"I WISH I COULD DO THAT"
Many people talk about how jealous they are when other people travel, but when it comes down to it, very few people really want to give up their comfortable surroundings and routines in order to travel for any extended time. Traveling the world regularly means not having a predictable bed, or predictable internet connection, or predictable phone service, or predictable shower pressure, or predictable food, or really any form of predictability.
Certainly there are hotel chains that have branded themselves on providing a level of predictability for travelers who desire particular comforts, but unless you're planning to spend $300-$500/night, you're probably not staying in those hotels while you travel. On a personal level, I find that kind of predictability while traveling to be boring. If I want boring, I'll just stay home. Predictability in accommodation removes the cultural quirks and hospitality differences that come from staying in locally owned and operated places. High-end predictable hotels may also prevent against certain language barriers or health standards, so there are some trade offs, however I've always found the rewards to be far greater than the risks when it comes to personal travel. I will say that work travel, which has less flexibility, does benefit from greater predictability and fewer unknowns. Personal travel, however, is often enhanced by going more local.
OWNING OUR CHOICES
I think people who say they wish they could travel more mistakenly give the company they work for far too much power over their personal lives. Every 3 day weekend is a chance to travel. Even while running my own business, I have fallen into the trap of thinking I could never give up all of my business activities and clients just to take off and travel, but actually, even that is possible. It just requires saving, planning, letting go, and confidence in our personal tenacity to find other gigs and more clients when we return, or to change our business model to allow for more extended travel.
Nothing is permanent or guaranteed anyway, yet we often act as if it is, and cling to the idea that changes will lead to disaster. Leaving what is familiar can lead to greater freedom, more opportunities, and a bigger outlook on life. People who make more changes over their life often learn to develop greater confidence that everything will work out for the best versus people who stay stuck in fear and hesitate to make any changes. All the more reason to get out and travel, minimize your life to a suitcase, and figure out what you really need to be happy no matter where you are.
So, how did I travel the world before as an independent business owner the first time, and how am I doing it differently this time?
TRAVELING THE WORLD AS A BUSINESS OWNER
This has been the most challenging part of attempting to leave for a year, primarily because my business has long been an in-person, service-based business, and revenue is made by showing up in person. I love the personal nature of being a service-based business and working with people in person, but the reality of extended world travel means preparing clients for the change well ahead of time, as well as considering an entirely different business model that makes it possible to operate in a different way when there's a continual need for income while traveling. The decisions around which services to keep on board and which ones to let go of while traveling is always a bit stressful to sort out, so I'll share what I did the last time I traveled, and may need a different post for how I'm changing things up this time...
2012 TRAVELING THE WORLD AS A PHOTOGRAPHER & BUSINESS CONSULTANT
I actually did not intend to work that much locally. I had a few business consulting clients in the United States that would keep me afloat even though we had to meet on opposite time zones. I acquired those business consulting clients through a series of workshops I'd done the year before. However, I only lasted one month of being in pure vacation mode before I WANTED to start working more. There were only so many museums and markets I could visit before I wanted to explore Australian culture more deeply through working with locals on projects. So, I did some networking and picked up several commercial headshot projects as a photographer and began freelance contract work as an Airbnb photographer. Originally I thought I might just assist local photographers, but that didn't pan out as I'd hoped, so being able to see other opportunities outside of the original ones I'd planned was important to working locally.
Thankfully, I had the good fortune of being able to work in Australia, due to the spousal working VISA I received while Alex was hosted on sabbatical by a university in Australia. This allowed me not to rethink what type of business or service I could provide while traveling, since I could do some work locally under the same business model I already knew well. This arrangement is different than being hired by US Citizens in US Currency and flying abroad for work. This was legally working with Australian citizens and AUD currency while being an American overseas. In order to do this without the spousal VISA with working permissions, I would have needed a company to sponsor me and prove that I was more qualified than the Australians they could find locally. VISA restrictions limited how much money I could make and how much work I could do in Australia, but being able to pick up work in Australian currency helped a lot during a year when the US Dollar was at a very low exchange point compared to the Australian Dollar. Otherwise, I would have continued to market myself to United States based clients rather than attempting to work locally.
WHAT I LET GO OF BEFORE I LEFT...
I started planning my business changes for the 2012 trip about a year in advance. I had a photography studio, assistants, second shooters, outsourcing contractors, interns, and lots of bills associated with keeping the business running. I had to decide what parts of the business I could narrow down for an entire year so that I could reduce my recurring business expenses while keeping everything that would be essential to have when I returned to hit the ground running quickly again. Here's what I chose to do at that time, and why I made those choices...
