How companies can go 100 percent remote; 6 solutions
The majority of S.M.E.s and large organizations are now working remotely and successfully establishing ways to let their staff work remotely without any difficulty. Still, a few years ago, no one could have anticipated that companies would permit all of their employees to work from a distance.
Even before the pandemic, online businesses (eCommerce sites) have exploded in popularity since entrepreneurs can launch a company with less capital because they don’t have to worry about rent and space.
On the other side, remote work and freelancing are becoming more popular; internet marketplaces like Upwork, Fiverr, etc., have made it simple for employers and staff to find out qualified talent and complete tasks fast.
More and more businesses are moving entirely online. The startup community is where the remote trend is most pervasive. Going remote is one of the wisest decisions you can make when money and resources are tight.
FlexJobs declared, “2014 is THE year to find remote work,” just over a year ago. Of course, major corporations like Xerox and Apple permit remote work, but the startup scene has truly embraced these circumstances. Entrepreneurs are learning that as long as a worker can connect with the team and do tasks, it doesn’t matter where they are located.
The business has changed dramatically being a result of COVID-19, and you can benefit from this.
In N.Y.C. Is Dead Forever, best-selling author and businessman James Altucher explains.
Here’s Why: Businesses are learning that perhaps they don’t even need an actual office. This fascinating research discusses New York’s illustrious past like the global business center and how COVID-19 led companies to start working remotely, maybe going forward.
In the United States, just 7.0% of employees (7.8 million on average) worked remotely in 2019. Since it became more and more popular, 89 percent of the world’s workforce now works remotely. So, it’s safe to conclude that the epidemic has sped up the remote working process, and many business owners are now considering permanently moving their operations online.
Due to the ease with which distributed staff cooperation has been made possible by technical advancements like shared online storage, Slack, Skype, cloud services, and others, running a distant business seems to be simple. You still need to develop a distant working plan that will produce financial outcomes, though.
Going far away is a necessity, not a luxury.
We will cover how to go distant completely and what you need to take into account in this post because putting up a totally remote business is not an easy task. Let’s first define what “remote business” means. Ready to dive in?
A Remote Business: What Is It?
A remote business is one that allows its employees to work from locations other than the office. It entails that workers can conduct business or carry out personal business from anywhere, including their homes, coffee shops, the beach, cars, and coworking spaces.
Your desktop or laptop can be used for all work, and effective communication technologies make it simple to communicate in real-time. When compared to traditional enterprises, a distant working firm has many advantages, such as:
- Reduced company costs
– A rise in productivity
– Access to more talent globally and improved staff retention
– Equipment savings Smaller office space
– Complete tasks round-the-clock.
– Greater environmental benefit
The aforementioned benefits amply demonstrate how much more profitable distant business is. As a result of the elimination of some fixed costs like commercial leasing, electricity bills, office rent, and furniture charges, your profit margin would ultimately increase.
A study found that for every employee who works remotely, the median business owner may save an average of $11,000 annually.
The profit margin of the employer will be affected by this figure. Looking at the current situation, it seems that despite some issues, distant work in some capacity is seen like the way forward for all businesses.
Here are the solutions to your questions regarding how to run your company remotely.
1. Select personnel who will work remotely.
Hire distant workers and those who can work remotely first. If you choose to “go remote” but then recruit locals, it is counterproductive. By actively searching out and hiring outlying workers, you can immediately establish a distant environment.
Find employees that are already working remotely by using a remote job board. You can post opportunities on job platforms like WeWorkRemotely.com and Angel. Co for folks who are expressly looking for distant-work. You may locate the kinds of people you want to help shape a startup on both of these websites because they both cater to startups.
Hire individuals with outlying experience.
Not everyone is suited to working remotely. Think twice before hiring someone if they have no before experience working remotely. His or her lack of experience working remotely could be just as important as their inexperience in any other important field.
Remote workers are familiar with their working styles, rhythms, self-starting techniques, job management techniques, and ways to stay motivated. In general, they will perform better when working from a distance.
