Staying Sane while traveling + running a business

Every time I plan a trip the same question pops up in the back of my mind “what about the business?” and if you run an online company, you know as well as I that the ability to serve clients can be hampered when traveling.

But having an online business should enable you more freedom, not less!

So here are 4 areas to look at in your business that might need a little systemizing if you’re ready to travel more and work less!

Area 1: Administrative Work
Does the business rely on you to send invoices, schedule appointments, follow up on tasks and manage the team? It can be hard to let go, especially when you’ve been doing it all on your own.

Imagine that your vacation is taking place upon a cruise ship and internet is $5 a minute… would you trust your team to manage this work or log on and do it yourself?

Area 2: General Marketing
Is your marketing automated or do you have to press publish for every email, newsletter, and tweet? Then it’s time to start outsourcing the management or publishing your marketing content. This doesn’t mean you have to skip writing the content, per se, just managing how it goes out.

Once again, would you want to interrupt playing with your kids every hour to send out social media marketing or plan ahead and truly relax?

Area 3: Client Services
This is a tricky area to begin outsourcing, especially if you’ve been working as a solo entrepreneur for many years. The first step is to acknowledge that clients are not buying your time but your processes, systems, way of thinking and connections. So start branching out to teach your proprietary ways, the DNA of your business, to your team so they can support your clients as well.

Area 4: Sales
If you’re the only one in the company who can close sales then you have a problem. Imagine if you were making money on vacation and not just recurring payments but new clients! Wouldn’t that be a lovely reason to have the mojito on the beach?

Well, if you’re the sole sales maker then it’s time to begin sales training or bring in an expert staff member who can help you close.

Where should you start?

Each of these areas feeds into another – when the regular marketing is working you’re going to have more sales to close, when sales close you’ll have more clients to serve, and with all that work comes more admin tasks to do. My suggestion is to look where you’re weakest in support and focus there first and then keep circling around as the business grows until you can truly take a vacation or travel without going crazy.