Avoiding A Crash on Your ‘Solo Flight’

Posted by Jim Van on January 12, 2011 under entrepreneur, small business | Be the First to Comment

Nearly 20 years ago, I was first introduced to telecommuting while on a contract assignment working for a large telecommunications company. In theory, it was a win/win situation: the employer saved on office space, the employee got to work remotely, whether from home or another remote location, and both would profit by ‘doing more with less’.

Unfortunately, several well-publicized studies showed that productivity went down, and cost savings were negligible, as employers were still maintaining cubicle or office space for the teleworkers, and many of those teleworkers lacked the discipline to work off-site. The result: telecommuting programs were curtailed, and employees continued to go to work at the same time and place every workday, and connect with one another face to face. The business world wasn’t quite ready for telecommuting.

Mobile workers in small business

Flash forward to today. Remote and mobile working, particularly among smaller businesses, has become the norm. Home offices are often better equipped than many corporate offices, thanks to the growing ubiquity of smart phones, tablet computers, home servers, teleconfererncing, and applications such as Cisco’s Go To Meeting, which allows desktop sharing and collaboration as well as teleconferencing. Many have found that it’s as effective to perform their work from a beach as it was from a corporate cubicle, if not even more so. Witness a recently-formed law firm, based on Boston’s South Shore.

In 2010, amidst the carnage of massive layoffs, six lawyers found themselves out of work, as their employer, a large, old prestigous Boston law firm, was forced to downsize due to a tepid economic environment. The six, joined by a few paralegals and other support personnel, formed an alliance, and a law firm, and proceeded to attract clients by offering rates at a fraction of their former employers’. How?

Their former employer maintains its headquarters in a prestigious building with commanding views of Boston Harbor. Plushly furnished conference rooms, fresh coffee served by smartly dressed admins, and services backed by a firm that’s over 150 years old is rather costly. Rent alone at the facility was estimated to be over $25,000/month. On the other hand, this new law firm chose to go ‘virtual’. They are connected by a Virtual Private Network(VPN), hold partner meetings each morning via Skyle, an online phone service that one can use to make computer-to-computer calls for free, meet weekly at a restaurant on the South Shore, and take clients to lunch at places like the Capital Grille in Boston’s Back Bay.

“It costs us 20% of what we would pay to maintain a nice office with a luxury client conference area” according to one partner, “plus, both the attorney and client get a good meal out of the deal” she added.

The mobile office is a reality. Small businesses, particularly new ones, know this. Larger companies are just discovering that mobility can work to their advantage. Workers can perform their job functions from home, in a coffee shop, hotel room, on airplanes, or trains. In short, anyplace one can connect to the internet, one can work remotely.

Coping with the downside

The agility created by the mobile office has had a positive result in many areas, but it’s not for everyone. The downsides include

Social isolation, the loss of interacting with co-workers.
In the case of a small business with several employees, creating a “core time” work period also resolves a number of problems, including the restoration of the human factor that is absent from electronic communications. Many entrepreneurs say that interaction with co-workers is the thing they miss most about entrepreneurship teleworking.
Let’s face it: many e-mail and electronic communications are often unclear. Distortion and delays, and blurry images can contribute to misunderstandings, especially in the case of dealing with participants for whom English is not their native tongue.
Sometimes graphs and other graphical content can be difficult to see.
The “water cooler” can sometimes be the birthplace of great ideas and collaboration. For some, it’s impossible to do this over an internet connection of any sort.The same holds true when on coffee or lunch break with a co-worker. Invariably, work-related discussions take place that simply wouldn’t occur in an electronic environment.
Bonding is another result of interacting with co-workers on a routine basis, whether its in the office, at lunch, an after-hours bonding session, or other work-related get together.
People get to know one another through face-to-face interaction that most cannot do over an internet connection. At Logicomm, we hold weekly gatherings with employees/contractors, and regularly schedule visits and lunches with clients.
Whether you’re an employer considering flex-scheduling and telecommuting options for your workers, or an entrepreneur starting out on the path, it’s important to be aware of these disadvantages and to prepare for them.
For entrepreneurs, there are several options. The coffee shop, for example, is fast becoming a social as well as a work venue for home-based workers. Several communities either offer, or have companies that offer space for entrepreneurs to congregate. For example, here in Providence, Batchhaus, located on the East Side, offers space, complete with wi-fi access, to entrepreneurs each Thursday.
There are also a variety of groups, such as meetup groups, that give the self-employed a place to meet others who are either already self-employed or considering the option. These groups often meet in restaurants, coffee shops and the like and generally meet from 1-2 hours. Some meet mornings, some at noon, and others in the evening. There are community sites, such as http://www.rinexus.com that can point you to local meetings.

Also explore http://www.meetup.com for other possibilities. And, don’t forget professional social networking sites such as http://www.linkedin.com and http://www.plaxo.com.

Besides being great online networking places, they are also a resource for things local, national and international to help you work independantly.

While we haven’t reached a point (yet) where face-to-face interaction can be replaced (thank God!), it’s good to know that there ARE ways to lessen the negatives of working alone or telecommuting. Feel free to share any resources you may have found with the rest of us here!