while you travel.
You can choose one of these options or mix and match depending on your specific travel plans. I personally ruled out Option 2 and 3 since I just started blogging five months ago and am currently only posting bi-weekly. If you post to your blog daily, then lining up guest bloggers to fill in might be the way to go.
For me, creating content and scheduling my blog post and newsletter in advance makes the most sense. If you are planning on creating blog posts and newsletters while you travel, just make sure you set aside time for this. It always takes a little longer than you think it will so have your blog post ideas and outlines prepped and ready to go ahead of time.