If you want to have a successful business while managing your office remotely, it takes a little more forethought than other methods. While you can enjoy working from anywhere, you need to be able to keep everything running smoothly even when you’re not in the office. Otherwise you could miss out on productivity and profits. Here are five strategies to keep in mind for just that:

Use Apps Like Slack

Just because you aren’t in the office doesn’t mean you can’t communicate with your team. You might need to look at a project proposal. Perhaps you have to sign off on a new initiative. And maybe someone wants to send you a quick document, image, or link. This is all possible and more when you use Slack and other apps that let you link up with employees in one centralized place, with instant messaging and response available.

Keep Tabs When Mobile

Security cameras can live-feed to your smartphone or laptop with today’s technology. That means you can see if your home or business property is secure, even if you’re not there. It can act as a failsafe in case someone forgets to lock up after leaving. This is especially powerful for businesses with expensive goods in-house.

Reward Performance

Don’t measure your workers by their time spent sitting in a chair. Look at the results. Create a culture of performance over optics, and you’ll create more profit than ever before. This can be especially effective if established goals are discussed periodically, and then checked up on in the mean time to see how your employees are doing. This can also help you to manage and see if there needs to be any adjustments in the way your company does things.

Hire Abroad

This first tip is more of a meta-strategy. When you begin to realize that you can manage your team from your laptop or phone, you start to think outside the box a bit. Is it really worth paying John $X per year to do the same job as Jeremiah in another country for half of $X? Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes the answer is no. It may also be the case that the best person for the job is located abroad.  Regardless, it may be worth putting out recruiting posts on popular job sites around the globe to see if you can manage someone remotely who doesn’t eat up salary space.  While we always want to encourage hiring locally, sometimes saving some money in the short term will help your business to grow and help your local community in the long run.

Assign Surrogates

In your absence, there still needs to be a hierarchy to the workplace. Assign someone as the surrogate manager in your absence, or have an obvious second-in-command or team leader take the reins. This will help maintain your team’s work ethic as well as create healthy social pressure even if you’re on the other side of the globe. However, using a familiar face that is already associated with authority would be best for maintaining order, rather than picking someone at random to step into your shoes.

In today’s world, technology has changed the business world dramatically. This means it is now possible to manage your office from a remote location. However, it is not without its challenges. So be sure to use these tips and manage your team to make them more productive, happy, and efficient even while you’re away.

 

Like remote office management, marketing doesn’t have to be physical either. Trust your online presence to Refined Impact’s 360° approach to ensure optimal results and steady growth.

 

References:  The 13 Best Team Chat Apps for Your Company | Zapier      4 Ways to Protect Your Home While You’re at Work | ADT Pulse     52 Epic Ways to Reward Your Employees | Insperity