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Tag: entrepreneur

Why to Start Traveling as an Entrepreneur

Posted on by Josh

You did it, you took the plunge to go full-time freelance or become an entrepreneur. After countless late nights, questioning whether you were ready and dealing with challenging clients, you took the leap. At first, it was amazing! You had all this free time, could work from home in your PJs, and do your laundry during the day. Over time though, this wears on you and you realize you’re working all the time and not taking advantage of the flexibility you created for yourself.

Sound familiar? For many freelancers and entrepreneurs, this is the case. When getting started you often need to just buckle down in one place and dedicate your time to landing clients. But overtime you settle into a routine and hopefully have recurring clients. Once you feel settled in your business, it’s the perfect time to start planning to work while traveling.

When we say that we don’t mean that you’ll be sitting on the beach typing or living out of a suitcase always in transit. No, the most productive way to work and travel is to spend time in a new place. To get to know that place and develop a routine but most importantly be inspired by the new environment you’re in. Ideally a month or more, so you feel settled, comfortable and productive. That’s why we’re sharing how to start traveling as an entrepreneur and why you should get out of your house.

 

  1. Choose your travel dates

    The first step is choosing a date that you want to start traveling on. Ideally, don’t plan it at the same time as you’re onboarding a new client as you want a day or two to travel and settle in. It’s important you choose a realistic date you can commit to and it’s okay if it feels a bit nerve-racking. We always recommend giving yourself at least a month in a new place to get settled and feel connected to a place. This also helps you feel more comfortable and productive. It also gives you the opportunity to build new connections in that place.

  2. Do the prep work

    Some freelancers like to tell their clients if they’re going out of the country or timezone. This is entirely up to you but make sure you outline what this process will look like for you. Ensure you download all necessary tools, like these tools for freelancers to make sure you are set up for success.

  3. Remember why you started

    When you first started freelancing what was your #1 goal? Was it to be your own boss? Work from anywhere? Travel more? Spend more time with friends or family? Whatever it is, you need to do those things. Life is too short to get stuck in a hamster wheel, especially once you started for different reasons. So if you want to travel, then make it happen and stop making excuses.

  4. Schedule in downtime

    You might want to explore and see everything when you get to a new place but pace yourself. If you try to cram every touristy thing in you’ll likely end up feeling burnt out and unable to work. Take your time exploring and schedule in downtime, for relaxation. While traveling as an entrepreneur it’s easy to get caught up in still working nonstop then filling your free time with exploring your new city. To stay balanced and not burnout, give yourself breaks and make ‘me-time’.

  5. Meeting new people can change your life

    If that isn’t reason enough to get out of the house, we don’t know what is. By traveling, or even just joining a coworking space, you can meet people that impact your life. Whether its a new business partner, connection, sale or friend, connecting with new people is essential. It doesn’t have to feel like stuffy networking.

  6. New environments create new inspiration

    It’s true, new places help you find new inspiration. They help your brain expand, and help you feel more creative and inspired. When visiting a new city or area, you’re often flooded with new and exciting sights and colors. These help you tap into new inspiration and ideas that you otherwise wouldn’t have had sitting at home. So if you’re feeling like you’re lacking inspiration, traveling may be just the fix.

  7. International cities give you a global perspective

    If you’re looking to take your business to the next level, going international might just help. By visiting other cities and seeing how business is done there, you might find new opportunities for your own business. Often gaining that new perspective is essential to helping you come up with new ideas for your business. Plus, you’ll get exposure to businesses and ideas that you wouldn’t have gotten while sitting at home or in your local coffee shop. By traveling as an entrepreneur you’ll gain so much new knowledge.

  8. Travel is FUN!

    Let’s think back to the reason you started your business in the first place. Hopefully, more flexibility and time for fun were part of those reasons. And travel is fun! It is an adventure and can be hectic but it’s an amazing learning experience. You have put so much work, time and effort into your business. You need to enjoy the fruits of your labor, explore and have some fun.

