3 Powerful Ways Remote Teams Can Help Your Small Business Grow

If you are a small business owner, chances are you’ve faced the challenge of how and when to hire someone to join your team. Many small business owners start out by themselves or with only one or two others, but as the business grows so do the roles and needs. And with the recent mandatory shift to working remotely, more businesses are seeing the benefits of a remote team. But what many may not know is there are many other positives to this virtual work approach.

 

More for Your Money

You get a bigger bang for your buck when hiring remote workers. Job seekers looking for remote work value their freedom and flexibility over an office job and may be willing to work for less than a traditional employee. And many small businesses have found they can fill many roles with independent contractors which is more cost effective than hiring an employee with benefits. 

The average cost of health insurance for U.S. employees is close to $15,000 according to SHRM. When you consider those cost savings, hiring independent contractors for remote work sounds even more advantageous.

The IRS has set guidelines for determining if someone is an employee or an independent contractor. In general, if the business owner is paying for the result of the work, rather than the ability to control how the work is performed, then the position is likely suitable for a contractor rather than an employee.

 

More Specialized

Instead of hiring one person to do a variety of jobs, having a remote team allows you to hire multiple team members each with a unique set of skills. Many virtual professionals today work for more than one person and therefore get very good in a set of skills. No longer do you have to hire an “all-in-one” candidate to do customer service, administrative tasks and social media.

Instead, you could look for specialized talent like:

  • A Facebook ads specialists to create and manage ad campaigns to bring more sales and customers to your business.
  • A customer service person to respond to your customers needs and questions.
  • A content manager to create and manage content for social media, blogs and email campaigns.
  • A marketing person to create lead magnets and other marketing ideas to grow your business.
  • An email marketing specialist to create email campaigns for your customers or to improve the client onboarding processes.
  • A YouTube, Instagram or Pinterest specialist to increase brand visibility, drive traffic, grow your email list and increase your customer base.
  • A virtual assistant to manage your day to day tasks such as email, phone calls, and other routine tasks so you can focus on your business.
  • A project manager to oversee your projects and keep them running.

 

Better Retention 

With remote positions, you can attract and retain quality professionals. In a recent study, 95% of employers reported that working remotely has had a high impact on their employee retention rate.

For moms, working remotely provides the ability to have a better work / life balance. For instance, if a child is sick, mom can continue to work while monitoring their child. In the same way, she can take a break to go watch her child’s school performance and make up the time if needed. Having the ability to work remotely is hugely valuable to moms which makes remote positions very attractive. 

 

Having the ability to hire the right person for the right job and pay a fair rate enables small businesses to grow faster than having to hire full time employees. When combined with all the additional benefits, establishing a virtual team becomes a real advantage for many small businesses.  If you’re looking to grow your remote team, we’d be grateful to help! 

 

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3 Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Virtual Professional

Hiring someone to work for you off-site means you don’t have the luxury of meeting them or training them in person. And because of that, there are some things you should know to help make the working relationship more successful from the start.

Don’t hire by the resume alone

Hiring someone is more than just their experience on a piece of paper. You’ll want to interview over Zoom, Skype or similar tool that allows you to meet them face to face.

Ask how they manage working independently? What other jobs have they had working virtually for someone? What mistakes did they make? What did they learn?  Ask them about their organization skills and how they organize their day? What motivates them? What distracts them? Also be sure to talk to their references to get a feel for how they viewed the quality of their work.

Always ask for references and check them! You’ll want to know what type of employee (or contractor) they were. Were they reliable? Did they do a good job? What areas did they not do so good in? Are they trustworthy? Would they hire them again?

Request a background check through SafetyPin (Digital Trust Badge) especially if they will be dealing with private or sensitive information or have access to any private information.

 

Don’t assume they’ll know how you want it done

Before you hire virtual help, be clear about what you want done, how and when you want it done. The more clear you can be and the more meticulous your instructions, the better opportunity your new hire has of understanding and succeeding at this new role.

