Tag: Employer

6 Ways To Empower Remote Employees
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- February 6, 2021
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6 Ways to Empower Remote Employees was originally published on www.xscapers.com

I teach and coach people to reinvent themselves with remote work or business.
I study trends and have been watching companies reluctantly wade into remote work waters. Fear of losing control, giving employees too much leeway, or managing from a distance seemed too big a risk.
The companies who were willing to dip a toe in did so because offering remote work is actually good for business. I predicted (and the data supported) steady growth in remote work opportunities with more companies offering part-time and full-time remote options over the next 5-10 years.

I Never Could Have Predicted a Pandemic

I’ve been confident in the growth of remote work, but I never could have predicted a worldwide pandemic that would reshape the remote landscape almost overnight.
This has impacted businesses big and small, and forced some to enable their workforce to work at least partially or fully remote, and in some cases indefinitely.
I wrote this article to provide companies and employers ideas for how to support a rapidly growing remote workforce both immediately and long-term, because the reality is that remote work is here to stay. If you are an employee looking for ways to showcase your remote skills to employers, click here to read The Top Skills To Be A Remote Worker.

Who Am I To Write About Remote Work?

In 2016 my husband Bryce and I walked away from long corporate careers. He was a senior financial analyst and I was a corporate trainer responsible for employee training and development programs. I also managed projects, people and remote teams. I have always been an employee advocate using my influence to positively affect workplace fairness and career advancement.
As career professionals it was unthinkable that we would ever willingly leave our safe little cubicles to do something so extreme like quit our jobs, sell our possessions, and RV around the country full-time. But that is exactly what we did.
We reinvented ourselves professionally by freelancing, starting a blog, and launching Remote Work School, where I teach and coach people about remote work and business.
Because I’ve been both a remote employee and business owner who employs remote contractors, I have the perspective of how each side is impacted and what both parties can do to create a win-win remote experience for everyone.

How To Work With Remote Employees - Empowerment First

Empowering employees should be the core of everything.
While doing research for this article, I found it odd that many articles talked about how managers should ensure that “remote employees are accountable.” I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s standard stuff to task middle managers with every responsibility, including how their employees might behave when they aren’t in the office, as though managers are crystal-ball carrying wizards.
When managers are tasked with making employees more accountable the opposite can happen—employees aren’t empowered which can lead to the manager owning all of the decision causing overwhelm and burnt-out.
Studies show that empowering employees to discover and communicate their own work style not only takes the burden off of managers, it makes employees feel more valued and can result in more productivity, loyalty and longevity.

6 Ways To Empower Remote Employees

This list will help you manage remote employees in practical ways, but more importantly it will shift power back into the hands of employees, creating a more balanced and productive remote workplace. If empowering employees scares you, then you my friend definitely need to keep reading.

1. Show Empathy

Let’s get real—this whole remote thing isn’t easy. It’s not easy for companies or employees either. Some employees can adapt easily and find that being location independent is no big deal. But some don’t make that transition so easily.
Working away from an office or location, without the familiar co-worker and manager dynamic can be hard. Feeling isolated is real. Distractions like TV, a load of laundry or home-schooled kids can make focusing harder. Maybe that’s true for you too, so you can relate to what your team members are going through.
The best thing you can do as an employer is be supportive of this transition. You were put in this role most likely because someone thought you’d be a good leader (or you promoted yourself to a business owner). Part of leadership is showing empathy for your team members, by asking them how they’re doing, and giving them grace on this adjustment period. We’re people not robots and “embracing change” isn’t exactly in our program code no matter how many company mission statements like to promote that ideal. Show empathy and your employees will feel more cared for which creates a more harmonious relationship and productive employee.
Sidenote: If you’re looking to hire remote workers be sure to look into the RV community. RVers are already adapted to working remotely, managing their time, and navigating things like internet and staying connected. They are incredibly resilient people who make great remote employees.

