All Freelance Blog : Tips and Advice for Freelancers & Self Employed

Top 150 Places to Travel With Family / Kids When You Need to Get Work Done

January 3, 2008 – 3:04 am

The Roaming Freelancer: Vacationing With Your Family When You Are Your Own Boss
by Joshua Goldstein

Great Places to Bring Your Kids When You Need to Work as Freelancer

When you are self-employed, there is no vacation time to save up, and there is no one to cover for you when you're away. For many that mean giving up on vacations altogether, and this is what I have been doing for awhile. After a couple years of this, however, I am starting to face a mutiny from my family. They are sick of spending their vacations at home every season, claiming that I am ignoring one of the greatest benefits of my job as a freelancer - the flexibility to work wherever the heck I choose.

I decided to take this as a challenge to research the very best places I can take my family on a vacation which will also have the facilities I really need to get my work done, keep the kids busy, and have nearby fun for the many breaks I will take to make it a fun vacation for everyone (including me). In my research I have found the following vacation resorts and destinations that look like they will provide the best chance to make us all happy while I manage to keep my business afloat.

(1) Meadowmere Resort in Maine

The first location that seems like it will meet my needs is the Meadowmere Resort in Maine (www.meadowmere.com).
They have a number of different room sizes, including a Family Suite, with a tv in a separate room. This would let me isolate myself a bit or at least send the kids to the other room if the TV is becoming too distracting. This resort also has a free business center, and a library area; two places I will likely find it comfortable and peaceful to work.
The kicker though is the free wireless network throughout much of the resort, including the suite. They have a dataport in the room as well if you want to be directly connected. ut being able to move around the suite freely, without getting tangled in cable, is a nice plus.

Meadownmere Resort's rates are very attractive in their off season there is a nearby Summer Theater's Children's Camp. This half day program for young kids (full day for older kids) could provide some excellent time to relax with my wife on some days or get focused work done so I can spend quality family time later in the day when they get back. The camp then has the kids do a show at the end of the week which could provide some really fun memories.

(2) Valero Beach Resort

If you are looking to travel out of the country, one real up and coming travel destination is the Dominican Republic. This is a destination that has been popular for some time with travelers from other areas of the world, but is just starting to catch on more with North Americans. One resort I was researching that seems like a nice place for working travel is the Valero Beach Resort (http://www.velerobeach.com/). At first this resort seemed adequate, but not wonderful. It does have a free business center and it has DSL in many rooms. It also has a selection of suites available which like I wrote before I like because you can make your own little office away from people running around. The rates are also reasonable. The thing that I liked the most however was something I learned from the site Geek About

(http://www.geekabout.com/2007-01-18-78/top-10-beaches-with-wifi-internet%20-access.html)
In one of the comments, someone mentioned that Kite beach in Cabarete has wireless internet access on the beach. Well, Velero resort is also in Cabarete, and lounging on the beach with my laptop seems like a lot of fun. I'd be a little worried about sand, salt and theft but it might be worth the risk. If you want to learn more about travel experiences in the Dominican Republic, I found a nice personal experience article by some Canadian travelers at http://www.debbiesdominicantravel.com/expect.html

(3) Mountain Home Lodge in Washington

I've been concentrating on family travel, since that is what I would need, but did see an excellent location for just you and your significant other. Mountain Home Lodge in Washington (http://www.mthome.com/). The resort has rooms and suites in the main building, but also has beautiful individual mountain cabins and yes, all the cabins have wireless access too. The resort is very isolated, especially in the winter when travelers are often brought up on snow mobiles. This isolation, the private cabins and the wireless internet in the rooms I think combine into a very nice working travel spot.

Below You will Find 150 More Family Resorts That Are Great For Freelancers & Self-Employed Parents Who Want to Vacation with Their Kids But Still Get Some Work Done. Most of These All-Inclusive Family Resorts Have Kids Clubs in Which Your Child can enjoy supervised and fun activities while you and your spouse can have fun or get work done. Take a look below and enjoy! Have you traveled to a resort or other vacation spot that was particularly good for working and having fun with the family? Let everyone know your experience in the comments.