Create a Google Doc and add procedures and instructions that can be modified and added to the role develops.  The more implicit your instructions, the better chance you have of someone doing things how you want them done.

 

Don’t neglect to check in

For the first month or two, plan to check in regularly about progress and questions. You should be able to tell pretty quickly if the work is being done correctly. If not, determine what changes need to be made. Set parameters, guidelines and/or deadlines that need to be met.

Set up ways to monitor their progress going forward. You may want them to copy you on emails if they are responding on behalf of your business or send weekly reports of tasks completed so that you can check them initially to make sure the job is being done correctly and has been understood. If applicable, use collaboration tools such as Slack, BasecampAsana or Trello so that you can monitor, collaborate and train as needed.

Progress checks and regular communication are the main keys to success once you’ve hired your virtual professional. Follow these tips and your chances of success will skyrocket!

If you are looking for a virtual professional, be sure to check out the awesome talent on HireMyMom.com.

And don’t forget we offer, our personal “Small Business Concierge Service” which includes:

    • consultation to learn about the position,
    • writing a professional, descriptive and thorough job post,
    • posting the job on our website (once approved by client),
    • reviewing all applicant resumes and cover letters, including a check of LinkedIn to reality check the resume.
    • Scheduling interviews – Reach out to selected candidates, coordinate interview scheduling,
    • Interviews -prep & conduct interviews, record interview notes, save interview recordings, etc. ,
    • Select top candidate(s) to pass along to client, write candidate summaries, upload interview video file(s) to Dropbox, email client with resume, summary and link to video file.
    • Follow up with client, answer questions about candidates, etc.
    • Wrap-up – Send turndown email to candidates interviewed but not selected, etc. along with final notes.

Contact us for details!

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4 Resources for Remote Teams

Successfully managing remote teams is becoming more necessary as telecommute jobs are more widely available.  There are countless tools and options to make this possible, and we’ve narrowed down some of our favorite options.

Whether you’re looking to track time, communicate with your team, or send professional invoices and billing notes, we have something for you!

Slack

Slack is a great communication and messaging tool that keeps everything in one place.  According to Creative Boom, with Slack you can “hold conversations that are open to others or private; organize and prioritize conversations based on topic or project; share files; connect up your favorite tools; search the archives later” and more.

It also integrates with several other productivity products and allows your workflow process to be more streamlined.

Google Drive

Google Drive offers everything you need to communicate! You can create documents via Google Docs, spreadsheets via Google Sheets, forms via Google Forms, slideshows through Google Slides, and so on.  It also automatically saves and updates, so you can make changes in real time with your team.

You can search for and share files, create folders, and generally work together on projects as they’re happening.  Google Drive offers “online storage, so you can keep photos, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, videos – anything,” according to their website.

The first 15GB of storage is free, then goes to $1.99 per month for 100GB.

Moon Invoice

Moon Invoice is a simple billing and invoice tool that lets you complete tasks such as businesses accounting, estimates, purchases, payment reminders, and so on.

According to their site, “Not only you could add and manage multiple business but you can also create unlimited invoices.  Irrespective of the nature of business, whether you are trying to simplify the complex business model and process, maintain databases, remove errors and simultaneously increase the efficiency online invoicing, Moon Invoice lets you do it all effortlessly.”

Moon Invoice offers a free trial and then costs $14.99 to purchase with unlimited invoices.

For Windows: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/moon-invoice/9wzdncrdchr8

For Mac: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/moon-invoice-easy-invoicing/id1109397812?mt=12

Basecamp

Basecamp is a great tool for teams, and it comes with many features.  It’s a great project and client management tool that offers messaging, to-do lists, schedules, file storage, document storage, chat, and more.  You can share information with your team and/or your clients, and it keeps everything in one convenient location.

You can also sync it with Google Docs, so if you want to take notes in a separate location, it can all be stored in Basecamp in the end.

If you’re looking for more tools with helpful descriptions, check out this comprehensive list from Creative Boom.

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