Online tutoring is a great option to work even when you are traveling. A great way to preserve your income stream even as you travel the world. You just need to setup a few things before you leave home and you are all set. Travel the world without ever missing out on your scheduled classes or your paychecks.
Ensure you have a reliable Internet
To stay connected, wherever you might be, requires Internet connectivity. More so when you are thinking of teaching online as you would require continuous connectivity during your sessions with students. Your primary connection needs to be a stable one and you would also need backup connectivity for times when your primary connection fails. A USB compatible internet card is what you should carry, but do bear in mind that connectivity at some places might be erratic. Ensure that before you travel, you have researched your locations, especially whether your service provider can provide connectivity at that location. If not, are there public places where you could access Wi-Fi connectivity or if there are business lounges that provide connectivity. Food joints like McDonald's or other public places provide free Wi-Fi access and are spread worldwide. Beware that public Wi-Fi hotspots are inherently insecure and therefore if you are planning any banking or financial transactions, it would be advisable not to login from a public hotspot.
Carry backup equipment
You cannot afford to miss a class schedule. There may be times when your laptop stops functioning or your laptop runs out of power. It wouldn't hurt to remember Murphy's law that says, "If anything can go wrong, it will." Along with your primary laptop, always carry a spare one. It wouldn't matter if the spare one is a low specification one as you would at least be able to connect and deliver your tuitions. In addition, always carry a power backup and ensure that the same is always charged. It would also be good to have all your notes with an online storage provider like Dropbox so that even if your laptop crashes, you have your notes available as backup online and you can access them anywhere with just an Internet connectivity. Make a note of local business services that provide computer repair services, so that you could have your laptop up and running.
Subscribe to a mail forwarding service
These days with virtual offices becoming the norm, there are multiple service providers who have started providing mail forwarding services. What this implies is that if you have a postal address that is either your home or an office location in the city where you are generally located, these providers will get your mail to wherever you are during your travels. Make sure that if you need their services, you have signed up before you leave and that they know of your itinerary so that they can forward mail to the right address. Of course, if the scale is small, you could request one of your family members or a friend to help you out with forwarding that occasional mail.
Inform your bank and accept direct deposits
If you are traveling, especially overseas, then one thing that we are all wary of is falling prey to card frauds and funds being swindled off from your account. It is always prudent to let your bank know that you are traveling. Since the bank would be aware that you are traveling, a sudden transaction from an unfamiliar location would not lead the bank to falsely believe that it was a fraudulent transaction. When a bank suspects fraud, they usually put a freeze on all transactions and that might lead to unnecessary hassles for you. Also, make sure that all payments that you received are direct deposits. If you are receiving payment through checks, inform your clients to pay through direct deposit. When you are traveling, it would not be possible to deposit them at your branch, and you might thus be facing cash flow problems.
Schedule convenient hours for tutoring
You are traveling and not your students. So, you would have to schedule classes at a time that are convenient for your students. If you are traveling to Asia, you cannot ask your student back in the U.S. to keep unsocial hours just to suit your times in the zone that you are in. What this implies is that you would need to make some adjustments and choose working hours that suit your students.
A bit of planning and you can make your travel a breeze and relaxing one while not compromising on your plans to travel the world.
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