Working away from a fixed base

Working while travelling requires arrangements for the business left at home, the practical needs of each destination and the time lost to moving between places.

Duration, destination and commitments at home

The intended length of a trip affects preparations: for a few months away, many arrangements can probably be left in place or temporarily stopped and resumed on return. ¹ Housing, vehicles, pets, the garden, mail, bills, tax returns and medication need consideration. ¹ In 2007, a UK freelance medical writer left the UK with her husband and two children on a yacht, expecting to be the main wage earner; eleven years later, she was still sailing and working. ² Making the boat their home for an indefinite period involved selling their house and cars, rehoming their dogs and arranging homeschooling. ¹

Planning includes deciding whether to keep moving or stay in particular places for a while, and having a fallback way home if the trip does not work out, even if that is credit-card capacity for a flight. ¹ Family commitments can shape the itinerary: ageing parents, children at school or college, important events and the practicality and cost of returning for visits or emergencies all need consideration. ^{1, 3}

Arrangements with the accountant and clients

Before leaving, the writer worked with her accountant to explore the options and put arrangements in place; the accountant continued to deal with her remotely and with HMRC on her behalf. ⁴ In 2018 she remained a UK sole trader with UK tax liability, while noting that arrangements could differ with business structure, individual needs and the intended time away. ⁴

The writer discussed the trip with existing clients to find out whether they would continue working with her at a distance; most were supportive, and she gained new clients during her travels. ⁴ Her priorities were clear communication about tasks she could and could not accept, scheduling and timelines while moving, time-zone differences and limitations on internet access. ⁴

Practical arrangements abroad

A freelance medical writer working from a yacht in 2018 used the following practical arrangements and advised checking destination requirements. ^{5, 6}

• Visas: Check entry requirements, permitted length of stay and restrictions on working, including how visas and work permits are organised in each destination. The writer's family entered on pleasure visas while she worked as a UK-based freelancer; in her experience, business visas were often short and required sponsorship by a local business.
• Passports: Build any necessary renewal into the itinerary: many countries required at least six months' validity on entry. The writer had renewed passports abroad but warned against assuming that this would always be possible. Some airlines required a return or onward ticket. Keep track of the permitted stay and avoid overstaying.
• Banking: The writer used online and telephone banking with a UK bank. Replacing cards abroad could be awkward, so she advised having more than one card and keeping one separately against theft. Foreign-currency withdrawal charges could be expensive; she suggested investigating cards loaded with different currencies that did not incur those charges.
• Invoicing and payments: The writer sent invoices by email and received payment by BACS.
• Mail: Friends accepted mail, opened and scanned items needing decisions and couriered items when appropriate. Even with paperless communication, this could mean substantial work, so anyone taking it on needed to understand the commitment. Paid mail-management services were an alternative.
• Telephone and internet: The writer kept a UK mobile contract, with roaming costs outside Europe, and a second phone with a local SIM for local calls and data, using its hotspot for her laptop. Her family had found local SIM data the cheapest option. When she did not need good internet access, they used Wi-Fi in internet cafés, tourist information offices, cafés, bars and hotels; some hotels offered paid business centres.
• Insurance and healthcare: The family had cover for major incidents, including hospitalisation and repatriation. With a large excess, they paid for GP and dental visits themselves; the writer's rough figure for a GP consultation in Europe and the Caribbean was £30. She noted that healthcare cover in travel policies depended on destination and duration. The high cost of healthcare cover was one reason they did not take the boat to the USA. Boat insurance covered their belongings.
• Equipment: The writer reduced a home office with a desk, adjustable chair, reference books, publications, filing cabinet and printer/scanner to a laptop on a table, a phone, minimal paperwork and a small printer/scanner. She found the printer/scanner useful but could have managed with printing services at shops, internet cafés and hotels. Losing space to print and store paper encouraged paper-free working. She kept hard-drive backups; variable internet access limited her plans for cloud backup.

^{5, 6}

Time and capacity while travelling

Work away from a familiar home environment is likely to take more time to organise and execute, possibly in another language; the writer advised against planning full-time work before becoming settled. ⁷ Schedules should allow slack for unexpected problems: a hotel chosen for its Wi-Fi may have a broken router, leaving a deadline to be met from another venue, as happened to the writer. ⁷ Travellers should balance paid work with the time, money and energy needed to experience the places visited. ⁷

Preparations should cover as much as possible, particularly legal and financial arrangements, while recognising that complete readiness and anticipation of every problem are unlikely. ⁶