Running a remote business? Not as easy as you thought, right?
Managing a remote workforce has many advantages for startups and small businesses. It cuts costs significantly by saving on office space and utility bills. Employees can also save money and time by not having to commute to work. The only issues are monitoring your remote team’s productivity while ensuring relevant and quality work is being done.
For this, you’ll need the help of tools and services aimed at the home-based business:
#1. Use a Time-Tracking Tool
One advantage of having a remote business is that employees have more control over their time, but this does not mean they can also control how productive they should be. You can use a comprehensive time-tracking tool like
#2. Organise your Tasks
While a time-tracking tool manages time, a project management tool manages people. In addition to a tool like TimeCamp, you should also deploy a project management platform to keep everyone on the same page. However, some project management platforms can easily get messy with numbers and a host of features you would not use at all. Instead, you should opt for something simpler and more efficient.
A tool like Casual helps with simplified workflows that give you an overhead view of a project’s timeline. As opposed to using complex corporate software that can be slow your team down, a simple workflow organises all the processes within a project from start to finish. This means everything you need to do to complete a particular project will be arranged chronologically on a single page.
Using Casual for project management is simple. First, you determine a project that needs to be done and come up with the principal milestones or tasks that will push its completion. You can then organise these duties in the order of execution, assign the right people for each, and then set deadlines. All these are done in a visual way so everyone can have a quick but thorough glance of the project status.
#3. Meet Regularly
With time-tracking and project management tools, you now have the bare bones of gathering the processes of your remote business. It is time to gather up, meet with your team, and get in touch with your workforce on a more personal level. As an alternative to arranging a physical meeting, you can use a webinar tool like GotoWebinar to keep the team communication alive.
GotoWebinar is a comprehensive webinar platform. One of its key advantages for remote businesses and startups is the video conferencing tool, which allows up to six participants for a live face-to-face interaction. This is extremely useful for making follow-ups on projects or wrapping up a new project workflow.
GotoWebinar can also be used to create video material, which can then be used for employee training or marketing. Remember that webinars are useful for fully engaging the audience as long as you cover a relevant topic. For managing a remote business, webinars make a great addition to your process documentation to ease the training of new employees.
Apart from these key features, GotoWebinar also has a toolset that allows you to optimise your webinar strategy over time. This includes custom video branding, real-time analytics, and lead management. It also comes with user interaction and follow-up tools – namely polls and handouts (post-webinar content).
#4. Set-up a Virtual Office
To be recognised as official business, you need a corporate mailing address and phone number to present on your website and send to your potential clients. Keep in mind that it is not ideal to use your home address and phone number for your business. Instead, you should opt for a virtual office service in your area to provide you with business communication services.
You can use W1 Office if your company is based in the UK or Opus Virtual Offices if you are based in the US. These companies will provide your remote business with a legitimate mailing address as well as a phone number. They also offer forwarding services for mail, phone calls, and fax so you do not have to pick them up yourself.
For startups on a budget, you should choose a service with flexible pricing plans. Try not to settle for packages that include excessive services that have no benefit for your remote enterprise. This will only bloat the monthly price of maintaining a virtual office.
Apart from these services, virtual office companies also offer brick and mortar meeting rooms you can rent for meetings. Don’t forget to check the physical meeting rooms you can rent to see if they are up to par with your standards. As a rule of thumb, mention the availability of these meeting rooms when you make your enquiry.
Conclusion
Managing your remote business successfully is but a dream for some people who seek financial freedom. However, for those who have begun, they’ll realise that there is still a barrage of obstacles to overcome. With the perfect tools to manage your team and services to run your virtual business, you are well on your way to making big bucks without leaving your home. Good luck.
Images: ”Author’s Own“
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