Does anyone have experience in online consulting?

I've often times considered moving to my wife's native country. Kyrgyzstan is a beautiful country and I am very close to my wife's family.

One of the major hurdles that I see in my mind is trying to find work. I'm sure in a worse case scenario I can find something to do there but may find it hard to find something that pays enough to make a living. My thoughts are towards doing some kind of remote work or consulting. I am inquiring if there are any JUs that have any experience in this area.

I currently work as a Retail Analyst for a company. I would guess there is about a 40% chance they would keep me on their payroll and allow me to work remotely.

Hopefully someone out there has some experience and can help me understand this market?

Thanks.

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Just an observation. Can't really relate to the consulting business, but since I telecommute 90% of the time, and travel 10%, I'll throw my two cents in. Most employers that permit remote employees still like them to have their finger on the pulse so to speak. Kyrgyzstan is probably as remote as you could get in Asia. Plus, the country isn't entirely the most stable place to be. That could be a financial concern for the employer should something happen to the employee. Most I would thing would shy away from putting themselves in that situation.

Also communications could be halted on the governments whim, again tyeing into the stability thing. So I believe it's not really the job so much and all the other BS that companies worry about that could be an issue. Just be careful how you broach the topic with your employer. They might think you intend to bolt, which could put all kind of ideas in there head, from promotion/raise consideration to putting you at the top of the chopping block for down-sizing. Now is not the time to lose a job.

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Hey NC,

Thank you for your insight. KG is fairly unstable and we would most likely live in the capitol (Bishkek) where her parents live. The reality is I could work remotely for the most part. Most of what I do is remotely from the office anyways. I would even be willing to take a pay cut in order to keep my job by up to 25%. Even with that kind of paycut we could live better financially then what we do right now.

I have been for this company for 5 years now. We have taken a hit from the economy but have fared better than others in our market. I certainly wouldn't want to jeopardize my job!

One of the challenges I do forsee is the closure of the US airbase there. Obama really hasn't shown must interest in trying to prevent this. From what I can tell the base may move back to Uzbekistan after they kicked us out. This is a little concerning because of Russia's increasing influence in the little country.

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This is a little concerning because of Russia's increasing influence in the little country.

Yeah, I've been watching that. It's buried under a lot of other world events. Russia handed them a fist full of cash and I don't think we should play the "who's willing to pay more" game (I actually support the Administration on that). I just feel your employer could have reservations about you being there (liability).

I hear what your saying though. I wish i could move to China and get what I make now. The wife has a condo there (paid for) and I enjoy it there. My work would never support that though.

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Yeah I saw this in the news. It's kind of misleading though.

Here was KG's beef with the US. We promised that we would purchase supplies and food from them. We didn't really do that. We also promised some American investments into their country. Again, we didn't do that. You add up those things and the way we handled a couple situations (killing of truck driver, disappearing military personell, etc) I can see why KG, decided to venture back with Russia. Russia was promising cash investments from the gov't rather than the private sector the US promised.

Will be interesting considering Russia's budget is similar to ours but just a not quite the same deficit.

One other obstacle I found out is that many of the local jobs require residency of 1 year there in KG (even the US embassy). So may have to figure out something for that period, if we decide to go that route.

One positive thing I have in my favor is the third party we have an contract with and work closely with has a gentleman that worked for them then for us and now them again. He recently moved back to his country (down under) and that seems to be working out for them. Hopefully that could serve as a precendence for me? We'll see.

Who knows maybe I'd just be contractual?

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