A few weeks ago my 100yro gran asked me: “What do your employer’s think about you living in a van?” You often see me sharing photos of my van, and stories of my outdoor adventures, but you don’t often see much about what it is like to run a business from my van… until now.
I help technology companies companies understand how to get more customers.
Usually when I tell people this, they’re surprised – somehow I’m stereotyped more as a traveling astrologer rather than pragmatic sales consultant for geeks. ·’’ But the adVANtages in terms of travel are significant. Need to visit a faraway client? No problem. Got a morning meeting somewhere? No worries.
When all you need is decent 4G, there’s nothing stopping you taking that conference call with Welsh (or French) mountains as a backdrop.
But let’s #realtalk. It’s not all rosy.
You wear your van as a badge, and it’s always there. I can never arrive at a client’s carpark with a low profile. Harmless inquisitiveness can make me intensely nervous about being judged on the (usually messy!) state of my personal space.
And those are mainly just downsides in my head!
Sunny summers are quite painful. They can produce nice photos like these ones from France, but make working in the van hot hot and even working by the van can be hard. The trick is to find shade for you and/or the van.
Big city parking is a bit of a nightmare due to height and length restrictions, so visiting inner city events can be less fun.
And there are common questions that seem like big deals, but aren’t. I have a working setup in my van that I like. 60GB data per month is enough for work. I have a postal address. I even have a geographical landline number noone ever calls. My van leisure batteries charge my laptop and power my router. My backups are in the cloud.
Honestly the hardest bits of running a business from the van is the business part.
If I could have an 8th day in the week, twice as much money or the moon on a stick, that would be just fine.
And to answer my grans question? What do my clients think?
I’ve not asked them, but my sense is that what my clients care about most is the impact I can have on their business.
Originally posted on this post on Instagram
