I love what I do. As a freelancer, I can work — and earn money — from anywhere. In fact, I recently moved across the country so my husband could start a new job. One of the great things about my location-independent career is that we didn’t have to try to look for a job for me in our new town. It’s much harder to find work for two than it is to find work for one.
My location-independent career has been great for me, but I couldn’t do it without technology. Whether I want to make a little extra money while I’m on vacation or I’m moving to a completely new town, I still need the right tools to make money from anywhere. If you want to make money no matter where you go, here are five tools that can help:
1. Third-Party Payment Processor
When you work from anywhere, it’s nice to be able to accept payment from anywhere. I’m pretty old school as far as online business people go; I use PayPal as my go-to third-party payment processor. I invoice through FreshBooks, which gives me a break on my PayPal fees — I only pay a low flat fee, rather than a percentage of the transaction.
2. Mobile Check Deposit
Even though I work online, and most of my clients use technology as part of their businesses, the reality is that some of them still pay by check. If you want to account for this difficulty, you need to have a mobile check deposit feature on your phone and a place for clients to send your checks. Check with your bank or credit union to see if it offers mobile check deposit, and then download the appropriate app. You might need to arrange for someone you trust to pick up your checks and send them to your current location, but at least with mobile banking you can deposit these payments — even if you aren’t near a branch.
3. Point-of-Sale Software
I don’t sell goods, but I know location-independent workers who do. Using a POS software program is helpful, since it allows them to accept various forms of payment no matter what city they’re in. A point-of-sale application, like Vend, makes sense for artisans and musicians who collect payment while on the road. I have a friend who sells photography prints, and she does it from anywhere, setting up at fairs and marketplaces around the world and using POS software to complete transactions.
4. Mobile Internet
One of the staples of the location-independent career is the coffee shop with free Wi-Fi. If you want to be truly independent though, you need to bring your own Internet with you. There have been times when I would have liked to access the Internet on my laptop for work, but was unable to because of a lack of a hotspot nearby.
Most cellphone service providers provide a way for you to turn your smartphone into a hotspot. I use T-Mobile’s hotspot, but other providers offer other options. There are also data plans you can add to your tablet if you use one for your work. There are even kits you can buy from various retailers that involve small devices or flash drives that help you connect to the Internet. FreedomPop offers a mobile hotspot device, and you can also buy prepaid mobile Internet from retailers like Wal-Mart.
5. Reliable Web Hosting
Don’t forget to make sure you have reliable Web hosting. You need a web hosting service you can rely on to keep your website up and running. Look for a host that is scalable and can handle the traffic to your site. It might cost a little more, but you will have peace of mind knowing that someone else can handle most of your problems, even during times when you might be hard to reach.
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5 Tools That Allow You to Make Money From Anywhere originally appeared on usnews.com
