The past two years of the Covid pandemic have shown us that many white-collar jobs can be done remotely. For years businesses have been reluctant to even give their employees the option to work from home, but all of a sudden they were forced into finding ways to allow them to do so. Being forced into such an unanticipated change has been a steep learning curve for many bosses, but it has also brought about a rethink about how they run their businesses. Many have questioned the need to have physical offices when they have seen their businesses cope and even thrive with work-from-home setups. We take a look at a few reasons why you’d want to turn your business completely remote.
Fewer overheads
Especially at a time like this, we know what a burden rent and utilities can be on a business, often being the final nail in the coffin when trying to stay afloat. By turning a business completely remote, you are removing the majority of this burden and usually, this is not even passed on to anyone else., it is just eliminated. They may use more electricity by being at home all day, but this may be offset by removing their travel fees to the office.
The opportunity to remove such big overheads can be reason enough alone for a business to choose to operate remotely. The savings can be reinvested into the business, pay down debt, or even just provide some respite.
You have a wider talent pool to choose from
Businesses that require a strict physical location such as brick-and-mortar stores or those that require employees to work from set premises are limited to the talent pool within that area. This in turn means that many businesses gravitate towards areas that can provide such a pool of workers, often meaning cities. This neglects the talent available in more rural areas or those far away from the business and means that there is almost an exodus of people from smaller towns and cities heading to bigger cities in order to find work.
By going completely remote, the barrier of geographical location is in the past. You can hire people from all over the country or the world, so now your talent pool has gone from a couple thousand to a few million or even more! Not only that but you can take advantage of labour cost differences – hiring an assistant in the Philippines, for example, can save you over fifty per cent on salary alone and they could be just as, or even more experienced than talent available locally. If you have worries about communication, this issue is also a thing of the past with virtual meeting software and conference booking software becoming the norm, allowing meetings and schedules to be planned remotely.
A wider customer pool to choose from
If you aren’t located in one set location, chances are you will be offering your services to people outside of your immediate location. For example, a clothing store in London decides to shut up shop and become solely an e-commerce website. No longer are they reliant on customers walking through the door, but now they can target customers all over the country or globally. By not being tied down to one location, you are opening up opportunities for so many more!