Agadir Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Morocco)

Aime La Plagne Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in France)

Allegro Resort Playacar (Located in Mayan Riviera)

Allegro Nuevo Vallarta by Occidental Resort (Located in Puerto Vallarta)

Almond All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in Barbados)

Alpe D'Huez La Sarenne Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in France)

Athenia Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Greece)

Bali Indonesia Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Bali, Indonesia)

Beach Club Colony Resort (Located in the Grand Cayman)

Beach Palace Resorts (Located in Cancun, Mexico)

Beaches / Sandles Boscobel Resorts & Gold Club (Located in Boscobel, Jamaica)

Beaches / Sandles Sandy Bay Resorts (Located in Negril, Jamaica)

Beaches / Sandles Turks and Caicos Resorts and Spas (Located in Turks and Caicos)

Beldi Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Turkey)

Blue Bay Youth-Friendly All-Inclusive Resort (Located in Cancun, Mexico)

Blue Bay Getaway Resort and Spa (Located in Cancun, Mexico)

Blue Waters Resort for Families (Located in Antigua)

Breezes Curacao Resorts (Located in the Caribbean in a place called Curacao)

Canoa Coral by Hilton (Located in the Dominican Republic)

Caprera Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Sardinia)

Cargese Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Corsica, France)

Caribbean Village Family Resort (Located in Cancun)

Casa De Campo All-Inclusive Family Resorts - (Located in The Dominican Republic)

Caesars Pocono Resorts (Located in Poconos, Pennsylvania)

Cervinia Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Italy)

Cherating Beach Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Malaysia)

Club Kawama (Located in Cuba)

Club Maeva Tulum (Located in Tulum, Mexico)

Club Med All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in many locations including Sandpiper in Port St. Lucie Florida, Crested Butte in Colorado, Ixtapa on the west coast of Mexico, Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and Caravelle in Guadeloupe)

Club St. Lucia by Splash All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in St. Lucia)

Comfort Inns All-Inclusive Resorts in Montego Bay (Located in Montego Bay, Jamaica)

Coral Beach Israel Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Israel)

Costa Caribe Coral by Hilton (Located in Dominican Republic)

Crested Butte USA Colorado Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in USA - Colorado)

Crown Paradise Club Kids-Friendly All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in Cancun, Mexico)

Crown Plaza Hotel Los Cabos Resorts (Located in Los Cabos, Mexico)

Dreams Cancun Family Resorts and Spas (Located in Cancun, Mexico)

Divi Aruba All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Aruba)

Dreams Cancun Resort and Spa Resorts (Located in Cancun)

Dreams Los Cabos Suites Golf Resort & Spa (Location in Los Cabos)

Dreams Puerto Vallarta Resort & Spa Resorts (Located in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)

Dreams Tulum Family Resorts and Spa (Located near Tulum)

Earthshine Mountain Lodge (Located at Lake Toxaway, North Carolina)

El Cozumeleno Beach Resort (Located in Cozumel, Mexico)

Forges Les Eaux Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in France)

Franklin D. Resort Family All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in Jamaica)

Gala Resort Huatulco (Located in Huatulco, Mexico)

Gala Resort Playacar (Located in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico)

Gran Caribe Club Kawana (Located in Cuba)

Gran Costa Real Cancun Resorts (Located in Cancun, Mexico)

Gran Costa Real Manzanillo All-Inclusive Family Resorts

Gran Porto Real Playa Del Carmen Resort (Located in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico)

Grand Paradiso Bavaro (Located in The Dominican Republic)

Grand Xcaret by Occidental All-Inclusive Family Resort (Located in Playa del Carmen, Mexico)

Great Bay Beach Hotel and Casino All-Inclusive Resort (Located in St. Maarten)

Gregolimano Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Greece)

Grenadian by Rex Resorts (Located in Grenada)

Grotto Bay Beach Resort (Located in Bermuda)

Halcyon Cove All-Inclusive Rex Resorts (Located in Antigua)

Hamaca Coral by Hilton (Located in Dominican Republic)

Hammamet Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Tunisia)

Iberostar Playa Dorado(Located in Costa Dorado, Dominican Republic)

Iberostar Dominicana (Located in Costa Dorado, Dominican Republic)

Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus (Located in Dominican Republic)

Iberostar Paraiso Beach (Located in Dominican Republic)

Iberostar Paraiso Lindo (Located in Dominican Republic)

Ibiza Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Spain)

Itaparica Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Brazil)

Ixtapa Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Ixtapa, Mexico)

Kabira Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Kabira, Japan)

Kamarina Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Sicily)

