Top Secrets to Managing Your Business While Traveling
30 Nov 2021
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
A lot of people travel for work, but what happens to those entrepreneurs who need to go to a different city/state every one or two weeks or travel abroad once per month/two months? This kind of lifestyle is definitely not easy for anyone (starting with their family). Still, how is this going to reflect on their business?
Handling so many things while on the run is quite difficult. Different time zones, partial internet coverage, travel fatigue, and mood swings caused by being constantly homesick are just some of the problems they’ll face. Here are four ways you can manage some of these problems.
Work Every Day
Today, you have the privilege of working from your hotel room or even during the commute. Even if you’re the one driving, you can still use hands-free options to make some calls or take notes by recording your own words. This is something that you need to give some serious thought to. Why? Well, because you don’t have the luxury to take too many days off due to recovering from travel.
Remember, we’re not talking about someone making a bi-annual trip overseas. Instead, we’re talking about an entrepreneur who is constantly on the move. Sure, in the hyper-connected world that we live in today, a lot of in-person visits can be replaced with a Zoom call. However, it’s not always the same thing. Many people still travel for work quite a bit, and if you’re one of them, jet lag (as inevitable as it is) is something you cannot afford to be too distracted by.
The key thing is that you develop a habit of working every day. Sure, you can take a day off, but it needs to be scheduled in advance – not caused by the fact that you’ve just arrived and are feeling drained. Once again, we’re not suggesting a working model that will leave you drained. If traveling causes so much ruckus in your schedule and destroys your energy entirely, perhaps this kind of lifestyle is not for you.
Hiring a Virtual Assistant
What makes a virtual assistant superior to a traditional assistant? Well, if you travel a lot, you still get to use their services without having to pay for their ticket, book a bigger room (or two rooms), etc. Sure, a traditional assistant could do the job, as well, but with virtual executive assistants, you get someone who sees this work model as default. That’s already a slight performance edge right there.
The fact that they don’t travel means that they won’t have that much of a problem keeping a steady schedule. Moreover, if you are constantly on the move, they will get accustomed to this fact over time, and this won’t cause any kind of disturbance in their own performance. They might even help you with your travels. After all, booking a last-minute flight and lodging is sometimes necessary, but it’s not exactly what you want to be doing from your cab. An assistant should handle it for you.
Flexibility is often listed as the biggest advantage (and the main reason) of hiring a virtual assistant. Well, if you’re never in the same place, this is exactly what you need. Remember that you will have to scale your operations sooner or later, which, in your case, probably means hiring a remote workforce. With a virtual assistant, you’ll already make a step in this direction.
Image by bottlein from Pixabay
Focus on Your Leisure
Sure, you’re traveling for work, but this doesn’t mean that you should ignore your leisure. You’ll be in touch with the hospitality industry on a regular basis, so use this to your own advantage. Sleep in good beds, spend some time in spas, have a massage whenever your schedule permits it, and try to eat in restaurants more often than you consume fast food.
Is this going to be expensive? Most likely. However, representation costs are what they are. Remember that you’re not just fighting a financial battle here but a full-fledged war of attrition against your own stamina. Without these few pleasures and luxuries, it is questionable how long you’re going to hold out in this world. Rewarding yourself for all your hard work is one of the best ways to stay motivated.
Keep in mind that with careful planning and a good schedule (this is where a capable virtual assistant can help you out immensely), you should always have some time for yourself. Plan things ahead and have some flexibility in your schedule so that if you miss a ride or a flight, you still have enough time to get to the target location in time. This will also give you some peace of mind.
Stay in Touch
One of the things that a lot of people fail to mention is the hazard that this type of lifestyle will cause to your personal life. You’re always on the move, which means that your family, friends, and partner will not see you as often as they would like to. Fortunately, in today’s world (and with today’s tech arsenal), you always have a way of staying connected with them while traveling.
You can text them on a regular basis, use apps to track and share content from and to your home region. In the majority of hotel rooms, you’ll have access to Wi-Fi, which means that it shouldn’t be a problem for you to ring them up on a video call. Just make a schedule with a potential time zone difference in mind. In order to make things more frugal, you should also consider getting a local sim card.
In the end, you could also take a more traditional approach. For instance, you could send out postcards or surprise them with a souvenir or two you picked up along the way.
Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay
In Conclusion
To effectively solve a problem, you need to be as proactive with it as possible. What does this mean? Well, first of all, you need to predict the bottleneck before you encounter it. Regardless if you’re using previous experience or personal experiences of others, you need some data to base all of these plans off. With the above-listed four solutions, things should become a bit easier to handle.
Lucas H Parker
Lucas is a business consultant from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Besides that, he has a passion for writing. Doing his research, exploring, and writing are his favorite things to do. Besides that, he loves playing his guitar, hiking, and traveling.
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