Why pay rental fees for the workspace your business uses when you can save the money and spend it on something else to enhance your business? Why get muddled up in ‘office politics’ when it can all be avoided? Why make that long commute in the morning rush when you can stay in bed for an extra hour? These are all questions, in this day and age, business owners can ask themselves genuinely whilst they still own a successful and active business. Why? Because business can be run and sorted out from anywhere in the world due to a string of technological advances. Take a look at a few of the key areas of business below and see the technological platforms that have made them doable and achievable, even with the lack of the ‘traditional’ working environment — you never know, they may make your life even easier if you’ve decided to go mobile with your business already, or they make you decide once and for all that the mobile life is the one for you.
Communication
In order to retain a healthy, fruitful and active relationship with all of your employees throughout the working day (and maybe even beyond it), then a platform like Basecamp should be the first thing you seek to implement if you decide to take your business away from the office. It allows for the communication between the team to never waver or weaken, even when you’re never face-to-face. But this is not just a glorified instant messaging service, no: you can also use the platform in order to undertake a communal management of projects and you can use it as a way to store everything your business needs to survive. By this it is meant that you can keep all the things that you normally have scattered all over the place: like important emails, invoices, ideas and so forth, in one place meaning that nothing ever gets lost in transition. Because of this, even those businesses that are still office based should think about implementing a service such as Basecamp into their working environment. Other options, if this one isn’t for you, could include the much cheaper (free) option that is Google Hangouts; if you want to make VoIP calls to your team quickly and without any hassle (which you probably do, especially if a deadline is approaching), then this online platform is the one for you. You can read more about it; or, of course, you could stick to the ever dependable Skype in your attempt to retain face-to-face contact with your team throughout the day, without actually having to be in physical contact with them.
General Business Matters
Throughout the day, even though it may not always feel like it, when you run a business from home you’re at work. Even when you’re taking a break to watch whatever daytime television that it is on offer, you’re still on the job. Similarly, even though it may not always feel like it because of the lack of the ‘traditional’ working environment it is based in, your business is still bona-fide which means it has to be treated as such at all times. This means it can’t take a break, like yours in the middle of the day, and has keep up with all the protocol that every other business, no matter what size, also has to keep up with. One of these aspects includes keeping up with all financial matters at hand. Luckily, advances in technology and the various platforms it has induced have not left financial matters and accountancy out in the cold in regards to them being achievable for small home-based or mobile businesses. For instance, there is the accounting software offered by Xero for small businesses that lends itself perfectly to those businesses whose business is not dealt with in a ‘traditional’ environment. This particular accounting software runs in the cloud (something you should be optimising in every aspect of your business order to ensure that no data is ever lost), meaning that your business’s finances can be sorted using any device, anywhere, any time. It also allows for colleagues to work together at all necessary times towards making sure that the business’s financial matters are all at hand. Finances are a general business matter that can’t be ignored, no matter what type of business it is or how big it is; another is the insurance that has to be sought. Just because yours is a business that doesn’t generally deal with a communal area, it doesn’t mean insurances aren’t to be taken out for it. For example, an in-home business policy should be taken out as it covers aspects such as loss of critical documents or the theft of funds. It usually covers as many as three employees so more than one may need to be taken out, as it’s not just the root of the business tree that needs protecting (presumably your home), it’s the branches of it too. You can find more information about the different types of home-based business insurances on offer by clicking here.
Seeming Bona-Fide
When small businesses, particularly the ones that are based in a non-traditional working environment such as a residential home, are attempting to establish themselves as a real player in their market it can be difficult simply because of the lack of a professional address from which they are working. However, as is the theme in this article you’ve probably already guessed that there is also a way to combat this because of the technological advances of today. In this case it is advances in the form of virtual office systems; these services, such as those provided by Capital Office, mean that the stigma of working from a residential address can be destroyed by way of the fact that your mail can be sent to a professional office address, and then forwarded straight to your doorstep. Doing so means that customers and clients believe they are doing business with a business that is obviously doing well enough to afford an office space in London, whilst you still get to have your mail come straight to you.
So, if you want to take your business out of the office workspace then you can rest assured that, in 2017, it is well and truly possible. You can do so whilst still being able to deal with every single aspect of your business through the softwares at hand that deal with the running of the business, and you can still be the leader your business deserves through the communication platforms that are on offer.
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