2. Develop a pay structure that encourages employees to complete tasks rather than merely turning up.
If you’ve put the right people in place, you need to treat them properly. Performance, not presence, should be encouraged in a distant working environment.
You don’t have to worry much about time off, vacation days, sick days, etc., when you have a distant work team. Simply said, you’re searching for people who perform well and are productive.
You’re probably already ahead of the game here because the startup culture is not for clock-punchers.
3. Avoid fostering a culture of meetings.
Most gatherings are pointless. Don’t rely on attendees being physically present at meetings if you wish to go remote.
Meetings are crucial in several ways. A meeting is often necessary in order to make decisions that are in real productive.
Meeting culture is distinct from simply holding meetings, though. There are many free internet programs that can assist you in conducting meetings if you need them. At my company, for instance, we use Skype or Join. Me, which allows us to connect and hold meetings without being in an office.
4. Stop using paper.
The majority of companies have already largely “gone paperless.” All of your storage must be accessible from anywhere in the cloud if you want to guarantee that your office is mobile.
Real paper documents are required for every firm, including articles of incorporation and other crucial paperwork. However, not all organizations require big filing cabinets filled with paper.
Aside from notable outliers like libraries and doctor’s offices, it is preferable to digitize as much paper as you can.
5. Market e-commerce products and services.
Businesses with zero physical deliverables are the most conducive to distant operations.
Our knowledge worker sector is constructed for now and the future on the strength of the software, services, consultancy, technology, and thought. Even while manufacturing is still necessary, it would be a good idea to think about switching to a fully digital service or product.
Keep this in mind if you plan to operate your firm entirely remotely but are still in the conception phase. You and your team can operate well from virtually anywhere, thanks to digital products and services.
6. Reside where you do your finest job.
Where in the globe, in what setting, and in what society will you be able to produce your best work?
I am aware of business people who adore the energy of a large metropolis. Being surrounded by countless numbers of people, tremendous cultural forces that are reshaping the world, accomplished professionals, and a wealth of amenities has a stimulating and potent effect.
Other business people perform their finest work when they are alone. They may find that a cabin in Montana is the greatest setting for them to dream, act, and produce amazing achievements (just as long as the Internet is fast enough).
Many individuals wrongly believe that working remotely means being able to do so from any location. That’s not the whole story. Living where you work best is the secret to remote work.
Working from home is still required. Your working environment does have an impact. Living where you can perform your best work makes sense; thus, doing so is the most rational course to take.
5 Ways to Go 100% Remote
Use this Advice to Go Completely Remote
Numerous firms, including small, medium, and large enterprises, place a strong focus on the culture of remote working. Well-known software firms including Reddit, Buffer, GitLab, Dell, Humana, and Oracle support flexible work arrangements. As a result, an increasing number of firms are considering becoming completely remote.
Below, I offer some advice on how to launch and manage a remote business. Let’s begin.
1) Consider Your Needs
Conducting this is the first stage. As much information as you can about your company, assess your needs right now and then get to work. Getting a job remotely might be simple for you if you already work online.
Similar to this, having a drop-shipping business makes it simple to keep track of customer information remotely and send things right to the customer.
Whether it would be long-term and cost-effective also needs to be determined. In other words, companies or enterprises that don’t need to create or store products can easily go remote.
Because entrepreneurs may run and operate their businesses while sitting at home or making a short drive to a co-working space or coffee shop, the on-demand business model has experienced rapid growth in the short term.
The demand for online meal delivery has soared among these since it doesn’t take up any physical space; all you’d need to do is incorporate an Ubereats-like delivery platform into your app server.
Make selections that would allow you to achieve your business objectives remotely after assessing your demands and what is currently handled at the office.
2) Select the Best Candidates
You should have a knowledgeable and talented pool of employees who perform admirably in a variety of situations and give you the best outcomes if you decide to move your firm entirely online. It implies that you must employ workers who are dedicated to their profession and have experience working in a virtual setting.
Additionally, you must recruit personnel who will produce profitable outcomes. The benefit of running a virtual company is that you can hire people from all over the world instead of having to rely on local labor.
