As I recall, you are one of the few survivors of the eLearning fashion in New Brunswick. You, as an individual, may be competitive in your particular market... but I would not extend this to everyone.

We are still missing a few technological pieces. While IM is nice, it is not yet the equivalent of "let's go for lunch".

The truth is that you can't cater to your network as well, from a distance, as you can when you are "right there". In a competitive market, you'll loose every time. You need an adge, like lower costs or better quality or whatever.

Clearly, you have some of these. I'm sure you are doing great... but applying this to the NB population at large? Nah.

I just don't think New Brunswick has those, in general. New Brunswick is not sufficiently less expensive. It is actually a moderately expensive place to live in.

Better quality? Not to seem offensive, but as a whole, New Brunswick doesn't shine by the quality of its services and products (naturally, I'm not including you). New Brunswick is the kind of place where, if you call for a repairman, it will take 3 weeks for him to come. Services tend to be slower than in a big city in Canada. What about the people? Well, it is not a secret that New Brunswick looses out its smartest people to Toronto and Vancouver every year that passes...

Also, culturally, the maritimes are extremely conservative. It will never be a hotbed for innovation. New Brunswick is the kind of place where a newcomer will take 1 or 2 generations before fitting in. Finding a doctor takes months. You just can't quickly transplant smart people in New Brunswick the way you can in Toronto, say.

I think there will be more room for independent consultants like yourself in the future, as technology grows better... and we eventually get something nearly as good as the "let's go to lunch" experience. But it will not save places like New Brunswick, only a select few will benefit from it.

(Disclaimer: this is not meant to be a criticism of New Brunswick. To some extend, but on a different scale, it applies to where I live too!)