VII Capital Funds Offers Tips for Making Your Business More Remote

It used to be that companies were tied to their physical locations. For better or worse, people showed up day after day to the same offices, stores, warehouses, and facilities to perform their duties.

Although the notion of a physical workplace still exists for many firms, and will for years to come, there’s been a seismic shift toward the new remote workplace that doesn’t depend on buildings, real estate, and a particular neighborhood or region.

There are many benefits to mobilizing your business. It allows you to expand your customer base and increase the bottom line. It empowers you to eliminate certain costs and run a leaner business with less overhead. 

It’s even possible that your employees will be more satisfied and perform better.

But how do you make your business more remote? The capability and technologies are there—it’s up to you to take full advantage of them. Here are three essential tips:

Hire the Right Employees

You can have the greatest strategy for mobilizing your business and making it more remote, but your policies and procedures will fail to succeed if you don’t have a team that’s on board with what you’re trying to do.

That’s why it’s crucial to hire the right employees. 

Some employees work better within a structured setting, and others thrive with greater freedom and flexibility. 

In remote businesses, the latter are the type you probably want to hire. They’ll be more productive, satisfied, and engaged under those conditions.

Use the Right Apps & Tools

Part of the reason businesses are able to function on a remote basis today is that the technological infrastructure is in place. But your business can only tap into the infrastructure by adopting the proper apps and tools.

For one, you’ll need some kind of virtual office tool. 

This is a platform that runs in the cloud and enables you to manage schedules, communicate with employees, store files, and stay on top of your business from anywhere and any device. 

Many companies praise Asana, because of its intuitive platform and simple learning curve.

If you’re in a service business, you’ll also need some sort of remote support software that allows you to improve mobility without compromising the quality of service you provide. 

Software like Dameware Remote Support will empower your technicians or IT department to take control of desktops, laptops, and servers to fix and maintain regardless of their location.

Over-Communicate with Everyone

Finally, making your business more remote requires a renewed commitment to communication. 

It’s impossible to be successful if you don’t announce what’s happening to employees, clearly set expectations, and conduct a dialogue with both employees and customers in a way that conveys the value of these new procedures.

Remember that the shift from a traditional business structure to a remote one can be dramatic. 

When in doubt, over-communicate about everything and help employees adapt to the changes. 

There may have to be a lot of handholding on the front end, but once everyone joins the learning curve and adapts to the new working conditions, everything should work out well.

Now’s the Time to Mobilize

Remote business models make a lot of sense in a service industry. 

If you’ve not yet modernized your business to move toward a “mobile” setup that does away with geographical dependencies and embraces remote labor, now’s a good time.

There’s a lot to be gained from a shift in this direction, and you’ll benefit from doing it sooner rather than later.

Chea, Channing. “3 Ways You Can Manage Your Business from Anywhere.” Manta, Manta, 4 Jan. 2018, www.manta.com/resources/small-business-experts/3-ways-can-manage-business-anywhere/.