It isn’t easy being an Internet entrepreneur, at least a successful one. This is especially the case when your young, and a rough economy sure doesn’t make it better. Between the business ignorance inherent with youth, collectors calling everyday about those private Discover student loans you took out, and a lack of lines of credit,
getting an enterprise up and running right out of college is certain to be one of the most enormous challenges you’ll ever undertake. In order to succeed, you’ll need every advantage you can get.
Because of this need for streamlining your operations as much as possible for the sake of costs, consider the benefits of starting out with a virtual office if you’re looking to start an Internet business:
Salaries can be lower: Remote employees connected through the cloud aren’t required to commute to their workplace everyday. Subtract an estimated annual cost-of-commute from starting salaries in order to save yourself some serious cash starting out. It’s a completely justified way to reduce small business payroll strains in the tumultuous first months and years of a startup.
Overhead is reduced: No office means no rent. No office means no utilities. No office means no office furniture or supplies. These are monthly cost that, if taken away, can give you a substantial boost in available funds for further investment. Even when you add in the costs of cloud systems and space on remote servers that come with a virtual office, you still come out on top by skipping the materials and energy involved in keeping a brick & mortar office up and running.
The talent pool is expanded: If your workers can be anywhere, then you can hire workers from anywhere. That means that even if you live in Flint, Michigan, you could still have a workforce operating out of California, New York, or even from another country. When you have little to go on at the start of a small business, it’s nice to know you can count on an enormous applicant pool. It may take more work poring through resumes, but it’s well worth it.
Operations are more flexible: Deadlines are always going to exist, but having a loosely regulated culture means that workers can be more relaxed. Management can focus on growth rather than making sure people are following the rules. In fact, studies have shown that those who work from home or from somewhere else of their choosing besides an office are not only happier, but are more productive.
With all that stands between you and entrepreneurial success no matter how big your ambitions and strong your determination, why make it even harder on yourself by throwing hundreds of dollars away every month to keep a brick & mortar office open? To streamline your operations as much as possible, in order to make available for investment as much money as possible, consider going virtual. Besides the expenses of an actual office, you have nothing to lose by giving it a shot.