Do Business Anywhere with an Internet Fax Service

You’ve read Tim Ferriss’s “Four-Hour Workweek,” set up your online business, and packed your bags for your three-month mini-retirement to Kuala Lumpur. Then you realize that although most of your business can be done by email, you’ll need to send and a receive a few faxes. Your short-term apartment doesn’t have a fax machine. So what do you do?

Internet Fax Frees You from the Office

The unfortunate reality is that some customers and vendors still insist on faxing some documents. You have three options for dealing with that on your mini-retirement.

1. Find new customers and vendors who will do everything by email, but that might delay your trip.
2. Pay exorbitant fees at a local business center, but people may balk at sending expensive international faxes, not to mention the steep price the fax center will charge.
3. Sign up for an internet fax service. You’ll be bringing your laptop, anyway.

Obviously, option 3 is the easiest and most cost-effective solution. With an internet fax service like eFax, you can receive faxes from your email and send faxes from your computer. Your customers don’t even have to know you’re sipping Mai Tais while reviewing their documents because they’ll be sending faxes to a US number.

The Professional Appearance without the Professional Cost

Choosing an affordable location and living in affordable lifestyle is one of the keys to making your mini-retirement work. To do that, rent an apartment rather than a hotel, set up a DSL connection instead of using an expensive aircard, buy a cell phone with an international plan, set up a voicemail box with a US number, and order the monthly low-cost internet fax service.

Not only will doing all of the above help you save money, but it will also help you present a professional appearance without the professional cost. DSL enables you send emails from your regular account rather than webmail. A US phone number encourages customers to leave you a message anytime. Professional faxes from your computer maintain your brand image.

Once you develop professional relationships, you may be able to reveal your true whereabouts without customers doubting your professionalism. In the beginning, use all of the resources modern technology offers to give the appearance of working from an office without actually doing so. If you’ve longed to travel the world, but aren’t ready to stop working, this is the best way to experience the best of both worlds.