How to build a remote team

Note: Before we go to the main course, here’s a tasty treat for your appetizer: I’m giving away ONE ticket to the “Running Remote Conference” where I’ll be speaking in this June in Bali, Indonesia. If you’re interested in remote working, this is one conference you can’t miss. Make sure to join here as this giveaway ends in a couple of days!

Everyone wants to have a slice of the remote working pie. After all, being a “digital nomad” who can “work from anywhere” so they can live the “laptop lifestyle” gives them the freedom to earn money and still enjoy their time with their loved ones, right?

You don’t even need to log on to Instagram to check out the remote working trend. Stripe, the payment processor, recently announced that they would have an office exclusively for remote workers, even though they have offices worldwide.

Additionally, a Citrix study shows that 50% of the workforce will be office-free by 2020. Can you imagine a world where half of the working population will be working from the comforts of their own home? It’s also possible, considering that the remote workforce has increased by 140% since 2005.

While the idea of remote working sounds great to the remote workers, the entrepreneurs involved in the hiring and team-building process find it a bit daunting.

After all, how can you trust someone to actually hire them and work with them, even though you haven’t met them before? How do you build a remote team if you don’t have any experience with the process? Before you paralyse yourself with all these questions, take a deep breath and get your favorite drink as I help you start building your own remote team by discussing the 3-step process in today’s video:

You can start building a remote team by hiring:

1. Freelancer or Consultant

Hiring a freelancer or a consultant is a great start since you’ll be exposed to the wonders of remote working without feeling overwhelmed. To start the hiring process, you can work with them by assigning a project to them first and consider future collaborations if you’re satisfied with their work and the results they bring in. There’s no full-time commitment yet and you can test your work compatibility with them by communicating with them via email or video/voice check-ins.

Your freelancer or consultant needs to be professional and reliable enough since they’ll be managing themselves. There’s no need to micro-manage them since you’ll be working with them on a per-project basis and they’ll invoice you accordingly.

2. Virtual Assistant

Now that you have a little bit of hiring experience for a remote team, the next step is to hire a virtual assistant who can help you with customer support or administrative tasks.

Normally, you’d be advised to hire someone working at the same time zone as you — but isn’t it actually better to hire an assistant who won’t be working at the same hours as you do? This will give you the necessary experience to deal with your remote team in the future. After all, your team will be all over the world, right?

In hiring a virtual assistant, you’ll ultimately be responsible for them, so the best way you can handle this is by working on a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) you can use to train them effectively and efficiently. You can also apply here the communication channels and processes that you’ve learned by working with a freelancer/consultant first.

Nurture your relationship with your virtual assistant: it’s a win-win situation that gives you more experience to work on building your remote team and allows you to win back some of your resources, too.

3. Full-Time Hire

You can get your full-time employee by evolving their relationship from a freelancer/consultant to an official member of your remote team. This way, you already know that you have professional compatibility and you’re guaranteed that their work output will be satisfactory.

Another pathway you can get full-time employees is by posting on job boards that are focused on remote working opportunities. In a world where freelancers and remote workers are forecasted to be the majority of the US workforce by 2027, hiring someone full-time means you’ll treat team exactly the way you would treat someone who’s an official part of your team, regardless of the physical boundaries.

After all, you’re all working towards the same goal — to boost your company’s growth, aren’t you?

If I had to do it over again, I’d still build a remote team for CM Commerce. And you’ll get to hear more about my personal experience in building a remote team by listening to my talk over at the Running Remote Conference in Bali. Join our giveaway and win your free ticket here! See you next week.

Tweetables

50% of the workforce will be office-free by 2020. Question is, are YOU doing something to adapt to this change as early as NOW? Click To Tweet

Companies like Apple and Amazon are offering more and more remote work opportunities -- here’s how you can start building your remote team, too. Click To Tweet

Photo by Simon Abrams on Unsplash