© 2016 Savannah Wishart
It can take a lot of different systems, services, and tools to successfully work from anywhere, but the technology available today makes it totally doable and relatively stress-free. (Things have come a long way since I first started out in 2005!)
Here’s as close as I can get to a comprehensive list of all the tools I use to run my businesses no matter where I go.
(Note: Links with an * are affiliate links, which means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission or other credit/benefit—and you may also get free credits or access to special deals. There is no extra cost to you, and every little bit helps support Nomadtopia. Tools in italics are ones I’ve used in the past or very occasionally and still recommend but don’t use much right now.)
Task Management: Asana
Password Management: LastPass*
Paper Mail Back Home: My parents (thanks, Mom and Dad!)
P.O. Box and Virtual Address: Traveling Mailbox*
Invoicing and Bookkeeping: Xero
Payment Processing: PayPal, Stripe
Patron Payments: Simple Pay Pro, Podbean
International Transfers: Xoom*, TransferWise*
Budgeting: You Need a Budget*
Tax Advice and Preparation: Gracefully Expat
Banking: Capital One Spark Business Checking and Savings, Chase credit cards
Email Marketing: ConvertKit*, Mailchimp
Signing PDFs and Sending Client Contracts: DocHub, HelloSign*
Sharing Documents: Google Drive, Dropbox*
File Back-ups: SpiderOak, Dropbox*, Backblaze*, Time Machine (Mac only)
Note-Taking, Collecting Information, etc.: Evernote (get a free month of premium*), Airtable*
Scanning: CamScanner*
Editing and Writing: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel
Mind-Mapping: Mindmeister*
VPN: Private Internet Access*
Website Hosting: FastComet*
Domain Registration: NameSilo*
WordPress Themes: Avada, Divi*
Site Backups: BackupBuddy
Membership Sites, Courses: Mighty Networks, S2Member, LearnDash, BuddyPress, bbPress
Selling Online Courses: Gumroad, WooCommerce
Webinars/Video Calls: Zoom*, Crowdcast
Hosting Video/Audio Files: YouTube, Vimeo* (get up to 25% off with that link!), Amazon S3, Dropbox*
Screencasts: Screenflow (Mac only), Loom*
Communication: Skype, Google Voice, What’s App, Zoom*, Free Conference Calling
CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Streak*
U.S. Cell Phone Plan: AT&T Prepaid
Hotspot & Data Usage Monitoring: TripMode, My Data Manager
Productivity: Alfred (Mac keyboard shortcuts, search, etc.), f.lux and Twilight (reduce blue light on screens as night falls), RescueTime (track app usage), Zapier* and IFTTT (for automation and integrations), Toby (to wrangle Chrome tabs)
Time Tracking: OfficeTime
Scheduling Appointments: Google Calendar, Acuity Scheduling*, World Time Buddy to sort out time differences, Doodle for scheduling with multiple people
Scheduling/Posting to Social Media: SmarterQueue*, Buffer, Gramblr
Surveys/Forms: Typeform, Wufoo, Google Forms, JotForm
Email Management: Gmail, Boomerang*
Podcasting: Audacity, GarageBand, Libsyn, Skype, Ecamm Call Recorder*, Zoom*
Business Cards: Moo (get 10% off your first order*)
Track Missing Devices: Prey
Checking Wi-Fi Speeds: Speedtest.net
Finding Places to Work: Workfrom, Yelp, LiquidSpace
Check out the Resources page for some of the travel-related tools we use, as well as the tools I’ve created to help you live your own Nomadtopia. Learn about all the gadgets and other items I travel with by checking out the Nomadtopia Packing List.
What are your must-have tools for working from anywhere? Share your recommendations in the comments!
HI Amy! Many thanks for the list. I’m using many of these myself. But there are some services on here I haven’t heard of, and it could be useful (like NameSilo and MindMeister)!
