How to Prepare to Live a Location Independent Lifestyle

I have a grand dream of how I picture life once I have “made it” and the vision is fraught with a lot of ambitious travel plans. In my last year of university, I thought a lot about living outside of the neatly packaged 9 to 5 bubble. I wanted to live in different world cities for six months at a time to experience what life is like outside of what I’m used to in Toronto. In fact, it’s living in a multicultural city like Toronto that inspired this dream. You meet people of such a vast array of nationalities and their stories of home ignite the fire of curiosity.

It’s been three years since I’ve graduated and I’ve made one big move. I spent a year and a half working for a media company in my home country of Jamaica, which I hadn’t lived in since 1999. Now that I’m a ladypreneur, I’m designing my life and my business model around the dream of travel and career being in harmonious coexistence. Here’s how you can prepare to do the same:

Give your business model a makeover

Whether you’ve “made it” (live self sufficient from your business income) or you’re getting things off the ground, you can tweak your structure so it will allow you to operate from anywhere. This will take some creativity in how you package services, approach sales, or even communicate with your target.

My strategy is to cater my content strategy services to a very specific niche: the tropical lifestyle brand.

End your relationship with paper

No, really. Rethink the urge to print, note take, or even receive bills by mail. If you’ve built a routine that relies on handwritten notes, buy a stylus and download an app like Paper by 53 on your smartphone.

Move your service or product-based business into a virtual space through the magic of online software. Service clients via Skype, embrace ecommerce solutions, hire a virtual assistant, share data through Dropbox, and of Google Apps.

Taking advantage of all technology has to offer will allow you to pack up your business in your laptop.

Face barriers head on

Things will come up that will seemingly put an end to the dream of globetrotting with your business in tow. The solution may take some research and innovation. The great thing is that others have done this before us and have been so kind to leave a trail of advice behind them. Sites like Location Independent and Thrilling Heroics offer solutions to make the transition smoother.

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