3 Technologies That Make Working From Anywhere Easy

3 Technologies That Make Working From Anywhere Easy

I have been exploring to see how easy it would be to move my business anywhere. As a solo-entrepreneur, my goal is to eventually have a location-independent business.

Last week was my first experiment in working outside of the U.S. as an independent business. My wife and I just returned from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and I discovered that by using three different technologies I could be location-independent.

Let me tell you about the technologies that made it so easy.

Skype

My wife and I arrived in San Miguel on Wednesday afternoon, March 1st. We had arranged to rent a one-bedroom unit through AirBnB.  After we arrived I quickly connected to the Wifi because I was scheduled to be interviewed on the Criminal Justice Evolution podcast that evening.  The Wifi connection was not great – but good enough.

My wife and I went out to eat and returned home around 7:30 PM. I got out my Apple MacBook Pro, attached my Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB microphone and I was ready to go. Patrick Fitzgibbons interviewed me for about 45-minutes and it proved to me that I could have been anywhere. Listen to the interview here and let me know what you think.

Most podcasters use Skype for their interviews. It is free, mostly reliable, and the audio easily recorded. I use Piezo from RougeAmoeba to record my podcast.

When we explore Ecuador in May, I will get a U.S. phone number for my Skype account, and forward my Google voice telephone number (you will find that number at the top of this page) to my Skype account. That way I can use my Mac, iPhone, iPad or any other platform that has the Skype app.

This was easy!

DropBox/Google Drive

I use DropBox and Google Drive to share files with my podcast vendor, PodFly Productions, my virtual assistant, my co-author, and anyone else I work with.

While in San Miguel, I was able to edit a podcast recording, record the intro and outro, and share those files with my folks at PodFly. All I needed to do was copy them to a directory on my Mac, and automatically those files were replicated to the audio editor, and the show notes writer could access them.

PodFly uses Google Drive for show notes. On Monday, I opened a Google Doc file and copied the show notes to my website. I have no idea where in the world the show notes editor or the person who proofreads the show notes works or lives.

I could have been anywhere. It is so easy.

Google Translate

I used Google Translate for the very first time on this trip. WOW!!!

I have been all over the world and I have a collection of foreign language dictionaries. 

Google translate will translate a text you type into the app.

You can see some of the words I typed in like:

• exit
• small coffee (Yes, I went to a Starbucks)
• wow
• Onion soup

Now if I wanted to translate the word “good”, I would see the translation of Bueno.

The cool thing is if I click on the little speaker next to SPANISH, Google translate will pronounce the word or phrase.

The next cool feature is if you tap the microphone and speak into the phone, Google Translate will give you a decent translation.

Tuesday at lunch our waitress was trying to explain to us, in Spanish, about the dish my wife had ordered, a type of taco. She spoke no English and we were at a loss on what she was saying. I had her speak into Google Translate app and we learned that the tacos were wrapped in lettuce rather than tortillas. Boy! Was that easy!

 

 

The last feature is using the camera. I found the following sign in the airport.

I then displayed the same sign in Google Translate looking through the camera lens.

The translation is not perfect but it sure helps!

I used this on restaurant menus, traffic signs, package labels, etc., …. all with similar results.

Conclusion

Technology is making working from anywhere easy. All I need is a good Internet connection and I am good. Will this technology affect your job or career?

Probably!

Our next adventure will be going to Cuenca Ecuador in May.

Marc Miller  

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