Establish clear criteria and look for individuals that are authentic and self-motivated in their approach to their profession.
Welcome new hires and set up one-on-one meetings with them. You can start by outlining their duties and describing the ethos and mission of the organization; this will facilitate communication and assist new hires in feeling appreciated and accepted.
3) Develop an Effective Communication Plan
Connecting with your team is crucial; after all, the success of the remote company model depends on excellent communication.
No, you don’t have to hold meetings every day, but you should make sure your staff understands the value of efficient communication.
As a result, you should have a thorough communication plan that specifies who needs to receive what information every day and how.
Discuss this during the employment process and create a communication strategy that enables virtual connections amongst staff members.
There are various communication technologies available, but Skype and Zoom are well-known video conference platforms that facilitate remote working and enable sharing of crucial information by staff members.
Roles and responsibilities should be assigned.
This is the next move after on-boarding. According to research, inexperienced personnel makes more errors than experienced ones. Failure frequently results from a lack of understanding of roles and duties. Assigning the remote team with specific roles will therefore boost their efficiency and productivity, but how should you go about doing that?
Provide a detailed explanation of each remote employee’s position within the firm as well as their goals.
Make a list of the duties and conditions that you want each remote employee to be accountable for.
During onboarding, go over each employee’s roles and goals.
Employees will be better able to adhere to deadlines and turn in their work on time by using project management software. By doing this, remote workers are provided with the resources they need to enhance their performance and assess their own success.
5) Select the Appropriate Technology Stack
This gets us to our final point: it’s crucial to choose the appropriate technological stack in order to efficiently run your entire organization.
Here is a list of several significant tools and applications that help business owners run their operations from a distance:
You may want to think about using Microsoft Teams Meet, Zoom, Skype, or Google Meet for video conferencing.
Use Dropbox or Google Docs to begin document collaboration.
Equally important is time tracking, and programs like Hubstaff and Rescue Time may help you control employee output.
The world is becoming more distant. If you want to join the trend, you should have a solid business plan and a working knowledge of the technological advancements that make remote work convenient and effective. You should give the aforementioned procedures significant thought if you’re considering a remote company model. Do you still believe that the office is required to operate and manage the company? Possibly, no, right?
You should think about these five measures to convince staff members to support a remote company model if you’re leaning that way. Here are several ways that remote work might help S.M.E.
Always, that was the aim. Prior to this, when I was working a desk job in corporate America and required to wear a suit every day, working remotely was always my fantasy. Our business started an experimental once-weekly remote day during my senior year, and it rapidly became the best day of the week.
I enjoy staying at home, being with my family, and not making an effort to work (something most workers do in the office for hours each day).
There are essentially two ways to work 100 percent remotely by 2021 if you want to start (and keep) working from home: negotiating with your existing employer to work solely from home or leaving to start your own business from home.
The ideal route for each is shown below.
1. Discuss remote work with your employer.
Tim Denning, one of the best writers on Medium.com, has started generating a regular $10,000 (or perhaps $25,000) every month from the website.
Even more absurd than that is:
He carried on doing this despite maintaining a regular day job.
Negotiating a weekly remote day, according to Denning, was essential for him to begin working on his side project and building his writing brand. Nowadays, businesses are more open than ever to offering remote work. Working from home has a variety of advantages, as COVID-19 has been demonstrated to companies throughout the globe.
You might begin working from home on a regular basis if you can persuade your boss of the advantages.
When making a proposal to your employer, you must consider it from their perspective—a purely practical, efficiency-focused strategy that is advantageous to the business. To be quite honest, it doesn’t matter to your firm if you prefer to work from home. They are concerned with what is best for the business.
In a scene from the television show Mad Men, Don Draper confronts Peggy Olson about her unhappiness at work. She desires greater praise for her concepts.
You must do it! You give me ideas, and I’ll give you money. Don scolds Peggy.
But you never express gratitude! Peggy explodes in rage.
“For that, the money is there!” Don responds.
