Tips on working from your desk in France

THE chance to leave behind the daily commute and being able to work from your desk looking out over rolling French fields appeals to many.

With regular flights, high-speed internet access and a change of attitude amongst some companies towards working from home, many people are able to take up the opportunity to work from France, with occasional visits back to the UK.

Here journalist, Nick Clayton, who wrote The Guardian Guide to Working Abroad, offers some advice and tips should you want to work from a desk in the sun.

If you’re a knowledge worker, there’s a good chance you can earn a living without being tethered physically to the UK.

There are writers, graphic designers, accountants, day traders, web designers, marketers, software engineers and people doing a huge variety of jobs where most of their clients and customers are in the UK, but they’re in another country.

If you’re planning to join them, there are a few things you should think about as you make the move:

1. Make sure you’ve got broadband internet access. This is now the single most important service you require. Running water’s nice, electricity can come from a generator, but dial-up is no substitute for broadband. Don’t be fobbed off with promises of future connections, either: sign a lease on a home-office only once you’ve seen the broadband connection in action.

2. Check your transport connections. If you’re relying on being able to nip back to Britain on a fairly regular basis, make sure there are flights. Budget flights to tourist destinations may not be as frequent outside the holiday season.

3. Set up a separate room as a home office. Don’t double up a bedroom and study. You can’t work if there are friends and relatives sleeping where you work. If they want to visit, you can point them in the direction of the hotel down the road.

4. Don’t try and work full-time from a laptop. For a start you’ll feel as if you’re only temporarily working in your new office, then you’ll get RSI and finally you’ll wreck your machine when you spill coffee on the keyboard. Get a desktop computer or at least a separate keyboard and monitor.

5. Get yourself a UK landline number. If you buy an Internet phone such as Vonage or one from Tesco, it’ll come with a choice of British numbers. Plug the box into the broadband router in your new home and the phone will work in exactly the same way as it did in the UK. And you’ll get cheap calls too.

6. Set up a UK mobile phone divert. A service such as Yac will send faxes and phone calls to just about any number you choose. For people contacting you it costs slightly more than calling a UK mobile phone. You pay nothing. And nobody need know that you’re not in Britain.

7. Buy an accounts package for your computer. Start tracking income and expenditure as soon as you start planning your business. Sooner rather than later, you’re going to have to register your business and begin paying taxes. You’ll need something to show your accountant.

8. Set up a personal website. It’s very cheap and doesn’t need to be complicated. It can even just be a single page outlining what you can offer in terms of work. It will also provide you with your own personal email address which looks far more professional than 'eddiek123@yahoo.com'.

9. Keep in touch. Find an excuse to phone or email your contacts in the UK on a regular basis. Most of them will envy you, although they may think you’re bonkers. The main thing is you shouldn’t be forgotten when there’s a chance of some work.

10. Go out and enjoy your new surroundings. Believe me, it’s dead easy to shift your computer without moving your life. A computer screen and office walls look the same in France as they do in Britain.

This checklist comes from my book, The Guardian Guide to Working Abroad published by A&C Black, but before you fork out your hard-earned cash I should say the book is aimed mainly at people who have a desire to work abroad, but haven’t decided which country.

If you’ve already set your heart on a new life in France you would probably be better buying a more geographically specific book.

What tips would you pass on about working from home, have you experienced any difficulties and what was the attitude of businesses back in the UK once they knew you were moving to France? Please feel free to leave a comment below.

You can read more from Nick at his website A Desk in the Sun, which he updates from Ibiza. And he has also recently got involved with Ki Work, a combination of a social network along the lines of LinkedIn and Facebook, with an online marketplace for work.

Comments

[Philip Voice]

Some really good advice and I would like to add a couple of personal experiences too.

I set Landscape Juice up over two years ago and it is only now that I am getting increased income. Be prepared for a business to take a bit of time unless you have already spent time in the UK on groundwork and research.

I find isolation a tough one so I am in agreement that you need to get out and about - owning a dog is a great way of keeping in touch with surroundings.

[Craig McGinty]

Hi Phil, must agree that taking time to 'smell the flowers' is important when working from home all day.
All the best, Craig

[Richard Stewart]

We've set up in business as a husband/wife team, and that throws-up a whole lot of other issues!

An excellent point made though about getting out and about. We're lucky in a way that our work (www.guide2poitoucharentes.com) requires that we are out and about at local events and places, meeting people and understanding what is important to the local community.

[Craig McGinty]

Hi Richard, it definitely helps if you can use your out and about time for other things, but then I suppose you've got to know 'really' when to switch off.
All the best, Craig

[Chris Comley]

Ah - you're talking of being based in France. I can't do that - too far from the customers - but I do now extend my time in france considerably because I can do MUCH in france, short of actual client visits.

- We have ADSL at our house, we also find this attracts rental customers, by the way, though not as many as the pool!
- I can Remote Desktop into my office PC from my laptop - and from there I can do, of course, anything I could do from my office, including remote access to customer's servers, etc.
- And from this year the office has a proper modern VIOP PBX which means I can have an extension on my desk - and another in France. From which I can even act as receptionist if I need to, see what calls are arriving on the hotline and grab them; if I can cover the office when it's empty, even for a couple of hours, then there are few complains that I'm not "working" just coz I'm in the mountains eating cheese!