The following post comes to us from Ujebardha Bekolli who is a writer for mother-works.com. MotherWorks is a job portal designed to bring together stay at home moms and recruiters. The platform also brings helpful articles in the blog section regarding mothers who want to return to the workforce.
Why Virtual Businesses are the New Norm
People’s lifestyles have changed these past years. With the revolution of the internet, we have discovered that we don’t need to go to an office to do a job. Companies’ ongoing intentions of lowering costs and people’s needs for flexibility, together with the internet revolution have created the perfect climate for a new way of doing business. Virtually.
A virtual business consists of constant activities you have to do in order to create a product or service. So virtual businesses is basically an organization with no office where all of the employees work remotely. The roles are separate, there are managers and supervisors, they just don’t work under the same roof.
But nowadays, remote jobs are not considered only as an option, there are companies who operate completely virtually. Hundreds of companies proving that this is doable and can work. The number of companies operating remotely keeps growing every day. The largest business in the world, Amazon, is a virtual business. Amazon is the world’s largest retailer and employs over 150,000 people. Many businesses operating in the same industry have found it hard to compete with Amazon due to its low cost operating policy and innovative nature.
Amazon is only one example of virtual business, but it shows us that traditional business making is not the only way to go. The way virtual businesses work is by outsourcing many operations to third-party companies, but still keeping some core activities in-house.
How they do it?!
One of the greatest challenges of virtual businesses is recruiting. While most people like the idea of remote working, few are cut out for it. Isolation, time management, and burnout are some of the few challenges employees face when they work remotely. To overcome these challenges, companies have carefully curated recruiting systems and communication canals that fight that.
There are some characteristics that define people who are fit to work remotely. Better said, there are some things to be established before employees recruit some for a remote job. The ability to take action and prioritize is a key factor when working remotely.
Of course, like with everything else, this way of making business has its advantages and disadvantages.
The Good
Counting down the good and the bad for virtual business is the way to understand why it has become so huge. People’s search for flexible jobs is at its core what makes virtual business the success it is. Not only do virtual businesses offer their employees flexibility, but they become a flexible themselves and adapt to change faster. Another reason is the cutting down of costs. By having a virtual business, you don’t have to pay rent, utilities, energy, water, etc. Even if you have headquarters, the costs are still lower.
In a study conducted by professor Nicholas Bloom, he found that people who are allowed to work from home have higher job satisfaction and work more efficiently in comparison to the ones who had to work in an office.
The Bad
But there are also a few downsides to running your business remotely. Communication becomes harder when all of your employees are operating from different places. This may cause miscommunications, leading to mistakes that could cost the company more. Another thing people are concerned about is the reduced productivity one the people who are not easily self-motivated.
Lastly, it comes down to this. The new way of business making has changed the way we think about efficiency and productivity. People’s needs and demands are changing and companies are finding ways to offer better products and services with lower costs and modernized operations. This is why virtual businesses are the new norm.
Have you had any experience working from a virtual office? Share what you have found to be the highs and lows of this booming trends in businesses by leaving a comment below!
The Comm Entrepreneur 