The Toolkit of a Global Worker

The world keeps getting smaller and smaller. Thanks to the internet and the many ways we can communicate in real-time now, even with someone who might be on the other side of the planet to you, it is as easy as just clicking a button. Especially in industries where the value add sits in someone’s head, rather than derived from a physical output, everyone is footloose as their own little enterprise.

Where you are born (by pure chance) doesn’t determine where you work anymore. It has led to some people even sitting on sandy beaches drinking mai tais whilst conducting business for companies thousands of miles away that adhere more to a shirt and tie dress code. If you are, everyone can be a modern-day global warrior (or worker). Here is the toolkit required.

Scope The Opportunity

Have a skill that is in demand and can be performed remotely. It could be a piece of coding, creating creative assets, managing online marketing campaigns, or writing a piece of content. The opportunities are endless. It’s advisable to check out the freelance job boards of the world to see what’s in demand and to see if you fit that profile. 

Depending on your skill set, you might find an exciting pool of options on Upwork, Freelancer, ProBlogger, Gun.io, Gigster, or Stage 32. Most of these boards offer you to bid for work. Word of advice: don’t go for scale and bid on every job, spend time to write engaged responses for every bid you put through. Quality over quantity.

Be Prepared For Anything

Be flexible and prepared to adapt to your assignment. Keep in mind that there is a multitude of ways people prefer to work, keep their documents, and what they expect. The infrastructure in which you are expected to work will be different from assignment to assignment. Think of communication preferences first. 

Are you supposed to communicate on Skype, Microsoft Teams, or Google Hangouts? Are you expected to be on Slack for instant communication? Or consider the deliverables that need to be in specific formats. Are you expected to work in Microsoft Office, or can you work in the Google Docs and Sheets? Then there is project management software. Are you a deft hand in Asana, Basecamp, Trello, or Jira? 

Be prepared to work in any of these systems, and at least you won’t be distracted by infrastructure when you are delivering your best. A top tip is also to consider how you are getting paid. A foreign currency account can work wonders in making sure you are getting paid and avoid hefty currency conversion fees.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

The most important element in your toolkit is your network. Delivering good work and getting good word of mouth is the best way to get new business. This means being open to connecting to many other people, even if there doesn’t seem to be a direct business opportunity. That person might know another person who would need your skillset. Especially with professional social platforms such as LinkedIn, the power of connections become evident. Writing good content or opinion pieces on LinkedIn, which are sharable, is a great way to reach people, not in your direct circle of influence and get noticed by people who are looking for you.

Food For Thought

“The biggest challenge I overcame while growing my consulting business wasn’t convincing my clients to pay me more money or chasing after invoices. Rather, the biggest challenge was internal — convincing myself that I was worth the rate I wanted to charge and raising my rates from $25/hour to $100/hour, $1,000/day, and $5,000+/week. And you know what? As I’ve increased my prices, the clients I’ve worked with have turned out to be better, more receptive to my advice, and see us as partners instead of viewing me as a laborer on their project.

So, dear consultant, know this: the easiest way to get paid more is to raise your rates. And the only person in the world who can stop you? That’s you.” Says Kai Davis

A big issue that many freelancers and global workers have is making sure that they have priced themselves correctly. There is a big temptation to go low on pricing to pull in the clients, but in the long run, those rates probably aren’t going to be sustainable. So go for the rates that you want, and remember you’re the most valuable part of your business.