Karmina Place All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Manzanillo, Mexico)

Kos Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Greece)

La Jolla de Mismaloya Resorts (Located in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)

La Palmyre Atlantique Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in France)

Lindeman Barriere De Corail Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Australia)

Marien Coral by Hilton (Located in Dominican Republic)

MeliÃ¡ Azul Ixtapa All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Ixtapa, Mexico)

Melia Caribe Tropical Resorts (Located in Dominican Republic)

MeliÃ¡ Puerto Vallarta All-Inclusive Resort (Located in Puerto Vallarta)

Melia Turquesa (Located in Cancun, Mexico)

Metaponto Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Italy)

Moon Palace Family Resorts (Located in Cancun, Mexico)

Nabeul Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Tunisia)

Napitia Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Italy)

Oasis Cancun Child-Friendly All-Inclusive Resort (Cancun, Mexico)

Occidental Gran Bahia (Located in The Dominican Republic)

Opio Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in France)

Our Lucaya Beach and Golf Resort (Sheraton) (Located in The Bahamas)

Palmiye Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Turkey)

Pakostane Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Croatia)

Palace Resorts (Located in Cancun, Mexico)

Paradisus Puerto Rico All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in Puerto Rico)

Paradisus Riviera Cancun All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico)

Pebbles All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Jamaica)

Phuket Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Thailand)

Point Village All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in Jamaica)

Pompadour Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in France)

Presidente InterContinental Ixtapa All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in Ixtapa, Mexico)

Puerto Maria Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Spain)

Punta Cana Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic)

Presidente InterContinental Los Cabos All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in Los Cabos, Mexico)

Puerto Vallarta Holiday Inn Family All-Inclusive Resort (Located in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)

Puerto Vallarta Family Resort and Spa (Located in Puerto Vallarta)

Radisson Cable Beach & Golf Resort (Located in The Bahamas)

Ria Bintan Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Indonesia)

Rio Das Pedras Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Brazil)

Riu Caribe All-Inclusive Kids-Friendly Resorts (Located in Cancun, Mexico)

Riu Cancun All-Inclusive Kids-Friendly Resorts (Located in Cancun)

Rocking Horse Ranch (Located in Highland, NY)

Royal Rex Resorts (Located in St. Lucia)

Royal Solaris Los Cabos All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Los Cabos, Mexico)

Sahoro Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Japan)

Sandpiper Florida Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in USA Sandpiper, Florida)

Sant'Ambroggio Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in France)

Smir Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Morocco)

Sol Melio Hotels and Family Resorts (Located in Cancun, Mexico)

Sol Sirenas Coral Resort (Located in Cuba)

StarFish All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Jamaica) -

St James Club Resort (Located in Antigua)

Sugar Bay Club Resort (Located in St. Kitts - Eastern Caribbean)

Sunscape The Beach All-Inclusive Resort (Located in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic)

Sunscape Puerto Aventuras Resorts (Located in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico)

Sunscape Tulum All-Inclusive Family Resort (Located in Tulum, Mexico)

Sunset Beach All-Inclusive Family Resort (Located in Montego Bay, Jamaica)

Sunset Jamaica Grande (Located in Ochos Rios in the Caribbean Islands)

SunSpree Resort (Holiday Inn Resorts) Partially-Inclusive Family Resort (Located in Lake Buena Vista, FL - One Mile from Walt Disney World Resort )

Tamarijn Aruba All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in Aruba)

Tobago Rex Resorts (Located in Turtle Beach, Tobago)

Trancoso Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Brazil)

Tryp Peninsula (Located in Cuba)

Turtle Beach Resorts (Located in Barbados)

Tyler Place Family Resort (Located in Highgate Sprints, Vermont)

Vallarta Palace Family Resorts (Located in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)

Villars-Sur-Ollen Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Switzerland)

Viva Wyndham Azteca All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico)

Viva Wyndham Maya All-Inclusive Resorts (Located in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico)

Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach Palace Resorts (Located in the Dominican Republic)

Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach Resorts (Located in the Dominican Republic)

Wengen Palace Club Med All-Inclusive Family Resorts (Located in Switzerland)

Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort and Hotel (Located in St. Lucia)

Wyndham Aruba Beach Resort and Casino (Located in Aruba)

Wyndham Rose Hall Resort and Country Club ( Set between the Blue Mountains and the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea )

Wyndham Sugar Bay Family Resorts (Located in St. Thomas)

Have you traveled to a resort or other vacation spot that was particularly good for working and having fun with the family? Let everyone know your experience in the comments.

