What began with innocent wintering in Spain ended in a beautiful business. In this blog, founder Alieke, likes to tell you more about the creation of Working Remotely and my adventure.
From innocent trip to own travel company
It still feels a bit surreal, writing about my own business. After all, a year ago I didn’t see this coming. It was an innocent (work) trip to the Spanish sun. To begin with; I love adventure, discovering new things and being busy. The pandemic hindered that quite a bit. But some things were possible. Moving to Spain, for example. And doing your (online) work there. So that’s what I did. I asked my boss if it was allowed and he agreed very easily. Vamos!
Meet the adventurer with organizational skills
I am Alieke Ingerman, the founder of Working Remotely. A real organizer, although I find that really an itch word. With great pleasure I live in Utrecht, a great lively city. Originally I am from Gorinchem and was born in Rotterdam. Single, sometimes makes an attempt at dating. Before I started my company I worked as an event and campaign manager in salaried employment for 13 years. I organized business events and marketing campaigns, mainly in the SME sector and marketing industry. Every vacation day was spent exploring the world.
Quite travel savvy
Traveling is the most beautiful thing there is to me. It enriches your life. You discover different cultures, visit the most beautiful places, enjoy nature and meet the nicest people. As a child I often went on vacation within Europe. With school I went to New York and London. Later I traveled a lot far away. These were often solo trips. The first time is super exciting, but you make new friends so quickly and soon discover how nice it is to be able to make your own plan.
I went on a group trip to South Africa and Costa Rica. Went traveling alone through Asia for almost a year, fell in love with Vietnam, but that aside. In 2023, I lived in Valencia for a while, where I started building a local network for accommodations and activities for my company, among other things. I spend about half the year abroad, for collaborations for Working Remotely and to work nice and remote in the sun.
My first workation
In 2018, I went on my first workation. Working with two colleagues for a week in Croatia. At 5 p.m. we clapped the laptop shut and headed out. Within 5 minutes we had forgotten that we had worked that day. I felt full of energy and was completely turned around! Many more workations followed to such places as the Veluwe, Stockholm, Valencia, Bonaire and Albania. Some 34 locations by now. I knew: everyone needs to experience this!
Vamos, on to Spain
In 2021 I left for Spain for a few months, remote work in the sunshine and escape the Dutch winter. But this time something crazy happened the day I left. I waved goodbye to my mother at Schiphol Airport and posted that photo on LinkedIn:
Vamos, I’m going to work from Spain for a few months, just because I can.
That went viral! 80,000 views, countless comments and DMs. So it wasn’t that “just because”. There were so many questions, apparently there was a need for more information about remote working and workations. It gave me the idea to start a blog about it. I also started Working Remotely on Instagram to share inspiration and follow my journey through Spain. Sounds easy, starting a blog, but for someone with my technical skills (or rather lack of technical skills) I found it quite difficult! Writing wasn’t my thing either. I failed Dutch in high school haha. It’s funny that I scored a big 8 for French, German and English. But if you write from your passion it works and the message comes across well.
In the paper
Readers of the blog and followers on social media quickly let me know that they found what I was sharing very interesting. The general public also noticed me and “suddenly” I was in the Lonely Planet with my remote working adventure. Believe me, I celebrated that moment in a big way. The AD also picked up my story, followed by Columbus Travel, Frankwatching, ONVZ, Rumag, Intermediair, among others. I got to create a workation guide for Cosmopolitan and was in the podcast studio at NRC and T-Mobile. I could go on and on, as many cool publications followed.
The Working Remotely adventure began
Out of my own enthusiasm for remote work, inspiring others and bringing people together, I organized a group workation. In Valencia I brought 9 people together in a beautiful villa for a workation. I loved doing this and the group loved it. It tasted like more. Besides bringing individuals together I also started organizing company workations, in which I arrange everything from a to z for the remote work adventure of a company. After all, I am a professional organizer.
There were so many opportunities and possibilities in this field, that by now, in addition to my job as an event manager, I was devoting all my free hours to Working Remotely. Full throttle, I went for it. Soon I opted for full-time entrepreneurship and quit my job in 2022. Super exciting, but looking forward to the new adventure as an entrepreneur.
By now I have a large network with accommodation owners all over the world, tour guides and locals. I work for nice clients and try to increase my brand awareness. I also share my knowledge and advise individuals, employees, managers and employers. In the newspaper, on a stage, in front of the camera, on social media, in the form of a blog or through coaching.
Running a workation business
It started with writing some blogs and organizing some trips. Now I run a full remote workation business. My love of travel, cultures, nature, exploring the world and talent for organizing come together at Working Remotely. Along with my ambition and curiosity. I’m very down-to-earth, but man what beautiful things have come together in my life now. Professional traveler, traveling the world with laptop.
Entrepreneurship is spicy, I must say. It’s exciting, uncertain and uncomfortable. You have to decide everything yourself. Making strategic choices, doing marketing and sales, investing in growth. Then again, if you’re as much of a streamer as I am, you have to guard against your own drive to perform. That’s my biggest challenge. But with the right people around you, you’ll get there. Both privately to give you feedback sometimes or to think along with you in your choices, and working with the right professionals. I am enormously grateful that I work with fine freelancers and so together we can deliver beautiful services for our clients.
What does Working Remotely do?
I get that question on a regular basis. And I get it, because I do many different things. That’s the advantage of being your own boss, you can choose what you invest your time in. Everything I do has to do with remote work. I serve both companies and individuals. Curious what all I do?
- Organization of corporate travel
- Content campaigns on remote working, for destinations, hotels, travel brands
- Workation accommodations promote
- Blog collaborations on remote working & digital nomads
- Coaching so that you too can work remotely
- Ebook & online course offerings
- Corporate advice on remote work policy
- Remote job posting distribution
You can follow me on social media. On Instagram, my content is mostly focused on individuals and on LinkedIn a little more message on businesses and professionals.
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