How to Scale Your Business Using a Remote Team

Today, entrepreneurs and small businesses all over the world are benefiting from a remote talent revolution. Fueling this uprising, is the fact that scaling with a virtual team is easier and more cost effective than growing with in-house employees.

What are the benefits of hiring remote staff? To start with, the global availability of remote workers provides you access to more people, better talent, and at a much faster rate. Leveraging teams of remote workers also allows you to gain back your own time and reduce the daily stress associated with running your business.

Augmenting your business with people who have skill sets that compliment yours allows you to focus on your core competencies. For example, maybe you run an insurance business and you’re really good at matching people with just the right insurance plan and provider. But, the reality is marketing your business and building the technology to support it is not your strong suit or the best way to spend your time. Hiring team members to support you in these areas will allow you to focus more on what you do best — helping people find the right insurance provider.

What’s more, there are turn key solutions available to you that make it even easier to create a remote team, providing support such as administrative and marketing assistance, and technology expertise. Instead of rolling the dice and searching for freelancers who may or may not be the right fit, working with dedicated virtual teams removes the risk, while offering experienced, vetted support.

Thinking that building a remote team could benefit your business?

Here are six important tips we’ve found to be most effective for business owners to use when looking to scale with remote teams:

1. First, adapt your management mentality for virtual work.

Managing a virtual team often means modifying your management approach. While you may be tempted to try and tighten the reigns to compensate for the lack of person-to-person contact with your team, we’ve found that often the opposite is what works best. Instead of micromanaging, develop a mindset of trust and confidence in your team.

2. Measure performance, not attendance.

Measuring performance is critical, but focusing on deliverables over attendance is much more productive. With virtual employees, it’s impossible to track what a team member is doing at all times but you can measure output. Come to an agreement on deliverables and give your staff the freedom to manage their own time in their own way.

3. Be the catalyst in your company to embrace a virtual culture.

You as the founder, define your company’s culture and values and with a virtual team, it’s all the more important to think proactively about specific ways to develop that environment. Creating a strong culture starts with hiring the right employees who share your values, encouraging communication and camaraderie, and recognizing and appreciating your team for a job well done.

4. Document processes for faster growth.

Teams work best when they know what they should do and why and this is especially the case when your team is remote. The reality is, processes help create structure that people can lean on, no matter what. Create manuals and handbooks that document exactly how things are done that employees can refer to. This can really help expedite your company’s growth by making it easier to add new teammates without confusion or miscommunication.

5. Create a core toolkit you can rely on.

Having a core toolkit in place is an important aspect of establishing the processes in your company and will support productivity regardless of location. Communication and project management tools are a good place to start. The more you use these core tools, the more you will have repeatable methods for their use that can be replicated by any team member, anywhere.

6. Support the power of differing schedules.

The old school “9–5” work day doesn’t exist when your teammates are in a different timezone or are working on a different schedule from you, which can be an advantage. When you work with teammates on different schedules, you are actually able to get more done. It forces you to consider what is important for you to talk about in the time frame you have with each other and what can be done on your own — leading to better prioritization of how and when you deliver your work.

If you’re on the cusp of scaling your business and expanding, developing a team of remote talent can truly help your company get to the next level. Companies that partner with us to grow their tech teams or our partner Worldwide101 for business-grade virtual assistance benefit from our experience building our own successful companies and helping others.

This is the first post in a series offering strategies and tips to best leverage a remote team for your business. You may also be interested in:

How to Shift Your Management Style & Lead a Successful Remote Team

Maximize Your Remote Team Performance: Focus on Deliverables Over Attendance

How to Create a Strong Culture With Your Long Distance Employees

3 Tips for Creating Solid Processes to Support Your Remote Team

Essential Tools for Remote Team Collaboration & Engagement

The Benefits of Embracing A Flexible Work Schedule With Your Remote Workforce