But Chris Guillebeau, and the other empire-builders he interviewed for the Empire Building Kit, have done just that. Chris defines an empire as follows:

In this case I define an empire as a sustainable lifestyle business — a one-man or one-woman shop that earns at least $50,000 a year, usually oriented around something the owner/emperor is interested in. I talked to dog walkers, murder mystery party hosts, photographers, and all kinds of fun people to understand more about how they had built their business, and tried to deconstruct that process into its most essential lessons. The key is partly what it’s not: I don’t focus on big businesses or boring businesses. I’m interested in looking at the concept of “following your passion” in a way that actually works.

The Empire Building Kit offers case studies on all sorts of businesses (from offering coaching services to walking dogs) and interviews with all sorts of business owners. Through all that information, the kit guides you to the threads that will help you build a business of your own. Several of the interviews are with people who spend most of their time on the road — Chris even includes insights into his own Unconventional Guides business, which supports his traveling (Chris has visited 125 countries and plans to visit the other 67 before mid-2013).

An MBA in a Box

As I read, watched and listened to all the materials in the kit, I was struck by the fact that it’s essentially a short-form MBA — or it would be if an MBA really taught students how to start and operate a business. Even better, Chris has put it together in such a way that it will work for different learning styles. When asked why he chose to offer such a variety of formats, Chris said,

For a couple of reasons: one, because all of us learn differently. Some people love online video and some hate it. Some of us learn primarily by reading, and so on. I wanted to give people the choice and make it as accessible as possible. Then I threw in the 365-day email series — I’ve since heard from the folks at Aweber that it’s the longest follow-up series in history — to ensure retention and continual progress. Lastly, the project is called Empire Building Kit, so I knew it had to be big. An Empire Building Kit can’t just be an ebook, right?

This is the guide that I wish I had been able to read when I first started out to build my own business. I found details in every case study and interview that I can still use as I grow my business. I think Chris feels the same way:

The thing I enjoyed the most about creating it was talking to all of the case studies. They were quite diverse, but shared similar values in terms of recovering from mistakes, shifting tactics but rarely shifting strategy, and just simple persistence. I didn’t know a lot of people like them when I was getting started, and I’m sure I would have been much better off with their expertise.

I Recommend the Empire Building Kit

If you are looking for a way to get a business off the ground and get yourself on the road, this kit can get you there. You can purchase the kit at EmpireBuildingKit.com — but it’s only available today, for 24 hours. Tomorrow, Chris is leaving for Africa so that he’ll stay on track for that 2013 deadline.

In Project M-31: Simplify Your Life in 31 Days, Damron builds up to some major changes with small steps. The first day is just about cleaning off your desk — he walks you through, step by step, not only getting stuff off your desk but making sure that it won’t be back in a process that only takes about a few minutes. It took me about fifteen minutes, although, in my own defense, I have a desk and it was impressively cluttered.

This ebook isn’t all sunshine and puppy dogs, though. It’s dedicated to (among other things) getting rid of the physical stuff that clutters up our homes and lives. That stuff is not easy to get rid of — for each item you can easily throw away, there will be one that you struggle with, trying to convince yourself that there’s some small chance you’ll need it down the road. It can take some personal struggles to carry through each of Damron’s tasks.

Despite being a short ebook (66 pages), I do not suggest that you sit down and read Project M-31: Simplify Your Life in 31 Days straight through. It’s most effective if you actually spend time on the task and projects suggested for each day, and if you try to go straight through, you’ll wear yourself out. Take the time to work your way through at a comfortable speed, assuming you’re serious about making your life easier. And while Project M-31: Simplify Your Life in 31 Days isn’t particularly expensive as far as changing your entire life goes, if you’re going to spend $9.95 on ebook, it’s worth taking it seriously.

Damron is definitely someone you want to listen to when it comes to minimalism, especially if you’re simplifying your life with an eye towards heading out on the road. Damron travels around the world with less than 100 things and, even when he’s settled, he keeps his possessions around 100 things. You can read more about Damron on his sites, The Minimalist Path and LifeExcursion.