2. Watch Results, Not The Clock

When I was a new manager in the mid-90s, I used to watch who packed up their desks at 4:59 PM. The people who stayed longer were labeled “high achievers” and given more opportunities. Here’s a secret though—I’d pretty much run out the door one-minute after the last person who left.
I cringe thinking about it because it was backwards thinking. Yes, there are some jobs where employees are paid by the minute and “being on the clock” is the policy. But this outdated way of managing people was dead a long time ago, and frankly should be buried as we transition to remote work.
What’s most important is what people do with their time. Are they producing results? Did they hit agreed upon deadlines? Did they innovate on an idea? Is your employee recommending improvements? Look for employees to demonstrate initiative rather than if their online profile is “available” at 5:00 PM. And if possible, try to avoid wanting employees to be at your beck and call whenever you feel like “pinging” them. There’s a better way.

3. Stop Pinging and Start Planning

I’m one of these people who has a million ideas always floating in my head. And I have this terrible habit of popping in on my husband and sharing them. Or if he’s not around I have the urge to ping my virtual assistant Nicole on Slack (a really great communication tool that gets totally abused).
This is incredibly disruptive. It’s not like Bryce and Nicole sit around all day waiting for my spur of the moment ideas to flood in. My agenda shouldn’t be any more important than anyone else’s. Sure, sometimes we’re all in crunch mode and scramble to get stuff done, but we should all work towards a more sustainable and sane workflow.
A better approach is to do advanced planning. I’m a big fan of working in 90-day goal windows and then breaking them down into monthly and weekly priorities. It’s not like I can plan every little detail and prevent every surprise, but it adds discipline and sanity to how we work. It also helps us stay focused on the most important things, so we don’t get lost in the “daily weeds” of thoughts, ideas and tasks. We use three tools for planning:
A white board and sticky notes
A 90-day planner
Asana shared project management tool

4. Co-Create a Communication Framework

Nicole and I have co-created a communication flow. We meet every Monday at 2:00 PM ET (this is a good time for her) to talk through the weekly priorities. We use a shared agenda on Asana (a great project management tool) and we each add our topics in advance of the meeting. My job is to keep Nicole focused on the top priorities and her job is to communicate things I need to know and what support she needs.
Throughout the week we use Slack for quick updates. We use Voxer (a great voice communication tool) if we need to explain something in more detail. And we have an agreement to respond by the end of the day, unless something is urgent in which case we make sure to say “this is urgent.”
I honestly don’t care what hours Nicole works, as long as she hits the weekly targets. Of all the clients that Nicole supports (because she’s a contractor) she says I’m her favorite because of how empowered she feels (maybe she says this to all her clients). I know it’s true because she recently fired a client for bad management. Now that’s empowerment.
Nicole and I have established great working standards and boundaries which I’m proud of, especially because we’re on opposite coasts. Bryce, on the other hand, is just steps away and has yet to figure out how to fend off my daily idea-bombs. Although, I noticed a few days ago he started wearing a headset.

5. Encourage Interaction, But Don't Force It

A lot of articles say you should create interactions for employees. Virtual water coolers, fun games, set up a Slack channel just for memes. Ok I get it; you should have some fun especially since you lose in-person connection when you go remote. But people don’t love forced virtual connections any more than when they worked in a location.
I used to work for a retail home design company in the midst of a big brand change and reorganization of the stores which affected the retail employees. Leadership wanted us corporate trainers to create fun games and competitions to take the employees’ minds off of things. While their jobs were intact, the roles were changing and since humans and change don’t mix well, the games were meant to “improve morale.”
Everybody hated it. They felt forced into cheesy games that they didn’t want to play. They just wanted direct answers and to know the future of their jobs. That doesn’t mean they didn’t want to have fun, but fun doesn’t replace reality.
I encourage managers and business owners to find ways to interact with their team members in organic ways. Perhaps it’s a team game or competition, but maybe it isn’t. Some people would prefer to meet with you one on one for a deep conversation. Some people are totally fine being left alone to get their work done. The point is don’t think you MUST create forced interactions just because you have a remote workforce. Instead focus on what your employees want and how they feel best supported. Then make that your interaction policy.