  9. Solo travel helps you gain more independence

    Maybe you are feeling just a bit too comfortable in your life and business. Perhaps a bit stale or unfulfilled? In search of something more? Traveling somewhere new can help you find that. Instead of waiting for someone to finally go traveling with you and making excuses, go solo! Solo travel is amazing, we shared all the benefits of it here. It also requires you to make all your decisions, become more independent and push yourself out of your comfort zone. It’s a perfect way to help you grow. This growth can translate into your business too.

 

As you can see, there are so many reasons to take your business on the road. That’s why we shared these tips for how to start traveling as an entrepreneur. If you really want to grow, learn, have fun and take advantage of the flexibility you’ve created then travel. After all, we know you didn’t start your business to sit in your house working for 16 hours a day ;).

Please note: We know not everyone has the flexibility to do this, and it is intended for those whose businesses do not have a physical presence nor have dependents to take care of at home. 

Ready to finally take your work on the road? We can help with everything from where to stay, to where to work, to where to eat. Learn more here.

Growing a Company? This is Why Entrepreneurs Should Travel More

Posted on by Josh

You did it! You finally left the corporate world, school or your old job to start out on your own.

You’ve hustled, spent long hours and lots of money and time on learning new things and growing your business. It is all a labor of love (we hope) and worth it to be doing what you love and calling the shots. No more boss to report too, no more unsatisfied or passionless days spent dreaming of your ‘one day’. No, because you are an entrepreneur.

Whether you’ve just started out on your own or have been doing it for decades, you started for a purpose. You started a company for more freedom, autonomy and to do something you truly believe it. So why are so many entrepreneurs burnt out?!

Overworked, too much coffee, too little sleep – entrepreneur life is often seen as less than glamorous. Yet so many people want to become them! In search of the hustle, that high from seeing something you’ve poured your heart into take off. But at the same time, the work and hours you put in are just plain crazy.

Oftentimes, people become entrepreneurs to give themselves more freedom. You seldom do that though, never taking advantage of the flexibility of running a company and determining your own schedule.

We’ve felt it ourselves and learned a thing or two from our teams 20+ years in entrepreneurship. We’ve also learned the incredible importance of travel for entrepreneurs. So we shared why it’s important to prioritize travel, no matter how busy you are, to help you grow and learn.

1) Meet New People

Growing your network is one of the most important thing you can do throughout your career. When you travel you meet incredible people that you otherwise never would have. Our cofounders met while traveling in Southeast Asia and without their individual desires to explore the world, Behere would never exist. We’ve also had a number of our members meet life long friends, business and life partners while traveling.

entrepreneurs should travel2) Learn New Things

Through meeting new people and experiencing new places you will learn incredibly valuable life, and business, skills. Whether you take a new course abroad, end up in a workshop taught by someone super interesting or just ask a question to someone you meet, you will learn something new. Some trips might by about learning to surf, others could be about refining your people skills and others, teach you how to juggle your team from a new time zone.

3) Communicate Better

Travel tests your communication skills, and patience, often. You have to learn to slow down, juggle learning and conversing in new languages and share your language with others. You can also fine tune your negotiation skills by bartering with street vendors. Wherever you go, travel will help with your communication and people skills.

4) Gain a Global Understanding

If scaling your company to new countries is something you want to do, having a better sense of the world is key. By going to new countries, you experience their way of life and customs, learn about their needs and determine if your product/service could help there. Plus, you learn about new problems and might come up with unique solutions for them.

5) Connect with Remote Team Members

In todays day and age, many companies are remote. With that, many teams have never met face to face. If you employ any remote employees, traveling to see them can be a wonderful bonding experience for you and them. Plus, you’ll have a better understanding of the way they work, where they live and more, so you can work together even better.

