Extreme remote working

I'm currently working from an apartment in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria until March, taking my Brexit allowance of 90 days in one go. It is my third winter and I host all my meetings and Startup School for Seniors from here, with my colleague based in London to take face-to-face meetings. I had enough of the English winter and now have a group of friends here so it feels like a second home.

I have worked online since 2010, living and travelling around the world. I'm an author and copywriter, currently creating bedtime stories for the Koala Moon app and writing for high-end real estate agents in the Caribbean. My laptop and I have worked from a multitude of places including: a lanai in Hawaii, Indonesian beaches, obscure corners of the Kalahari in Botswana and a tiny Panamanian island. On 13th December I'm off to Tunis for a month and will, of course, be tapping away at ideas while there. The freedom and the travel keep my mind open and alert - ideal for anyone who writes for a living.

I not only work remotely but, for the past seven years, I´ve run my UK based business from my home on the Costa Blanca. I was using zoom well before it was popular!

I have a six-figure Bookkeeping and accountancy practice in the Lake District but I chose to move from one beautiful part of the world to another and am now a Spanish resident working remotely still helping UK-based businesses to take control of their business so they can find their happy too.

The secret is communication, systems and discipline!!

I love that I still get to grow my business and look after my clients while living my nomad life!

I am happy to confirm that for the whole of August this year and last I was advising on and underwriting mortgages for our clients whilst sat in the sunshine of the Med around a pool in my trunks - no Zoom sessions for me :-). This has been the one godsend of the Covid worries, people now accept that flexible working is the way forward. All communications at www.MortgageShop.com, be they emails, letters, texts, or live chats all arrive in one place on our desktops and our team's geographical location isn't a concern anymore. With our team members, on a daily basis, now located in London, Hartlepool, Manchester, and Burscough at home and in offices the work-life balance at the company is benefitting us and our lovely clients.

[Suitable picture, with clothes on :-), is on our media pack]

My team works to outcomes and is not bound by time or location. They are a mix of Recruiters, Talent Acquisition Specialists and Marketeers, who all value the ability to work as they see fit to achieve their outcomes. That means my globe trotters travel all over and take work with them - without fear that if they over do it one night, there is no one demanding they come into the office by 9am the next day, and they don't have to call in sick, they just deliver when they are able - and it works really well for us! We've created a highly engaged team here at The Find Your Flex Group, because we lead with trust - not carrots!

All of our lawyers work remotely which means that "extreme" locations are often the norm for us. At this time of year it is quite common for MS Teams calls to be done on the slopes of mountains or from a winter sun location.
One of our team is currently on the south coast of France, whilst another has returned from working whilst staying with family in Italy.
I have been used to remote working for many years now so location really does not bother me as long as I have a good wi-fi signal. Probably my most extreme remote working was on a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic to Brazil. Amazingly the wi-fi was better than at home!
Our clients are often business people who travel a lot so it is not uncommon for MS Teams calls to be run from multiple countries. Likewise all our systems are online so written work can be done anywhere that has internet access. It really does not matter if you are in a central London office or in a safari lodge in South Africa!

I for one will be finalising our 2024 marketing plan for our mortgage and estate planning businesses up a Welsh mountain, in a yurt this year. Being able to do that is a wonderful way to work.

We have fully embraced the remote working ethic and this year have had an adviser take 7 months on the Isles of Scilly, still doing face to face appointments on the main land when the helicopter or hovercraft wasn't out of action, we've had a client relationship manager take a working holiday in Portugal and another adviser back and forth to Poland.