6. Trust and Let Go (Even Just A Little Bit)

This last one is more of a mindset than a specific action step. Try approaching this whole remote work reality with trusting people first and questioning them second (if that’s even needed).
Managers and leaders are sometimes unconscious about the dynamic they create. It’s no one’s fault really and more of a cultural thing. Old management systems die hard and one of the oldest is that employees are not to be trusted. That somehow, they will cut corners, do less work, and now that they are remote, surf the internet all day. Maybe that’s true for some but most people want to do a good job. Most people take pride in their work and want to make their managers proud. If you follow numbers 1-5 in this article, then your employees will appreciate and respect you even more. That will go a long way to create loyalty, dependability, and better results too.
If you’re someone who likes a tight grip on your staff (like I did in my first mid-90s management job) then I want to help you get comfortable with letting go a little and trusting that your employees want to do a good job—so let them.

Empowering Remote Employees Creates a More Productive Workforce

These are six ways that you can empower your remote employees and create a more productive workforce. Keep in mind that while these are recommendations that help remote teams, the big takeaway should be to meet with your employees individually and find out what works best for them, you, and supports the company’s mission.
I will leave you with this: One of the best managers I ever had was one who I never saw. We worked in two different states and time zones. We met weekly on the phone, talked about goals, and then he set me free to do my job. When I turned in my work, he always praised me, and if it wasn’t to his standard, he would coach me on what he’d like to see differently the next time.
He never made me feel like I was anything less than a rock-star employee, even when I screwed up. And he often talked about what it was about my work that made him trust me, so I always knew what to keep repeating. It was the lowest-effort management relationship on his part that produced the highest-quality work of my corporate career.
This is what empowerment looks like.

Author

Camille Attell

Camille is the founding partner of MoreThanAWheelin.com, a website specializing in travel, RV life, remote work, and the emotional journey. A lifelong learner and longtime instructor, she is passionate about helping others live a life of freedom and flexibility. She is the creator of Remote Work School, an online school helping people find remote work opportunities. In 2016, she and her husband, Bryce, left their corporate jobs to travel and work full-time. When not working and helping others, Camille enjoys hiking, snowboarding, culture and the arts, and photography.
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Collaboration Tools for Remote Teams
- RVer Job Exchange
- Blog
- February 6, 2021
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Collaboration Tools for Remote Teams was originally published on www.xscapers.com

For many, working remotely is both a dream come true and an exercise in isolation. We love the freedom and flexibility but crave the connection that comes with working alongside other people toward a common goal. And if we’re honest, email and text messages aren’t quite enough to fill that gap.

So today, I’m rounding up my favorite collaboration tools for remote teams. Whether your team is just you and a virtual assistant or business partner, or it’s a collection of individual teams spread globally, these tools will help bring you to get things done apart but together.
As a bonus, most of the tools shared here are accessible to small businesses at free or relatively low cost.

Loom

Loom is possibly the most straightforward tool on the entire list, but I consider it to have the most significant impact. For many of my clients, adopting a screen share video tool into their workflow drastically improved their team’s communication and collaboration.
While there are other options out there, I find myself partial to Loom for its ease of use and the fact that it beautifully integrates with nearly every other tool I recommend. Loom has an application for almost every operating system, and it embeds beautifully in many of the platforms we’re already using. It’s as easy to create and share the videos as it is to watch and give feedback.
And to be honest, there are many times that text alone, or even a static screenshot, just won’t do. Recording a quick video can help us close communication gaps and overcome barriers more efficiently.

Whether we’re showing a teammate how to do something or describing a glitch we encountered to our tech support, a 30-second video can save us many back and forth messages.
Quick videos can also have a considerable impact on customer service, and I cannot recommend using them there enough!
Who should use this tool? Loom is for anyone who needs to communicate with other people, inside or outside of the company, and can benefit from a more visual communication method than email alone.

