Work On The Road

Whether going on a long trip or being an RV full-timer it’s important to know how to make work while on the road. There are many part time jobs, freelance jobs and even dream job opportunities out there if you are willing to use your imagination and maybe go out of your comfort zone a little bit.

There are 2 essential ways to find work while on the road:

1. Remote Work: Own your own business or work for a company.

If you already have a job, talk to your boss about possible remote work options. My husband is going to try to do this with his job, however since no one in his office has done this before we are both assuming that he will just have to leave his job.

It’s easy to keep in touch these days with your office. Many campsites now have free internet access that you can use when you stay there. If they don’t, you can always go into town and use an internet café. Although if you need to be in contact with your office everyday, it’s wise to have a backup plan. My husband and I will have a backup plan in place before we go, so I will get to this later. As of now we both have the new apple iPhone with 4G internet and email access so we can always use that.

2. Be a Freelancer.

Here are a few creative options for finding work on the road:

• Freelance graphic design & web design. If you have basic design skills you can offer your services and pick up odd jobs. 
• Freelance photography, stock photography. Post your photos on iStock. Remember that it takes time to make money on stock photos.
• Write for a travel magazine or be a copywriter.
• Review books. 
• Start a travel blog or a blog about your hobbies/interests. Make sure you write about something you actually like.
• Seasonal work at malls, waiter/waitress/bartender jobs, etc.  
• Teaching as a second language. With this job you have to stay in one place for a while. Two friends of mine were able to live in Spain for an entire year teaching English, so it can be a really great opportunity. 
• Create and sell artwork (drawings, painting, etc.).
• Help out at a campsite. Ask what they need done and offer a hand in exchange for a free stay. They can use help with anything like landscaping, tour guides and general office stuff. Some call this workamping. www.workamper.com is a great resource for finding work while on the road.
• Be a professional speaker. You may not think you can do this, but if you know a lot about a subject, then you can find something on it to talk about. It may not be directly related to your actual job, just find something to say and say it. 
• Stand-up comic, model, extra in movies or commercials.
• Create and sell your own products online.

Many people and businesses looking for a freelancer to help them out will post their needs here: www.freelancer.com. It’s a great place to look for work, especially for graphic designers, web designers and photographers.

It’s great if you can try to figure out a few ways to create passive income now to pay for your travel. When you are done traveling you will have a passive income already set up. Or you may decide to just continue to travel.

So how do I plan to find work on the road? My plan begins with writing a travel blog (this blog) and selling ad space. I also hope to book some portrait photography jobs and I will be looking for speaking jobs in the towns I will be visiting. To do this I will mainly be looking to speak to mom’s groups about subjects that I know a lot about, like how to RV/Camp with a baby. I know I don’t know a lot about this now, but I will by the time we get on the road. I can also speak on photography. One last thing I hope to do is be a workamper. I will be looking for campsites that are willing to trade photography for free stay. My goal is to use my skills to find work while out on the road.

While I do this, my husband will be working on starting his own business. He has wanted to do this for a while, but has not had the time. Part of the reason for our trip will be for him to have time to work on developing his own company. We will also be starting another company where we sell an item online. We are hoping that all these options will help fund our trip.

We do have money saved up just in case. My husband and I are trying to be realistic about what we can do. We can’t really get part time or seasonal jobs since we will not be in one place for a long time, but we do expect to be able to develop our companies, speaking skills, etc. to pay off after our trip. Our main goal is to create passive income so we can continue to travel in the future without running out of money.