Tips for a Successful Venture as a Traveling Freelancer
Life as a traveling freelancer is an enriching blend of work and travel- and a growingly popular way of living known as the ‘digital nomad lifestyle.’ With the development of cloud-based technology, faster internet connectivity, tools including Google docs, Skype, Dropbox becoming increasingly mainstream, you no longer need to stick to the boring 9-5 job that doesn’t even allow you to go after your dreams. Sounds perfect! However, working as a traveling freelancer comes with its own set of challenges and considerations. So, we’ve put together a few useful tips that you need to keep in mind before embarking on the exciting freelancing journey.
Visa requirements
As a traveling freelancer, it’s important to plan your trip earlier than required so that you have ample time to research about the visa requirements and formalities for all the foreign locations you’re going to visit. Imagine your bags are packed, hotels are booked, and you have planned everything for the next eight months only to realize that your visa expires in just six months. Awful, isn’t it? Since travel visa comes with an expiry date, it’s best to know the duration your visa allows you to stay in a particular country ahead of time. Requirements can vary from country to country, so don’t be careless while reading the information as this could affect your travel plans adversely.
Stay on top of your banking
Nobody likes to worry about money while traveling but as a digital nomad, you can’t really help it. If you want to keep your headaches to the minimum, manage the finances in advance. Turn off all the monthly subscriptions that you don’t need while traveling. Get in touch with your mobile provider to avail an international plan and make it a point to keep your bank up-to-date to avoid the horrifying experience of having your accounts blocked. Also, you need to be aware if your bank is recognized outside the home country and you have the same access to it while traveling abroad as you do right now. If not, open an international bank account if you plan to travel for a long duration.
Avoid high bank fees and exchange rates
As a traveling freelancer, your clients could be located across the globe, and you would not want them to pay exorbitant bank fees. Besides, the fluctuating exchange rates can take a toll on your career as the clients might start looking for an affordable option in the home country. To avoid the hassle of high transaction fees and exchange rates, suggest your clients to pay you using Ria money transfer. Ria offers low transaction fees and the best exchange rates and allows clients to send money to 149 countries in less than 15 minutes. Not just this, Ria has some great discount offers for both first time and regular users. Indeed, a great way to save on international money transfers.
Invest in connectivity
An exotic beach vacation away from the stress of the everyday life sure sounds like an idyllic plan, but for the internet-dependent freelancers, lack of a reliable internet connection can be a deal breaker. Unlike the USA, many countries don’t have the internet café culture, so before you pack your bags, do plenty of research about the availability and dependability of internet in the city you are planning to stay in. No need to spend heavily on internet connectivity but yes it’s worth investing some time, energy and funds so that you can stay connected to the clients, check inbox and complete the assigned projects.
Get Travel insurance
You might think you don’t need it or it doesn’t fit in your budget, no matter what your excuse is, just don’t skimp on travel insurance. As a traveling freelancer you can’t go without travel insurance, so choose a plan that covers the cost of almost all sorts of uncertainties. Or else you might end up with an enormous medical bill which you’ll have to pay using your savings.
Keep a backup of your work
Since you communicate to your clients online, it makes sense to keep a copy of your work on a cloud-based service. Give the password of the cloud to your clients so that they can access it in case you have sketchy internet. Keep the cloud updated and upload the project as soon as you get a stable connection so that your clients never have to chase you for updates.
About the Author
Sharon Kalipai is a contributing writer at Sparkwebs LLC, a Digital and Content Marketing Agency in Denver, CO. When she’s not writing, she loves to travel, dance and read books.
