Interest in telecommuting is growing — and not just for employees. Many business owners are exploring opportunities to make their companies virtual, so that they can travel or move easily. The specific form such a change can take varies, but for small business owners with goals simply beyond growing a business, heading abroad can certainly make sense. Thinking globally can have benefits beyond the personal for a small business owner, as well. Only 7 percent of small businesses do most of their business globally, according to the Small Business Success Index, but there are huge opportunities.
Making the Choice to Go Virtual
You may have worked on the assumption that you have to go into the office every day for years, but the real truth is that most office-based businesses can easily be made virtual. Even many stores can be converted to online-only operations with surprisingly few problems. The only businesses that don’t offer the possibility of going online are those that require a physical presence — a mechanic can’t usually convince a customer to ship a car overseas to be repaired and a doctor probably needs to see his patients during the diagnosis process. It’s worth noting, though, that the administrative processes for such businesses could probably be virtual.
But there’s more to the decision to go virtual than just the option to do so. Not everyone is comfortable working from wherever they happen to be: some people need the environment of an office. That means that, before you decide to take your office entirely online, it’s important to actually test how you and your employees work without the structure of an office environment. Similarly, you’ll need to test tools to see what you’ll need to be able to manage each part of your business.
What Your Business Will Need
A virtual business still requires a mailing address and some other physical aspects of a company. However, those needs don’t have to tie down the company. They can amount to something as simple as a post office box that someone associated with the company checks once a week. There are even companies that do little more than accept mail and scan it for the actual recipients. You’ll also need a computer and an internet connection no matter where you are, which can often amount to a laptop and some sort of wireless access point. Beyond those basic necessities, you’ll need to look at the specifics of your business and your industry.
Many of the software tools needed to operate an office now have web-based counterparts, allowing you and a distributed team to stay up to date with each other from around the world (provided, of course, that everyone involved has a decent internet connection). That includes project management, bookkeeping and even industry-specific tools. It’s a matter of exploring what is available.
Image by Flickr user Tom Godber
Web.com is now offering forums designed to support small businesses in cities throughout the US. Learn more about these forums here: http://Businessforum.web.com/
Tags: SBSI, small business, social media, Workforce
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