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Your office as an online business can be anywhere in the world. Normally, it’s within the comfort of your own home from which you conduct all the important practices of your business and the industry requirements. However, just like a real office, you can’t be at work all the time, even while you’re working. Sooner or later, you’ll need to travel, meet clients face-to-face, attend events that are relative to increasing your knowledge or manage personal matters like going to your best friend’s wedding. Wherever you are, it doesn’t mean you can’t run your business and even, grow while you’re globe trotting. There are a few guidelines which you can follow to maintain a high standard and increase productivity while on the move.
Nomadic entrepreneur
It may depend on where you’re going, but sometimes the countries and or locations you visit may not give you the best environment to access your business. For example, rural areas in less developed countries, won’t have good or even any, internet service at all. Whether you’re on a tablet, laptop or phone, you won’t be able to check up on your staff regularly. Therefore, plan ahead, make sure you have a few days spare, so you can sit down, and go through your emails, contact your employees, and communicate with your third-party clients such as distributors and suppliers.
Stay in touch
One of the great things about additional services that speed up the process of online businesses is, companies can offer you a detailed and structured messaging service. You don’t need to give you home address to anyone, even if you technically, don’t have an office and run your business from home. With an alternate, physical address, you can receive all your mail in one location of your choosing and have all the documents sent to you in the real world, scanned and sent to your work email address. Partners, clients, and customers all value the power of first impressions, so use this opportunity to project a professional image location that is available to be contacted tangibly.
Use online tools
It sounds simple enough, but that’s because it’s effective and a no-brainer. Use online communication tools, like Skype, Google Hangouts, instant text services like Fleep that allow you to have voice conversations with your contacts. Organize a meeting for a certain time, which will have to be calculated for both local time zones, and get all your employees online and into your room in these online tools. You can then, conduct a meeting as if you were right there in front of them, by sharing documents, airing issues of concern, and have staff members report to you on met and missed targets. You can also have one-on-one meetings with managers who may want to confide in you personally, and keep you updated on other staff members who their performance while you’re away.
Online tools and services have transformed over the years to where it now means there is no excuse to not stay on top of your business. On your part, it requires dedication, planning, and knowledge of resources that are available to you and making the best of them.
