Bolidea – Giving Rise to Stellar Companies

by Olivier Cabanes

So you just started your own business or you are planning to? You thought that one of the advantages of being your own boss would be to choose when you’d take vacations? You might have been right, but…it certainly won’t be any easier.

While it’s true that startups typically allow for flexible travel time, they also require constant attention. So once your “out of office” notice is set, you probably should ask yourself how you will remain productive during your trip before guzzling/drinking the biggest Mai Tai you could possibly find. What follows are some best practices and tips I follow and that I think could help startup entrepreneurs stay productive while they are away from the office.

1. Set the stage

A couple of weeks before you leave, inform folks you talk to frequently that you will be out of the office and that you might not be able to reply quickly (if at all) during your absence. It is common courtesy and it will ensure that your important business contacts are not caught off guard by an “out of office” message.

Also, you need to know what to expect when you come back and your team needs to be informed of what you’ll be working on during your absence. Therefore, make sure to get in sync with your office mates before you leave. Let them know what’s on your to-do list and make sure to bring up ideas that revolve around tasks they will work on.

2. Discipline

With all the distractions that come along with vacations, it helps to establish a work schedule and set some objectives for the time that you will be out of your daily routine. Before being caught up in all the fun and tempted by activities, establish a work schedule, set objectives and decide when you’ll be working on them. Within the set schedule, I also like to set aside a period of time where I make myself available so that people can reach me, whether it’s for a call, videoconference, or IM chat.

Make sure your plan is realistic and that you don’t have too much on your plate, then…stick to it.

3. Make good use of your air time

Watch one movie on the plane! If your flight lasts more than 3 hours, chances are you’ll be tempted to watch more than one movie. Instead, you should take advantage of the intimate time you get to spend with your laptop and get ahead of your schedule. I dream of the day when all flights will be equipped with Gogo (Aircell’s in-flight Internet service) or a similar service!

4. Trust your team

Even with your best intentions, chances are that the rest of the team back home will accomplish a lot more than you while you are away. It makes sense to remove yourself from the business a little bit. While this concept is pretty clear, it works against the level of control that most entrepreneurs like to have on their business. You need to know and believe that your team will do a great job; trying to be part of the decision process while you are thousands of miles away will usually handicap them.

5. Stay connected

Between smart phones, broadband cellular networks, widely available wifi and laptops that are as powerful as some desktop computers, current technology makes it easy for travelers to stay connected. Still, I’d like to mention some tools and techniques that really make a startup entrepreneur’s life easier.

To receive incoming calls, buy an unlocked phone or have your current unit unlocked. Once this is done, you can buy a sim card from a local service provider and either forward your home cell number to this new number or you can simply hand out your new local phone number to people who might need to reach you (choose the latter if you can because crazy long distance charges will apply when you forward your home number to another country). If you are part of the 14% that do not own a gsm phone (i.e. phone does not have a sim card), or “unlocking” just sounds too complicated, just buy a cheap pay-as-you-go phone/talking minutes bundle.

As for the cheapest way to call home, VoIP technology is definitely your best bet. You can use such technology on your laptop (I like good old Skype), or from your wifi enabled mobile phone (I recently used Truphone for iPhone and it worked great, but Skype supports more mobile platforms). International rates are cheaper with VoIP, but most importantly, you will not have to pay ridiculous voice or data roaming fees if you make your phone calls over VoIP (as long as it is through wifi).

Finally, when scouring the Web for accommodations, prefer hotels that have wifi (in 2008 I consider that it should be part of every hotel’s basic amenities…more than a coffee machine in each room and an ice making machine on each floor), scout the closest Starbucks or coffee shop that offers wifi and get the communication lines open asap.

6. Keep things moving while you’re offline

When out of the office, one might be tempted to rely on webmail or phone email to take care of messaging duties. I recommend using a local email client such as Thunderbird or MS Outlook and keeping your webmail access for emergencies (e.g. your laptop blew up or you could not bring your laptop with you). The reason is that when you travel, there will be times when you won’t have access to an Internet connection but you’ll still want to draft emails, search old messages and conversations, etc…

There is no way around it, it is crucial for a startup entrepreneur to maintain a reasonable level of engagement with the business while away from the office – especially in the early days of the company. Planning the trip properly, having good work discipline and using the right tools will make it a lot easier and cheaper to stay in touch.