Your employer is more interested in what you can do for them than in what you prefer.
It’s transactional, and businesses almost never give customers what they want if it involves losing money.
You must bear this in mind when you make your case for working remotely. Everything you say should be put through it. Query yourself on things like:
-How would this help the business?
-Why would they require me to conduct remote work?
-What are their benefits?
When I used to work in corporate America, I spent a lot of money on pricey online courses and paid coaches to help me learn how to ask for a raise. Fortunately, I was able to convince the employer of the benefits of most of the raises I requested.
It’s a challenging art form, but if you can master it, your life will alter significantly.
I always spent at least two to three months getting all of my working metrics and data in order before I asked for a raise, so they could see how much more work I could do for them in the future.
If you want to persuade your boss of anything, you must gather a solid body of evidence—provable facts—as to why working entirely remotely would benefit the business. They need to see that at home, you’re far more effective and productive.
You must now convince them of your claim.
There is an alternate route you can pursue if your manager is still opposed to the concept of you working entirely remotely.
2. Start your own business to earn money for yourself.
I could write an entire book—several volumes—on how to achieve this, but there are already many good books on the subject. I’ll keep it short and sweet.
Your only other alternative, if your employer won’t let you work from home, is presumably to work for yourself and earn money as a freelancer or entrepreneur.
Fortunately, becoming a business and earning six figures has never been simpler. You can locate your audience, sell your products, and make a ton of money if you know how to produce a digital asset, such as an online course, coaching package, eBook, or mastermind group or community.
Again, I could say a lot here, but I’ll keep it short.
The majority of my revenue has come through sharing what I know and improving myself with others.
Sharing what I was learning with others came naturally to me. Years spent in therapy, and 12-step addiction recovery programs made it simple for me to simply impart what I had learned to others. I already knew everything about it, so I didn’t need to do any research. In any case, it was something I considered every day.
What do you already know that you can share to benefit others? Which subject areas are you already an expert in?
That is your domain. There is an audience, I can assure you, that wants to learn from you.
For me, the only challenge was figuring out how to sell my knowledge by learning how to package it. In essence, I created content, attracted readers, informed them of my products, and they purchased it.
Now that I work for myself, I can earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars per day without having to answer to a supervisor or commute, and I can take as much time off as I need to be with my wife and new baby.
I’ll tell you right now if you’ve ever wanted to work from home for yourself: You don’t need millions of dollars in venture capital funding, a large office space, or even any workers.
I’ve been able to earn tens of thousands of dollars by doing everything myself and by employing inexpensive virtual assistants to take care of a variety of tedious, challenging jobs for me.
Here are some excellent resources to keep in mind if this is the course of action you are thinking of taking but are unsure of how to proceed.
First, determine whether entrepreneurship is a good fit for you by answering these five simple questions.
Here is a list of every tool you’ll need for your first year of entrepreneurship, along with a price breakdown if you’re ready to take the next step.
The second book I suggest reading is DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson, which is the most significant book I’ve ever read about business and arguably the greatest $10 I’ve ever spent in my life.
Like Tim Denning and numerous other business owners, you can begin working on your venture even as you continue to perform your day job. That was also my experience; while my wife and I were working as English teachers in South Korea, I was able to start a successful writing career by working nights and weekends. By the end, I was earning more from my business than I was from my job as a teacher!
In 2021, there are only two techniques to conduct entirely remote work:
Either persuade your supervisor or figure out how to generate income on your own.
It’s never been simpler to succeed, yet each road has its own special challenges.
Both possibilities were practically unattainable just a decade or two ago.
Veterans and older professionals can easily and persuasively argue that full-time remote work or entrepreneurship is impractical and a pipe dream.
With the decreased cost of doing things, Kyle Eschenroeder noted in his book The Pocket Guide to Action that “the value of listening to naysayers is at a historic low. They are unaware of what is conceivable.
For each path, you’ll need to spend a lot of time researching and preparing.
However, no matter which route you take, success has never been simpler. If you’re anything like me, the idea of making the long commute back to your claustrophobic cubicle at work beneath the buzzing fluorescent lights makes you cringe.
