Today for, like, the second or third time since moving to New Brunswick, someone has advised me to recruit clients from out of province and/or out of Canada. Without deliberately trying to use straw-man arguments, I think that they're doing this based on two (at least partially faulty) rationales:
1.) "You're in I/T, so you can work from anywhere." Yes, I've made no bones about the fact that I have the luxury of living where other people come to vacation. Yet it's 2015 and videoconferencing still leaves A LOT to be desired. And that's when you're lucky enough to be a moving postage stamp on someone's screen and not just a Basecamp avatar (and when the latencies are appreciably better than the Mars Rovers'.)
There's simply no substitute for being able to read body language, for being able to size up the vibe in the room before the meeting starts, or the random productive collisions that happen as people are streaming out of the conference room.
Also? Time zone differences suck. True, I've never been accused of being morning person--so that delta might just level the playing field when I'm collaborating with the proverbial "larks" pre-lunch. But mostly it just messes with me getting into (and staying in) The Zone.
In other words, working locally has a decided benefit of reducing the wear-and-tear on the client relationship that the friction of distances almost inevitably involves.
2.) "Exporting your services brings fresh money into the local/provincial economy." Ah, but the nature of my trade (database and the un-sexy business logic parts of web applications) is providing my clients with a strategic advantage over their competitors. Sometimes in markets that don't yet exist.
In that case, I ask you: Would you, as a hypothetical New Brunswicker, prefer that I do that for businesses inside or outside the province? (Granted, I might give one NB firm an edge over another, but I think that the point still stands.) Short-term gain vs. long-term pain, yo.
. . .
Yes, it's been quite awhile since I made peace with the fact that I was sorted into Hufflepuff (and not the more glamourous Gryffindor or Ravenclaw). But that's not why I'm writing this. Loyalty can, sadly, be a euphemism for the sunk cost fallacy when it applies to people or causes. Yet in the case of my trade, at least, I think you can make a fair case that working locally, like buying locally, is good business sense.
Of course I wouldn't turn away out-of-province clients and any tasty problem they care to pay me to solve. Business is business, yes? But given my 'druthers, it's in my tactical as well as strategic interests to collaborate within a reasonable commute.
