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How to Make a Success of Running Your Business Remotely

Property rentals and ownership are big expenses for UK businesses. The cost of a potential office location for a new business owner or expanding enterprise may be prohibitive to many SME financial officers.

Yet, nowadays, with staff able to connect online instantly, document-sharing platforms prevalent across the web, and social media making it easier than ever to connect with potential customers and clients, having an office from which to run your company isn’t as essential as it was before.

Connect Staff Online

Ask yourself – does your business really benefit from having all of your staff in the same room, at the same time, or could you achieve the same results with your team operating remotely? Through email and instant messaging software, staff can connect just as quickly as if they were physically present in an office. Should you need to physically meet, hiring meeting spaces on an individual basis or simply using coffee shops will often work out cheaper than the monthly rent charged by an office building. Additionally, once you’ve freed your business from the constraints of only being able to use staff that live locally or are able to relocate, you’re able to employ from a much wider pool of options, ensuring that you have the best team for the job.

Allow flexibility, but set boundaries and be disciplined

Running your business remotely doesn’t mean starting work at lunchtime, replying to client emails whilst lying on the sofa in your pyjamas. You’ll still need to have a clearly defined office space and set your working hours, and so will your staff. Flexibility with regard to working hours is one of the benefits of remote working – some staff will produce their best work in the dead of night, whilst others will produce reams of quality work in the morning before wrapping up at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. But you should ensure that your workers make sure that they are at least contactable between certain times of day, and that they’re working away from distractions – not completing tasks with children running around or with one eye on the TV.

Save on equipment with expensing and outsourcing

Once a new business has found an office space, the stage is the process of filling it with all of the equipment that you’ll need. Office equipment tends to include laptops and landlines, plus at least one printer, scanner and shredder, as well as any office furniture and decoration that isn’t packaged in with your monthly rental. Run your business remotely and you’ll find most of your staff will be happy to use their own home equipment, as long as they are able to claim back certain work expenses. If you find confidential paperwork starts to build up in your home, just use a mobile shredding provider such as Datashredders, who are just as happy to visit domestic as well as commercial premises. An established professional shredding company like Datashredders can destroy confidential paperwork as well as cardboards, plastics and computer equipment there and then.

Many are forecasting the demise of the traditional office space, particularly in sectors such as digital and marketing, to continue over the next few years. If you’d like to transform your business into one which operates with a team of staff working remotely, follow these tips, making sure you’re keeping tabs on staff without micromanaging them and outsourcing tasks such as your document shredding. Free from the shackles of the 9-5, the arduous commute and a limited talent pool, you could massively increase your margins.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Datashredders .