Determine your course of action and spend time considering how to approach your supervisor or launch your own business. Anything is possible in this COVID-19 world.
61% of people working from home are doing so because they want to, even though their office is open.
According to recent results from the Pew Research Center, more people are choosing to work from home because they want to, even if their office is open, and they are less concerned about the hazards of doing so.
A poll of 5,889 workers conducted in January found that 61% of those who work from home now said they avoid going to work because they don’t want to, and 38% claim their office is closed. It represents a shift from October 2020, when 64% of people worked from home because their office was closed, and 36% did so voluntarily.
Even when more workplaces sprout up, Kim Parker, director of social trends research at Pew, notes that “people are making a purposeful choice to work from home, rather than solely out of necessity.”
Remote workers claim to be more productive and have better balance.
Teleworkers claim they choose to work from home due to a better work-life balance, increased productivity, or a move away from the office. Fewer respondents cite Covid as their primary motivation for working from home (42 percent now vs. 57 percent in 2020). About one-third of parents list child care as a key factor in their decision to work remotely. The majority also claims that working from home hasn’t hindered their capacity to progress professionally.
However, there are drawbacks as well: 60% of remote workers report feeling less connected to their coworkers.
Parker notes that despite this, today’s remote employees are more committed than ever to making it a permanent change: 78 percent of those who mostly work from home plan to do so after the epidemic, up from 64 percent in 2020.
Additionally, a growing number of workers claim to work from home. It’s too soon to say for sure, but according to Parker, this could mean that businesses are gradually closing their offices or that more people are accepting remote positions that aren’t in any particular location at all.
According to Parker, who weighs the benefits and drawbacks, “you can see people are making compromises in their minds and are seeing freedom as more valuable than coworker connection,” when considering the fact that a large majority want to continue working from home in the future.
To be productive, some people require offices.
According to Parker, there is a “small but interesting group” of people who have the choice of working remotely but prefer to spend the majority of their time in the office. These people claim that they work in offices because they are more productive there and have more room to spread out.
A significantly lower percentage, 14 percent, say they worry about missing out on work chances while at home; 9 percent say they feel pressure from their supervisor or coworkers to return to the office.
Workers that are present are nonetheless worried about viral exposure.
Importantly, 60% of workers do not have occupations that can be completed from home. According to Pew, over half of those who work in-person express fear about being exposed to Covid, a percentage that hasn’t changed since October 2020.
It varies by age, race, and income, but the majority of people entering the workforce today are at least moderately satisfied with their employer’s Covid health and safety precautions. Older, white, higher-income workers are much more likely than younger, black, Hispanic, or lower-income workers to say they are “extremely satisfied” with workplace safety.
According to Parker, employer vaccination regulations don’t seem to alter these opinions. About 39% of employees with a vaccination obligation and 35% of those without one rate their employer’s Covid safety measures as “extremely happy.”
In general, about 1 in 5 in-person employees report that their employer has a requirement in place for vaccinations, according to Pew. Public health professionals emphasize that, in addition to vaccinations, indoor masks, social isolation, proper hygiene, and staying in bed when unwell are all effective measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19.
The Benefits of Going 100% Remote
Remote work is quickly replacing traditional office hours as the new norm in the workplace. It was once an infrequent employee bonus or a method for employers to find top talent from across the world. Of all, even without the current pandemic restrictions, experts have long expected the migration. They simply didn’t anticipate the future to come so soon!
We’ve all had to change directions in some way. It wasn’t much of a transition for businesses that already supported a remote work environment, but most expected that things would eventually get back to normal. After a year of the global health crisis, it appears that remote work will continue to be popular.
Is Remote Work Successful?
According to preliminary findings, the advantages of going entirely remote overwhelmingly favor operational improvement. Even while we’re still figuring out the long-term effects, it does have a lot of positive aspects. Let’s dig a little further to discover why.
