One of the wonderful things about being a home-based professional is that some types of home-based work can be done at places other than your home. Today, I read a story on Elance about a person who was able to travel to Ecuador for six weeks because he works online. Perhaps even more fascinating than the fact that this person was able to travel to Ecuador and experience an entirely new place and culture is the fact that since this person works as a freelance writer, he could even relocate to Ecuador permanently if he wanted to and still have the same projects and clients that he had before the move.
I know that I have taken my home-based writing business on the road a number of times already. In fact, I am not at home right now, I am in New Hampshire with my family for few days. My work and I can go anywhere I have access to the internet, and I find that to be very freeing. Some people may think that it would be a drag to take work along on vacations and trips out of town, but it really isn’t if you plan it into your schedule ahead of time.
For example, all of the times that I have been on vacation for the past couple of years, I have not crammed my travel plans so full of activities that I have no time for work. When we travel, my son goes to bed at almost the same time that he does at home most of the time, so my evening work sessions are usually about as long as they are at home. Since I have stopped scheduling work during my son’s nap time, I do not feel a time crunch if he misses his nap because he is busy exploring and adventuring. Keeping realistic expectations about how much work I will be able to do on vacation in light of other activities that I have planned is my main strategy for being able to successfully combine home – based work with travel away from home.
Photo by seemann on morguefile.com.