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Since I don't, yet, work from home, I had more
questions, rather than answers on this topic. It seemed
close to my other area of interest-but-not-yet-participation,
contracting. So, when Chris Despopoulos stated, in yet
a third thread (Silicon Valley...) that he was now living
in Spain and successfully contracting from there, I had
a lot of specific questions for him.
Either the mail didn't go through, or he was busy (or
he didn't take me seriously... I am...).
So here, for Chris and for anybody else who is doing it
successfully, is my list of questions about how one
manages to contract and telecommute REALLY remotely.
((((((((( begin ))))))))))
Ohhhh, tell me all about it!
You want more folks doing the telecommuting-tech-writer
thing? Then provide some gritty details, O' pioneering one.
For example. You say you are in Spain. I guess this says
that Spain has a better telecommunications system than
the third-world, bureau'ratically-paralyzed hodge-podge
found in Italy? Or are you avoiding land-lines and
connecting by cellular or satellite link?
Where are your customers?
What kind of projects are most amenable to this approach?
Did you locate the customers/projects and do the negotiation
electronically? Or did you have to travel to get it started?
My distant dreams involve a troller-style motor-yacht, a
ruggedized laptop and a satellite uplink from anywhere in
the world. Did those dreams just get closer to reality?
Yahoo! (whoops, that's trademarked...)
Woohoo! (whoops, Homer has a lock on that one...)
Whoopi! (... sigh, that would be Goldberg...)
well, insert some neutral-but-not-copyrighted exclamation...
Do you contract independently, or do you have an
agency/agent to do that? More than one? One for
each country? Are you specializing in an industry?
What, other than your own pre-conceptions, was your
biggest obstacle to becoming a total telecommuter?
Other helpful hints and good-to-know stuff, relative to
techy-writing a-la-remote?
Where do you bank? Does more than one /g/a/n/g/
/o/f/ /p/a/r/s/i/t/i/c/ /t/h/u/g/s/ er, I mean "state" try
to /s/t/e/a/l/ "tax" your compensation?
