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These skills are in high demand, do you have them?

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Nomad Nation, this is the 21st century, and it’s time to offer the cutting-edge skills that modern clients need the most!

I want to encourage expat partners who are looking to build a successful portable business to explore new fields and start building the marketable skill sets that bring high returns in the entrepreneurial space.

If you’re willing to stretch your comfort zone or take a few steps into the unknown, you can pick up some tech skills and new information that can launch you into a new, untapped area of your marketplace. Success lies within the hard skills that most clients and customers can’t apply on their own.

If you haven’t decided on a portable business idea yet, consider building your plans around these hard skills.

And if you already have a business, these are skills that you might need to hire in order to take your business to the next level.

For more details about each of these lessons: Click here to listen to the podcast episode.

We live in an unprecedented age, a dawning digital era which the world has never seen. The labor market is changing and it’s our responsibility to keep up and change with it!

 

Here are a few skills that you can convert into a highly successful portable business:

Virtual assistant (VA): Offer Support from Anywhere

A skilled VA can perform the tasks that professional assistants once provided in an office setting. Manage your client’s schedule, book travel arrangements, take meeting notes, format documents, and file paperwork, all from a digital platform.

I must say that the market is already quite saturated with VAs. However, not within the expat community. This is a business that can be highly portable!

Also, a lot of VAs are not specialized in one area of expertise. My biggest advice is to focus on one service you do really well, instead of many different services that are you might know how to do but not in a deep level. You could for instance focus on one of the ideas below. 

Web Designer/Graphic Designer/ Branding Expert: Help Clients Grow Their Own Businesses

In order to run a modern business, clients need highly effective websites, therefore they typically need to hire someone to design and create those websites, develop visual content, and manage the company brand through digital portals. These are all very different and specialized skills, but if you develop any one of them, you’ll have what you need to make a profit.

Digital Marketing

Clients also need partners and vendors who can handle digital marketing tasks, which include posting on social media, developing digital advertising campaigns (through Google ads (adwords), Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin), and producing and editing video content. Most clients also rely on some form of email marketing as well, and if you know how to help them, they’ll value your services.

Copywriting

Almost everyone knows how to write, but not everyone knows how to do it well or how to use their skills to help clients generate business. Learn to create concise, meaningful, targeted copy that will sell.

Coding

Coding is one of the most demanded and highly paid skills at the moment! With the increase of startups, artificial intelligence and learning machine, there is indeed a shortage of developers.

I’ve been consulting so many startups in the past, all of them wished they had an IT person within their team. In fact, startups that include team members that know coding have more chances to succeed and also to find funding from investors. There is here a huge market opportunity for those of you who are willing to learn this highly needed skill.

Here are a few reasons to consider adding new skills to your toolkit:

All these skills are highly portable

These skills are not only in high demand, but also highly portable and perfectly suitable for the “expat lifestyle”.

More businesses means more opportunity

A growing number of small businesses and portable businesses are appearing on the landscape, and there aren’t enough affordable experts to help these small businesses grow. Become one of those experts!

Soft skills and hard skills are both important

Expats who travel from one nation to another around the globe, building communities, learning new languages and customs, and adapting to change, tend to build an incredible base of soft skills. However, technical and hard skills like these are somewhat rare. We need more of these skills in our community!

Develop the “expatpreneur” ecosystem; Support the expat community

In the past years, I have noticed there is now an increasing number of expat entrepreneurs, which is fantastic news! The more diverse expertise and hard skills businesses we can develop in this community, the more we can contribute to creating a thriving ecosystem and help these “expatpreneurs” grow their businesses. 

As you develop and then share your skills with other expats, you contribute to a thriving ecosystem and you help and support others who will help and support you in the future. Ideas and opportunities thrive in healthy, connected communities. So if you partner with another expat entrepreneur to write code for their website (for example), you help everyone, including yourself.

Soft skills and hard skills are both important

Expats who travel from one nation to another around the globe, building communities, learning new languages and customs, and adapting to change, tend to build an incredible base of soft skills. So talents like communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, and relationship building are easy to find in our community. But hard skills like coding, copywriting and graphic design are somewhat rare.

Some more resources and inspiration:

Take action now:

  • Share in the comments which skill would you consider developing to start your business?
  • Or, which skill are looking to hire to grow your own business?

 

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