1. Paperwork-Fu: You’re traveling light, which means that you don’t have a filing cabinet for all those pages of paper that can build up at the average office. The minute a piece of paper comes in the door, it must be processed. Depending on how you travel, the process can be different — a high quality camera can be useful if you want a record of all your receipts without carrying the associated papers around. It’s best if you use the same approach for digital paperwork as well. You never know when you’re going to be without an internet connection if you’re out on the road.
2. Rules Lawyering: The phenomenon is most common in tabletop RPGs, when one player knows every single rule in the book — and how to take advantage of them. While I don’t want you to be a pain in the butt during games, it’s a skill that will come in handy when you’re trying to figure out details like what your visa allows you to do in your destination and how to handle taxes from oversea.
3. Loquaciousness: Aside from the fact that I’ve always wanted to actually use the word ‘loquaciousness,’ you must be out-going and have the associated skill set. You have to be able to walk up to strangers, ask questions, make friends and talk about just about anything.
4. Short Attention Span: Time management is particularly tough when you’re on the road. Even if you have a schedule in mind, things come up just about every day. That means that you need to cultivate the skill of sitting down to work in short spurts. It can’t take you an hour to get into the groove of working — you need to be able to get into a work mindset immediately.
5. Technical Know-How: There are plenty of cities without Apple stores around the corner. No matter what equipment you rely on for your work, you need to be able to handle basic problems. It’s worthwhile reading up on some simple maintenance, too — assuming you want to minimize the problems with your computer.
6. Sign Language: Depending on where your destination lies, there is a decent chance you may wind up somewhere that you don’t know the lingo. Communicating in such situations can be difficult, but picking up on the local gestures can help you speed the process along. It doesn’t hurt to think ahead about how you can get your meaning across.
7. Salesmanship: No matter where your business is, you’re going to have to be able to sell yourself. Doing it through a computer can be much harder than handling sales in person, so getting in plenty practice before you pack your bags is critical.

Photo — StephenMitchell

But you don’t actually have to decide between them, especially not at first. Maybe you’ve got an arrangement with an employer — that doesn’t stop you from creating an ebook and selling it. Or maybe you’re focusing on building up a site that will bring in income, but you want to bring in some freelance income in the meanwhile. Especially if you’re planning to take an entrepreneurial route, it makes sense to have a more stable income which telecommuting and freelancing can both offer. It can take a significant amount of time to build up a business that brings in enough income to cover all your expenses and maybe offer the opportunity for some savings. It depends on the type of business you choose and how you plan to do it — but expecting to get a fully functioning business operational in under six months, while globe-trotting at the same time, can be pushing your luck.

That certainly doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it: if you can build your own business, you’ll better equipped for future travels, and you’ve got a lot more potential to increase your income in future years. But having a few freelance assignments or spending a couple of hours a week working for an employer can make it easier to get your business going, if only because you don’t have to worry about where you’re next meal is coming from. There are alternatives, like living off your savings — a decent savings account in the U.S. can stretch for months in a country with lower costs.

There are no limitations on how you bring in income. The only reason it can be beneficial to choose just one or two tactics is because you don’t want to chasing after half a dozen different projects at once. So find the balance that works best for you: how can your work best accommodate the rest of your life?

To enter, create a three-minute or less video of your digital and upload it to YouTube. You’ll need to get people to vote for your entry. The contest ends December 31, 2009. Check out the contest’s rules for more information.

I’m currently living just outside of Washington, D.C. and my Thanksgiving table had plenty of government employees seated at it. Most of them could top my itinerary without even trying. There were a couple of trips that didn’t surprise anyone — a few of our friends are currently in Afghanistan and Iraq. But others are seeing England, Germany, Mexico and plenty of other places.

Because of the way many government departments are structured, it is not unusual for a government employee to move around, often internationally, every couple of years. You can choose otherwise, but even agencies like the Food and Drug Administration have been known to send their employees to far off places. The State Department is one of the best bets if you want to travel on a regular basis, but with a little research, you may be able to find other departments that are a better fit with your interests but still offer travel opportunities.

There are drawbacks, of course: you still have to do plenty of work and you can be limited in where you can get to travel by which government agency you’ve signed up with. But there are also plenty of benefits. Getting a visa into your destination country is rarely an issue, you can get top-notch benefits and the government will even pay to pack and move your stuff if you’re headed off on a long-term assignment. If you aren’t ready to make the leap to a digital nomad lifestyle, a government job may be a useful compromise.

Photo — MattDell

That said, a blog can help you at least increase your income as you travel in several different ways.

Pure Blogging

Building up a travel blog requires plenty: good writing, interesting adventures and so on. If you’ve got a good following, you can put advertising on it, use it to sell affiliate products or otherwise make money. There are different levels to each of these monetization methods, but the money you make usually winds up depending on the number of readers you have. A few thousand readers can translate into a couple hundred dollars from various advertisers; more readers equal more money.

Selling Your Own Products

Having your own products can help you make more money through a blog. Just what that product looks like can vary wildly, depending on your readership, your style of writing, the phase of the moon and everything else. You have to discover what the readers of your particular brand of travel blogging are interested in.

