Colin Wright, Andi Norris and Ashley Ambirge are Way Below the Status Quo

Entrepreneurs are now more able to do work from the road with today’s technologies than in any other time in history. The internet and mobile devices allow people to submit their work and run businesses from pretty much anywhere. While some people live on the road full time, it also makes for some fun extended road trips.

Way Below Status Quo is a free online networking site organized by city, to help people get together and collaborate or get help with projects. To kick it off, a road trip is taking place now through mid-August, with the founders criss-crossing the United States. Actually, they are making more of a giant “W” across the country from the East coast to Seattle, stopping major cities along the way.

I was able to meet up with them for a short time last night while they were passing through. The famous WordPress Developer and Web Designer Andrew Norcross was also there to meet up with the group. I suppose we collaborated a bit, but it was mostly just fun times meeting for the first time in the real world instead of “knowing” each other online. And trying not to get thrown out of a local coffee shop and restaurant.

If they are going to be anywhere near your town, and you want to meet some people who are out living life, creating businesses, and helping others do the same, you really should make it a point to go hang out with them. They arrived in New Orleans this morning (July 15, 2010) for a meetup with Carl Nelson and some other people there. The rest of their itinerary can be found on the Way Below Status Quo website.

These founders and Nomadic Entrepreneurs can be found at WBSQ, as well as their own websites.

Ashley Ambirge

Ash inspires people with her thought-provoking writing over at The Middle Finger Project. Originally from Philadelphia, she spends most of her time traveling and is looking for a good place to live. See if you can convince her that your city is where she should live when the road trip is over or until she goes back to Costa Rica.

Andi Norris

Andi is taking the really, really long way home back to Seattle, and may be to blame for this road trip. Whether she is there or on the road, she runs the design firm Dezabulous, and blogs about life and causes trouble at Instigationology.

Colin Wright

It’s tough to describe Colin. Owner of no more than 50 things, Author of several books, not Canadian, and moves every 4 months. He doesn’t just move, he lets his readers at Exile Lifestyle pick the next city he’ll go to, and throws himself into the culture there. He went from Los Angeles to Argentina, just returned from New Zealand, and will be going to Thailand next. All while running his design firm at Colinismyname.com, as well as the newly-launched Ebookling.

Way Below Status Quo: Nomadic Entrepreneurs Road Trip is a post from: Live Collar Free

photo credit: DDFic

My journey to Location Independence began out of frustration. Frustration with how wasteful the business world ran, and how poorly most old-school businesses leveraged technology. There may have been a girl involved too. I’ll get to that later.

Several jobs and self-employed businesses made up my work history. They always followed the Standard American Dream 9 to 5 model. Jobs brought with them the same mundane things: the commute, the office space, the far-away promise of retirement someday, the Mondays. My forays into self-employment were not much different, because I was using those models.

At the time of my change, I was a well-paid salesperson at a manufacturer in a field that I loved. What could be wrong? Like most traditional jobs, I had to be there in an office when they wanted me there, and they wanted me there a lot. This left me little time to travel or enjoy life outside of work other than the occasional weekend. I could not find a way to look forward to another 50 years of this life. I knew there was a better way.

Leaving the Office

That corporate sales position got traded for another company as a self-employed contract salesman. I didn’t need to come into the office, but would have to visit various customers all over the state, and pick up new customers along the way. It was in the same field I loved, and a step in the right direction toward my freedom, but still very wasteful in many ways.

If you’ve ever sat in traffic in Los Angeles during rush hour, you know what I mean. If you’ve ever had to drive back and forth all over Los Angeles, you know that rush hour last all day. That’s what I did. This wasn’t an ideal solution.

The face time at customer’s shops was just how things had “always been done” in the industry. I weaned the existing customers off these regular monthly visits. Orders were not affected at all, and I had a lot more free time to spend on things apart from driving.

I would still regularly check on them, but now I only made a quick call or email reminder instead of hoping they’d be there when I made the trek out to their shop. They liked it better too. I was able to spend that extra time getting new customers and increasing sales, with only occasional visits to shops.

(A similar strategy is in Tim Ferriss’ best-selling book The Four-Hour Workweek. I had just never heard of the book at the time, and was only making this up as I went.)

Making Travel Possible

Now that I arranged my work so that I didn’t need to be anywhere in particular, I was able to travel more. I had taken regular vacations to Florida from my home in California. By this point, my intent was to make a permanent move.

Remember the girl I mentioned earlier? Yeah, it’s a long story, but she lived on a different coast when we accidentally met. Remember, life is not all about work, so these things are important.

I was now able to be in Florida for ten days at a time every month. While there, I was able to pick up new business in the state, all while still serving my west coast clients. It was no longer technically vacation, as I was always available by phone or email, but it was now just the life I was making happen.

