How has living in a remote world impacted your business?

Most of us have been doing some version of WFH for at least 5 months now.

Things that we thought we’d never do 5 months ago, interviewing candidates, on-boarding employees, pitching for work, doing a kick-off meeting or strategy meeting with a new client, brainstorming and refining creative ideas…we’ve done all those things at this point.

To do that we’ve adopted new tools and ways of working, most of us are still beginners in our use of remote tools. I can’t wait to see what we’ll be doing once we get good at breakout rooms, polls, and all the whiteboard and prototyping tools we’re experimenting with.

What does this mean for our businesses going forward?

We can find talent anywhere

I’ve had clients who have been experimenting with remote employees for a while, but mostly in the form of onsite employees who choose to move away for some reason. Remote employees who had worked, for a time, onsite is a baby-step into the world of remote employees.

In the last 4 months I’ve been through hiring processes with clients where we’ve sourced, interviewed and hired candidates that we have never met face-to-face. I’ve even added someone to my team that I’ve never met.

I’m currently working on revising my hiring and onboarding methodology to accommodate this change! One glaring hole – you can’t currently advertise on any of the big platforms (Indeed, Criagslist, etc.) for a job without specifying a location. Because of this having an active agency alumni network is going to be a valuable asset!

We can find clients anywhere

I’ve personally added clients from Australia to Europe in the last 5 months and I’ve seen clients winning business from all over the place too.

To successfully win business from clients you’ve never met you are going to have to have an extremely clear offer, demonstrate expertise through free or low cost offers and build a fan base who knows, likes and trusts you before they need what you offer.

Nothing about that is new, it’s content marketing basics; but the importance of doing it well has grown (and will continue to grow).

If/when we go back to our offices it’s going to feel so weird, but the office hasn’t changed, we have. Instead of thinking about how you can go back to the office, we need to be thinking about how we can go forward into the future of work.

What are you trying for the first time that you like well enough to decide, “Hey, we need to get good at this?”