Building A Location Independent Business Checklist

The snow is whistling by my window, and the sun isn't up yet. Welcome to January in Canada.

In less than 2 weeks I'm heading down to Florida for at least a month. It's part holiday, part winter escape. Before I go I wanted to share with you some of my checklists to keep my online businesses running smoothly.

Is your internet business at a point yet where you can just get up and leave at a moment's notice?

Would you like it to be?

I've been marketing online since 1994. Back then we called the internet fancy names like the "Information Super Highway " and the "World Wide Web ". You got online through the telephone cable in your home plugged into a box in the back of your PC called a modem. You dialed either an 800# or a local number and waited your turn until the busy signal turned into high pitched screeching. It was slow, primitive and clunky. We could only dream about the kind of services that we now take for granted with our iPhones, laptops and always-on high speed.

Back in 1998 I went to Australia for a month. I've been keeping a written journal for over 19 years, so I went back to my notes to see what it was like back then to build an internet business.

Location Independence Circa 1998

1. We used Yahoo to talk over the internet like walkie talkies.

The full duplex telephone-like experience didn't exist yet. You could speak one at a time over Yahoo. If you both spoke at the same time it cancelled each other out. But it was cool and cheaper than calling back to Canada at $1.00 a minute on the phones.

Remember the two tin cans tied together with a piece of string? That's what the experience was like. We could only dream of full duplex conversations. Star Trek video conferencing was for the uber-rich back then. G+ hangouts with 8 people for free was a decade away.

I ran the coaching and mentoring component of my business through this technology for 1on1 coaching calls. The 12 hour time difference between Australia and North America made it challenging.

2. We had to buy a pre-paid dial-up internet cards at the convenience store.

The web was still 90% dial-up back then. You bought a pre-paid plastic card that got you a block of hours via dial-up. It's amazing that we could still talk over Yahoo at 56K baud.

I remember walking around Melbourne with horrible jet lag trying to find an open store at 5 am to buy an internet card. Good times.

3. The cellphone craze was in full bloom in Australia in 1998.

People were dropping their home phones and were beginning to use cellphones en masse in Melbourne. You could buy SIM cards at any convenience store.

The TV in my flat only caught 4 channels. The weather was always "fine" and everyone was always outside on patios visiting. No one seemed to ever be at home to even use a landline. I had never seen a text message before that trip.

4. Most affiliate programs paid via paper check the following month back in 1998.

Back then almost no one used a startup called Paypal. Believe me, taking credit cards online was a giant pain. When I came back from Australia my mail box had royalty checks from Aweber, Amazon, IMC, and nearly a dozen more. I'm not complaining. It was a wonderful time to be in the "picks and shovels" business during the online gold rush.

5. No one used Traveller's Checks.

What a nuisance! The only place to cash a Traveller's Check was at a bank and even then it was an incredible slow hassle. ATM cards were already universal in 1998. The last traveller's checks I ever bought were for that trip.

6. Landlords rented their apartments via their own websites.

Finding short term furnished rentals in Australia in 1998 was hit and miss. No one used Craigslist or Kijiji or Airbnb or Couchsurfing. Landlords with vision, imagination and a little bit of patience listed their properties on Alta Vista, the biggest search engine at the time. Think about the challenge of designing your own site using Frontpage, adding your photos and uploading the entire thing to a server. But they made it work. My wife and I rented in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney 100% online even back then.

Spending a month in Australia in 1998 was an exercise in patience, self reliance and resiliency. But even 14 years ago the internet was beginning to become a mission-critical tool for business.

Leap forward to 2012. High speed internet is everywhere. Banking is done online and most affiliate programs pay via direct deposit or Paypal. Renting a place is so easy with specialty sites and there is a wide selection to choose from. Cellphone rates are dirt cheap and is usually the first thing you do when you land in a new place. What a difference a decade makes.

On this trip to Florida, here are a few of my checklists:

1. Logins. Create a master list of critical website URLS and passcodes, and upload to Evernote, Gmail, and keep a hard copy.

2. Banking. Pay the bills in advance, get some American money, plan ahead.

3. Clients. No change expected. Coaching calls with clients from beach instead of snowbank.

4. Websites. Delegate SEO to offshore assistants, pre-write blog posts for travel days, pre-write autoresponder sequences for travel days.

5. Internet. Comes with vacation rental. Find 2-3 coffee shops using Google Maps that have free wi-fi close by as back up/ remote office.

6. Cell phones. Buy US airtime package, text package, data package from Rogers. GPS on iPhone.

7. Google. Ensure that 2-step verification still works with their new security system.

8. Hardware. Taking my $300 Samsung netbook. Leaving the $2500 Macbook Pro at home. Travel light this trip. Don't need much horsepower for computing. Take iPhone for photos, music on flight.

9. Actual work. As little as possible. Enjoy the break. Digital sabbatical? If inspired, then write. What new book idea will be hatched on the beach?

Part of the fun back in 1998 was exploring the unknown in Melbourne. Today, I know every shop, store and mall within 10 miles of my Florida place thanks to Google Maps and Google Streetview in advance. Shopping for groceries and a list of restaurants are already in my Evernote.

Is this a good thing?

The technology sure changes the experience. I'm not judging. The reduced stress level offsets the challenge, that's for sure.

I think I'll dust off my old paperback copy of The 4 Hour Work Week and read it tonight for a little inspiration.

Are you planning to travel this year? Is your business ready?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on building an Location Independent Business. You can leave me a comment below and I'll answer you. Feel free to vote up this article and share it with your friends. Do you have any technology suggestions to add?

Maybe I'll see you on the beach next winter!

David Ledoux is the author of "10 Strategies for Successful Living", available for free on his blog.