Slack

Slack is possibly the most well-known team communication tool. It’s a marvel for keeping well-organized conversations going and is often a central hub for remote teams of all sizes.
Perhaps one of its most underrated uses is as a central notification hub. You can tie in numerous platforms and receive all of your notifications in a single space, making it easier to get through them and keep things from falling through the cracks. The ability to tie in your task manager (Trello, Asana, Todoist, ClickUp, etc.), document hubs (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, etc.), and calendars (Google, Outlook) gives you a command center that helps you feel less scattered.
Another bonus of Slack is the ability to connect with your virtual meeting platform of choice and quickly launch team meetings or 1-on-1 conversations. Sometimes there’s no replacement for a face-to-face meeting, even if it’s virtual. The ability to talk things out in real-time can save a lot of frustration for remote teams. And if you can’t quite find a time that matches up, it’s effortless to drop a Loom video into a Slack conversation and cut down on the back and forth by communicating visually.
Who should use this tool? Slack is for teams who need a central communication hub but aren’t using another tool that meets that need.

Google Workspace

Google recently stepped up its collection of tools for remote teams with their updates to what was formerly known as G-Suite.
While I’ve always loved Google Docs and Spreadsheets for collaborating, it’s now even easier to do it in real-time by launching a video chat inside the document you’re working on.
Google Workspace adds real-time communication tools to the apps we already use and love like Gmail, Drive, and Calendar.

Who should use this tool? Google Workspace is for teams who need to collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. It’s also for teams who need organized email and calendaring solutions that work well on various operating systems.

Help Scout

While marketed as a customer support platform, Help Scout is a fantastic tool for managing any sort of shared inbox.
Help Scout allows you to manage multiple shared inboxes by delegating messages to team members, allowing you to see message history for that customer, and facilitating team member discussions about particular emails. Ultimately, it’s a fantastic way to keep a shared inbox organized without worrying about any messages going unanswered or multiple responses being sent simultaneously.
Who should use this tool? Help Scout is for teams that need an organized shared inbox, customer help center, or customer-facing knowledge bases.
If you don’t need a full help desk solution, Hiver is a more scaled-down option that lives right in your Gmail account. Or, if your team is all Mac users, Spark Mail is a great email app that features robust team collaboration tools. (Spark Mail is currently working on an application for Windows and will be amazing once it’s available cross-platform.)

ClickUp

ClickUp is the ultimate project management tool. Having been around the block and used everything else from Basecamp to Trello and Asana to Todoist, nothing quite matches the power of ClickUp.
Whether you’re looking for a basic shared to-do list or need more involved features to create a company-wide productivity headquarters, ClickUp is up for the challenge.
Perhaps my favorite feature of Clickup is its ability to house various forms of information in a very organized way. It’s ridiculously easy to connect Google Docs and Spreadsheets or record and embed a screen share video.
ClickUp can quickly become your all-in-one business hub that works wonderfully for teams of all sizes, especially large, complicated ones.
Who should use this tool? While ClickUp can work for any size team, I find it works best for teams of 5+ who want the capability of advanced features like dependencies and detailed time tracking and are looking for an all-in-one solution. Smaller teams may find ClickUp can be a bit of overkill for their needs.

Notion

I saved the best for last. Notion is a favorite of mine, both on a personal level and a professional one.
If you have a smaller team or need something less linear than ClickUp, I highly recommend Notion. While it offers some of the same features, like the ability to play nicely with Google Docs and embedded media, you aren’t stuck with the rigid list structure of a project management tool like ClickUp.
Notion is best described as like building with Lego. It’s a blank slate, and you can create exactly what you need to suit your business and work style using their various “blocks.” It can be a little intimidating to get started with, but it’s always worth it.
I use Notion both personally and professionally. It’s as well suited to managing the minute details of nomad life (grocery shopping, reservations, and remembering regular tasks around the rig) as it is to planning complicated project plans for my business.
Notion is particularly well suited to people who identify as neuro-diverse as it’s less rigid than most available apps. It combines structured databases and templates with the ability to build, change, and grow as our plans do.
Notion works particularly well for building a company wiki and housing references for company systems and processes. I also find that it’s fantastic for sharing only specific things with clients and outside contractors.
Who should use this tool? Notion can work for teams small and large that want a more flexible platform to build to fit their needs. I do not recommend Notion for larger teams who rely heavily on automations or built-in time tracking.

