No matter where you are in the world, things over the past year have definitely changed and how we live our lives now is significantly different from how we did before.
Even things such as how you do business and run your company have changed, with one of the main changes being the rise in companies deciding to run remotely rather than in dedicated office premises.
What you may not realize is that any industry can go remote with their business, even those that you may not think of, such as court reporting. Remote Legal is an example of a company that can work successfully remotely and still be able to offer their expert service to their clients.
So, thinking about going remote? Let us help you with our guide on how to go 100% remote with your business.
Look for Staff Members to Work Remotely
One of the first steps you need to take when running your business remotely is to look for staff members who are happy to work remotely themselves. It is much easier to have people who are already remote in place rather than transfer existing employees to working remotely.
There are plenty of platforms out there that are designed to help you hire people to work remotely. So check them out and see if you can find someone who will be able to work for your business without ever needing to be in the “office”.
Stop Meeting for Meeting’s Sake
Of course, meetings are an essential part of working life, but how often do you find yourself thinking that you are in a meeting that has been created for the sake of just having a meeting? If this happens to you in your business, then something needs to change.
Sure, meetings are essential, and you can still have them remotely. But they are not always the right approach. Sometimes you can say what you need to over project management software or an email.
Encourage High Levels of Performance
One thing that often concerns remote business owners is performance and productivity. How do you ever know how well a staff member is working if you can’t see them? Of course, this can be a genuine concern, but there are ways that you can help to alleviate this worry.
A great solution is to encourage good performance and actually reward this over everything else. If someone is exceeding their targets or showing that they are knuckling down rather than clocking in and out, show them that you appreciate this work ethic, and everyone else will soon follow.
Be Digital
This particular approach to going remote might not be applicable if you already have an established business. But, if you don’t, then it is a good idea to make your business digital if you want to work digitally. By this, I mean that you should offer a service or product that is digital rather than physical.
That way, you won’t need to find premises for storage, manufacturing, and packing up and sending out, which allows you to run your businesses virtually.
If this isn’t something that is viable for you, but you want to go as remote as you can, then you can find a way to outsource some aspects of your business. Finding expert distribution companies who can handle some of the physical parts whilst you still are able to tackle the overall running remotely.
Make Your Home Your Ideal Workspace
I would be lying if I said that there were no drawbacks to working remotely, and one of these is having to work from your living space.
Of course, there are great reasons to set up to work from home, but if you feel that these two places are the same, you can start to feel that you are always in work mode.
It is a much better idea to make sure that you have created yourself a home office. If you can, this space should be separate from the living areas of your home. Not only will this allow you to switch off when the time has come to clock out, but it also allows you to focus on work that needs to be done, rather than being distracted by what is going on around your home.
Go Paperless
Lots of businesses have already done whatever they can to be paperless, and if this is something that you haven’t got around to doing yet, then you need to give it a go. Being paperless is the first step to being a remote business, and it is much easier than you realize.
Cloud storage is a crucial thing to have in place if you want to go paperless, as it allows you to store all those documents that you may need quickly and then access them as you require.
Work on Your Digital Presence
If you want your business to work remotely, then one thing that you need to consider is how good your digital presence is. You need to have a website that is up to standard, and you need to pay attention to SEO and keyword marketing.
You should also ensure that you can use social media effectively. Promoting yourself and communicating with your customers. That way, when it comes to marketing yourself as a remote business, you will see the best results.
You also need to think about the customer experience that you are offering as a remote business. This can be hard to get right, especially if you are new to the process, but the good news is that there are lots of great tools out there that can make offering a remote business that still works effectively and leaves customers happy can happen.
As you can see, going remote is much easier than you realize. Not only this, but it can be hugely beneficial to your business.
Working remotely can save you money, make running your business easier, and make sure that you have a reduced impact on the environment – all positive reasons to try it out for yourself.
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