In short, if you offer the right product of service you can theoretically work anywhere, as long as you have access to the internet. But an inverse benefit of this phenomenon is how small companies can now do business anywhere.

When I started my agency 12 years ago its reach was really just the local area - Newcastle and the Hunter Region. Sure, we could travel to Sydney and try to do business there, but it wasn’t easy.

New technology, and an acceptance by many businesses that they can look beyond their local area, means that today the world is my oyster and a small team in Newcastle can have global reach. 

A team meeting can involve a few of us in our Wickham office talking with an employee in Auckland and freelancers in Brisbane and Sydney. Our “extended team” includes tech and marketing specialists in Canada, India and the US.

At the moment, a typical week can include client Skype calls to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Estonia, Latvia and Thailand, while the team doing all the work might never actually all meet face to face.

It is all made possible via easy-to-use web-based tools such as Slack and Google Docs for team work and collaboration, Basecamp for project management and Skype, Zoom or GoToMeeting for communication. 

We rarely make phone calls and successfully work with many clients who we never meet in person. 

Of course, there is one other vital ingredient that allows you to have national or global reach, and that’s inbound marketing.

Being found in search and on social networks, plus a healthy stream of referrals, can deliver a world of business to your company.