Team collaboration tools are as varied as the teams who use them. Some tools are well suited for teams of 2-10, while others work better for larger teams. But many tools can be configured to work no matter your team size.
The key to finding the tools that work for you is understanding how you use them and what purpose they are serving. As the popularity of remote work grows, the ability to utilize real-time collaboration alongside the asynchronous features we’re used to increases importance.
Choosing tools that support your work style and your team’s natural communication tendencies will reduce frustration for everyone involved.
My biggest advice for choosing collaboration tools is to go with as few as possible and make sure that your team understands which tools are to be used for what.
Once you’ve chosen your tools, it’s worth spending the time to properly set up your platforms and train your team on how to use them. The learning curve and struggles that teams have with new systems and processes are almost always reduced by taking the time to do it right and communicate it well.

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Author

Dani Schnakenberg

Dani is a Business Systems Strategist. She helps entrepreneurs who want to ditch overwhelm to create a sustainable, dreamy business through establishing boundaries and systems that work for them. After 7 years in entrepreneurship, she knows that it doesn’t have to be all about the hustle and grind. It’s the systems and processes that we build that allow us to build empires and live dreamy lives all at the same time.
When she’s not nerding out over workflows, spreadsheets, and statistics, you can find Dani traveling with her husband and five kids, taking in a baseball game, or getting a little bit of peace and quiet on her yoga mat. Get all of Dani’s best tips, tricks, and tutorials at https://simplifiedbusinesssystems.com.

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5 Strategies for Running and Starting a...
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- June 26, 2019
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Tomorrow is moving day – the first of two travel days we’ll need to get to our next stop.
Brian (my husband and business partner) is outside taking care of RV-related travel prep. Right now he’s handling the sewer hose. An hour ago it was a proposal for a prospective client’s website refresh.
I’m in front of my Mac, on live chat with a support rep trying to figure out why our client’s domain name hasn’t yet transferred. It’s one item on a list of many I’m trying to tie up before our travel days.
Just as I’m musing about whether our clients realize everything that passes through our hands, Brian rushes up the steps into the RV.
“We have a leak!” he announces.
A year ago I’d have been near tears hearing those words.
Now, like wayward website domains, it’s just another thing we need to handle.
I don’t mean to suggest we have this whole live-work-travel thing completely figured out. No way. What we have figured out is to expect problems.
RV problems. Internet issues. Client crises. They’re inevitable when you’re running a business from the road. What’s optional, however, is how much you worry about them.
It’s my hope that sharing what we’ve done will give you ideas about how to set your business up for success – and roll with the punches when things go wrong.

Our business – the prequel

We were actually in business before we decided to RV full time. Separately.
Brian’s business was the bread and butter. Mine occasionally brought in big bucks. Most of the time, though, it barely covered the grocery bill.
That’s because I hated all the peripheral tasks that are part of running a business. I liked just doing my thing, making clients happy, and putting money in the bank.
Bookkeeping? Marketing? Not so much.
The problem with my approach was that it’s impossible to create anything sustainable by doing only what’s fun. I knew this, but my efforts around the less creative aspects of my business were half-hearted. At best.
Brian, on the other hand, single handedly ran a gunsmithing business that covered all our bills for the nine years leading up to our move to full-timing. He did all the work, managed the bookkeeping and taxes and promoted the heck out of it to get it going.
Fortunately for us, the business was in a popular niche. Brian had little legitimate competition. Once he opened up shop, the business and his reputation grew quickly. It wasn’t long before all we needed to do to market it was make it easy for people to find him.
Thanks, internet!
I designed and developed a website, and Brian was off to the races. He only had to log in occasionally to maintain the site. No blogging. No marketing. Only basic SEO.
Boy was that a downhill coast compared to where we are now – and compared with what most businesses need to do to attract visitors and create customers.