Employers’ Benefits from Remote Work
As a result of recent recommendations for staying at home, many firms are embracing remote work cultures. These are some advantages they’ve learned as a result:
Less real estate debt
A decrease in the demand for office space might not be good news for landlords and building owners, but it pushes many overhead expenditures down to the bottom line.
The number of employees working in internal offices has significantly decreased recently, prompting businesses to abandon dedicated office space in favor of shared workspaces and co-working arrangements.
The switch to 100% remote is thus only another step in that path. Companies are free to invest those monies in business expansion and technology that supports remote work as traditional office lease costs are no longer necessary.
Re-purposing office buildings as affordable housing could be one of many good effects of reducing the need for office space.
Reduced Costs Per Employee
New hire onboarding is expensive and time-consuming. A few of the costs involved are providing desks, office supplies, workstations, space, adding phone lines, and allocating parking spaces.
Many of these expenditures are eliminated when switching to a remote working environment.
According to some calculations, businesses can save roughly $11,000 annually for each remote worker.
Draw in Talent Wherever It May Be
Your organization may access a wider pool of talent from around the world if it is prepared for remote work. Nowadays, there is a huge need for highly qualified technical expertise, and local shortages are common. Being forced to compete for these people is time-consuming, expensive, and frequently ineffective.
No matter where they are located in the world, new talent can be recruited in a remote working environment. As compensation expectations are frequently substantially lower outside of the United States, in many circumstances, this further lowers costs.
Working remotely is attractive from the perspective of an employee. An employment offer that allowed for remote work would be preferred by more than seven out of ten workers, according to a 2019 survey.
Higher Productivity
There are many explanations for why remote workers are more effective. Remote workers are significantly more driven to complete tasks because there is no commute and no distraction from coworkers after they have settled in. According to Gallup’s State of The American Workplace Report, remote employees have a better understanding of their roles and frequently feel more accountable for their overall performance.
Additionally, companies are less concerned about productivity losses caused by absences and tardiness. According to the results of one study, many remote workers feel obliged to travel.
According to the results of one study, many remote workers feel under pressure to go above and beyond, whether because they believe their circumstances might change or out of appreciation for the chance.
According to the same study, employees who didn’t initially get along with their supervisor saw an improvement in work performance, perhaps for the same reason. In either scenario, the employee put in extra effort to maintain their access to this unique benefit because they didn’t want to lose it.
The Advantages of Remote Work for Workers
So what are the benefits of remote work for employees? It turns out to be quite a bit! Before work-from-home (WFH) became popular, it was a highly desired perk of working for some of the best companies in the world.
This is why:
Flexibility
When, when, and how employees choose to work is up to them. They can shave a lot of time out of their job by not having to commute, sit through pointless meetings, or being sidetracked by their coworkers. They can also take breaks, get up and move around, and choose different work places to freshen things up a little.
Work-Life Harmony
Every one of us is noticing a change in our daily routine. You have a lot more flexibility with a flexible WFH schedule for things like childcare, wellness, fitness, and leisure. Rather than having to get up extra early to attend a fitness class and still make it to work on time, you can now complete your session whenever you have a break and on-demand online.
Working from home allows you the flexibility to get some extra oxygen to your brain and blood, which may do wonders for reviving your sense of productivity.
In addition to being a huge waste of time, research suggests that commutes lasting more than 30 minutes each day are linked to greater levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as higher HDL cholesterol and blood sugar. Yikes!
All fantastic reasons to prioritize stress reduction and giving up the commute is a great start. Eliminating stress lowers cortisol levels, improves general health, and may even help you lose weight.
Furthermore, eliminating the commute is a terrific method to reduce your carbon footprint if you have any environmental concerns.
Each employee who works remotely prevents us from emitting 379.2kg of CO2 annually.
Conclusion
Since some people love to travel, remote employment is undoubtedly a fantastic choice for them. Other than the occasional meetings, they don’t have a specific place they need to be.
However, they must work extremely hard. it is to be witnessed the power of remote work because it starts to grow enterprises. It can completely transform your life and give you the freedom to unleash your creativity, enormous amounts of work, and great power.
