Over the last few weeks, I’ve hosted a workshop in Melbourne with Mercer School, then to Brisbane for some meetings, then to the Gold Coast for more business meetings with Little Branch. After that, I jetted up to Noosa for my Grandma’s 97th birthday and arrived back home in Sydney to work on a very special charity project with Lou’s Place. All while looking after my interior design clients AND finalising the manuscript for my second book!
Managing a business while being away can be tough going but there are a few secrets I use to keep the wheels in motion:
Boomerang for Gmail is a lifesaver
This nifty plugin for Gmail makes life SO much easier, as you can ‘boomerang’ an email to come back into your inbox at another time rather than clogging your inbox while you’re trying to filter through everything and manage being out of the office. Which leaves you to focus on only the important emails.
Set an out of office
Even if you’re still going to be responding to emails while you’re away it’s important to set an out of office with plenty of information. I added that I won’t have email access during the day but I will respond in the evenings or when I can. Often clients would get the auto-reply and reply back saying they’d sorted out their problem and didn’t need me to respond.
Book a car in advance
Booking a car makes things so much easier when you’re travelling around a city over a period of 3 or more days. Ubers and taxis really add up otherwise. Then you can explore all your favourite places with ease and enjoy yourself without the stress of booking a car and waiting. We used Go Get in Melbourne and it was super simple and easy to organise.
Lounge Access
If you’re a frequent flyer then having access to the lounge is a life saver! Wifi, charging stations and endless food makes travelling a lot easier, especially if your flight is delayed like mine was from Melbourne to Brisbane. If you aren’t a frequent flyer you can pay an annual fee to access the Qantas lounge.
Travel with someone who understands
This is one of my most important tips and one which will make managing your business while being away fun! I was travelling with a friend who also ran her own business so we knew that our evenings would be spent emailing or we’d have to take various phone calls throughout the trip. It’s just part of life, you can’t completely switch off or hope that clients will work out their own issues if you decide not to check emails for a week.
Thank you to Fraser Place Melbourne for the lovely stay.
It was such a fun day at Mercer School teaching students how to make the most of their Instagram while setting up their businesses.
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