Why change?

So, why would anyone quit such a successful and lucrative business?
For one thing, it wasn’t something we could have done from the RV without drastically morphing it. We did come up with a couple of seemingly good ideas for an RV-friendly transformation, and even started pursuing one.
Partway into it, though, Brian admitted he was pretty much over the entire niche and ready for a new challenge.
Like, business strategy and project management for my formerly solo website consultancy.
Yay team!
I loved parts of what I did, but constantly got bogged down in things I hated. I was certain that Brian could help make the difficult parts work better. We just needed to figure out how to work together.
Gulp…

Roadworthy business experience

We’re 10 months into full-timing and only began traveling four months ago.
Still, as we’ve struggled to build and run our business in a way that works for us and supports us, we’ve learned a lot.
It’s my hope the suggestions below will help you if you’re on a similar journey.

1. Find (or morph) your thing

You don’t have to be absolutely passionate about every bit of the niche you choose. Just find something you love enough to do a lot – and that others are willing to spend enough on that you can earn a living.
Brian’s gunsmithing business was profitable but not portable, largely thanks to complicated regulations.
When we decided to hit the road, we looked at ways he could offer value in this niche without getting on the wrong side of the law. Firearm appraisal seemed like a way we could morph the business for RV life.
But at the end of the day, it was not for us.
The primary reason we nixed the appraisal business was that it was such a small niche we’d have to have next-level marketing and pricing to survive. A deeper reason for getting out of firearm-related business altogether was that Brian came to realize he was burnt out on it.
As for my website consulting business, I loved most aspects of it. But the parts I hated were sucking up huge amounts of time and energy.
I liked fixing broken websites, making websites faster, and building websites for people with interesting businesses or projects. The more business I got the more time I spent outside of my favorite parts of it.
The negative (for me) aspects of my niche almost caused me to completely ditch it. I planned to help Brian with the appraisal business, and maybe scratch my creative itch by writing on the side.
When we decided we didn’t want to continue down the appraisal business road, we realized that Brian’s experience – pre-gunsmithing as well as running his shop – could help us create something sustainable from my WordPress consulting business.

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2. Get real about weaknesses

I’m the creative one, and the website expert. I’d rather get lost in design, code or words than deal with goals or invoicing. I know we need these things as much as we need the things that are my forte.
But I struggle with them.
When we first started, Brian thought I was just being obstinate. I was, a little. The bigger problem is that it’s such a leap for the way my brain works best. Obstinance was a side effect – not the cause.
Brian has strengths in many areas I don’t.
He has an MBA. His experience handling 100% of a small business has been invaluable in our new venture. Before opening the shop, he worked in IT project management, IT staffing and sales.
Except for websites, he’s way nerdier than me.
I’ve long been an open book about my weaknesses. Saying that is one thing, but actually seeing the gory details is quite another.
Brian wasn’t amused. There was much strife in our 400-ish square feet.

Now, I think we’re on a good track. He’s gotten better about giving me executive summaries I can relate to. I gladly surrendered control to most things outside of website work or writing.
What’s been more difficult to sort out is balancing our strengths, weaknesses and workload.
We’re rebuilding what was a solo freelance business in my niche. Not Brian’s. His workload is constantly expanding as we find more things that are a natural fit for him. But it’s not a 50/50 split right now.
I’m OK with that. But if all the tasks at hand are creative, he gets frustrated. He wants to help and feels like I’m not letting go of enough. Plus, he’s legitimately concerned about things that affect our bottom line.
It’s important to recognize strengths and weaknesses not only to decide who does what, but to play to our strengths to better serve and attract clients.
If that means the business load gets a bit lopsided at times, it’s OK. We can always shift personal chores so neither of us is overloaded.

