Many people turn to small business ideas to fund trips and it is well worthwhile, particularly if you’re planning on being away for a significant period of time.
Starting up is generally easy enough, with the likes of credit cards ideal to put low-cost fees on. In fact, in many cases you can aid your travelling with the rewards earned by paying with credit. If you find what credit card gives the best rewards, you can then often put your air miles towards your next venture. But what are the best businesses to set up that really can take you anywhere?
Travel Blogger
Travel blogging is the most common method and can be really fruitful, not just in earning money from sponsored posts, but also through gifting.
You can update your wardrobe by receiving products, while many companies will also offer you experiences, including flights and accommodation.
It’s not easy to get that stage, you have to build your blog and your brand considerably, but once you reach that stage you can live a very comfortable life off your blog.
If it’s a route you’d wish to take, it’s a good idea to buy a domain that already has good metrics, and build your site before starting to travel.
This way you can build some content, set a tone for your blog and earn a following before you’ve even set sail.
Travel Photographer
Similarly you can look at selling your experiences via the medium of photography.
If you’ve experience in photography and have a high-quality camera then you can build a portfolio of major landmarks, cities and picture-perfect shots and sell them online.
This could be done via your own site and gallery or by making the most of stock imagery.
There are a number of sites you can sell stock photos on and in many cases it may lead to getting commissions from major travel brands, boosting your earnings further.
Naturally, you can also post your images via Instagram and build up a following that also won’t go unnoticed by brands, potentially leading to further work.
Teaching Foreign Languages
Teaching English (or whatever may be you may be fluent in) as a foreign language has long been a popular way to earn money while travelling and still is to this day.
Many countries want their citizens to be multilingual, so offering your expertise, whether it be to children or adults, can earn you some good money.
It does mean you’ll likely have to stay in places for significantly longer, while you teach out a term or even year, but if that’s the plan anyway it could be the perfect opportunity.
Going Freelance
In many cases you may simply be able to transfer your skills into freelance work. For example, if you worked as a graphic designer there’s really no reason you can’t do that on the road.
As long as you have the equipment to do so, you can pick up a worldwide client base and communicate with them via email and Skype.
This applies to a huge amount of careers, from writing to accounting, consultancy in its many forms and much, much more.
All you really need is a laptop, a phone and the desire to continue your work elsewhere.
This option can be a really intelligent one as, if you intend to go back into that line of work once you return, it’ll keep you in the game, generate a large portfolio of work and clients, and may even be the trigger to set up your very own business or agency.
Translator
If you’re multilingual, you may find a number of opportunities to work as a translator. This can be in all manner of scenarios from working with the police to simply translating books, documents and websites. There are many reasons as to why a translator would be needed and you can generally earn a good amount of money in a short period of time.