I have a couple thoughts to contribute…
For payments, I’m currently using PayPal and Braintree (which was purchased by PayPal, but has zero fees for the first 50k in processing, which I’m enjoying!).
For backups, Crashplan has been useful to me, you could backup to your parents, for instance (for free), and I’m also using some customized syncing with GoodSync.
I’m pretty satisfied with Acuity Scheduling for online scheduling of my clients, and the price is quite low and no outages or strange things happening (like with Full Slate who I used to use).
On the hosting front, I too was on A Small Orange.
I was actually with them for years, but after they got bought out their service was slipping, their support became less helpful and friendly, and I was having outages. The final straw was when the servers started getting oversold/overloaded and I asked to be switched to a less utilized server as I was having outages and my sites kept going down. They didn’t apologize, they didn’t offer any help, they simply sent me a link to their updated terms of service which said they won’t ever switch a server, period.
Within a week I was up and running on another host after quite a bit of research (esp filtering out all the bogus webhost ranking sites). The host I went to and am so far satisfied with is MDD Hosting, so if you ever jump from ASO, you might take a look there or reach out and I’ll update you as to whether I continue to be satisfied…
Just my $.02 from a former IT consultant (and now hypnotherapist!).
Thanks for chiming in with your experience!
Good to know about Braintree; I’ll check that out!
Sounds like Crashplan works similar to Backblaze. And I’ve used GoodSync in the past. I think I didn’t buy the Mac version when I got my new computer, but I remember it being really useful when trying to sync files between my computer and external hard drive.
I’ve heard good things about Acuity! Didn’t realize Full Slate was full of bugs.
Luckily I haven’t had any situations as bad as what you describe with ASO, but thanks for the heads up and suggestion for where to go next.
Amazing list Amy!
I shall check out new resources to simplify the digital lifestyle 🙂
Thankyou Amy. This is a very helpful list.
I notice you too use YNAB….I love YNAB for keeping track of our finances. It is such a lovely intuitive smart pleasurable piece of software to use.
I enjoy very much your interviews. You interview very interesting people and ask very good questions. I use Beyond Pod to collect my podcasts. Your recent interview with Naomi Peters was particularly interesting….as we, hubby and me have found that getting reasonably priced internet while travelling is a constant learning and expensive experience.The links you put in the notes after that interview…should help us. For us it is astonishing that each European country has such different levels of internet at hugely varying prices for visitors. So far we have found that Portugal is No 1 in Europe for great internet access at very reasonable prices https://www.portugalinternet.com/
Your podcast interviews are evergreens. I just relistened to your interview with Bobby Casey….some real interesting insights in that interview.
Happy Travels
Melanie & Jukka
All your interviewees are interesting. Presently I am interested in how to be more careful online. I don’t like how everything is being tracked….sort of feels like big brother. If any of your future interviews can talk about identity protection and how one could use a VPN to keep ones private thoughts and life a little more private…well that would be very handy to know.
Meanwhile looking forward to your future podcasts. Your voice is so fresh and cheerful it is a pleasure to listen to.
Thanks for the feedback, Melanie! We talked about VPNs a bit in this interview with Dustin Main: https://www.nomadtopia.com/dustinmain/
Glad to hear that Portugal has been good for internet, and that YNAB is working for you, too. 🙂
On an episode you had mentioned a tool for a virtual mailbox with street address with mail opening, scanning and the like (if we don’t have parents or others) — is it Online Mailbox? Is there an affiliate discount link? I’m heading out to UK on Wednesday for probably 6 months, or more! Thank you so much Amy!
I don’t have any affiliate links, but thanks for asking! These are the ones I’m familiar with for the US.
Traveling Mailbox
Earth Class Mail
Virtual Post Mail
St. Brendan’s Isle
Post Scan Mail
Regus
Yes – Traveling Mailbox – that’s the one I remember your mentioning on a show, and I will follow up with that. I’m going to be in UK and France till at least March, though it’s great to have a US address. Thank you Amy!