Are you a small business owner that’s been bitten by the travel bug?
We’ve got good news for you. You don’t need to landlock yourself to look after your business. You shouldn’t let work take over every aspect of your life — but you still need to be able to take care of business from the road when you have to.
In this post, we’re going to give you 4 tips for owning a business while traveling. The digital world has afforded you the ability to go wherever you want and keep tabs on your business, too.
Here’s how you do it.
Tips for Owning a Business While Traveling
There are a few cardinal rules for keeping your business afloat while you’re away.
It’s important to have employees that you trust in place. It’s also important that you are accessible to them during work hours, and that you treat them well for helping you run your business.
If you’re your only employee, then you need to be able to set aside time every day to check in on work, answer emails, and get things done. Traveling as an online business owner is possible, but remember that it’s going to be harder to work remotely.
Here are 4 tips to keep things running smoothly while you’re gone.
1. Be Available
The first thing that you should acknowledge is that you’re not on vacation when you run a company — you’re just traveling. You have to be available to your customers and your employees whenever they need you.
Maintaining a sense of trust between yourself and your workers is important if you’re going to be out of the office. Check in every day and lay out a plan before you leave so that things are kept in line.
2. Have a Go-To Employee
Designate a person to be “in charge” while you’re away. Most business owners have a right-hand-person that can keep them in the loop when they’re away. This person will communicate directly with you every day and let you know if anything goes wrong.
It’s important that you still put your time in every day. You don’t want to dump too much work on to your go-to employee, especially if they’re not being compensated any more than usual. Maintain that sense of trust between you and them, as well.
3. Pay People On Time
It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re traveling, but it’s crucial that you pay your employees on time. If you’re traveling in the spring, you’ve got to be able to get them their pay stubs and W-2 forms so that they can do their taxes.
Fortunately, there are sites like ThePayStubs.com and paystubcreator.com that can generate pay stubs and W-2 forms for you online with no hassle.
4. Plan Times to Work
When you’re traveling around the world, it can be hard to keep track of time differences. This makes planning when to work difficult.
To be there for your customers and employees, you’ll have to plan out when you’re going to be at your computer working. It’ll be hard, but maintaining a degree of consistency will make things a lot easier for everyone else. Let people back home know where you are and when you’ll be working.
Use apps to set reminders and set up an out-of-office notice when necessary. It’s never been easier to finish your daily to-do with all the productivity apps on the market these days.
Work Hard and Have Fun
Having a good work-life balance is important for your mental health. It’s great that you’re taking the time to satisfy your travel bug, but you’ve got to make sure your business is looked after, or it’ll flounder.
Use these tips for owning a business while traveling and make your employees feel appreciated for their hard work in your absence. Then you should be ready to go!
