No More Compromise

The biggest draw for most people when it comes to an internet business is that it affords them a certain amount of freedom. There is no need to commute or deal face to face with customers. You can work from anywhere with an internet connection and as a result you can travel extensively while still earning money.

Earlier on this year I spent a full month travelling while running my internet business and was actually quite surprised about how many ways my business was still actually tied down to a geographic location. So in this article I would like to examine some of the issues I experienced and how I dealt with them in the hope that it will provide you with some food for thought.

1) Accounts

While away, no accounts got done. I didn’t have the time, resources or inclination to be adding receipts into my accounts, recording bank statementd and so on. All this had to wait. And whilst it wasn’t the end of the world, it was somewhat annoying to know I was coming back to this. So instead I have now extended the remit of my accountant to include all my book-keeping. He does all the accounts, stores all the paperwork and submits everything as and when necessary. All I have to do is print out the odd form, sign it and email or post it back to him.

2) Getting Paid

I hadn’t realised how many different checks I get each month and of course while I was away these just sat around on my doormat. Much better if they had been cashed but as I am in the UK and most of the checks are in $US, they require a bit of work to get cashed. I have now moved over to either bank wires or Paypal payments wherever possible to minimize this issue and am actively dropping affiliate programs and advertising partners who insist on paying by check.

3) Files Needed

From time to time while away it would have been handy to have a file or two from my home computer. For example my webhosting stopped working on one of my sites and I had to iron that out, which took some work without all the details to hand. I have now implemented the use of Google Docs so that most of my important business documents can be accessed from any computer I choose.

4) Passwords

I have literally hundreds of accounts for various things - emails, advertising, affiliate programs, merchant accounts and so on. Each has a unique username and password for security and I use software to store these at home. However I couldn’t cope for a month without them so I managed to find software that would let me copy them all onto my Palm Treo for access anywhere in the world.

5) Favorites

Suddenly the sites I visited each day weren’t in my favorites any more when I was using an Internet cafe so on my return I went through them all, adding the most important ones to Delicious, so I can access them wherever I am.

These 5 simple changes have made a considerable difference to how much can travel and have also cut back on quite a bit of admin time thus making me more efficient.