I was excited to read Natalie Sisson’s new Amazon bestseller, The Suitcase Entrepreneur: Create freedom in business and adventure in life, which outlines her best strategies, tips and hacks on building a location-independent business. Sisson is a fellow Forbes contributor and writes exhaustively about technology, social media, and systems specific to building a business you can operate virtually. In Sisson’s case, she espouses location-independence because she loves to travel, hence her moniker “suitcase entrepreneur.” But in my work as a career expert whose clients are mainly traditional employees, not entrepreneurs, I was struck by how important and useful this book is for the office-bound professional. Here are 7 reasons why employees should embrace the tips and tools in Sisson’s book, even if you never work offsite:
You embrace the latest technology.
Working flexibly requires that you to have better technology skills than if you just use your desktop. You might not think it’s worth the time and effort to invest if you’re never going to work offsite. But in the process of developing this expertise, you will likely find tools that will help you even at your desktop. At the very least, your newfound tech skills will make you more marketable.
You embrace social media.
Embracing the technology will make you more facile with mobile devices, cloud-based tools and apps, but location independence also requires that you increase your comfort with social media. As a corporate employee, you always want to align your activity with your company’s social media policy, but you want to be active. Social media skills are desirable across a variety of functions, not just marketing.
You consciously develop your value proposition and brand.
You might not be starting a business but you still are serving clients – your company’s clients, your colleagues, your boss and senior management. So when Sisson shares strategies on branding, think about branding for your audience. If you’re aspiring for a promotion or larger role, remember to brand congruent to your goals.
You confirm your critical work responsibilities.
You might not have the same hiring authority as an entrepreneur, but you likely have to pull together teams or enroll people to help. . . (read more)
Article by: Caroline Ceniza-Levine
Published at: Forbes.com
