Do you need an Office? 5 Ways to Go 100% Remote

While a couple of years ago nobody could have imagined that companies would allow all of their employees to work from a distance, most SME’s and large scale corporations are now working remotely and effectively developing strategies to help their employees work remotely without any hurdle.

Online businesses (eCommerce sites) have gained huge momentum in recent years (even before the pandemic), because entrepreneurs can start a business with less capital as they don’t have to bother about space and rent.

On the other hand, remote working and freelancing is also rising; online marketplaces such as Upwork, Fiverr, etc., have made it easy for business owners and employees to find suitable talent and get work done quickly.

Today, more businesses are going remote and allowing their employees to work from wherever, whenever.

In 2019, only 7% of workers worked remotely in the U.S. — an average of 9.8 million employees. Remote work rapidly grew in popularity and now we see 89% of the total global workforce working remotely. This means we can say that the pandemic has accelerated the remote working process, and today, many business owners are thinking of permanently going fully remote.

It seems that running a remote business is easy because technological tools like shared online storage, Slack, Skype, cloud services, and so forth, have made collaboration between distributed employees more viable. However, you still need to build a remote working strategy that will give you profitable results.

Going remote is not a luxury, it is urgent.

Since setting up a fully remote business is not a cakewalk, in this post we will discuss how to go 100% remote and what you need to consider to do this successfully. Before that, let’s examine the meaning of remote business. Ready to dive in?

What is a Remote Business?

A remote business is a company or enterprise that allows its employees to work from outside the office. It means employees can work from home, a coffee shop, the beach, their car, or even a co-working space where other remote employees and freelancers gather to work or have meetings.

All work can be done using your desktop or laptop, and powerful communication tools make it easy to collaborate in real-time. A remote working business offers numerous benefits as compared to regular businesses, such as:

1. Lowered business expenses
2. Increased productivity
3. Greater access to global talent
4. Improved employee retention
5. Savings on equipment
6. Less office space
7. Get work done around the clock
8. Better for the environment

The above benefits clearly show that remote business is far more profitable. It eliminates certain fixed expenses such as commercial lease, utility bills, office rent, furniture costs, and eventually, you’ll see a spike in your profit margin.

According to a report, a typical business owner can save an average of $11,000 per annum for every employee who works remotely.

This number will reflect in the employer’s profit margin. Looking at the current situation it seems that despite some problems, some form of remote work is considered the future of all companies.

Follow These Tips and Go 100% Remote

Hundreds of companies, including small, medium and large scale businesses, emphasise remote working culture. Well-known software companies such as Buffer, GitLab, Dell, Humana, Oracle, and Reddit allow flexible work options. Therefore, more and more brands are now thinking of going 100% remote.

I’m sharing some tips below on how to start and run a remote business. Here we go 👇

1) Evaluate Your Needs

This is the very first step to conduct. Gather as much information as you can on your business, evaluate your current needs and start working accordingly. If you are already engaged in online business, then going remote would be easy for you. Similarly, if you’re running a drop-shipping business you can easily maintain customer records remotely and ship products directly to the customer.

You also need to determine whether it would be cost-effective in the long run or not. In short, businesses or enterprises that do not require manufacture or storage can easily go remote.

The reason why the on-demand business model has gained huge momentum in the short term is because entrepreneurs can run and operate their business while sitting at home or taking a short commute to a co-working space or coffee shop.

Among these, the online food delivery industry has skyrocketed as it does not require space; all you would need to do is implement an Ubereats-like delivery platform into your app server.

Evaluate your needs and what is currently handled at the office, and make decisions that would enable you to accomplish your business goals remotely.

2) Hire the Right People

When switching to a completely remote business, you should have a skilled and talented pool of employees that perform well under many circumstances and give you optimum results. It means you need to hire employees who have experience working in a virtual environment and are committed to their work.

Moreover, you also need to hire employees who can give you profitable results. The plus point of having a virtual business is that you no longer need to depend on local employees; you can hire anyone across the globe.

Set specific criteria and look for people who are self-motivated and sincere towards their work.

Welcome new employees and conduct 1-to-1 meetings with new joiners. Initially, you can explain their responsibilities and share about the company culture and mission; doing this will open up the communication process and help make new employees feel welcomed and valued.

3) Create a Solid Communication Plan

Connecting with your team is vital; after all, effective communication makes the remote business model successful.

No, you don’t need to conduct meetings daily, but you need to explain to employees how important it is to communicate effectively.

Therefore, you should have a comprehensive communication plan covering what needs to be communicated daily to whom and through which channel.

Share this information during the hiring process and prepare a communication plan that helps employees to connect with each other virtually.

There are many communication tools, but Skype and Zoom are popular video call platforms that make remote working easy and also allow employees to share important information.

4) Assign Roles and Responsibilities

After onboarding, this is the next step to take. Research has shown that fresh employees make more mistakes than experienced ones. Lack of knowledge regarding roles and responsibilities often leads to failure. Hence, to increase the remote team’s efficiency and productivity, you need to assign clear roles to them, but what is the best way to do that?

• Acknowledge each remote worker with a clear description of their role and objectives at the company.
• Make a list of tasks and requirements that you want each remote worker to take responsibility for.
• Explain each employee’s responsibilities and objectives at the time of onboarding.

Using a project management platform will help employees stick to deadlines and submit their work on time. Doing this gives remote workers the tools they need to improve their performance and measure their own success.

5) Find the Right Technology Stack

This brings us to our last point: it’s really important to find the right technology stack that will help you run the whole business effectively. Here’s the list of some important tools and apps that enable employers to manage business remotely:

1. For video conferencing, you can consider Microsoft Teams Meet, Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet.
2. To collaborate on documents, get started with Google Docs or Dropbox.
3. Time tracking holds equal importance, and tools like Hubstaff and Rescue Time can help you manage employee productivity.

The world is going remote. If you also want to jump on the bandwagon, you should have the right business plan and optimum knowledge of technology tools that makes remote working easy and productive. If you’re leaning towards a remote business model, you should consider the steps mentioned above carefully. Do you still think the office is necessary to run and manage the business? Perhaps, no, right?

About the Author

Having more than three years of experience, Nirav Parmar is an outreach expert at Elluminati Inc. Having a keen interest in communication, content, and digital marketing, he has worked with many brands and helped entrepreneurs to establish an online presence that drives their business forward.