A mere 30 years ago the ability to work a job or run an entire company from a remote location, just about anywhere on the planet, would’ve been considered impossible. But nowadays it’s becoming more common than sand in the desert. Ok, maybe not that common, but it’s certainly one of the most attractive benefits any employee or business owner can imagine. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the world that would turn down an opportunity to work remotely. And it’s quickly becoming one of the most sought after positions in today’s workforce. The major benefits of working remotely are fairly obvious. Work from home, determine your own hours, get your work done from a remote tropical beach… it’s a dream come true. But there’s an added benefit that sometimes gets overlooked; working remotely actually saves you money. And for the modern day freelancer and entrepreneur, it’s something well worth paying attention to.
How Much is Your Time Worth?
We’re all familiar with the old saying, “Time is money,” right? Well, how much is your time worth to you? Because working remotely is guaranteed to save you loads of time. Those long commutes back and forth to the office are now a thing of the past for a growing portion of the population. When you can run your entire business from your laptop, there’s no need to go anywhere. Of course, you may want to consider going out for a little fresh air once in a while. And what about meetings? We all love our meetings, don’t we? It’s like we feel that if we are not holding meetings, we are not a real business. How much time does the average business waste holding meetings… where the vast majority of the time is spent waiting for everyone to arrive? Just over twenty years ago, the invention of email dramatically reduced the amount of meetings in the workplace. And now that everyone on your team has access to the same schedule, business metrics, and project resources at the click of a button, the need for meetings is few and far between. There’s no arguing, remote working conditions have given freelancers, entrepreneurs and business professionals the ability to manage their time more efficiently than ever.
Lower Your Overhead Cost
Whether you’re in the early stages of putting together a business plan or already a few years up and running, you’ve no doubt have put a lot of thought into your budget. Every business has startup costs and recurring expenses. And every business owner is looking to cut costs any way they can. Even freelancers juggle the decisions of traditional business. It all comes down to the basic principle of profit: money in must exceed money out. And the cost of renting or purchasing a traditional office space or building, is one of the highest costs in everyone’s budget. The rise in popularity of co-working spaces https://pivotmd.net/about-co-working/ has given relief to that cost. And it’s worth looking into for those times when you do need a space to work or hold team meetings. A co-working membership https://pivotmd.net/co-working-space/ can be a solid asset, even for remote workers. It provides all the benefits of traditional office space for a fraction of the price, and no surprise maintenance or utility bills to drain your budget. But the whole point of a remote working situation is to increase productivity. Cutting cost is just a side benefit, albeit an extremely attractive one. You and your team will ultimately become more effective knowing that you all can answer questions, deliver important project information, or schedule crucial deadlines from anywhere you have access to the internet. It can be a bit awkward, and maybe even counter intuitive at first. But many businesses around the world, from small startups to giant corporations like Google and Facebook, are beginning to see the benefits of remote working capabilities.
Level the Playing Field
Turning a winning business plan into reality used to take a huge amount of startup capital. This spelled out bad news for the little guy. Unless you had access to a wide pool of investors or were willing to take out enormous business loans, your dreams of starting your own business quickly disappeared. That’s just not the case in today’s business world. The ability to run an entire business online, working remotely, has made it possible for anyone to take a chance on their dreams and aspirations. Though it is impossible to eliminate all risk when starting your own business, remote work capabilities and easy to use web applications have dramatically lowered that risk. You can now build a website, set up an online store, and be up and running in no time. But the real benefit is that you can do it all with very little upfront cost. Depending on your skill set and how comfortable you are diving into a bit of technical know-how, you can start a business for under $1,000. Of course, this all depends entirely on the type of business you are starting. There are always business ideas that will require a bit more upfront investment
The Freelance Society
Freelancers have the biggest advantage of all. These lone wolves of the business world have the most reason to consider a remote work situation. Many freelancers turn mere hobbies into professional careers. Which means they are most likely already setup to do the work at home. For a lot of freelance work, such as freelance writing and voice-over acting, your biggest investment will be your time. Because it takes very little upfront cost to get started as a freelancer. Unless of course you need to buy the latest state-of-the-art computer and equipment. But the real test of freelance work is in your patience and work ethic. It takes many hours to hone your craft, and many years to build the relationships that lead to a solid client base. As far as startup costs, though, you can’t get much lower than going into business as a freelancer. And you can’t beat getting paid for doing something you love to do.
The Rise of Automation
The benefits of saving money by working remotely are tremendous. But sadly, there’s not much you can do about the long hours required to start and run a business. Or is there? Web applications, such as Zapier https://zapier.com/, are making it easier than ever to automate your work flow. And we’re not just talking marketing funnels here. You can automate the flow of information to your entire team. Being able to automate tedious tasks like email forwarding and content publication frees up an enormous amount of time. Think about it… all those small tasks throughout your day that just take a few minutes can really add up. Filtering through your email inbox alone can eat up hours every single day. What would an extra 2, 3, or 4 hours a day mean for your business? The rise of automation is definitely a key factor in the wide spread consideration of remote work situations. As it should be. The more time you can free up, means more time you can spend out of the office. And that means being able to handle your business remotely.
What Are You Waiting For?
Taking the leap to begin working remotely can seem like a giant leap of faith. Can a remote
working situation actually work for you? The short answer is, yes.
But you don’t have to jump in with both feet and immediately go off grid, working from some
remote cabin in the woods. Chances are most of us will not be able to completely free
ourselves from office life.
Then again, chances are good that most of us can at least spend some time working remotely.
And as time goes on, it’s only going to get easier and become more widely accepted as the
norm for doing business.
So what are you waiting for? Start testing and experimenting to see if working remotely can
save you precious time. Which we all know… translates to saving money.