Three weeks ago, Robert Scales was working in Vancouver. This article is being written in Thailand, on guesthouse Wi-Fi, next to a router that regularly has to be restarted by unplugging it.
For years, he ran Raincity Studios with his partners: Drupal and WordPress sites, social media work and a busy office where anyone could get an answer simply by turning to a colleague. At the end of 2010, he left with a laptop, a universal power adapter and little else.
The reason for the move is diving. A sponsorship program run in partnership with PADI Asia Pacific allows him to pursue instructor training, one level at a time. Web and social media work remains his profession, however, and the clients did not stay behind in Vancouver. The task is therefore to learn how to do this work from the other side of the planet. These are first observations, and they will evolve.
What tools does remote work require?
The toolkit is small: Skype for calls, when the connection allows; Gmail; Dropbox, which makes file sharing remarkably easy; and Google Docs for a shared outline. Little more is needed in this case.
For project management, many web professionals use Basecamp. Launched by 37signals in 2004, it is the natural place to keep to-dos, files and decisions when nobody works in the same room. The Basecamp site explains how it works. Its main strength is its simplicity.
Mobile data here means buying a local SIM card, with no guarantee of quality. The laptop can be tethered to a phone on 3G, but the connection is slow and uses up credit quickly.
Then there is the Wi-Fi: guesthouse Wi-Fi, café Wi-Fi, the router behind the bar. That is now the office, and the adjustment is still under way.
How can a remote consultant use the time zone gap?
Thailand is currently fifteen hours ahead of Vancouver, and will be fourteen hours ahead once Vancouver switches to daylight time in March. When working across such a gap, the instinct is to apologize for it: for the delay, for the missed call, and so on.
That instinct is counterproductive.
A client sends feedback at the end of their working day. The consultant reads it on waking and does the work. The next morning, the client finds it done. Nobody on their side waited: from their perspective, the work happened overnight, which is accurate. A freelancer based in Vancouver cannot easily offer that advantage, and it should be presented as such rather than apologized for.
There is, however, an important condition: the gap only works if the instructions are clear. If a client writes "can you make the homepage pop more" and clarification is needed, that single question costs a full day. Two vague emails in a row, and a small change can take most of a week. The gap therefore penalizes imprecise communication on both sides.
Why put everything in writing?
In an agency office, half the problems are solved in passing: someone overhears a remark, asks a quick question, and the matter is settled before lunch. Much of the work at Raincity relied on these informal exchanges, which only becomes apparent once working remotely. They disappear entirely. What is not written down does not exist.
Email therefore has to become more rigorous than it ever was in the office. These are the practices adopted:
- One email per topic. Three problems mean three emails with three clear subject lines. Otherwise, recipients answer the easiest question and forget the other two.
- The subject line states what is needed. "Need your OK on the menu by Thursday" gets answered. "Quick question" goes unanswered.
- Decisions are recorded in the project tool, not only in someone's inbox. Three months from now, when someone asks why the contact page changed, the answer will be there.
- A summary after every call, in five lines: what was decided, who is responsible, and by when.
These practices are simple and a matter of discipline. They nevertheless make the difference between a client who extends trust from twelve thousand kilometres away and one who begins to question what they are paying for.
Why set a fixed daily call slot?
Clients become uneasy when they cannot see the person working for them. This is understandable: they are investing money, and the consultant is on the other side of the world.
The solution adopted is a daily call window. Early morning in Thailand is late afternoon of the previous day on the West Coast: 7 a.m. in Thailand is around 4 p.m. in Vancouver. If everyone knows that is when the consultant answers, every day, even when there is little to report, most of the unease goes away. Clients stop wondering where you are once they know when they can reach you.
The calls run on café Wi-Fi and will therefore occasionally drop. A backup plan is in place: a phone with credit, a second café down the street, and a text saying "call dropped, back in five" before the client has time to worry.
What mistake should be avoided?
Accepting calls at any hour: midnight, 2 a.m., whenever the client prefers. It may seem like good service, but it is not. Fatigue sets in, calls become less productive, and clients conclude that your time has no limits. A fixed slot protects the quality of the work as much as it reassures clients. Adherence to this rule will be reviewed in a few months.
What can small businesses take from this?
Most of these observations go beyond the Thai context. Many small businesses at home already work with clients and suppliers they rarely see in person: a guesthouse owner working with a web developer in another city, or a shop owner who would rather avoid a forty-minute drive for a meeting that could be handled by email. Updating a site, fixing a page or keeping a CMS maintained does not require anyone to be in the same room. It requires communication in writing and a set time when people know they can reach you.
This is only the beginning. Three weeks is a short time, and the Wi-Fi will likely present further challenges. The practices adopted remain sound: put everything in writing, keep the call window and use the time zone gap. A follow-up report will come.