Taking your business on the road

My husband and I are starting to plan for a trip around the U.S. lasting several months, during which time I would need to keep my business going from wherever we happen to be.

Is there someone here who's done that recently and would be willing to talk to me about how they solved some of the practical problems involved?

Marcia Yudkin




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Hello Marcia Yudkin

TRAVELERS: Can access and use their computer and files from hotels,
airports, Internet cafes, libraries anywhere.

There is something I'm overlooking about being on the road, unless
you are talking about, mailing out products and picking up your mail
at the post office.

What other duties would you need to have help with?

Just wondering!

Chugmug

> Hello Marcia Yudkin

> TRAVELERS: Can access and use their computer
> and files from hotels,
> airports, Internet cafes, libraries
> anywhere.

Chugmug,

This sounds very simple until you actually do it. Here are some of the problems that can come up: (By trying to get advice from people who have done this, I'm hoping to be able to avoid problems.)

* What happens if you have several days without being able to go online? This has happened to me several times when going away for only a week on remote retreats. Either the laptop setup that worked at home doesn't work on the road, or you're stuck in a place with no room phones and no public Internet access. Should you not attempt such a trip without a virtual assistant prepared to take over for you if this happens?

* What if something comes up like a jury duty notice, an IRS audit or notification of a lawsuit? The first two happened to my father when he was living abroad years ago and I was in charge of his affairs. Both were complicated to take care of at a distance.

* If you have no planned itinerary and no way to forward mail directly to you, how can you do things like balance your checking account?

* Do you give someone else power to write checks for you? (I'm not a trusting sort and have never done this even with a family member!) If not, how do you pay your bills on time?

Going away is pretty simple if it's just for a few weeks and you're going to heavily populated urban areas. It's more complicated if you'll be in the sticks from time to time and won't be home again for four months.

Thanks,
Marcia Yudkin


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Hi Marcia,

Something tells me you have the makings of a new
book and free publicity if you solve this problem
and have fun doing it.

I think there are a lot of small business owners
trying to solve that puzzle.

How about by the end of the summer you write down what you did and go find that mailing list of small business owners and mail your self pub book
or report. I think they would be hungry for it and with your credibility they would pay for it.

How about adding a tape or members only site where
advise owners how to do what you did. By the way
you will also show them how to add 50k to their bottom line with your marketing advice.

But maybe this won't work I don't know I am a nobody so I am sure others would have comments
about this better than I.

By the way be sure to visit Florida we need more of your sunshine and take a gander at the
Micousoukee Reservation and do some gator huntin
and casino blackjack.

> Hi Marcia,

> Something tells me you have the makings of a
> new
> book and free publicity if you solve this
> problem
> and have fun doing it.

Garth,

Judging from the number of people who are responding, "Gosh, I'd like to do that," maybe there is indeed a book in this. I'm going to talk to my agent this afternoon.

Thank you for your comments.

Marcia Yudkin


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Hello Marcia Yudkin

It looks like there will be at three different problems you will have to face.

* Business . . . No matter where in the world you go it's easy to keep
in touch with your internet business. My daughter was all over India for
six months, and she had no problems locating a place to connect to the
internet,check her website, and send me email.

* Home . . . If you will be gone for 3 or 4 months, you could get a
house sitter. Give them free rent to look over your home. Or lock up
your house and turn off the utilities, stop the paper delivery.

* Personal . . . have your snail mail directed to your accountant, or
attorney.

I'm wondering! If you are going to have a trip plan to keep in touch
with your family on a daily bases? With all the thing that could happen,
you should not go over 24 hours without contacting them, or they
contacting you.

Chugmug

> Is there someone here who's done that
> recently and would be willing to talk to me
> about how they solved some of the practical
> problems involved?

Marcia,
My situation is going to be a little different because my wife and I are renting a house in California for the summer. So we'll have a fixed residence and we won't be all over the place like it sounds like you will.

But some of things we're sorting out right now are:

1. Computers: Taking our laptops (we use our laptops as our main computers so we can have all our files with us at all times).

2. Internet Access (biggie): We're installing cable modem at our beach rental. Many of the services like credit card processing, list mgmt, etc are Web-based so we can access that anywhere.

3. Mail. Like I mentioned since we're at a fixed location we're having it FedExed every week to us by my cousin who is going to be living in our place.

4. Faxes: forwarded to our computer via a service like efax

5. Admin stuff: Buying a printer out there and taking checks and deposit slips out there, etc.

Hope that helps. We just a made a list 2 nights ago and it really helped to get things straight. We leave in 3 weeks. :)

-Yanik




How I can take off for a few months this summer...

Yanik ~

What laptop are you currently using to operate your business? Is it a 'Dockable'? What hardware parameteters and software are you relying upon?

I'm considering upgrading from my "old" laptop and am looking for a point to a successful direction.

Success and Regards... Mike

> Yanik ~

> What laptop are you currently using to
> operate your business? Is it a 'Dockable'?
> What hardware parameteters and software are
> you relying upon?

Sorry Mike I didn't check the board for awhile.
I have a DELL 8100 Inspiron 1.13 MGHz processor so it's just as good as a desktop. I've got a docking station and big monitor at my home office.

Best,
Yanik

> My husband and I are starting to plan for a
> trip around the U.S. lasting several months,
> during which time I would need to keep my
> business going from wherever we happen to
> be.

> Is there someone here who's done that
> recently and would be willing to talk to me
> about how they solved some of the practical
> problems involved?

> Marcia Yudkin

Have you thought of a cellular modem for your laptop? Depending of course on how remote the locations are that you will be traveling to. But at least then you won't be tied to a physical phone line.