There were still some obvious inefficiencies with my system, but it was infinitely better than having to be on a particular spot on a map for 75% of my waking hours. Using the internet and email, with only a laptop and a cell phone, I could go virtually anywhere and still make a living doing almost exactly the same job.

The Next Level

After making this up as I went for a year or two, I finally got really smart* and looked around online. It turns out that there are thousands of people using the technology available to us in the 21st century, who are doing a far better job of being Location Independent. I was on the right track, but there are better ways of becoming Location Independent than the stumbling path I took. When I finally found my way here, I learned a tremendous amount, and have made quite a few changes to the way I do things.

really smart* – This is sarcasm for “What I should have done in the first place before stumbling around on my own like a buffoon.”

I started this journey by looking for a way to spend more time living my life, traveling, and enjoying the world instead of sitting at a desk all day. I did make the move to Florida several years ago. We are now working on deciding where to go for longer than extended vacations.

Whether we travel overseas indefinitely or start with exploring North America by RV, we now know that we don’t have to wait for that someday when we retire to live our lives.

How I Freed Myself from the Office to Become Location Independent is a post from: Live Collar Free

Have you ever wanted to travel the world? Why haven’t you? What has stopped you? Some people do it seemingly with little more than a backpack and a smile. Others live the jet-set life in luxurious places most only know from Bond films. Everyone who wants to travel but hasn’t done so has one of 7 major obstacles or objections. There may be variations on the theme, but it’s always one of the 7 majors.

Anil Polat has been traveling the world since 2006. Where many people wish and hope to “someday” travel, he has actually been out doing it. Like most long-term travelers, he regularly comes into contact with people who tell him they wish they could do what he does, and quickly give him a list of reasons why they can’t do it.

He has gathered the 7 major obstacles he regularly hears on the road and from polling his readers. He intended to just write up a few quick tips on how to overcome these popular travel objections, but the series ended up taking on a life of it’s own. Valuable input came from readers who wanted to share their experiences or attempts to overcome these travel objections, as well as advice from several other world travelers who had already overcome them.

Anil gathered this information together for his ebook, Overcoming the 7 Major Obstacles to Traveling the World. The book breaks down each objection to get to the heart of the real issue, and shows how simply anyone can overcome these perceived barriers. Included are numerous useful links to help you realize your travel goals and helpful information and advice from world travel veterans John Bardos, Marina Villatoro, Dan’s Adventure, The Q Family Adventures, Deb and Dave, Akila & Patrick of The Road Forks, and Cody McKibben of Thrilling Heroics.

Purchase of this ebook for $8.00 also includes updates and expanded information as it becomes available. Two lattes worth of money for a book that can help you get out and see the world is a fair trade to me.

If you have fantasies of long-term travel, you can turn them into realities with Overcoming the 7 Major Obstacles to Traveling the World. What’s stopping you from following your travel dreams?

Overcoming the 7 Obstacles to Traveling the World is a post from: Live Collar Free

Leaning back in the lounge chair writing, I found myself unconsciously humming along to the song playing somewhere in the atrium below. It may have been coming from one of the restaurants surrounding the fake walls of the reconstructed fort of St. Augustine below the balcony where I worked. The music in the huge air-conditioned space enclosing the back of the hotel was partially drowned by the sound of the several waterfalls, but I was pretty sure it was coming from near the sailboat.

Wait, working?

Being location independent for me means that I have structured my work to make my geographical location essentially irrelevant. I can write from anywhere. Most of the planet has internet access for email and online chores. Cell service is relatively cheap for the few times I need to talk to clients. My “office” resides in a backpack and has everything I need.

When my partner was sent on a 3-day business trip for some training at a nice hotel across the state, this freedom to work from anywhere showed one of its better qualities. It allowed me to join her on this pseudo-vacation.

With a regular job, I would not likely have been able to take the time off to join her through the middle of the week. I still had work that needed doing, but at least I could have my choice of two pools to enjoy on my breaks.

Her company was footing the bill for mileage, her meals and the cheapest room in the very nice hotel where the training took place. I had to pay for my own meals (like I always do), but otherwise work for me went uninterrupted.

The hotel had internet access to allow me to deal with emails, a nice balcony in our sixth floor room and other nice areas to relax while I wrote. Everything I normally have when I work was still with me, I was just in a nicer location for a few days.

They even upgraded our room for free simply because we asked. We travel as often as we can and have learned it doesn’t hurt to ask. They either say yes or no, so it’s either the same or better than not asking.

More work got done in those 3 days while I enjoyed the restfulness of the surroundings. The evenings allowed us time to enjoy the nightlife at the resort, and catch up with friends in the area.

It works best for me to change up the scenery every few days or so, even if that means simply working in another room. Staring at the same wall each day is not good for me, so sometimes the situation takes me to even nicer places than I usually frequent, and the ability to flow smoothly with these change of plans is priceless when we can work anywhere.

Unplanned Working Vacations when Location Independent is a post from: Live Collar Free