Find Out More Information on This All Inclusive Family Resort Resource Page

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By admin Posted in Mixing Family And Business, Time Management, Working From Home 4 Comments

Deciding to Freelance Onsite (In Client’s Office) or Offsite (From Home)

December 30, 2007 – 9:55 pm

Deciding to Freelance Onsite (In Client's Office) or Offsite (From Home)

Deciding to Work Offsite or to Work Onsite When You are Freelancing

Deciding to work onsite or offsite sounds like a relatively simple decision, but it's actually one which isn't easy to make. Sure, when you're lying in bed just after the alarm has gone off and you see that it's raining outside and all you wish was that you could go back to bed for ten minutes and then do your work from home, working offsite sounds ideal. But there are as many cons to the offsite work job as there are pros and you need to weigh them carefully when making the decision about whether to work onsite or offsite.

The benefits to working offsite:

Flexibility of your schedule. Although some offsite work requires you to be on your computer or involved in telephone calls during certain hours of the day, there is generally much more flexibility of your schedule when working offsite than when working onsite. If you're a night owl who does your best thinking between the hours of midnight and two in the morning, you'll probably do well with an offsite position that doesn't require you to confine your work to the 9 - 5 schedule.
Working in your pj's. This gets touted a lot as a benefit to working offsite and that's because it means more than just literally being able to work in your pajamas. It means that you don't have to get up and shower and put on your make-up and worry about your pantyhose and spend the day in heels that hurt your feet. For some people, the comfort of home makes working offsite an idyllic situation.
Avoiding office politics. There's a whole culture that exists in the office which you don't have to be a part of when you're working offsite. The gossip, the back stabbing, the emotional power plays "¦ you lose a lot of that when you take your work out of a cubicle and into your home office.

The benefits to working onsite:

The structure of a schedule. Yes, you hate it. But there's a flipside to it and that's that working onsite from 9 - 5 means that you only have to work from 9 - 5. On those days when you aren't feeling up to par and not a lot gets done, you put in your eight hours onsite, go home and get paid. That doesn't always happen when you work offsite and the line between "work" and "home" gets so blurry that you feel like you're always at work. Working onsite draws a clearer line.
Resources. You will have access to both human and physical resources when working onsite that just aren't there when you work offsite. Sure, you can get in touch with your boss by phone or IM and you can buy the toys you need to get your job done, but there is something to be said for the availability and updated-regularly resources of the onsite office that the offsite office can't compete with.
Being in the loop. Yes, it's nice to work offsite and avoid office politics but that comes along with the fact that when you work offsite, you often get left out of the loop. The little things that come through the grapevine of the office miss you when you aren't onsite. Being onsite helps you be more in-the-know about changes happening which might affect your job.

These are just a few of the differences between working onsite and offsite that you should take into consideration when deciding which is right for you. Of course, in many situations, you can combine the two options so that you work part time offsite, getting the best of both worlds. Hm, now there's a thought.

Technorati Tags: onsite, offsite, onsite vs offsite, work from home, work at home, home business, telecommute, telecommuting, freelancers, freelance, freelancing, self-employed, self-employment, home business, small business, consulting, self employment

By admin Posted in Freelance Projects, Getting Started, Working From Home 3 Comments

Freelancers’ Guide to Time Management: Setting Limits On How Much You Work

November 24, 2007 – 1:20 pm

Freelancing & Self Employment : How to Set Limits on How Much Time You Work - How to Make Sure That You Schedule Some Time in for Yourself and Your Family

Setting Time Limits for Freelancers and Self Employed Professionals

The most common problem that freelancers face is figuring out the balance between work and the rest of life. While there are a few freelancers out there who don't work as much as they need to in order to pay their bills and improve their business, most freelancers have the opposite problem - they work ALL the time. And that's why there are a great number of freelancers who "burn out" after a short (or if they're lucky, a long) time. In order to make sure that you aren't one of those people who "used to freelance but got burned out", you need to set limits on how much you work. Then you need to stick to those limits.

