A year ago, Robert Scales left Vancouver. The first half of the year was spent in Thailand, the second in Bali, with dive instructor training throughout and web work fitted in wherever time allowed.
December is a good time for an objective review of a year like this. Not the idealized version of beaches and freedom, but the real one, which turns out to be less about the work itself than about everything surrounding it.
This review gathers what working far from clients teaches almost everyone in the first year, usually through experience. It is intended for anyone considering this way of working.
What works in a first year of remote consulting?
Some practices deliver immediate results.
Putting everything in writing. This practice was described in January on the blog, three weeks in, and a year later it stands out as the most important. Clear subject lines, one topic per message, decisions recorded in one place: remote work depends entirely on this. Most misunderstandings at a distance stem from something mentioned on a call and never written down.
A fixed daily window for calls. When clients know when they can reach you, they stop worrying about where you are. That consistency builds more trust than anything said during the call.
Keeping up with the industry from a distance. Leaving a city's web community means losing the professional meetups and informal conversations about what Google is planning. Reading therefore becomes essential. The Google Webmaster Central blog is an indispensable source. The year has been particularly eventful: the content farm update in February, since extended to all English-language searches; the +1 button; Google+. In October, Google began encrypting searches for signed-in users, so a growing share of keywords now appears as "(not provided)" in Analytics. Last month, a freshness update affected, according to Google, about 35% of searches. These changes concern every professional, wherever they are based.
What difficulties arise, and how can they be resolved?
This list is longer, as is usually the case.
Why decline projects that cannot be supported remotely?
Early on, the temptation is to accept nearly every project, out of concern about a lack of work or out of ambition. Some projects, however, require someone nearby: a client who needs weekly in-person guidance, a site tied to a local event where things change by the hour, or a business where no one is able to make a decision.
From twelve thousand kilometres away, these projects go poorly for everyone involved: slow replies, frustrated clients and many evenings spent on work that never fully comes together.
A simple test helps with the decision. Can the project be done properly with written briefs, one call a day and a time difference? If not, it is better to decline and, ideally, recommend a local professional. Turning down work is difficult the first few times, but it is usually the right decision.
Why should late invoicing be avoided?
This difficulty is common. Between a busy schedule, moving between countries and learning new skills, invoicing is often postponed. A project is completed, and the invoice goes out two weeks later, then a month later. By then, the client has moved on, and the payment request comes as a surprise.
The solution is simple: invoice on the day the work is delivered, every time, with clear terms, precise amounts and a short description of the work completed. Late invoices do not only affect cash flow. They make the entire relationship appear less professional, on both sides.
Why is internet access your responsibility?
When working from Southeast Asia, the main difficulty is often not the work, but the Wi-Fi.
Guesthouse Wi-Fi that fails every evening when guests return from the beach, power cuts, a local SIM card that runs out of data at the worst moment: the best web consultant can offer nothing if they cannot get online for a client call.
A backup plan is therefore an integral part of the job:
- Two means of connection at all times, usually Wi-Fi and a phone with mobile data.
- A second place to work, chosen in advance, in case the first becomes unusable.
- Large uploads and any risky operation done early, never an hour before a deadline.
- A short message to the client as soon as a problem occurs, before they notice it themselves.
None of these measures is complex. They make the difference between a difficult afternoon and a lost client.
What changes are planned for next year?
Fewer commitments. It is better to complete a few projects properly than to take on many from a café at midnight.
Invoicing will be automated as far as possible. Most online invoicing tools can send reminders automatically, which removes the need to follow up with clients. This is the kind of simple, practical automation we favour, because it eliminates a task rather than adding a new tool to learn.
Finally, the two-connection rule remains in place, even on days when the Wi-Fi works well, and especially on those days.
At the end of this first year, the main conclusion is that success depends little on technology. It rests on habits, which are rarely learned from books and most often acquired when something goes wrong.