Remote Work Can Be Profitable For Your startup if you strike a balance between these 4 crucial steps‍

Photo by manny PANTOJA on Unsplash

Remember how we dreaded working from home when the pandemic hit? And how we dreaded going back to the office when things eased up? Cut to today, where the new norm is not explicitly either, but it is a good balance of both. Since neither hustling nor cribbing proved to be effective, it’s necessary to learn and adapt to changing times. Simple as that, right?

Not quite as yet. Apart from the work-from-home or the work-from-office debate, we have had our shares of struggles, be it an individual working for a company or an entrepreneur trying to run his own company from a corner of the world.

If you happen to be an entrepreneur with a start-up born in the pandemic era, you are made of steel. It can be daunting to try and align different teams, collaborate solely depending on communication, and execute the intended plan.

We all have done our time in both extremes and learned a trick or tool of the trade. Here are my two cents on the how you and your start-up can achieve a good balance and emerge victorious in any situation:

Recruiting Employees

As a start-up owner ready to scale your business, you need to recruit the ideal candidates. Think about it. You do not have enough funds at the start to pay an employee his salary plus added benefits. But, you need human resources to match up to your fast-pacing competitors in the market.

The ideal solution here is to recruit employees who are willing to work from where they are to avoid added expenditure.

Remote work — Instead of the regular LinkedIn, your benefit is posting job opportunities on remote working sites to find your ideal candidate. There are plenty of websites like we work remotely and working nomads where you can post your requirements and specifications.

Posting a job listing on We Work Remotely. Screenshot by author Devakinandini Narayan

It is simple to use. Enter the job title, skillsets you are looking for, location and time flexibility, and the job description and create your listing. The target audience is skilled, mainly people who are also travelers.

A secret to providing value and receiving value could be giving them some personal benefits at their location. Probably a discount on a good homestay or offer them meals.

Work Flexibility

Location — Create a business model that thrives on location flexibility. It allows you to cut down on potential employee travel and stay expenses. Plus, when they aren’t required at the office, they can decide on a location as they please, like a cafe or a staycation.

Time — We had our 9–5, but we were made to force productivity even when we completely ran dry of creative juices. Allowing employees to work at their convenience makes them feel a sense of control and exercise authority over their work.

This way, they hold themselves accountable, and you can focus on your tasks, like talking to stakeholders and investors.

It not only keeps your employees happy but also increases efficiency. You can ensure this by having solid collaboration without potential cracks, which I will elaborate in the next step.

Planning for the team

Segregating your company into sections and assigning someone like the team lead is good but not from the get-go. It would be best to take it into your hands to make a foolproof plan throughout all teams for smooth execution.
We always have platforms like zoom, google meet, and discord for virtual meetings and communication, but it is crucial to invest in the right tools to manage your teams.

Notion for startups. Source notion.com

The most powerful tools in the game with a small learning curve for assigning tasks and creating roadmaps are software like Notion, Trello, and Asana. You can schedule tasks using infographics in tables, charts, galleries, and toggle lists. You can link pages across projects and embed supporting files directly from Figma, Github, and Miro. You can set reminders on calendars, assign and monitor tasks to team members and organize your whole project.

Managing the product

You have assigned work to your teammates, designed a roadmap for the business, and set the work in motion. How do you monitor the progress of the individual and company as a whole? You can’t walk up to their desk and ask them to turn off youtubeXX. Instead, you have software like DevCRM, a powerful engine for Developer CRM.
Due to virtual communication between teams, much is lost in the to-and-fro. You cannot afford to sideline any feature that affects the user flow. Integrating DevRev in your early stages of the startup can help streamline the process through Trails, PLuG, and Vistas.

Ticket and issue management with Vistas. Source Devrev.ai

As the name suggests, Trails are where the software automatically connects a particular issue to its ticket. It further connects down to the source of the feature, the creators, aka developers and designers. PLuGs will help you debug your customer pain points in the future, helping your business move towards product-led growth.
Managing your teams becomes easy with Vistas, where all your issues, tickets, features, and services are in one place, enabling real-time collaboration and reporting as well.

Final Thoughts

Your Startup might just take off, but do not forget to take care of your health in the process.