Many people talk about how jealous they are when other people travel, but when it comes down to it, very few people really want to give up their comfortable surroundings and routines in order to travel for any extended time. Traveling the world regularly means not having a predictable bed, or predictable internet connection, or predictable phone service, or predictable shower pressure, or predictable food, or really any form of predictability.
Certainly there are hotel chains that have branded themselves on providing a level of predictability for travelers who desire particular comforts, but unless you're planning to spend $300-$500/night, you're probably not staying in those hotels while you travel. On a personal level, I find that kind of predictability while traveling to be boring. If I want boring, I'll just stay home. Predictability in accommodation removes the cultural quirks and hospitality differences that come from staying in locally owned and operated places. High-end predictable hotels may also prevent against certain language barriers or health standards, so there are some trade offs, however I've always found the rewards to be far greater than the risks when it comes to personal travel. I will say that work travel, which has less flexibility, does benefit from greater predictability and fewer unknowns. Personal travel, however, is often enhanced by going more local.
OWNING OUR CHOICES
I think people who say they wish they could travel more mistakenly give the company they work for far too much power over their personal lives. Every 3 day weekend is a chance to travel. Even while running my own business, I have fallen into the trap of thinking I could never give up all of my business activities and clients just to take off and travel, but actually, even that is possible. It just requires saving, planning, letting go, and confidence in our personal tenacity to find other gigs and more clients when we return, or to change our business model to allow for more extended travel.
Nothing is permanent or guaranteed anyway, yet we often act as if it is, and cling to the idea that changes will lead to disaster. Leaving what is familiar can lead to greater freedom, more opportunities, and a bigger outlook on life. People who make more changes over their life often learn to develop greater confidence that everything will work out for the best versus people who stay stuck in fear and hesitate to make any changes. All the more reason to get out and travel, minimize your life to a suitcase, and figure out what you really need to be happy no matter where you are.
So, how did I travel the world before as an independent business owner the first time, and how am I doing it differently this time?
TRAVELING THE WORLD AS A BUSINESS OWNER
This has been the most challenging part of attempting to leave for a year, primarily because my business has long been an in-person, service-based business, and revenue is made by showing up in person. I love the personal nature of being a service-based business and working with people in person, but the reality of extended world travel means preparing clients for the change well ahead of time, as well as considering an entirely different business model that makes it possible to operate in a different way when there's a continual need for income while traveling. The decisions around which services to keep on board and which ones to let go of while traveling is always a bit stressful to sort out, so I'll share what I did the last time I traveled, and may need a different post for how I'm changing things up this time...
2012 TRAVELING THE WORLD AS A PHOTOGRAPHER & BUSINESS CONSULTANT
I actually did not intend to work that much locally. I had a few business consulting clients in the United States that would keep me afloat even though we had to meet on opposite time zones. I acquired those business consulting clients through a series of workshops I'd done the year before. However, I only lasted one month of being in pure vacation mode before I WANTED to start working more. There were only so many museums and markets I could visit before I wanted to explore Australian culture more deeply through working with locals on projects. So, I did some networking and picked up several commercial headshot projects as a photographer and began freelance contract work as an Airbnb photographer. Originally I thought I might just assist local photographers, but that didn't pan out as I'd hoped, so being able to see other opportunities outside of the original ones I'd planned was important to working locally.
Thankfully, I had the good fortune of being able to work in Australia, due to the spousal working VISA I received while Alex was hosted on sabbatical by a university in Australia. This allowed me not to rethink what type of business or service I could provide while traveling, since I could do some work locally under the same business model I already knew well. This arrangement is different than being hired by US Citizens in US Currency and flying abroad for work. This was legally working with Australian citizens and AUD currency while being an American overseas. In order to do this without the spousal VISA with working permissions, I would have needed a company to sponsor me and prove that I was more qualified than the Australians they could find locally. VISA restrictions limited how much money I could make and how much work I could do in Australia, but being able to pick up work in Australian currency helped a lot during a year when the US Dollar was at a very low exchange point compared to the Australian Dollar. Otherwise, I would have continued to market myself to United States based clients rather than attempting to work locally.
WHAT I LET GO OF BEFORE I LEFT...
I started planning my business changes for the 2012 trip about a year in advance. I had a photography studio, assistants, second shooters, outsourcing contractors, interns, and lots of bills associated with keeping the business running. I had to decide what parts of the business I could narrow down for an entire year so that I could reduce my recurring business expenses while keeping everything that would be essential to have when I returned to hit the ground running quickly again. Here's what I chose to do at that time, and why I made those choices...
