Remote companies are becoming a major trend. Thanks to nonstop tech advances, business owners are letting go of the expensive analog workspace for the virtual wonderland. Why not?

The digital HQ provides endless benefits. You can avoid the rush-hour rollercoaster, remove the overhead drama and recruit professionals around the globe. In other words, you can save money, energy and time while getting to work with the best of the best.

And that’s not even the best part of a remote work model. Imagine working straight from the comforts of your home in your pajamas while you’re calling all the shots.

Yes, you have all the flexibility in the world to launch your company and reach your target market without spending an arm and a leg. But of course, all these remote working glories will have to come with discipline and strategic planning.

This blog post tells the life of someone who runs a business remotely. Along with it, we’ll find answers to the following questions:

• Is It Legal to Run an Online Business from Home?
• Is It Possible to Run a Business Remotely?
• Can You Manage a Company Remotely?

The Daily Reality for a Remote Business Owner

A business owner who runs a business remotely surely lives a unique life. Without a physical presence, they will have to approach management differently and put a lot of thought into the following:

• How are you going to lead a scattered team?
• How to measure productivity?
• How to maintain a positive work culture?

But before we get into all of that, try to live the life of a remote business owner first, and understand how their days are usually spent.

Morning Routine

Unlike a traditional boss, entrepreneurs who run a remote company enjoy a very healthy work-life balance. You get to start your day with a personal routine, making time with families and exercising. You are the master of your minutes, transitioning to a dedicated workspace or a co-working location in your own time.

Structured Deep Work

Remote owners typically concentrate deeply on high-value tasks for extended durations without interruptions. You can dedicate solid blocks of focus to strategic work that directly grows the business, such as product development or networking.

Virtual "Commute"

No more commuting. Without the usual trek from your house to the office, you earn more time and reinvest it into your business or personal adventures. This is the level of autonomy that drives small business owners to go remote.

Connecting with the Team

Since you won’t be sharing physical space with your remote team, it’s paramount that you perform regular check-ins. Share your vision and maintain rapport through scheduled video meetings on Google Meet or Zoom. You can also write it down and post it on cloud collaboration platforms.

Other interactive ways that you can connect with your dispersed workforce include fun challenges or quick trivia over the internet. With distance, you need to create strong bonds with your team to foster trust and enhance collaboration.

Focused Communication

A remote-centric model demands intentional communication. You must convey your thoughts with clarity, purpose and focus. Thus, you have to ensure your virtual team knows when to utilize video calls for strategic discussions and messaging for speedy updates.

Delegating and Automating

Remote owners alleviate their massive workload by delegating routine tasks to trusted team members. Automation tools are leveraged to streamline time-consuming tasks like scheduling and database management.

Regular Reviews

Without physical proximity, remote managers, like you, track the team’s performance and engagement using software tools. You make sure projects are completed within the deadline with top-notch quality. The reviews will be based on the goals met and value created rather than visibility.

Switching off

When your office is in your home, the line between personal and work life becomes a blur. Successful remote business owners take deliberate action to disconnect themselves from work-related activities at a set time each day. You step out from your private workspace and stop thinking about deadlines, preventing burnout.

The Core Infrastructure of a Remote Business

So, what are the key pieces of infrastructure that run a business remotely?

Global Talent

No geographical restrictions. The remote business taps into the worldwide talent pool and hires the right person with the skills and experience to excel in the position from any location.

Digital Tools

The entire remote team heavily relies on the stream of integrated software to perform business processes. This includes project management tools like Trello and Basecamp and document collaboration platforms like Google Workspace.

No Physical Headquarters

Everything runs in a virtual office. No physical central office to interact with the team face-to-face, which significantly reduces overhead costs.

Standardized Operations

A remote company uses standard guidelines and documented processes in an internal wiki or knowledge base that any team member follows. This is observed to achieve uniformity of performance and improve efficiency.

Asynchronous-First Communication

Different time zones mean messages are not quickly responded to. That’s why remote teams prioritize asynchronous communication, where no one is expected to reply to a question right away. Your scattered workforce will be given the flexibility to convey information and engage accordingly when it's best for them.

Benefits and Drawbacks of the Remote Model

Like all things, there’s a positive and a negative side to remote work models. At the end of the day, though, the good totally outweighs the bad of working with remote professionals.

Benefits

• Cost Savings. You can potentially reduce operational costs up to 70% in a year by removing expenses on office rent, utilities and other overheads.

  Aside from the obvious, most remote professionals reside in countries like the Philippines that have a strong and eager workforce, but with lower standards of living. Bringing their expertise into your remote company will only cost a fraction of your in-house employees.

• Increased productivity. Remote teams report a 35-40% higher productivity rate compared to regular office clerks. Why? They don’t face the same distraction demons in the office. Plus, they have greater autonomy.

  Read further: Virtual Assistant vs. Employee vs. Freelance Worker

• Higher Retention. Since remote professionals enjoy flexible arrangements, they lead a better work-life balance and job satisfaction. This means stronger engagements for your business and lower employee turnover.

• Global Reach. When you have a dispersed team operating, it’s easier to serve international clients round-the-clock and expand operations.

