Ever since moving to Canada from England I have had to cope with distance. Keeping in touch with family, sending money, transporting all my worldly possessions, sending gifts – I’ve had to get creative! Over the years you get to figure out the most effective ways of doing things over thousands of miles.
Take sending gifts, for example. Many items are going to cost you more in shipping (if they even get there…)so you start thinking light and small – clothing, CDs. But once Christmas comes around, that’s a lot more shipping, all at once. The best way we have found is to use Amazon.ca (or Amazon.co.uk, depending on the direction). Not only does Amazon offer free shipping with grouped items, they also ship locally. So when I’m ordering from Canada to ship to England, they will ship all items from England, or somewhere a lot closer than Canada (thank you, EU!).
Working long distance is very similar. A business relationship is just that, a relationship, and can also be managed from afar. Once contact is made (through email via a business portal or networking site like LinkedIn), proofs and changes can be managed via email quite easily. Videoconferencing has been around since the sixties, believe it or not, and is a great way to put a face to the voice/email address. Instant messaging (MSN, Yahoo, iChat, etc) is not just for teenagers and loner adults living in their parents’ basements! Businesses can transfer files and links, hand over phone numbers or other information that used to be dropped off on your desk on a Post-it note, or have entire conversations without moving.
Think of the travel time that is saved. Green and ecological groups want us to cut down on emissions by car pooling and using more economical vehicles. What if we eliminated or reduced travel by making technology that is so easily available actually work for all of us?
All it takes is a wider adoption by businesses wishing to be more conscious of wasted resources, and I’m not just talking about fossil fuels. I save hundreds of hours a year by working from home and communicating with clients over IM, email and the phone. Then there are the savings in car maintenance, food (it’s always cheaper to eat at home), clothing (a website looks just as good if I wear a suit or David Bowie t-shirt and AE Boot Cuts!) and stress.
Yes, stress. If you say you enjoy commuting, you’re either lying or doing something that nobody else knows about. Driving is not a stress reliever. No, it isn’t. Unless you only drive on sunny days through the mountains in a convertible with no scheduled arrival time. But that isn’t a commute, is it?
Don’t be afraid of the distance. Using a designer that doesn’t work down the hall or down the street is not a detriment to work flow. Not only will you be saving resources by not traveling, so will the designer. Me!
