Kisha Mays is only 33 years old and she has already founded her own company—Just Fearless, a business-development consultancy to help women entrepreneurs who want to expand into international markets. Although the young entrepreneur is based in Hong Kong and Los Angeles, she spends around eight months of the year traveling around the world, from Malaysia to Singapore to Europe to India.
Just like other young entrepreneurs, such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg or Instagram’s Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Mays has a unique lifestyle. She travels the world meeting new people and doing what she likes, helping women to expand their business ideas. But running a successful business while traveling the world is not an easy task. Here are 5 reasons Kisha Mays manages to run a successful business while traveling.
1. She uses technology to streamline her workflow.
Managing a team of 17 people plus some freelancers, she needs to continuously be at the head of her team. To do so, some of her favorite tools are:
- Trello for project management. “It helps me keep track of everything and have conversations with my team.” XE
- Currency App for on-the-go currency conversion. ‘When you’re overseas and you need to understand rates and currencies, that’s a lifesaver right there.”
- Evernote to keep track of everything that needs doing. “I can jot down quick notes and record stuff, and it goes with me no matter where I go—it’s consistent.”
2. She keeps her overhead costs low.
This is key for anyone starting a new business and ironically, traveling can sometimes be cheaper than staying in your home town. A great example of this is the Co-founder and CEO of Moo.do, Jay Meistrich, who sold and gave away everything he owned to leave San Francisco and travel to 20 countries while working on his start up project. He explains how traveling is cheaper than being at home and how traveling makes him more productive.
3. She doesn’t stay in hotels.
Staying in hotels can be expensive and often limits your lifestyle since you have to eat out every day, for example. Instead, she rents temporary homes through Airbnb, which gives her a lot more flexibility and inspires her to work. “The most incredible places sometimes offer houses with great views,” she says.
This past year, she rented a place in Thailand for five months to get easier access to projects in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. “It was easy to be based there,” she says. “Much easier than having to go back and forth to the US.”
4. She is always ready to give her elevator pitch.
When you make travelling part of your working life, you never know when will you meet up new people who could offer you business opportunities. That’s when having your elevator pitch ready becomes extremely important. To perfect your elevator pitch, you need to cover in 30–60 seconds the following aspects: who are you, where do you work, how are you different from others, what do you do and why do they need to know this. Having you elevator pitch ready for unexpected situations helps you give a good first impression and keep more opportunities open.
5. She is not afraid of failure.
She has written the book From Failure to Fearless, where she explains “as clichéd as it is, it’s absolutely true: if I didn’t have the failures, I wouldn’t have the success.” And she gives her advice for people who want to strike out on their own. “The greatest thing you can do is bet on yourself and just do it,” she says. ‘The worst thing you can do is not do it, and keep the security of your job.”
If you have ever thought of running your own business while traveling to a lot of places, follow Kisha Mays advice and become part of the growing community of “digital nomads” who live a location-independent lifestyle.
Featured photo credit: Flickr – OFFICIAL LEWEB PHOTOS via flickr.com via flickr.com
