Traveling and managing a business sounds like an oxymoron. Well, it can be done. Thanks to Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Skype and Wi-Fi. Nowadays, with all the virtual offices around you, you never know if you are talking to someone in the UK, the United States or India.
As one of the core partners of The Web Success Team, I’m running a little experiment. I am currently traveling around SE Asia for 3 weeks technically on vacation but not quite. I still have to take care of the needs of my clients. Although I have a support system in Los Angeles, my clients still want to know that someone is in charge of the operation. Here below there is a small part of a diary that I am carrying.
Day 1: Thursday, March 12: After traveling for almost 24 hours, Bob and I arrived at Phnom Phen, Cambodia, where we settled in a charming Boutique Hotel, The Blue Lime. Before booking our hotels, we reviewed carefully to see if all rooms had Wi-Fi, we were able to take care of all emails and assure our clients that we are in contact. And since we had 15 hours of advantage, it was easy.
Day 2: Friday, March 13: Visit to an orphanage, a must for all people who visit Cambodia. We carry children’s toys and bought a 50 kg rice bag (110 lb) to feed them for a month. The next day we visited S-21, the prison of the red jemeres where the communists tortured and destroyed the educated class of citizenship. The afternoon he dedicated himself to designing and writing a direct response website. A horrible note. At night we went to dinner at a colonial mansion where the street teenagers were reeducated to learn cooking skills and waiters. The food was delicious, including Bob’s appetizer: fried tranters. Bob ate the four of them and said they were crispy but delicious!
Day 3: Saturday, March 14: Early flight to Siem Reap, home of the famous Angkor temples (one of the 7 wonders of the world made by man). As for work, I managed a problem with the shopping cart for one of my clients while he was sitting by the pool.
Day 4: Sunday, March 15: He caught the sunrise at Angkor Wat at 6 am (with all the tourists in the world, chasing the rising sun with his cameras), visited the incredible site for 3 hours, returned to the hotel and with around 5 hours of downtime (too much heat to go anywhere), I worked on the direct response website and a social networking plan.
Day 5: Monday March 16th: Flight to Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City), delayed… I opened my computer and checked the customer statistics for the month. I got to the hotel, checked email and wrote and uploaded blogs and client sites. The streets of the city of Saigon are flooded with motorcyclists (thousands), who honk, thrash and buzz like disturbed hornets. The city itself lacks charm and is quite contaminated. Even motorcyclists use doctor masks.
Day 6: Tuesday March 17: It had to happen at some point, we both got sick with a bad stomach. So we decided not to make a bus trip all day to the Mekong delta and something to stay near the hotel and visit the city instead. After breakfast (chicken noodle soup and tea) we went to the war memorial museum. Very graphic but a must see. He documented the atrocities of the American war, very real and very tragic. War knows no mankind, on both sides. He worked in the afternoon, it is the morning in Los Angeles, we are 15 hours ahead, the good thing.
So far my clients seem happy, some aren’t quite sure where we are and don’t even care as long as they get what they need in a timely manner. My goal is to do this at least once a year. It seems to be easier on vacation than when I travel to attend conferences, where I spend most of the day.
