While there are several advantages to working with a remote workforce, there are several drawbacks that entrepreneurs and business owners may face when attempting to build a wholly remote company. Here, 9 members of the Young Entrepreneur Council discuss possible solutions to these issues and why they’ll help you reach your goals.
Younger Entrepreneur Council members provide solutions to common difficulties faced by remote businesses.
Photographs courtesy of the person members.
1. Create a solid game plan.
Remote businesses are learning that benefits and beautiful office spaces aren’t enough to promote company culture; management styles, procedures, and business tools are. Begin by developing an organisation playbook, defining your goal and purpose for each essential aspect of their operations, and ensuring that your choices are consistent with the kind of tradition you want to build. Remind managers to lead by example and understand why each policy is connected so that it does not get lost in translation as it spreads across the company. You may also build tradition using the remote collaboration tools available to employees. Certain tools show your employees where you stand on flexibility and autonomy and what you value and prioritise as a management team. — Spot Meetings, Inc.’s Luciana Safdie
2. Establish a Strong Tradition Through Key Gatherings
When attempting to build a wholly remote tradition, you’ll almost certainly come across the problem of constructing a strong tradition. We’ve overcome it by holding three regular meetings: 1) A daily “roll name” on Zoom where all employees are welcome to show up and ask any questions. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know everyone and what they’re all about. 2) A two-hour city corridor that changes every month. We begin with a 30-minute Zoom game, followed by a lengthy level-10 meeting. Scorecards, condensed financials, VTO, rocks (targets), to-dos, and points are reviewed. 3) An all-company retreat once a year. We hosted in an all-inclusive resort in Florida for the last 12 months. We’re accumulating this expenditure over the year rather than paying to lease. It was a fantastic three-day opportunity to update our yearly plan and vision, get to know one another personally, and have some fun. — Profit Matters’ Ashley Ingle
3. Hire the Right Employees
Certain employees are more “suited” to long-distance work than others. It all boils down to whether or not they are capable of self-direction. When I’m employing or making collaborations, I consider my connection with the other individual and my capacity to communicate with them as the inspiration of the rent or partnership. I’ll have many talks with that individual to have a clear understanding of their expectations and the way they presume and speak. I’m looking for the type of compatibility that would make for a fantastic faraway group member. The rest is straightforward as long as we have that communication in place. TK Trailer Parts’ Tyler Bray
4. Make use of administrative tools for people
While many point to tradition and communication, they’re overlooking a far more serious issue: their company’s human resource management software. We utilise Monday.com, which keeps track of everyone’s responsibilities in one place and makes them visible to the whole group. This is where advertising arranges their social media posting, development talks with their project managers about tasks generated, and our administration requests resources to complete tasks. Our culture was developed from how we communicate in the people management software, saying “please” and “thank you” as a single source of truth. Because our global community is spread across many time zones, every procedure contains a “who considered this” feature that allows us to stop asking, “Did you notice this?” When your company has a people management system, remote communication is no longer an issue. NineTwoThree Digital Ventures’ Andrew Amann
5. Organize Intentional Meetings and Actions
One of the most important advantages of having an in-person group is that it makes it easier for teammates to form close relationships and camaraderie. Friendships outside of work may be formed via in-person contact. Culture-building will most likely be at the forefront of entrepreneurs’ minds as they seek to create remote groups and grow their businesses. We’re quite deliberate about developing corporate tradition and promoting coworker relationship-building outside of work-related circumstances. Several of the techniques we’ve employed are also used by several of our consultants (CEOs of multibillion-dollar corporations). They include: 1) monthly all-hands-on-deck meetings; 2) quarterly three-day on-site meetings; 3) weekly online trivia; and 4) weekly PechaKucha, in which someone from the group gives a 20-slide presentation on their life. — RoadFlex’s Dennis Chang
6. Compile detailed coaching information
It’s difficult to coach people via the internet. Workers end up wasting a lot of time on tasks that aren’t completely aligned with your company’s operating strategy, which may be costly. It is effective to get everyone on the same page while they aren’t in the same room. Doing the legwork upfront, such as gathering more specific information and references about your company and expectations that employees may refer to down the road, can be beneficial—but it can also add a lot of work to the supervisor’s plate. — Mammoth Projects’ Maryana Grinshpun
7. Establish ‘Welcome’ video calls
Bringing new employees in and making them feel welcomed and involved was one circumstance that arose for us when we transitioned to a whole different organisation. Having “welcome” video conferences where a new employee may meet everyone casually, fun has helped with these transitions. I also want to set up a few Slack channels with small groups of people from other departments to get to know one another and cooperate with people from diverse backgrounds. — GetVoIP’s Reuben Yonatan
8. Use KPIs and Scorecards
It’s critical to be accountable. Businesses must have a practical set of tools that assigns a number to everyone in the organisation. From entry-level jobs to senior executives, the whole team must be laser-focused on meeting certain measurables and comprehending how the jigsaw pieces fit together. It’s critical to employ a fantastic, ever-evolving scorecard with key performance indicators (KPIs) that reaffirm the company’s clear, shared vision and the roles, responsibilities, and expectations that the group has from everyone in it. Cápita Works’ Adrian Romero
9. Put the Collaborative Software programme into action.
Remote groups that use various tools to track activities, communicate documents, and so on may find it difficult to collaborate effectively. Determine what instruments your team will use and, more importantly, what they will be utilised for to solve the problem. Ascertain that all employees are knowledgeable about the process to cooperate effectively and efficiently. Use Slack, for example, for matters that need quick resolution. Use a project management tool like Asana or Trello for all conversations and tasks connected to specific efforts (that is, the place the collaboration occurs). For non-urgent messages, use e-mail. — MattressInsider.com’s Jonathan Prichard