Working online while travelling is a great way to see the world while continuing to grow your business online.
It’s not all always easy but there are many reasons to consider taking your online business around the world as long as it fits with your current life situation.
Let’s take a look at some of them.
Escape the winter
Depending on your current geographical location, winter can be a depressing time. But if you don’t feel like spending time in the cold, why not simply move to the other side of the globe? If you stay in the same time zone and just pick one destination, you only need a few days to get acclimatized to your new destination and you can continue to run your business as usual. If you live in Europe I suggest you look into moving your office to Cape Town – one of the most beautiful cities in the world – this winter.
Live in paradise
Ever wanted to spend a few months on an island with fine sandy beaches and lots of activities to enjoy? This doesn’t have to be just your vacation – it can be your reality and you could do it right now. These days many islands have the right infrastructure while still offering amazing value for money. You can find them in Thailand, Southern Africa, the Caribbean and many other places around the world.
Save money
Depending on your workload and hourly rate you might actually be able to save money when spending time in countries with a significantly lower cost of living – enjoying a great quality of life for $1000 dollars is absolutely possible in many destinations. Put everything else in your bank account.
Do things you love
Can’t take part in the activities you love in your home town? Why not simply spend more time in places where you can!? If you learn to surf, paraglide or even kite surf in your free time you can create an awesome work-travel-life balance. Heck you could even move to a ski resort and buy a season’s pass to go snowboarding if you love the cold winters. There are great ski resorts in Eastern Europe that would allow you to do that on a budget. And if money is no problem, why not move your office to the soon to be opened coworking space in Whistler, Canada for a while – one of the best ski resorts in the world. Why wait until you are old and retired to do theses things? Working online creates amazing possibilities to do whatever we want in our free time as long as we manage to stay productive.
Work less
Taking an online business around the world is not all about work. Life is often cheaper on the road, meaning you can work a lot less to achieve the same quality of life. Think about it. How much of your income do you spend on your apartment in Oslo, Tokyo or Munich?! Well certainly a lot more than you would pay for a similar long-term apartment in Bali or Buenos Aires. If you rent out your apartment on Airbnb and move your office to another destination for a while, you will need to work less to cover your fixed costs. Use this advantage to work less and enjoy more free time in your winter escape of choice.
Discover new cultures
Ever wanted to visit the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Balinese temples or the Maya palaces or climb Machu Pichu but never had the time to do it? If you run your online business from somewhere close by you could simply pop there for the weekend.
Get off the beaten track
If you are limited to 10 -30 days of vacation per year you have to plan your travels very carefully and every day is precious. So what do you do? You go where your friends told you to go and often stick to the beaten path because you don’t want to risk wasting your precious days going somewhere you have no clue about. The thing is that it’s often leaving the path that creates the most amazing experiences. If you opt in to the work and travel lifestyle, you will have a lot more time to go off the path. You could even travel through countries in Southern Africa and organize your own safaris while continuing to run your online business. I did just that at the beginning of this year (and failed sometimes!), but I’ll be telling you very soon how you can do it right ;-).
Get focused
Big cities can be distracting. Sometimes there’s so much to do that staying focused can be hard. Not so if you move to beautiful small villages with no entertainment at all. In fact I’ve just spent the last few days in a one such village in Colombia. Internet speed was decent and I had loads of time to focus while keeping my work-life balance by going kite surfing in the afternoons close by.
Live minimalistic
If you opt in to the work and travel lifestyle for a longer period of time you’ll find you no longer need to think about which TV or car to buy next. All you buy is what you can carry, which makes your buying decisions so much easier. Fill your bank account or invest into lifetime experiences instead.
Boost your creativity
Changing your work environment can have positive effects on your creativity. The best ideas I’ve had in recent years have almost always happened when I’ve been away from the laptop and in inspirational places like a beach in Costa Rica. Furthermore, being exposed to different cultures and seeing how the same things are being done differently all over the world is another awesome benefit to your creativity – not to mention the business ideas you stumble upon when travelling the world.
Start your own projects
Having to work less to achieve the same quality of live you enjoy in your home country means that you might finally have the time to develop your own projects. Even if you don’t have a lot of income you could move to a super-cheap village, get away from distractions and really focus on one project for a while. I bet you’ll get a lot further in less time than in your current work environment.
Don’t tell me how old, or how educated you are . Tell me how much you’ve travelled and I’ll tell you what you know. – Mohammed
Learn new languages
Working and travelling allows you to stay longer in one place than most tourists and really get to know a language. The best way to learn languages is to simply spend loads of time in foreign countries and interact with the locals. Spend six months in Spanish-speaking countries and your spoken Spanish will be good enough to enjoy a long and in-depth conversation – if you really invest some of your free time into learning it.
Make new friends
Nothing is easier than making new friends when travelling – you don’t even need to be the most outgoing person. Attend Couchsurfing meet-ups, participate in sports and go on multi-day trips organized by hostels. These are great ways to really get in touch with other travellers and make new friends. Don’t be scared to take off on your first work and travel trip alone – you will have a great time no matter what.
As you can see there are many reasons why working and travelling makes sense. It’s not always easy and nothing you should do forever but it is an awesome way to grow your online business while having a great time and exploring the world.
Don’t think about it too much – the best thing to do is two select two destinations,try it for two or three months and see if this is the lifestyle for you! Enjoy!