But sometimes setting limits on how much you work is a lot easier to plan to do than it is to actually do. Jobs come up that don't fit into the time frame that you've worked out but that are opportunities that you just don't want to turn down. Deadlines come at you faster than expected and you need to work extra hours to meet them. The lines between work and home are blurred so you're answering work email while watching TV with the kids and you don't really consider it work. Or perhaps you don't even know where to begin because you can't tell what a realistic time frame is for setting those limits.

But you know that it's important to set limits on how much you work and you want to do it, so you're ready to get started. The first thing that you need to do is to figure out how much time you're spending on work right now. Take a week in which you maintain your normal freelance schedule but pay attention to how many hours a day you're working. Include the hours that you're doing work stuff while you do other things with your family (taking business calls during dinner, setting up your blog site while watching the kids play). You have to have a starting point to see where you're at.

Once you have this starting point, take some time to really mull over how you feel about your work situation and why that is. Do you feel like you're always working and never off? Is that because you work at all hours of the day and night without a break or is it because you're thinking about work even when you're not working? Do you feel like you're spending the right number of hours on work but not getting enough done? Identifying what you want to change is the second step in setting the limits on how much you work.

Once you know how much you already work, how much you want to be working and how productive you need to be within those hours, you can plan out a schedule for yourself. Be realistic when making this plan. It's great to say that you're going to work from 9-5 Monday through Friday, but if you pick the kids up from school at 3 every day or you're simply someone who doesn't wake up until 10, that's just not going to work. How you set the limits on your schedule doesn't have to fit anyone else's idea of what's good except your own (although you probably need to include some hours that will work within the normal working hours of your clients).

Finally, once you have that schedule in place, you need to stick to your guns about it "¦ or adjust what doesn't work. Sometimes, you'll just have been wrong about the plan when you started off and you'll need to tweak it to get things right. But when you have something that works, act as though the limits that you have set are facts, not negotiable details. Sure, there will be emergencies and temporary changes in your schedule - just like there might be with any other job that you'd take - but you should stick as closely as possible to the schedule that you've worked out. Being your own boss sometimes mean telling yourself what you need to do and doing it!

Freelancers - Get Some Ideas for Business Cards For Your Freelance Business

November 16, 2007 – 11:38 am

Get some ideas for innovative and cool business cards for your freelance business with these insanely cool business cards.

business cards - xray

Edible business cards

Foldable business cards

Thick business cards

Retro look for business cards

Ticket for business card

A business card that looks pretty cool

Cool business card that looks like a fan

A business card that looks like a name tag

A business card that looks like it is on notebook paper

Business card that looks like it has thread or string on it

Business card for dentists office creative

An oval business card design

Business cards with tree design

Another business card design for dentists office

Business cards to look like pills

Popup Business Card - Guy Stands up

business cards circle design

Business Card that is like a popup booklet - there is a 3d popup ship inside the book

Business Card with Plant growing from it

Business cards that looks like shutters

Bussiness Card that turns into a printer

Business Card that turns into a printer

business cards 4 seasons

business card 4 prong

A map business card

Business Card that doubles as playing cards

Business Card with unique design

Pop up people business card

Hinge - A foldable business card that looks like it is closing and opening on a hinge.

Business card that looks like a travel tag

Business card that looks like gold

cube business card

Business card on a rubberband

You can send to us your business card designs and we will post them in another blog post.

Technorati Tags: business card designs, cool business cards, coolest business cards, cool business card designs, business card samples, business card examples, business cards, graphic design, dtp, desktop publishing, innovative design, innovative business cards, business card gallery, unique business cards

Other Blogs or Sites that Showcase Great Business Card Designs:

All Graphic Design Blog - Coolest Business Cards 1

All Graphic Design Blog - Coolest Business Cards 2

David Airey Business Card Designs

PicksFlix Cool Business Card Designs

Cartoons Drawn on the Back of Business Cards

Huge List of 147 Freelance Job Boards / Sites

October 10, 2007 – 7:48 pm

Huge list of 147 Freelance job boards

Huge list of freelance jobs sites

Are you a freelancer looking for freelance jobs online? Don't just hang out at elance, there are tons more resources out there for you to take advantage of. Look below for a huge list of 147 freelance job boards.

All Freelance Work (non bidding jobboard so cuts down on foreign competition)

Contracted Work

Elance

12Freelance

37 Signals

Agave Blue

Aquent (recruiting agency for freelancers)

Adveres

Authenic Jobs

Bid-Job

Bid Radar

CraigsList