10 mistakes to avoid in the mobile office

If you run your business without being tied to an office, then these tips will help you avoid failure.

The author of these councils, Mark AR Mitchell , has a Harvard Master’s degree in English literature and has worked with leading technology companies and research institutes.

Small business is always faced with a lot of challenges in pursuit of success. Those who manage a mobile office have an even harder time. So why make mistakes that you can not do? Here are 10 mistakes to avoid in a virtual or mobile office.
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1. Do not save your data.
This is the most win-win option to ruin your business. And no matter how often different people advise to copy their files - most people simply do not. But when you work in a mobile office setting, or independently at home, you risk losing everything you’ve managed to create if you lose data.
Exit: Copy and save your files every day using external drives, or using special Internet services.

2. Save on communication media.
Relationship with your team and customers is your main source of life. If you cut the finances in this matter, you will cut your success.
Output: Install the fastest broadband you can get.

3. Haltur at work.
A virtual office is still an office, even if you are wearing a bathrobe.
Exit: Keep your focus and remember that you are doing real work. If you forget it yourself, then, of course, others will do it.

4. Isolate yourself.
The absence of a full-fledged office does not mean at all that you do not need to communicate with your clients and colleagues in a traditional manner - at least occasionally.
Output: Communicating face to face with others is important, not only to maintain current relationships, but also to keep your sanity normal. If by the nature of your activity you are constantly traveling, it is still necessary from time to time to return to the main office. And this will help you remember that you are doing a common thing. If you work at home, then you need to go to professional conferences or meetings with clients. You need to support the flow of new ideas - and interacting with other people provides excellent opportunities for this.

5. Work without an IT plan.
In a virtual office, many people can offer their ideas, what information technology they would like to use. Some go crazy over Mac, other PC lovers. Some people like the BlackBerry, others choose the Palm Pre or iPhone. And all this love can lead to IT chaos.
Output: If you are a boss, then develop an IT plan. If you create a virtual office with technologies that are not compatible with each other, you will lose a lot of time that could be spent for the benefit of the common cause. Therefore, set the standards and desired results and be clear about why you chose them.

6. Control your employees in detail.
One of the reasons why people go to work in a virtual office is a flexible schedule. And if you start to control them in detail, you will create difficulties for yourself.
Quit: In a mobile or virtual environment, you simply cannot follow what everyone is doing at a particular point in time - so don’t even try. Mature remote workers - unlike newcomers-lazy - will focus on the end result of work. And they can take up their work at 10 pm, after a long walk on a mountain bike, but they will do it. If you expect them to participate in a meeting, or a telephone conversation, be sure that they know about it, but just don’t expect them to sit at the desk just because the clock is 10 am.

7. Do not pay attention to the management of virtual employees.
While detailed control is undesirable, any lack of management also has a bad effect on business. If you set unclear goals or do not designate them at all, then you (and everyone who works with you) are very likely to be disappointed.
Exit: Provide your virtual and mobile employees with clear goals, results and milestones. Encourage them to ask for help if they need it, but in other cases let them carry out the task themselves. And they will do it as it suits them, observing the terms you specified.

8. Poor recruitment.
You need to be sure that your virtual employees can do their work in an environment that has little to do (even nothing at all) with a traditional office workplace. How can you find out when you hire them?
Output: The experience of virtual work, of course, will help, but in the absence of such, you should show courage and analyze answers to questions like “Why do you want to work in such non-traditional conditions?”, “How do you organize your working rhythm?” And “How do you Do you cope with the situation at home when you work at home? ”If you do not use a comprehensive audit to select employees, it will be harder for you to manage your business in the long run.

9. Forget your boundaries.
Traditional offices - despite consoles with video games and tables with table football - are still limited spaces. You leave home to come there. But if you work at home, these boundaries, like everything else, become virtual.
Exit: You need to find a way to maintain reasonable boundaries between your work and home life. If you can not, then both components will suffer. It's great to be able to close the door at the end of the working day.

10. Do not enjoy the "virtual" office.
And finally, a virtual or mobile office can become the office you have always dreamed of, so do not miss the opportunity to enjoy it.
Output: You have a unique opportunity to independently choose the tools and technologies that you will use to do the work, and to form and control the environment in which you work. If you do not use this opportunity to build the world that is right for you, your employees and customers, you will not be able to feel the best side of working in a virtual office.

Translated from here