Setting up a new remote business for success is hard. But when you have to do so amidst disruptive times, it gets harder.

The global pandemic has made sure that the future of work no longer stays the same. According to a survey by Yelp, a whopping 60% of businesses were shut down permanently due to the global catastrophe. But that is not all. The ones that are still running had to rethink their modes of business operation.

Today, remote work is the new normal for a majority of global professionals. But even so, if you adapt to this new work environment, creating successful collaboration amongst team members for creating a robust workflow is tricky. But there is nothing that a strategic approach can’t fix.

This blog post curated seven tips that can ensure your remote business is set up for success in 2021.

7 tips to set up your remote business for growth in 2021

The global pandemic has caused multi-level disruptions across every industry globally. No matter who you are as a business, a startup, or an enterprise, the negative ramifications of the pandemic are still pervasive. But adapting to the remote working mode can be the one element that can save your business from collapsing. But here’s the thing.

All of this starts with a plan.

An optimal remote working plan can ensure that your employees are at the top of their game but scaling your operations to 24/7. This is a unique capability that the remote working culture brings to the table. But the benefits of remote working are not restricted to this.

Remote work can bring multi-level benefits to your process. Starting from cost optimization, better engagement, high-performance, growth hacking, and much more. But to witness all of this, you need to ensure you foster the right remote work culture. This is exactly what we are going to address in the following section.

These seven tips will help you to build a remote team designed for high-performance in 2021.

1. Create SMART goals

As they say, if it is not measurable, it is not improvable. This makes creating smart goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-sensitive ) so critical for the overall success of your business. When the dominant workforce operates in a virtual landscape, this need has become even more pressing.

So the question here is, how would you do it.

Start with setting a common and specific target for your team to achieve. This will align with everyone’s expectations and purpose. It’s better to do this for each quarter and then divide it into micro modules for days, weeks, and months.

Prioritizing tasks and separating productivity from vanity work can make a real difference here. You can even use the famous Eisenhower matrix of time and urgency to create your task list. There is multiple software to do this efficiently, such as Prioritizer.

Doing so undoubtedly ensures your employees are more productive, focused, and enjoy creative freedom in their work. What follows is high-impact performance.

2. Be heavy on tools

Creating a successful remote business is no cakewalk. Multiple tasks need to be executed efficiently to reach your desired goals. This is exactly where productivity tools come in.

Integrating productivity and automation tools can alleviate your core problems of business operations and streamline processes. Think of them as your most efficient employees at work 24/7. However, here’s a word of caution. Your toolkit should integrate tools that are specialists in their domains of work and leverage your operations from every angle.

There are multiple categories of tools to consider here. No matter which profession you are in, there is a SaaS product for almost every process. For instance, getting hold of professional interior design software is no difficult task if you are an interior designer.

The market is flooded with choices. But fundamentally, your goal should be to systematize and automate redundant tasks that need to be done but do not add any value to your Northstar metric. An email marketing automation tool like Mailchimp can create an immensely positive impact on your productivity.

3. Optimize your communication channels

Effective communication resides at the heart of a successful business, especially when you are operating remotely. Done right, it can create the most impactful and sustainable business relations over time. But the question is how?

Video conferencing is one of the best ways to keep your conversations going during this pandemic. Zoom is the global workforce’s favourite tool to do so. Your remote team can seamlessly collaborate and create the most productive space without the requirement of a physical office. But this is not all.

Here’s a pro tip.

Schedule your meetings to a minimum. This will not only create room for effective communications but also save time from unproductive work. For real-time collaboration, you can always use instant messaging applications.

4. Collaborate to scale

Teamwork is the dream work. Without a high-performance team, creating a viral product is almost impossible. No wonder why team management and engagement is such a critical element for creating sustainable remote businesses.

But here’s the thing about integrating remote working for this.

One of its key benefits is that you can hire freelancers from anywhere around the world rather than choosing from any specific city. With the global talent at your disposal, you can create your dream team with nothing but the best.

Moreover, the gig economy ensures that you can customize your teams and their skills when you require them. This means maximum ROI (return on investment) on your resources and flexibility to scale at your own pace.

5. Invest in upskilling

In this pandemic situation, one element that the global workforce needs to focus on is developing a learner’s mindset. Your team not only needs to learn but unlearn and relearn to better adapt. This means upskilling your team in both hard and soft skills is critical for business sustainability and growth. But here’s the thing.

To gain maximum benefits, you need to create a ‘learn it all’ culture.

You can try free or paid sites, such as Linkedin Learning, Udemy, Coursera, and so on.

Designing a training program that can easily be integrated into the lives of your employees can make all the difference. Break down programs into bite-sized lessons that your employees can consume on the go. Learning should go hand in hand with production hours. This will not only improve work quality but help you foster a culture of innovation.

The best part is your remote business will have one of the most equipped and skilled teams at your disposal.

6. Keep the feedback loop open

Modern businesses run on feedback currency.

If you fail to listen to your stakeholders: customers, collaborators, employees, and investors, chances are your business will fail faster than you think. This is exactly where a robust feedback process comes in handy.

Keeping the feedback loop open will help you target and analyze areas and processes that are vulnerable and need improvement. The best part? Your audience is a huge asset when you are trying to develop ideas to solve a problem. Asking for feedback and ways to improve existing conditions will open doors to growth that looked impossible once.

There are multiple tools that you can use to do so. Applications like Jotform, Zonka Feedback, SurveyMonkey and Google Forms are precious here.

7. Focus on building a brand

The secret to building a sustainable yet growing remote business is a brand focused on building a community.

Community building not only gives you a raving fan base who doubles as your customers but also sets you on the journey of unlocking maximum growth in any product category. But there are multi-level challenges that you need to succeed at to transform your customers into brand evangelists.

The stepping stone to successful brand-building is trust. It would help if you strategized creative ways to gain the trust of your customers. Find the ‘why’. Give them a reason to trust you.

Again, you need to ensure your brand keeps your customers and audience engaged all the time. In this attention economy, gaining the first attention is not enough. It would help if you kept the conversations going on. This often means you need to pay special attention to how you design your customer journey across the funnel.

A great customer experience can be the key differentiator as to why your customers and audience choose you over your competitor. Go above and beyond. Personalize their experiences with your brand through every channel of interaction.

Conclusion

Creating a successful business during these disruptive times is no easy task. It is the result of consistent hard work over a significant period.

The above tips are sure to give the launchpad for your business, but true success will only come when you take actions based on your unique business challenges. Keep your feedback loop open. Always listen to your stakeholders. They will give you ideas and opportunities that you may never have known existed.

So now, when you know how to approach a successful business, there is just one question left to answer.

When are you integrating the above tips to launch your success story?