Working from home can absolutely be the best thing in the world, but it could also be the worst environment to work in. You might only be thinking of the positive aspects of managing your business from home, like not having to get dressed every morning, drinking your morning coffee without any rush, or avoiding wasting time getting stuck in traffic. However, if you’ve managed a business throughout 2020, then you may already be familiar with some of the challenges this can pose. To deal with these challenges, here are some practical tips and tools to help you out.
Collaboration Apps
Working from home won’t make teamwork, brainstorming, and whatnot any easier on you, which is why you need to find the proper tools to converse with your employees and/or team members. Luckily, you can find hundreds of collaboration apps to help you accomplish everything you need online, like sharing notes, holding meetings, and updating information on certain projects while keeping your employees updated on any changes. For instance, Google apps are going to help you a great deal. With Google Docs, Sheets, Meetings, and even Drive, you will be able to do all of this. You may also want to try other apps, like Asana or Trello.
Track Employee Attendance
It is fairly easy to lose track of time while working from home, especially if there’s no way of tracking employee attendance. Not complying with time and attendance will drop your productivity, which is why you’ll need to use employee attendance software, to see which employees can log in to the system and record the time they’ve worked throughout the day. Once their work hours are over, they can check out and submit virtual timecards. Managing attendance remotely should help your workforce become more focused during these trying times. It also won’t hurt to know how they’re utilizing their shift hours to ensure that there is no time wasted.
Cloud-based Storage
Most businesses have now started storing their documents on cloud-based storage, simply because they don’t have enough space to store all their paperwork or servers to store valuable information. If your business hasn’t gone paperless already, you might be at risk of losing valuable data, as paper can easily be damaged, stained, torn, or lost. Similarly, computers won’t be able to hold onto data for too long, especially if your hard drives suddenly malfunction. Cloud-based storage can provide an essential backup tool if that ever happens, so you won’t have to worry about losing customers personal or financial information. In addition to this, cloud-based storage is the best option for data backup for home-based businesses, as you can easily operate them from your home.
Outsourcing Jobs
When you’re running a business from home, you might have to assume many roles just to keep everything running and in order. However, if you don’t want to be a jack-of-all-trades, outsourcing jobs is always a great option. Nowadays, you’ll find many individuals and services who will happily carry out any task you assign to them, so make sure that you seek their help if there’s a project you don’t have enough time to handle on your own. Outsourcing jobs should help you free time to focus on more pressing matters, hone your skills, and save money.
Join a Business Network
Joining a network is always a good way of growing businesses. Whether you do that at home or in a formal setting, joining a virtual business network is a great way of finding service providers and potential clients without having to leave your house. Make sure to surround yourself with people who also work from home so that you can benefit from their expertise, get the support that you need, and, ultimately, grow your business.
Marketing Tools
Digital marketing is considered the most effective marketing tool out there. So, if you haven’t run a marketing campaign in a while, it is high time that you do so. Digital marketing tools have facilitated running marketing campaigns (organic, PPC, email marketing, and social media marketing campaigns) to a great extent. Google Adwords, for instance, is one of the best options for those who want to advertise their business on Google’s SERPs, but it can only work for PPC models. HubSpot, on the other hand, can be a great asset if you’re running an email marketing campaign.
There are a lot of methods and tools that will help you run your business effectively from the comfort of your home. Depending on the type of business you’re running and the task you’re trying to accomplish, you’ll find hundreds of tools to help you achieve this. Make sure you’re able to track your employee’s progress at all times so you can provide constructive feedback, which will help your business grow in the long run.