Creating a Virtual Business

I started a virtual business way before it was the thing to do. I’d love to say it wasbecause I was thinking green (it is true) but mostly it was practical.  The team of smart, talented, experienced people I trusted were now scattered to the wind.  So, I could either start hiring from scratch or I could hire the best people I knew, who I’d worked with before and trusted.  That was a pretty easy decision.

So, we’re virtual and thank goodness for that because it’s the reason why we survived the dotcom bust and outsourcing to India and beyond.  Being virtual:

• Keeps our overhead costs low
• Allows us to pass that savings on to our clients
• Let’s us hire and retain the cream of the crop
• Let’s us maximum the training investment we put into our team

Here’s a few things to consider if you’re contemplating a virtual business:

1. I’ve said it before but the 2 best decisions I made in starting a business were to hire a lawyer to help with contract templates and to hire a bookkeeper.
2. Think of your business as systems (or departments), even if you are doing all the roles now.  We created Operations Manuals for each business system so that as we grew it was (relatively) easy to hand off areas of responsibility to new people.  The e-Myth is a great book to help you get thinking like this.
3. I created job descriptions for all the roles I could invision for the company’s growth.  They also included the text for a web ad and a list of expected results (so performance reviews are faster & easier).  When I hire contract workers I use this in their Project Assignments.  Having these templates already done has been awesome because growth has never come in manageable pieces.  Growth happens organically and like a wild fire – not always as planned or “on schedule”!

Check out the rest of the blog series for more tips, tools and lessons learned.

Oh, do I recommend having a virtual company?  Yes, absolutely….but, you’ll need:

• Strong and compassionate management skills
• A support system (particularly a cheerleader so someone pats you on the back for your accomplishments
• And please get out of your remote office from time to time!

Image purchased from istockphoto.

Next in this series are:

• Lessons Learned Managing A Virtual Team
• 6 Tips for Managing Remote Workers
• 5 Online Tools For The Virtual Company

Serial entrepreneur with deep roots in technology and a passion for music. Jenn merges creativity and tech with fun and energy.

After starting her career as an engineer at NASA and a stint in Silicon Valley as a Quality Assurance Manager, Jenn started her first company. Wth her third company, Vettanna, their first job was to setup the QA department at eBay and train testers.

Recently, Jenn started Vettanna ToGo to give small businesses access to on camera media training and high tech experts.

Not content to use one side of her brain Jenn is also the rock vocalist and song writer for the band Urban Fiction.