3. Buy time, tools & talent – carefully

We’ve learned it’s important to be willing to invest in systems, services or help as soon as it makes financial sense.
Not before you have money. And ideally, not after you’re already having problems the expenditure could have prevented.
When you’re starting from scratch, it might feel difficult to justify the expense of tools/services, etc. We’ve learned to stay in tune with what things are costing us time-wise, and look at spending money there as an investment – not an expense.
Be careful about where you spend limited dollars, though.
Sometimes it seems like “everybody” uses a certain tool or service, but the reality is that affiliate commission, limited experience or both are often driving a recommendation.
If you’re truly starting with a near-zero bank account, resist the temptation to spend money on expensive products or services. Big-ticket expenses that are easy for beginners to get wrong include designers, promotional products, and even websites.
You’ll change your mind about a lot in that first year. Instead of depleting your bank account before your business is up and running well, consider starting more simply. DIY or even do without where you can.
Delaying big-budget expenses will give you time to figure out what you’re doing with your business, and decreases the odds of making costly mistakes.

4. Build in wiggle room

When the aim is to live, work and travel in an RV, flexibility is key. Not only for us, but for clients, too.
We set our clients’ expectations from the get-go, making sure they know we’re full-time RVers who can’t/won’t be at their beck and call. We work hard to over deliver so they know that, as much as possible, we’ll go to the ends of the earth for them.
Flexibility works the other way, too.
Today we said a sad no to stand-up paddleboarding because it would’ve unreasonably crunched our workload and taxed our clients’ expectations.
People pay us to serve them. They may be understanding about our lifestyle, but they’re clients because they need our help. Not because they want to fund our travels.
Along those lines, we never want to tell a client that their urgent issue has to wait until we can get on the internet. That’s a problem we need to solve in advance, and one any internet-connected business should plan for.
We’ve worked hard to maximize the internet connectivity that drives our business. Yes, we’re RVing so we can enjoy freedom and fun and not work ridiculous hours. Without dependable RV internet, however, we’d be at the mercy of whatever free WiFi we can find.
That’s no way to run a business.
Our Mobile Internet Resource Center membership has been worth its weight in gold. We’ve used it to create what so far has been a reliable, four-network mobile connectivity arsenal – and do it at a price that doesn’t kill our bank account.
If the business you’re considering has any web or internet component to it, plan to have as many options for connecting as your budget allows.

5. Learn to share your value

I used to assume that people were smart enough to realize the benefits of working with me, and leave it up to them to hire me or not.
The reality is that people often don’t understand what we do, or how we can help them. Plus they’re busy and bombarded by all kinds of distractions.
Without the right promotion, we are likely to get lost in the shuffle.
As an introvert, networking for our business is up there on my list of things I’d rather avoid. Right next to karaoke. Brian, on the other hand, is a former sales pro.
Brian thinks I do OK but would love it if I pushed a little harder. I think he does OK but I’d love it if he was a little less pushy. We each have our own styles, but the bottom line is that we both advocate for the business.
We solve real problems for people on entrepreneurial journeys similar to ours. While I don’t want to make every blog post or conversation about what we can do for them, if I care about what they’re doing I’m going to let them know how we might be able to help.
Brian will do that and then some!
Whatever your style, understand that you must let people you can help know that you can help them. If you don’t, you’ll be back where I was when I was freelancing by myself – barely making grocery money.

What’s on your mind?

Choosing to build a business and work from the road is easily the best, most exciting thing I’ve ever done.
While it’s definitely still a work in progress, after years of doing what everyone else does (or trying), it feels great to do it all differently.
Struggling with something I didn’t cover? Or have something helpful to add? Leave a comment below and share – I’d love to hear where you’re at.

Author

Teresa Rosche Ott

Teresa is a website fixer and writer living, working and traveling in a Class A motorhome with husband and business partner Brian and their Greyhound John Lee. Teresa and Brian own A Fearless Venture, a consultancy focused on preventive maintenance and problem solving for WordPress websites. Teresa also blogs at Wandering Porcupine, where she chronicles her quest to live a more-free life.

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