Working Whilst On The Road

Many of us will continue to work while travelling. Here are a few tips to keep your business running from your caravan or RV.

Get Set To Work

Whether you’re an absentee boss, freelance worker or plan to pick up jobs as you go, you’ll need to have some basics in place before you leave home.

Tools of your trade: Make a list and pack everything you are going to need to do your job, including stationary.

Technology: You are going to need at least a smart phone, computer, modem and satellite dish. Recommend talking to your tech advisor about the minimum technology requirements you’ll need.

Software: Install and start using applications you’ll need prior to departure. This may include accounting or skype.

 

The Digital Office

You must have access to the internet to ensure you work efficiently.

Banking: Ensure you have online access and have bills sent to you via email.

Accounting: Ensure you have a web-based accountancy software. This will allow you to send invoices, manage finances and reconcile bank accounts. Your accountant must have access so they can prepare the BAS or file tax returns.

Collaboration: Emails, calendars, documents and spreadsheets can be synced with clients and the office through tools such as Google Drive. Dropbox is also a cheaper alternative and more efficient for attaching files to an email, and allows you to work on them while offline. Just remember set it to manual download and updates.

Wi-Fi: Aim to use free Wi-Fi where possible as you will chew through your bandwidth quickly and will become costly.

Meetings: You can always attend a meeting by using conferencing tools such as Skype, GoToMeeting and Google Hangouts.

Paperwork: Recommend purchasing a portable scanner for those important documents that need to be signed. Alternatively, you could set up a digital signature.

Mail: Arrange a staff member to manage your mail or sign up to a mail-forwarding business. For a fee they will collect your mail, sort it and send you an email letting you know what’s there.

 

Work Ethics

Be professional: In conversations and correspondence with staff or clients, maintain a professional attitude. Use head phones when taking on the phone, especially for conference calls so not to annoy others.

Keep a low profile: No one needs to know where you are unless you tell them.

Deliver promptly: Be efficient and deliver on time and don’t become unreliable.

Invoice promptly: Generate invoices regularly and have them paid directly into a bank account you can access online.