Setting up to work in your business from abroad

The dream of many people is to disappear to somewhere warm in the winter months, but for most, that is only a dream. The reality is that work beckons and, unless you're a person of independent means, that salary cheque needs to keep on coming into your bank account.

However, if you are a business owner, you may be able to hand over day to day control of the company to your team while you work at a distance. So what would you need in order to do this and how could you make it successful?

The answer is, technology. Using good communications and a fast network connection, you can appear to be simply in the next office. As you'll guess, this is something that Gabrielle and I have now successfully done - thanks mainly to a very strong team back at base and our Apple-based kit.

Let's look at some of the options. First of all, you don't have to use Apple, but it helps ... their integration of hardware, operating system and software apps makes much of the work seamless. You will need, at minimum, the following:

• A fast Internet connection at the place you are setting up camp - preferably one that's fast enough to stream video for your entertainment, for example
• An Internet phone - usually called a VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol system - these phones can be bought as stand-alones. We use ones from Birchill Telecoms and they form our entire "switchboard". 
• The beauty of VoIP is that the phone number belongs to the phone itself - not to a line. So, if you pick the phone up and take it with you to China, it will work on the same number as if you were in your office. This benefit works to the extent that people in the office only have to dial your extension - say 102 - and they are connected to you wherever you are in the world. 
• These phones work like this - very simple - you connect the phone to power in the usual way and then plug in an Ethernet cable to the phone and to the back of your Internet router. It's really that simple.
• Bear in mind that if your Internet connection is flaky, then so too will be your conversations
• A suitable video chat app such as FaceTime. There are so many of these now, that you may already have one - Skype, MSN Messenger and so on. This enables you to have face to face conversations with members of your team or, better still, to appear in meetings on a TV in your meeting room and participate almost as if you are there!
• Instant messaging - something like Messages, on the Mac or MSN Messenger. Now, we use a fairly sophisticated system that tracks all messages and allows you to search for mentions, even in documents that you have shared through the system. It's called Slack and we find it invaluable
• Access to your usual systems - if these are web-based then you'll have no problems, but if they are office based, you'll need to be able to get access to those through a virtual Private Network (VPN) access. Your IT people will be able to set this up for you
• Backup - the worst thing that could happen while you are away from the office is that your usual backup protocols are forgotten - and then your computer dies. Therefore, ensure you take some sort of full backup media with you.

With all of these elements present, plus probably a few more that are specific to your company's needs, you can live the dream and work from abroad.