Running a location-independent business comes with many perks, but it also comes with many challenges. This is especially true if it has lots of moving parts. Logistics become a bit more complicated, and you’ll need to find a way to project a professional brand without an official office.
The benefits of not being tied to a single location are well worth it, however, and if you organize your processes correctly, your business will run as smoothly as any other. Let’s take a look at how to successfully run a location-independent business.
Have a Go-to Working Space Where You Can Hold Meetings
Imagining that you’ll be able to run a location-independent business without having to meet face-to-face with clients or members of your team is a dream, so you will need to have at least one working space in the city that you can rent on short notice for this purpose specifically.
This will be important if you want to close some clients, if you want to conduct things like interviews, or if you need to explain concepts that can’t be explained remotely. Start looking for spaces right now and look at what kind of services and benefits they offer, and how much they cost.
Get a Virtual Mailbox
Another thing you should do is get a virtual mailbox for your company. Virtual mail services will do much more than just providing a business address without a formal office; they will also allow you to do things like read and dispose of your mail at a distance.
A mailbox service like PhysicalAddress.com, for instance, will produce high-resolution scans of your mail and allow you to read it from wherever you are. Services like these will also allow you to forward mail to any physical address. This will provide you with maximum convenience and will allow you to avoid getting into trouble because you missed a critical piece of mail or a deadline because of the missed mail.
Use the Right Project Management Tool
The thing that will make the biggest difference in how well you’ll be able to manage your team and operation is the project management tool that you use. If you have lots of time-sensitive tasks that need to be performed and you want full visibility over their progress, then you will need to start looking at a few agile project management tools.
Most of the tools in the market use Kanban, which is a system that was designed by the Toyota company back in the 50s. The system eventually made its way out into the digital world and became the most common for managing remote teams.
Kanban-based tools allow you to see how tasks are going in real-time through swim lanes, columns, and colored cards. You can also preload tasks into a pipeline and allow your employees to pull tasks from a queue without anyone having to assign them.
So, try to get familiar with some of the best Kanban project management tools right now, and see which ones would be the best for your operation. Some of the most popular ones include Asana, Monday.com, and Trello, just to name a few.
Splurge on Good Accommodation
You may be tempted to cut costs on things like accommodation when traveling, and while it might sound like a good decision business-wise, you will regret it. You need to be somewhere where you will feel safe and comfortable first and foremost. You also need to be able to enjoy a good night’s sleep since it will have a direct influence on how well you perform and how productive you are.
You also can’t take things like access to electricity or good internet for granted either. You might end up in a country with bad internet, electricity, or both. But, if you’re staying in a premium location, you can expect these things to be covered. Think about these things before booking and be very careful if you decide to go for private accommodation.
And, if you want to cut down on your travel costs, however, there are plenty of other ways to do so. One of the first things you should do is get yourself a good credit card that will give you discounts on food, travel, and accommodation. Having access to airport lounges is also a plus.
Try to book flights and organize meetings in the middle of the week so you can get discounts and try to pick accommodation that will allow you to cook your own meals, have business dinners, and have meetings, like a service apartment, for instance.
These tips should allow you to run your location-independent business pretty much like any other kind of business. Once you get the hang of it, you will start enjoying all the benefits of this lifestyle, and eventually start to thrive in your new role.
