Business Plus Baby

You love your career but it involves a lot of traveling. You’d also like to have a family, but you may find yourself wondering whether you can have it all. Can you maintain a travel-based career and do right by your kids at the same time?

In fact, many parents who need to travel for their work find that raising kids into a traveling lifestyle can be an extremely fulfilling way to have a family. Here are some tips for how to stay close to your family while traveling for your job without giving anything up.

Consider Online School for Your Kids

A high-quality online education from online institutions such as sterling.academy can allow your children to get a great education and plenty of consistency in their classes no matter where you go. Switching schools frequently can be stressful for kids and disruptive for their education. However, online education enables your children to receive a quality education without making compromises for your travel schedule.

Have Fun With Lodging

Instead of always choosing a boring budget hotel or taking whatever lodging your company provides for you, consider making where you stay a fun experience. Encourage your children to help you pick out an Airbnb or a fun hotel.

Pick places to stay that give you access to the best parts of wherever you will be. Traveling to a trendy urban city? Pick lodging in the downtown strip where you’ll get to take advantage of being close to the heart of the city. Working near the beach? Pick a hotel or condo near the water so that your kids can go boogie boarding or build sandcastles while you’re working.

Take Your Children’s Wishes Into Consideration

If you are constantly dragging your kids along with you or leaving for considerable amounts of time, you risk causing real disruptions in their lives and a guilty conscience for yourself. Instead, talk honestly with your kids about your travel plans and see what they think.

Make compromises where you can. If all your children want to do is finish out the year with their sports teams, see if you can stick around for a little longer. If your kids are longing to see a particular destination, do your best to work it into your travel plans.

Have it All as You Travel for Work and Enjoy Your Family

You don’t have to choose between having a travel-based career and a family. By thinking outside of the box, you’ll find that you can enjoy plenty of time with your family and travel for work at the same time.

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If you are a business owner looking forward to a well-deserved vacation, you want to make sure you have all of your bases covered so that you can make the most of your time away from the office.

Perhaps you have a cruise planned to the Caribbean, or you’ve decided to partake in a long-range hunt like the type offered by Outdoor Solutions.

In any case, you’ll want to take the following steps before leaving the office:

Get Everything Done that You Can Before You Leave

If there are tasks that you typically perform regularly that would normally occur during the time you have planned off, try to take care of them before you leave.

By taking care of them ahead of time, you reduce the workload for your team and yourself and can enjoy your vacation in peace.

Assign Specific Tasks to Team Members

If there are specific tasks that can’t be handled ahead of time, assign them to team members whom you can trust to handle them responsibly. Make sure they know what needs to be done and how to do it. Also, let them know of any task deadlines.

Let Your Clients Know that You Will Be Out of the Office

You should try to do this as far ahead of time as possible. By letting them know, they have advance notice and can address any needs before you leave. You can also appoint an appropriate staff member to contact if something comes up while you are away.

Give Your Staff a Way to Contact You

You don’t want to go completely off the radar. By giving your staff a number they may contact you at or your personal email, they will be able to reach out if something happens that they don’t know how to handle.

You should keep your cell phone with you at all times while away so that any emergencies that come up can be handled promptly.

Schedule Time to Check Your Business Email

As a business owner, you should continue to check your business email while away from the office. To reduce the temptation to check it every time you have a spare minute, try scheduling a set time each day.

For example, you could check it in the morning after having breakfast or in the late afternoon before going to dinner. This way, you still respond to any important emails within 24 hours.

Set Reasonable Expectations

Don’t be too hard on yourself if you find yourself working while on your holiday. As a business owner, it can be difficult to avoid, especially if you have important tasks come up that you weren’t expecting. Realize that it is a part of running a business, and enjoy the free time that you do have!

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Small businesses, particularly those that are home-based, often let re-investing slide. It’s a shame because investing in small ways now can reap great benefits later. If you’re an entrepreneur working from home, it may be time to think about doing some upgrades, from how you handle your daily tasks to the communications equipment you’re using to stay in touch with your customers or clients.

Diversify How Your Reach Customers

Retail and service industries often operate and reach their potential clients one way, forgetting that there are other methods if what they’re doing is currently working. But there’s a vast difference between what you ARE doing and what you COULD be doing. If you have a successful brick-and-mortar store, consider branching out with an online shop where you can reach customers outside your immediate location. If you have an Etsy shop but don’t have a social media presence, it’s time to create a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram presence. The more places you’re visible, the greater your odds of reaching new customers.

Invest in Quality Phone Equipment

It’s tempting to stick with your old cell phone as the “business phone” to save money. After all, it’s with you all the time, right? But cell phone reception isn’t always dependable. If you’re using your personal phone, there’s bound to be a time when you don’t answer the phone appropriately for your business (ouch!). Instead, invest in a dedicated phone system for your business. Polycom phones are a great way to have a dedicated business line while offering the flexibility of using a cell phone. You’ll also be able to quickly put one call on hold while answering a second line, so you don’t lose either customer.

Having a dedicated line and a secondary number send the message that you’re an established business. As your business grows, you’ll also be able to easily scale up to multiple users without having to invest in a new system down the line.

Create Business Alliances

There’s a common perception that being a start-up or owning a home-based business means going it alone. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Network with other companies that are tangentially related to yours via social media, in-person meetings, and attendance at trade events. When you share your knowledge with other businesses, they’ll usually reciprocate, creating additional opportunities for both parties. Offer to cross-promote, include them in marketing campaigns, and make it clear you’re serious about your business. It doesn’t matter whether you’re working out of your garage or a dedicated office building.

Plan for the Long-Term

Right now, you may be focusing on short-term goals – increasing sales for the month, making sure you can pay the bills, or simply staying in business. But don’t neglect long-term planning while you’re establishing yourself. Studies have shown that having a five-year plan for where you want your business to (realistically) be in five years can increase your focus and give you the impetus to achieve more urgent, short-term goals. If you know where you want to go, it’s easier to get there.

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