Maybe they’d love to buy prints of the photographs you post. Maybe they want a guide to the area you’re visiting so that when they travel, they know where to go. Test out a couple of ideas and see what sticks.

Writing Elsewhere

This may be a bit of stretch, but if you’re writing a blog about traveling, I’m going to guess that you like writing about travel in general. Why not pitch a couple of the ideas you want to write about to travel publications? Print magazines can be a little difficult to break into, but a good blog provides you with the clips necessary to convince an editor that you can write. There are also a growing number of online publications that will pay for good travel content.

You may also be able to sell your photographs to the same set of publications: great photos can make it easier to win over an editor for a story idea, and they’ll usually bump the pay for an article if it comes with photos. Here are 10 travel writing markets to get you started.

There are also starting to be more than a few sites that are willing to hire writers to blog for them on a regular basis. Find a travel-related company or a publication in search of a regular travel blogger and you can earn a nice income.

Contests

While I’d never want to bet on a contest’s results to pay my rent, having a great travel blog does make it much easier to toss your name in the hat for certain competitions. We’ve talked about opportunities like the Van-Tastic contest in the past, but sites like Tripbase are now creating contests directed specifically towards travel bloggers.

One Last Thought: Cost of Living

Depending on where your travels take you, all of these options can translate to a life not too far off from royalty. In other places, however, working your tail off at all of these options can provide barely enough money to live. If you are in a country with a lower cost of living, it can be possible to live entirely off relatively little advertising income on your blog. It’s important to take the amount of money you’re actually going to need to earn before deciding just how you plan to earn a living.

Image — Annie Mole

There are an incredible number of ways to combine work and travel — but that makes choosing the right option that much harder. Not all of us do well telecommuting. Not all of us are interested in being entrepreneurs. It’s important to for each of us find our own fit when it comes to work.

Finding Structure

Most of us have a good idea of what kind of structure we need in order to get all of our work done every day. Personally, I do well relying on internal structure — deadlines and requirements that I create for myself. Adjusting to timelines that are imposed externally are harder for me to work with, which makes building my own business far more practical than finding a job, at least for me.

But one of my friends does much better when she works with some sort of external structure that gives her a basis for making plans, but still wanted to operate her own business. She does very well for herself as a virtual assistant, because her clients offer that external structure she prefers, while still giving her the opportunity to be create a business of her own.

Your own preferences for structure can guide you through the process of deciding how you want to work while you travel. It is worthwhile to look for an opportunity to do a trial run to check how you actually work while you’re traveling, to make sure that your expectations as far as how you work remain the same. Some people find having a job that remains the same while they change their location helps create a little more balance. Others find that they need even more flexibility than they expected once they are out on the road.

Be Open-Minded

Even if you’re pretty clear on what your career is going to look like in the next couple of years, it’s important to keep an open mind. Just because you take a telecommuting position today doesn’t guarantee that you won’t get an offer for an on-location job down the road. You may sell your business, find a new and more interesting venture, pick up extra freleancing projects or take a full-time job — there’s no way to tell what offers you’ll get in the long-term.

Travel Tips

Mick Hart presents A Guide To Hostels And Youth Hostels For International Travelers posted at Globe Cheap Travel.

Myscha Theriault presents Six Exercise Tips for Travelers posted at TrekHound.com.

Technology & Gadgets

Cathy Sperrazzo presents Top 10 Tools for a Digital Nomad posted at Nomadesk.

Location Independent Careers

Anastasia Ashman presents Publishing and the Digital World Citizen posted at Editor Unleashed.

Vagabonding Stories

Baker presents How To Wait Aggressively posted at Man Vs. Debt.

Photo — Vees

The situation is not exactly uncommon. There are certain countries where it’s simply more expensive to buy certain products. Of course, there are often rules about bringing those products back to your home country (or wherever you happen to be calling home at the moment). I have a feeling that my friend was supposed to declare her shiny new laptop when she went home, possibly paying some sort of tax on it. It’s not something most custom agents keep a close eye on, of course — how can one be sure that a traveler didn’t have a laptop when they left the country?

Personally, I’ve found that for most of my tech equipment, it’s generally easiest to buy it in the U.S. Between the price differences, sales at certain retailers and the fact that certain items may not be available in all countries. It definitely depends on exactly what you need and if there’s a brand you prefer, but I’ve even found that there are some items that it’s more practical to have a friend order in the States and then ship abroad.

There are some reasons to buy locally, however — the ability to plug your laptop directly into the wall without an adapter can be an important one. Being able to easily work with locally available products can also make life a little easier.

That leads me to two questions: where do you buy your technology, and why?

Photo — Daxtoor