Drawbacks

• Work-life Boundaries. When the place you live and work is the same, it’s easier to lose track and burn yourself out with nonstop work.

• Communication Challenges. Misunderstandings can arise from relying heavily on text-based communication, creating fictions. When work is not at all visible, focus must be directed to evaluation results and outcomes.

  Remember, team cohesion demands focus and careful planning to stay united by shared goals.

• Employee Isolation. Loneliness and feelings of disconnection plague remote teams due to the lack of in-person interactions. When employee isolation is not overcome, it may affect their ability to perform at the highest level.

• Security Risks. The reliance of remote work models on the internet and IT infrastructures to share documents and collaborate presents cybersecurity risks. Moreover, remote employees are mostly on their own with no immediate access to in-person IT support, which affects their performance.

  This must be addressed carefully with robust security measures such as VPNs, encryption and regular security awareness training. Companies with a global workforce must also follow regulatory compliance in regions where their workers operate.

• Onboarding. Truth be told, it can be challenging to onboard remote workers without physical interaction. If you fail to set up your new hire for long-term success, the collaboration fails.

  That’s why we highly recommend hiring virtual assistants via a virtual assistant company like VAV. In doing so, you won’t have to do it yourself and create a well-structured virtual onboarding experience.

• Inequity: If a company is not 100% remote, it can put a wedge between on-site employees and remote workers. The loud physical presence of in-house staff results in preferential treatment.

  “Out of sight, out of mind.” This rings true, and that resonates with fewer career opportunities given to remote teams, leading to job dissatisfaction.

What Are Some Successful Fully Remote Businesses?

Companies across all industries have gone fully remote and live to be more successful. These businesses rely on remote teams and digital tools to achieve operational efficiency and significant growth.

Tech and Software Companies

• Automattic. This globally distributed company is responsible for creating WordPress, which is one of the best content management tools today. Since 2005, Automattic has been remote, with a scattered team in an open communication system in over 90 countries.
• GitLab. This is an open-core software company that was founded way back in 2011. Since its establishment, GitLab has been leading the industry with a fully remote operation. It has a remote-first culture for managing a large global team, making them inherently more adaptable and flexible.
• Zapier. The workflow automation company was created on the idea that remote work is effective. It runs with a limited outside investment and a fully remote environment. Zapier’s remote-focused strategy has brought its valuation to $5 billion.
• Basecamp. This company is 100% remote from day one. Basecamp leads a tight and high-performing remote team, developing a product to address their own remote-work challenges. Eventually, it became their business, which makes them true experts on the subject.

Financial Services

• Coinbase. The popular cryptocurrency exchange company has a “remote-first” approach to management. In fact, 95% of their employees have the freedom to work from home.

  The shift didn’t start until 2020, a few months into the pandemic, prompting Coinbase to shut down its headquarters in San Francisco to access top talent around the world. Promising: “We’re never going back to the way we used to work.”

• Wise (formerly TransferWise). This fintech company embraces remote work with a mission of empowering its employees to decide how they work best.

  Specializing in international money transfers, Wise runs a distributed team and relies on remote work strategies to move the business forward.

E-Commerce

• Shopify. This e-commerce platform shifted from office-based work to a remote-first model in 2020. It was a smart strategy that brought talents into the business from various backgrounds, driving revenue growth more than 30% in the preceding years.

Other Notable Companies

• Airbnb. This company has gained a newfound flexibility by allowing employees to live and work anywhere for good in 2020. While the decision made quite a stir, it aligned with the boom in “remote working + globetrotting,” which is playing a strong role in its impressive business growth.
• Muck Rack. The public relations software company has a strong remote culture. It is extremely committed to being a “remote forever company.” It offers stipends for coworking spaces and virtual team bonding to foster a strong community.

Run a Business Remotely with VAV

VAV Remote Workers is a recruiting expert, offering a wide and diverse pool of virtual assistants. Affordable. Flexible. Scalable. Strategic talent matching. We can help an entrepreneur with bold business aspirations run a successful company remotely.

Whether you need a bilingual remote assistant or a virtual content writer, we have tailored VA solutions to meet your unique business needs. But more than just saving you time and money, we produce quantifiable results.

What We Offer:

Low-Cost Support. Save 70% on operational costs annually and reinvest your internal resources into high-impact activities.

Flexibility. Scale operations without the hassles of onboarding and offboarding. Our virtual assistant services are agile and adaptable to your current demands.

No Long-Term Contracts. No pressures of long-term commitment. Work with our remote professionals for however long you like and seamlessly adapt to your changing business circumstances.

Tailored Matching: Collaborate with trained virtual assistants who go through a stringent selection process. They are carefully vetted to meet your needs and deliver measurable outcomes.

When Someone Runs a Business Remotely, They Do So with Success!

In the past, running a business remotely was unheard of. It seemed impossible. But look where technology has taken us—remote working is the new norm.

Modern advancement built the remote empire without breaking the foundations of a successful business.

However, remote work is best practiced with a reliable partner by your side. Team up with VAV and create a profitable remote company that works like a well-oiled machine.

Remember, when someone runs a business remotely, every decision veers toward success. Our team of experts can make it happen—book a consultation today and let’s talk.