Remote Office Tools For Location Independent Freelancers
Be in no doubt that if you want to improve your work-life balance, escape the 9-5 and work from the beach more often then you need to get your remote office tools organised.
There are key things in my remote office toolbox that I simply could not do without. All of them give me the flexibility to work wherever and whenever I like. When I’m with my family, at the beach, at the park or in the campervan, I can take my office with me and everything fits nicely inside one small backpack. So to help you with your own location independence I’m going to share with you my top 5 remote office tips to help you become a digital nomad and entrepreneur.
Get A Solar Backpack
I use the Voltaic solar backpack, so I know I’ll have power for all my gadgets when I need it. The 3 solar panels on the bag either charge directly or store power in a battery ready for the next time I need it. I love to visit the beach in my campervan and walk my dog so while I’m doing this I can also charge my ipad and iphone ready for when I need to use them. It has so many adaptors – USB cables, etc, it can charge most handheld electronics. It also helps me feel earth friendly while I’m doing it, which for me is an added bonus.
Get A Smart Phone
I’ll be amazed if you don’t already have one as this is my number one most used remote office tool. My personal preference is the iPhone, but I understand from others that the other Android phones,etc. are now catching up with Apple’s technology. Personally I’m an Apple Mac girl, as their products are so intuitive for me, and I also find that having an iPhone in my backpack means I have hundreds of tools rolled into one. For example, I always use the camera in the phone and edit my pictures using Camera Bag before uploading them. I also use a multitude of other photo apps I’ve summarised here. As an added tip, I often us the camera to scan and send documents by photographing them and emailing the files.
The added bonus of an iPhone is if you have a contract that gives you an unlimited data bundle you can tether your phone to your laptop, which acts as your Internet receiver. This gives you Internet access that is often better than the speeds people often get from their home wifi.
Get Your Data Storage Sorted
As I’ve already explained, I’m an Apple girl so this task is simple for me. I use the iCloud, but there are many other options too, such as the Amazon Digital Cloud, and these are only going to increase as data storage becomes more and more popular and necessary. I also use a GDrive slim to backup my computer harddrive, just in case the unthinkable happens.
Learn To Love Google
Not only are they one of the largest search engines in the world, but they are also one of the biggest providers of free and paid-for tools to help inspired freelancers. For example, within Google+, their new social media and business expanding tool, you will find an ability to organise a ‘Hangout’. These ‘hangouts’ are similar to the paid-for Skype version, but with one vital difference… they are free and easier to use. With the ‘hangout’ tool you can chat to people on the other side of the world, listen to their music, share and work on documents together, share ideas, give presentations, train others and the list goes on. I have managed to generate a healthy income training individuals using Google+ hangouts as my venue.
Another fantastic tool they offer for free is their analytics. I can not urge you enough to get fully acquainted with this tool in relation to your online presence as it allows you to identify your audience, their interests, what they like about you, what they don’t and what they may want from you in the future.
Automate, Automate, Automate!
A freelancers time is precious, and in order for you to get to the beach as often as possible you need to automate as much as possible. This is actually easier than you might think and there are tools to do this when thinking about social media (Tweetdeck), selling advertising space on your website (CrankyAds), earning money online (Adsense), posting articles (WordPress Scheduling tools), sending out correspondence to customers (Mailchimp), etc, etc. I personally try to automate as much as possible, apart from being social where I think the personal touch is essential in order to make strong connections with your audience.
So what do you think of my remote office tools? Do you have any others you would add to the list? Let me know in the comments section below… I’d love to hear from you.
Sarah