- Ended my photography studio lease. I actually tried to find someone to sublet from me for quite a few months so that I wouldn't need to move out. However, after not finding someone else to take it over for me and having some weird issues with the leasing agent that reduced my confidence in leaving anything in the studio for a year, I decided that ending the lease would be the best course of action in order to reduce the risks that came with subletting the studio.
- Sold many of my photography studio props and furnishings. These were mainly just trendy things that had been purchased for special photo shoots or decorative purposes and often needed replacing and updating regularly anyway. I knew I could just get more if I needed more upon returning. Nothing felt so valuable that I wanted to pay for it to be stored for a year.
- Stored extra photography equipment. I stored the most expensive and valuable photography equipment I wasn't going to take with me, but only if I didn't think that it would need to be replaced after a year of storage or a year of travels.
- Sold the equipment that would need to be replaced in a year anyway. When you're deeply familiar with the lifecycles of your business equipment, it becomes real obvious which pieces do well in storage and which ones don't. Certain electronics just have terrible lifelines whether they are used or not, and it's often better to sell them or let them go before they die and are worthless to you and anyone else.
- Assistants, Outsourcing Contractors, Second Photographers. If I could have taken all my people with me, I would have. I had to risk that these people would no longer be available when I returned. This was probably the hardest thing to let go because finding good people is never an easy or effortless task.
- Recurring Local Clients. This was also super hard to let go of, but to make it easier, I connected these clients with a perfect photographer to fill my place while I was away. Luckily for me, he ended up moving to a new place when I returned, so I was able to work with all of my local clients again when he went onto a new place! That's highly unusual and relieved me of so much pressure to build my network from scratch again. However, I also think that because I had built such a great reputation and working arrangement for my recurring clients that everyone was happy to have me back, and may have still given me work even with someone else already filling my place. This really demonstrates the power of great client relationships.
WHAT I HELD ONTO...
- Website & Domain Services. These were going to continue to be essential costs while I was traveling, especially if I was going to market myself as a photographer overseas. Luckily they weren't that expensive and I was able to pay for the full year well in advance.
- Photo Proofing Service. At the time, I paid separately for my photo proofing service. Actually, I may have been receiving it for free since I was serving as a local community manager at the time, so it may not have been as expensive as it normally would have been if I'd not taken on that role. I continued to help support local community engagement even while traveling, so it was a worthwhile trade-off. Unfortunately, internet connections in Australia were much slower than the ones I was used to in the USA, so I found online proofing to be a waste of time while I was traveling. It was far faster to return to a commercial office and just proof the images with the clients in person rather than doing online proofing & delivery.
- Business Phone Number. I really didn't need to keep this expense since everyone could have reached me on Skype or through email, however, I did it as a convenience to my USA clients who had outstanding projects they needed to continue collaborating on. I think I maybe used my business phone number once or twice over 8 months, but keeping the same phone number was also important to me for marketing purposes when I returned, so I continued to pay for it.
- Took basic photo and editing equipment with me. I didn't plan to take all of my working photography gear with me- as that would be a bigger travel liability and make it more difficult to travel lightly. So, I took the most basic set of equipment that I'd need for commercial and portrait work, or to be a second photographer for someone else. I figured I could rent or borrow anything else I'd need, or find creative solutions that come with being lean.
- Cell Phone Number. I've basically had the same cell phone number for over a decade, so it would be a total pain to lose it and change everything, no matter how tempting it is with the onslaught of marketing calls that mean nothing. Cell phone companies let you go on a basic maintenance plan when you don't need your phone, but it's still a recurring bill.
- International Credit Cards. Traveling internationally is much easier when there are international credit options available, so keeping those credit lines open and available was important for safety and security as a "just in case" option.
- Consulting Clients. These clients were still easy to serve at distance, even if it meant really early mornings or really late evening while on opposites sides of the world. There were times when the audio and video quality didn't create a good consulting experience, but I also offered more grace and time for those delays not to get in the way of the actual work that needed to be done together, and I think my clients appreciated that too.
... In the next post, I'll share how I'm preparing my current business as a Consultant, Author, & Reiki Teacher for traveling the world!
Have any questions? Did you see the post about how I prepared my home and personal belongings for traveling? Did I leave anything out? Leave a comment and let me know!
0 comments, to add [click here]:
Post a Comment