Although the terms “location independent entrepreneur” and “remote worker” are everywhere now, they hadn’t yet made it into the lexicon when I started working remotely years ago. So when I recently left for Europe to try working from overseas, I figured running a location independent business would be a piece of cake.
A week in, though, PayPal froze access to my business account and I had to jump through numerous hoops to restore it. Other websites I rely on behaved differently once they detected I was outside the United States, forcing me to find workarounds. And a credit card payment was flagged by the bank after it detected it was being paid from a new location.
I clearly still had a lot to learn about working remotely and running a location independent business.
“There are many things that you have to keep in mind, prepare for, and adjust to in order to find success as a remote entrepreneur,” warns David McNeill, founder of Expat Empire, a consulting service that supports entrepreneurs in taking their businesses abroad.
“In addition to managing payment providers across multiple currencies, hoping that websites won’t lock your account when traveling to new destinations, and balancing time for work and for fun when you’re exploring a new locale, there are many more issues you may need to handle regarding your global team, client base, and partners,” he explains.
Here I’ve asked McNeill and other location independent entrepreneurs to share their strategies for successfully working from anywhere. And I share my own tip, learned firsthand.