6) Inspiration, Motivation & Relaxation

There’s a reason companies hold team retreats – they really do help with employee morale. As an entrepreneur, you often put taking care of yourself and your own needs on the back burner while trying to grow your company. However, it’s crucial you take time off to relax, and find new inspiration and motivation. You’ll be amazed what a month in Europe can do for your creativity, your business, and yourself.

Despite this, we know for many entrepreneurs it’s incredibly challenging to leave your business, even just for a few days. For those that can’t get away for long, we recommend taking a more local trip for a long weekend and starting out small. Try unplugging and doing something you love, like hiking or going the spa, to get away from work and technology for a day or two.

For those that have started online businesses, we can’t stress how amazing spending a month or more traveling is for you and your business. Joyce shared the transformational impact spending a month in Spain had on her, after one year of running her startup and Angela shared how it helped her take a leap and grow her business.

Starting a company doesn’t come without sacrifice, much of which is necessary to get it off the ground. But, we believe it’s time you start putting yourself first more and taking advantage of the flexibility it offers. Being an entrepreneur isn’t about all work all the time, it’s about balance, growth and doing what you love. So, it’s time to travel!

Written by Meesen Brown, Cofounder & CEO of Behere.

Now, feeling inspired to do some traveling while running your business? Pick a location below or send us a note [email protected] and we’ll help connect you to the spaces and people that will make your time abroad amazing!

This Is the Type of Confidence to Exude if You Want to Be More Successful

Posted on by Josh

There’s more than one way to show confidence, but a new study says you should focus on this one.

Guest Post By Nora Battelle

Confidence is the key to success, according to new research from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology — especially if expressed nonverbally.
Nathan Meikle, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research and teaching associate at the University of Notre Dame, led the research. His team found that study participants consistently choose to work with confident potential collaborators or advisors over cautious ones. That  shows, exuding confidence makes people want to work with you. This has been documented before: Research has shown that confidence increases our belief in someone’s competence.
What this new study reveals, however, is that confidence can backfire if it turns out to be overconfidence, or confidence lacking real basis. The revelation of someone’s overconfidence (when communicated verbally by the overconfident person) actually reversed study participants’ preferences to favor more cautious but realistic collaborators.
But interestingly, when confidence — even if it turned out to be overconfidence — was communicated through nonverbal cues, rather than verbal ones, participants did not reverse their preferences towards a cautious collaborator. The confident collaborators won out, whether or not their confidence was founded.
The study authors suggest this result stems from the plausible deniability of nonverbally expressed confidence. Nonverbal indicators of confidence, unlike verbal ones, don’t make exact promises. This makes them an ideal way for getting the benefits of displayed confidence, while avoiding displaying overconfidence.
These results have deeply practical implications. Expressing your confidence nonverbally can make colleagues and collaborators more likely to want to work with you – even when your confidence isn’t as rock-solid as it appears.
Below are some helpful tips on the kinds of nonverbal tactics that are good indicators of confidence. While far from the only forms of nonverbal confidence, these suggestions provide some excellent steps to take in the pursuit of exuding trustworthy confidence.

Adopt an expansive posture

Meikle explained this as postures like “hands behind head, legs/knees/feet spread apart, shoulders spread out” and similar poses. Showing you are comfortable taking up space physically means projecting confidence before you even open your mouth.

Make eye contact

Another nonverbal confidence indicator is eye contact. Older research has also found eye contact can project sincerity, facilitate trust and even increase perception of intelligence. It’s a powerful step to take when you are looking to build positive professional relationships.

Give a firm handshake

A firm handshake is a key indicator of confidence. It’s simple, silent and effective.

Speak in a strong voice

An “assertive/loud/confident voice,” according to Meikle, is another powerful means of expressing confidence. Speaking audibly and clearly, avoiding mumbling or trailing conclusions to your sentences will help communicate you are the one for the job / project.
Now you can use these confidence tips and our Resources to approach your boss about switching to remote work, or to level up in your business.

Originally posted on Thrive Global.
Written by Nora Battelle, Multimedia Staff Writer at Thrive Global.

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