For one reason or another, you’ve decided that now is the right time to make a big change in regards to how you run your business. Instead of continuing to run your business as a physical brand with an office or store, you have decided to take your business online and run it remotely.
Across the globe, remote work is quickly becoming the norm for around 70% of the global workforce who spend at least a couple of days a week working remotely, which shows just how effective this method of working can be. Predictions show that by 2025, 50% of the world’s workforce will work remotely every day.
Remote working has the potential to offer some incredible benefits for yourself and your business, if the right approach is adopted, that is. In order to ensure that your business remains successful while being run virtually, you need to take the time to do some proper planning.
Wondering what steps you should be considering taking? Have a read of the tips and ideas and below for inspiration!
Invest in Your Website
When you run your business virtually, your website is the heart of your brand, and that means that it is essential that your site runs seamlessly. What you will find is that if your website is poorly designed or constructed and this impacts user experience, you will lose customers as a result. Therefore, it could be worth investing a little money into your website and working with a professional web designer to improve and enhance it, updating the user experience being offered.
Source Adequate IT Support
If you’re going to run a business virtually, one thing that you cannot have happen is an IT problem stopping your business from running. IT problems are fairly common – and are often easy to fix – but the longer your website or comms tools are down, the more sales you’re losing. That’s why it’s essential to have adequate IT support in place. It’s also a good idea to opt for local IT support, so say you are based in Seattle then you might want to source an IT company in Seattle to deal with your IT support needs.
Get Your Marketing Spot-On
It’s important that when it comes to your business’s marketing needs that you make sure to get things spot on. If you want to make sure that your customers are aware that your brand has moved online, you need to have a strong marketing plan in place. If you have a small budget to work with, social media marketing is definitely one of the best routes to go down, because it’s affordable and highly effective.
Keep Your Business Comms Separate
Don’t make the mistake of mixing your business and personal comms, such as your phone number, email or address. Instead, invest in a selection of dedicated comms for your business. Take out a business phone contract, so that you have a dedicated business phone number. Set up a dedicated business email address for correspondence. Consider investing in a virtual business address for your mail to be sent to, to help keep your home and business comms separate.
There you have it, a few simple tips for properly preparing to move your business online and take a virtual approach.
