Business

How to Get Work Done While Traveling

June 15, 2015 by Camilla

How do you effectively run your business while traveling? Well, that is something I’m still learning how to do.

There are many variables you deal with when you are on the road like finding reliable internet, trip delays, time zone changes and more.

I recently got back from a three week trip to Sweden to visit family. I knew I wanted to spend some major quality time while there but at the same time I had to get work done, answer emails from coaching clients and stay on top of things like social media and more.

I’m also going through an intense coaching program with Jaime Tardy, who is known for her ability to take people to the next level, but if you want to work with her and she accepts you as a client you need to hustle and put some serious time in!

Least to say I had a lot on my plate but I was determined to make it all happen.

So How Do You Get Everything Done While on the Road?

1. Learn beforehand to work from noisy places like coffee shops, airports and alike. Those may be your only access points to wifi when you travel. If you can’t work in noise, get a pair of Bose headphones (affiliate link). They will make your life a dream.

2. Get as much done before you leave on your trip. Before I left I wrote and scheduled a month’s worth of blog posts. I also wrote and scheduled all the emails that go out to my Get Stuff Done program participants.

3. Use automation tools like Buffer and schedule your social media posts ahead of time in bulk. That way you can just jump in and stay on top of things when you have internet access instead of worrying about what you should post about.

4. Follow the Parkinson’s Law. Schedule in short but hyper-focused work sessions so you can free up the rest of the day for fun and play. Make a list of must-do items that cannot wait and get them done! After all, you’re not across the globe or hanging out in a beautiful National Park to work all day.

5. Prioritize what is truly urgent and essential to keeping your business going so that when you have reliable internet access you can hammer things out and don’t waste it surfing Facebook.

6. Tell your clients you will be on the road and your response time may be longer than usual.

Obviously if you are traveling non-stop or living out of a van or suitcase like Natalie Sisson you can have more of a day-to-day schedule but you will still run into internet connection issues, time zone changes and cannot always get work done when you thought you would.

Learning how to work on the road effectively will be key. Practice going on shorter trips before you go on longer ones so you can learn what works and what doesn’t.

One of the best resources I have that has become my go-to is Natalie Sisson’s book The Suitcase Entrepreneur: Create freedom in business and adventure in life. (affiliate link) That book contains so much great information it’s a must read for anyone who wants to run a freedom business while traveling.

If you travel for work what tips do you have? If you don’t, got any questions that I may be able to answer? Please share in the comments.

How to Save Money on Taxes

June 10, 2015 by Camilla

One of the struggles I went through as I went from employed to running my own business was to navigate the land of taxes. I kept asking myself:

What am I allowed to deduct?
What records do I need to keep and for how long?
Can I keep them electronically or do I need a paper trail?
How much should I pay in taxes and when?
What kind of paperwork do I need to provide if I hire someone to work on a special project?
Even if I don’t receive a 1099 how do I declare the income?
How do I make sure my CPA filed correctly?

And a million other questions. Luckily for me I have access to one of the smartest and savviest CPA’s out there, namely Kristin Ingram who is in my mastermind group.

Not only is she a CPA but she runs her own online business from home and knows all the challenges of running a business. She walks the talk. She provides a lot of great value through her free newsletter but she finally put together a course to help us navigate the land of small business taxes. In the course she covers all the things we need to know so that we can save money and not lose money when tax time comes around.

We take for granted that our CPA or tax professional will check our stuff, well, they can only file taxes based on what we give them. They are not going to ask us “Are there anything else you could have deducted but didn’t keep track of? They could, but if you want a CPA to walk you through that entire process and be available to answer every single question it’s going to cost you thousands of dollars.

In The Small Business Tax Course, Kristin breaks it down in a language that is easy to understand so you can empower yourself with the knowledge without spending hours. As a small business owner herself she knows you’re busy and values your time.

Kristin’s course is closing in just a few days and I highly encourage you to sign up if you are running any kind of small business or are thinking of starting one (to avoid doing costly mistakes as a new biz owner).

The price for this course is insanely low for the value you get (but she is raising the price for the next round) and you will kick yourself if you don’t sign up now once you realize the value and expertise Kristin provides through her free newsletter. Go check it out. Sign up for the course and empower yourself.

*I do not have any financial incentive in promoting this course. If I could I would buy this course to everyone I know. That’s how good it is! It’s a money saver for sure.

What is a Freedom Business?

May 25, 2015 by Camilla

I have those that ask what a freedom business is and why I’m building one.

A freedom business is a business that is built so that you still make money even if you’re spending the day going skiing or hanging with your kids. It’s set up so that you don’t have to be actively present all the time and part of your business run on autopilot.

A freedom business simply allows you more freedom to do what you want to do while still making money.

Most people get paid in exchange for their time. You go to a job that pays you for a set amount of hours. That is actively trading your time in exchange for money. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid and you traditionally have little influence on creating your own schedule.

Freelancing, coaching and consulting are other forms of actively trading time for money. You charge someone a set amount per project, coaching package or per hour. However, you have more freedom as you set your own hours and decide how many clients you want to have. Still, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.

How do you add more freedom to your business?

By creating a business that is run by a manager so you don’t have to be there all the time, by creating passive income or by creating processes for your business that you can hand off to a team of virtual assistants.

The first one is pretty obvious. You work hard to get your business going, hire a manager you trust and off you go.

Passive income is money that you make regardless if you are working or not. However, it’s not as passive as it sounds as it requires a lot of work in order to become passive. It usually involves offering your own products or someone else’s products (affiliate).

An example of passive income would be my Financial Freedom course. I took the things I learned getting out of debt (some very expensive years!) and packaged it into an affordable course that helps people get out of debt and ahead with their money. Learning was active, creating the course was active but now when someone buys my course it’s passive income. I could be out hiking when the transaction takes place as it’s done online.

Other examples of passive income are digital downloads, book sales, affiliate marketing and any product or service that does not require you to be there to do the exchange. If you have physical products you can hire a fulfillment house to take care of the orders and shipping.

Passive income is about delivering value to someone in exchange for money. It’s just done without your presence allowing you to spend that time elsewhere.

You can also offer someone else’s product and service in exchange for an affiliate commission. However, I see way too many websites offering all kind of crap just to make money on their audience. That is wrong. You should only offer products and services that you personally use, trust AND that is of value to your audience.

Creating processes for your business can take time but once done those tasks can be handled by a team of virtual assistants (VA). Today you can hire a VA a few hours a week to full-time freeing you up to do other things.

Building a freedom business takes time, hard work and patience but if successful you can spend your days a little differently.

What do you think about having a freedom business? Share in the comments below.