There’s many of these call centers in Nairobi now. Kenya’s problem is Infrastructure, power outages and internet prices and reliability.

I’m a freelancer, and although I live in the UK, I find that when I bid for IT projects, the people I’m most likely to compete with are usually based in India or Vietnam. Because of the cost of living here, I can’t compete on price when I place a bid.

Instead, what I do is highlight the advantages and added value that I have. Most of the Indian and Vietnamese outfits are firms, who will farm out a job to whoever is available at the time; I emphasise the personal attention I can give a project. Although they’re very well-educated, the Asians are not always fully fluent in English. I highlight the fact that I am, and also add that I can tailor my work for English or US spellings. In addition, I also make sure that with every job I go for, I highlight things that are not necessarily part of the brief that might be useful later on. And I offer discounts to repeat clients.

So far, it’s worked OK, but I don’t just focus on IT. I try to show myself as an all-rounder who can be counted on to do a number of different tasks, all the while flagging up the quality of my work and how reliable I can be. I don’t get every gig I bid for, but so far it’s going OK.

I think if any Kenyan entrepreneurs are trying to bid for international work, it’s important not only to compete on price but also on quality. Customers want to know that you’ll get the job done and that they won’t have to hire someone else later to clean up your work because it is sub-standard. Cheap labour is one thing, but if it is so unreliable that it has to be double-checked every time, that’s a false economy.

Something else that you need to do is to be very flexible over your working hours. If you bid for a US contract and they want you to be available during their office hours, prepare for some late nights. Make sure that you have an account with all the IM platforms so that they can chat to you. Skype is even better. If you don’t have near-constant internet access, forget it; clients have a nasty habit of wanting to be able to contact you at all times of the day or night.

Something else to consider is how you’re going to get paid. A couple of sites allow you to see what other people have bid for a job so that you can amend your own bid accordingly, but you also need to remember that although they are quoting in dollars/euros/sterling/whatever, the cost of living is cheaper in Kenya, so amend your bid accordingly. Don’t be greedy; it is better to have many small repeat contracts than one big payday. And figure out how much it will cost you to set up a PayPal account, or cash cheques in a foreign currency. That will give you guidance on how much to charge.

Those are just a couple of quick suggestions. But the main thing is perseverance and (ideally) another source of income or a very understanding partner. When you first start out, you won’t get the majority of contracts you bid for, so make sure you also have another stream of income while you’re trying to get established.

And in places like Kenya, a worker will work for very little (at least very little by western standards) – having something (no matter how little, is always better than having absolutely nothing).

I’m watching Raila on CNN at Davos. What exactly is the point of Davos?

Workers do NOT want to provide cheap labour. Did you mean other businesses?

BTW, I hope this posts but you need to check your spam catcher! I have not been able to post for a while…